Aminatou Sow, writer and co-host of the popular podcast "Call Your Girlfriend," talks with Gwen and Frank about poetry, the mental treadmill of the Internet, and her childhood best friend: the librarian.
Book Recommendations
Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry
Magical Negro by Morgan Parker
If They Come for Us by Fatimah Ashgar
Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
Also mentioned:
"won't you celebrate with me" by Lucille Clifton
"Final Notations" by Adrienne Rich can be found in her collection, An Atlas of the Difficult World
What makes a place home? Frank follows a book rec from a listener and discovers a powerful memoir that makes him rethink the American dream. Gwen's book is a new fairytale retelling... sort of... that involves feudalism and magical gingerbread and... well, maybe you should just have a listen.
Book Recommendations
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
Also mentioned:
The recent Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold
The Netflix series "Working Moms"
The network TV show "The Rookie"
Our Poetry Bonanza has arrived! In this episode --titled to pay homage to Frank's favorite Emily Dickinson stanza-- he and Gwen get to read and hear poetry recommendations from their listeners.
Listener Poetry Recommendations:
"My Mother Says I am Sickening" in The New Kid On the Block: Poems by Jack Prelutsky
“Good Hot Dogs” by Sandra Cisneros in A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poems for Children by Caroline Kennedy
"Why I Am Not a Good Kisser" in Selected Poem by Mary Ruefle
"Kal" in If They Come for Us by Fatima Asghar
The title poem in What the Living Do: Poems by Marie Howe
"What Resembles the Grave But Isn't" by Anne Boyer
IRL by Tommy Pico
The title poem in Inventory by Dionne Brand
"I want a dyke for president" by Zoe Leonard
"Girls of the Wild" in Wild Embers by Nakita Gill
"Fold" in You & Yours by Naomi Shihab Nye
"Scientific Romance" by Tim Pratt
"Where the Mind is Without Fear" from Gitanjali (Song Offerings) by Rabindranath Tagore
Also mentioned:
Gwen and Frank meet a handful of characters who aren't bothered by what other people think. Plus: the pros and cons of reading reviews, the extra voice in translations, and the no-person's-land between picture books and middle-grade fiction.
Book Recommendations:
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori
Sarah Berman's Closet by Maira Kalman
The Princess in Black series by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale, art by LeUyen Pham
Also mentioned:
The End of Eddy and History of Violence by Édouard Louis
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
NYPL's Poem in Your Pocket Day
Shrill — the Hulu series and the book by Lindy West