Episodes
Wednesday Jun 30, 2021
Perks RePlay You Can't Read This with guest Natalie McCall
Wednesday Jun 30, 2021
Wednesday Jun 30, 2021
What books do you think about when you hear the term Banned Books; do you envision classics like Huck Finn or The Catcher in the Rye? Or books that you wanted to sneak to read when you were a kid because it had swearing, magic, or sexual content? In fact a book series that has been arguably one of the most beloved in modern history, the Harry Potter series, is still high on the list of Banned Books so many years after it was first published.
Our episode today was recorded during Banned Books Week, a weeklong annual event sponsored by the American Library Association to celebrate the freedom to read and bring awareness to both current and past attempts to censor books in libraries and schools.
We believe this topic is one that you can think about any time of the year, not just for one designated week so we wanted to explore the topic with our guest, Natalie McCall, a librarian and head of youth services at the Mill Valley Public Library in the Bay area of California. She is also the host of a podcast called Eight Books That Made Me where she has conversations with Young Adult authors about 5 books that influenced them growing up and 3 books they encourage readers to check out now.
Natalie discusses what it meant to be a hi-lo reader when she was a child, why she thinks one of the most common types of censorship for libraries is based on what books they don’t choose to purchase, and about the role of libraries and the freedom to read as one of the foundations of democracy.
Books Mentioned In This Episode:
1- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
2- The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
3- Babysitter's Club series by Ann M. Martin
4- Sweet Valley High series by Francine Pascal
5- Fear Street series by R. L. Stine
6- Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine
7- The Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac
8- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
9- The Winter Pony by Iain Lawrence
10- A Love Story of Two Boys by Brian Roberson
11- Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
12- Forever by Judy Blume
13- The Things They Carried by Tim O' Brien
14- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
15- Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
16- Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones
17- Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
18- The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery
19- Quiet by Susan Cain
20- Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett
21- Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett
22- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
23- The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reid
24- The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
25- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
26- Caminar by Skila Brown
27- Under the Mesquite by Guadelupe Garcia McCall
28- Inside Out and Back Again by Thanha Lai
29- Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Podcast mentioned:
8 Books That Made Me
TV shows mentioned:
It's Ok to Not Be Ok (Korean Drama on Netflix)
Dark (German Drama on Netflix)
Wednesday Jun 23, 2021
Perks RePlay A Voice From Cherokee with guest Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle 11-8-20
Wednesday Jun 23, 2021
Wednesday Jun 23, 2021
When it comes to Native American heritage, most Americans have woefully inadequate knowledge. They may have heard of Squanto or Sacajawea, but that is the extent of their understanding. A 2018 research project conducted by The First Nations Development Institute and Echo Hawk Consulting found that most Americans think there aren’t many Native Americans left in the country, which just isn’t true. There are close to 600 federally recognized tribes in the United States.
November is National Native American Heritage Month so we want to introduce you to some Native authors to add to your TBR all year long including our guest today, who is a new voice in fiction.
Our guest this week is Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, a member of the Eastern Tribe of Cherokee Indians, who is deeply rooted in the Cherokee community in North Carolina. She has been a high school English and Cherokee Studies teacher for the past 10 years. But she is also a novelist whose debut historical fiction novel, Even As We Breathe, was published this past September by a new literary imprint called Fireside Industries, a collaboration between The Appalachian Writers Workshop and the University Press of Kentucky.
Annette talks to us about the James Baldwin quote that inspired her to write about a clean bone which has significance in her writing practice as well as her novel, what things she learned from her editor, well-known Kentucky author Silas House, and how she wants to use her influence of being a Cherokee novelist to educate the wider public that Native Americans are something very different from what they see in old Westerns and popular culture.
Books Mentioned in this Episode:
1- Even As We Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
2- Beverly Cleary books
3- Babysitters Club series
4- The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels
5- F*ckface: And Other Stories by Leah Hampton
6- Going to Water by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
7- Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (and other books)
8- Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate
9- Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford
10- When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry by Joy Harjo
11- Horsepower by Joy Priest
12- City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson
13- Americanah by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
14- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
15- Calypso by David Sedaris
16- A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Wednesday Jun 16, 2021
Season 4 Ep. 94 To Read A "Mockingbird" with guest Ben Self 6-16-21
Wednesday Jun 16, 2021
Wednesday Jun 16, 2021
This episode marks the end of Season 4, and new episodes will begin airing on July 7th.
We’re closing Season 4 with Ben Self, who is a teacher and contributor to Mockingbird, an organization that describes itself as being “devoted to connecting the Christian faith with the realities of everyday life.” It’s a progressive group and Ben runs their new online book club which focuses more on spiritual themes than religious doctrine. It straddles the secular and spirit in fun and culturally relevant ways.
He tells us all about his reading life, why he decided to spend part of the sabbatical from his job to enjoy reading again, and why he wanted to be involved with the Mockingbird project. They are reading some really interesting stuff from authors like Marilynne Robinson, Wendell Berry and Flannery O’Connor.
Books mentioned--
1- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
2- Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
3- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
5- Why Read Moby Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick
6- Kindred by Octavia Butler
7- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
8- Til We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis
9- Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
10- The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
11- Jack by Marilynne Robinson
12- Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
13- The Death of Ivan Ilyyich and Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy
14- The Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye
15- The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
16- Abarat by Clive Barker
17- American Gods by Neil Gaiman
18- World of Wonders by Amie Nezhukumatathil
Documentaries/TV Shows mentioned--
1- Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word is Power (Hulu)
2- Counterpart (Amazon Prime) featuring JK Simmons
Websites/Online magazines--
Mockingbird mbird.com
Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
Season 4 Ep. 93 Speedier Reader with guest Jacqui Isser 6-7-2021
Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
It goes without saying that you can be a book lover whether you read 1 book a year or 200. But those book lovers who consume books like the potato chips no one can resist, reading over 100 books a year, are a little unique. We couldn't be happier to welcome Jacqui Daves Isser to the show. Jacqui is a middle school librarian who lives outside Austin TX but she is also a "super reader". She read 168 books last year and is on track to read more in 2021. If middle grade literature needed a spokesperson to tell adults why they should add it to their reading rotation, Jacqui is their girl.
Book Mentioned In This Episode:
1- Hiking Kentucky's Red River Gorge: Your Definitive Guide to the Jewel of the Southeast by Sean Patrick Hill
2- Nancy Drew series
3- Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
4- The Babysitters Club series
5- The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
6- Dune by Frank Herbert
7- Harry Potter series
8- Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull
9- Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper
10- The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis
11- Bud, not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
12- When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
13- Raina Telgemeier books
14- My Hero Academia series by Kohei Horikoshi
15- Maximum Ride by James Patterson
16- Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan
17- Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
18- Just Mercy: A True Story of the Fight for Justice (adapted for young adults) by Bryan Stevenson
19- Dress Coded by Carrie Firestone
20- The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Clune
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
Season 4 Ep.92 Riding and Writing with the Butterflies with guest Sara Dyckman 6-2-21
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
This week we are focusing on butterflies and biking in book form. Sara Dykman is an adventurer and wildlife biologist whose focus is primarily amphibians. Several years ago, however, she felt a calling to bring awareness to the plight of the Monarch butterfly. So she took her adventurer spirit and migrated on her bike along with the Monarch from Mexico to Canada and back again. Her 10,000 mile journey is the focus of her travel memoir/ environment/ adventure/nature book titled Bicycling with Butterflies.
Books Mentioned in this Episode:
1- Bicyling with Butterflies: My 10,201 Mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration by Sara Dykman
2- The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
3- The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
4- Mark Rashid series about horses
5- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
6- Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl