Episodes
Wednesday Aug 26, 2020
Ep.57 . Magic In The Middle with Tamika 8-26-20
Wednesday Aug 26, 2020
Wednesday Aug 26, 2020
It’s back to school time around the country and whether your kids are going back to a physical classroom or are doing NTI, otherwise known as non-traditional instruction, it’s an exciting time of newness; both for students and teachers. Whether it’s the first day of school jitters or teachers having to figure out how to make learning via computer mimic the discussion and projects that would normally happen in an actual classroom, this school year in the age of Covid has an extra layer of uncertainty .
Our guest this week, Tamika, has been a middle school English/Language Arts teacher in Kentucky’s largest school district for 16 years. She is also a vibrant Bookstagrammer at her handle, @Thereadingroom444. Her goal is to make reading come alive to anyone who watches her feed. This summer she not only posted videos of her teaching tactics while reading Ibram X. Kendi’s book Stamped from the Beginning, but she also used her creativity to re-imagine book covers. Tamika is a voracious reader who is eager to share her love of literature and inspire excitement about finding books that you are passionate about.
Tamika talked to us about what the term “decolonizing the classroom” means, how she handles being a poly-reader and juggling 6 books at a time, and how she wants to use books as a way to help her students become our future leaders.
Books Discussed in this Episode:
1- Nancy Drew mystery series by Carolyn Keene
2- The Babysitter's Club series by Ann M. Martin
3- Dear Martin(and other novels) by Nic Stone
4- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5- Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
6- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
7- Pride by Ibi Zoboi
8- Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
9- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Award-winning book by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
10- Small Favor by Jim Butcher
11- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
12- The Golden Compass/ The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman (Part of the Dark Materials trilogy)
13- The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
14- Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen
15- Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
16- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
17- Passing by Nella Larsen
Wednesday Aug 19, 2020
Ep 56: Creating a Comic World with David Crosby
Wednesday Aug 19, 2020
Wednesday Aug 19, 2020
Our guest this week, David Crosby, is a recent graduate of North Oldham County High School in Kentucky. He, like many kids growing up in the 21st century, had an undying affection for the Dave Pilkey Captain Underpants series of books. The Captain Underpants books revolve around two 4th grade boys who draw their own comic books that feature their superhero, Captain Underpants, who accidentally becomes real.
David dreamed of creating his own superhero series. What started out as silly stick figure drawings on scraps of paper evolved into a 2 issue comic book series designed by David on a Japanese graphic arts program.
David’s comic, Fro Man and Dubstep Boy, features a black superhero whose superpower is his afro hair that can be transformed into different objects to help fight evil. Fro-man is a fish out of water; a feeling David says he was familiar to him when he moved at 8 years old and was one of the only black kids at his new school. Fro-man is just one character in the Cromics universe that David along with a group of friends have planned. .
In this episode, David talks to us about how he creates his comics as a way to work through situations he is going through personally, why winning a Scholastic award helped convince his parents he was serious about a possible future in graphic design and comics, and why he was so shook up at the passing of Stan Lee, creator of the Marvel comic universe.
David has just started his freshman year at the University of Kentucky; with classes beginning this week. We wish him all the best in this new phase and can’t wait to see what he does next.
Books Discussed in this Episode:
1- Captain Underpants (series) by Dave Pilkey
2- Fro-Man and Dubstep Boy (series) by David Crosby
3- 13-Story Treehouse (series) by Andy Griffiths
4- Magic Treehouse (series) by Mary Pope Osborne
5- 1984 by George Orwell
6- Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
7- Scott Pilgrim Versus the World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
8- What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved the World by Henry Clark
Monday Aug 10, 2020
Ep.55 The Stories History Tells Us with Jennie Cole 8-12-20
Monday Aug 10, 2020
Monday Aug 10, 2020
Do you read historical fiction or narrative nonfiction and wonder where your favorite authors do their research for the books you love? Our guest this week, Jennie Cole, is an archivist with the Filson Historical Society. An archivist is like a highly specialized librarian who takes care of historical materials such as letters, diaries, transcripts, photos, or even objects and organizes them to preserve them for the public use. And the Filson Historical Society is just a different kind of library; a research library of the history of our region.
Jennie had a father who loved history and a mother who immersed herself in adventure novels. Combine the two and their influences produced in their daughter a booklover who is looking for the stories within the raw material of historical archives.
In this episode, we concentrate on the stories of public health. The Filson is encouraging the public to write down their experiences for posterity’s sake so future generations can know what the Covid era was like. But we also talk to Jennie about the local stories pertaining to the Spanish flu of 1918 as well as the Tuberculosis epidemic that brought Waverly Hills Sanatorium to prominence before it was known as one of the world’s most haunted places.
Jennie tells us how anyone can use the services of the Filson, how you can access all of their workshops and lectures for free during the quarantine, and the similarities and differences she sees in the Spanish Flu pandemic and our current Coronavirus reality.
Books Mentioned in This Episode:
1- A White Wind Blew by James Markert
2- Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser
3- Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
4- Educated by Tara Westover
5- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
6- Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
7- The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
8- Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer by Seth Grahame-Smith
9- These Honored Dead (A Lincoln and Speed Mystery #1) by Jonathan F. Putnam
10- A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker
Podcasts mentioned:
1- The Past and the Curious
2- Stuff You Missed in History Class
Wednesday Aug 05, 2020
Ep.54 A Bus Service For Book Lovers with Melanie Moore
Wednesday Aug 05, 2020
Wednesday Aug 05, 2020
Welcome book lovers back to our first episode of Season 3. I was away on vacation so Carrie teamed up with former guest and Ohio friend Giselle Spurgeon, to co-host this week to interview a fellow Ohioan Melanie Moore, owner of the Cincy Book Bus.
When you see an old rusty truck, the first thing that pops into your head is probably not “book store”. Melanie though had other ideas. Her dream of opening her own bookstore after retiring from 25 years of teaching was hampered somewhat by the heavy burden of all the things that go along with having a brick and mortar shop. That is, until she read a book written in 1917 called Parnassus On Wheels about a horse-drawn wagon filled with books driven around the countryside of England by a woman looking for adventure.
When Melanie looked out her kitchen window and saw her husband’s old mint green VW truck, she knew the path her bookstore future would take would have fenders and chrome. Pre-Covid, book lovers could find Melanie and her Cincy Book Bus popping up all over the greater Cincinnati area including Northern Kentucky at coffee shops, festivals, and small boutiques. Now with pandemic, she has made her presence count online as she has all kinds of ways customers can buy books, many of them hard to find European editions, both with her online store as well as with a bookclub. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that 100% of her proceeds go to buying books for low-income youth.
Melanie talks to Carrie and Giselle about why she sees her bookstore on wheels as part of a much larger book community, how her love of the 1930s and 40s fueled the vintage feel of her logo and truck, and how she doubled the number of books she donates to worthwhile children’s organizations.
Books Discussed in This Episode:
1 - Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
2- All Creatures Great and Small series by James Herriott
3- Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
4- The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones by Daven McQueen
5- Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson
6- The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
7- Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
8- Books by D.E. Stevenson
9- A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr