Welcome to our first-ever live show, recorded in Frank's very own Jefferson Market Library! Gwen and Frank talk to Eric Klinenberg, sociologist and author of a new book about libraries and social infrastructure. Plus: the audience offers an invaluable assist during the guessing game.
Aristotle famously (er, probably) said that anger is a gift, and Gwen's been given one this year: Rebecca Traister's book about the power of women's rage, "Good and Mad." Plus, Frank finds more presents in The New Yorker archives and NYPL announces its year-end Best Books lists.
We're obsessed with libraries loaning unconventional items: seeds, toys, tools, clothes, games, museum passes... and sculptures. Local artist Wendy Richmond joins Gwen and Frank to talk about her work and her new installation, which encouraged patrons to take home her incredible sculptures of her own hands.
Frank and Gwen will be talking to Eric Klinenberg, author of Palaces for the People, at Frank's own Jefferson Market Library! Tuesday, Dec. 4, at 6:30 p.m. -- click here for all the details.
Whether you're cooking turkey for 20 or opting out of Thanksgiving entirely, books about food are always in season. Frank and Gwen talk about their favorite cookbooks and chef memoirs with NYPL's resident foodie, Jeanne Hodesh, and offer some family recipes of their very own.
What makes a good story time? Anthony Murisco, youth librarian extraordinaire, joins Frank and Gwen to talk all things kids and books. Plus: everyone's favorite lazy cartoon cat, a true stumper of a guessing game, and a flurry of pop-culture recommendations.
In This Episode:
Anthony's library: The Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library
NLS: The National Library Service for the blind and physically handicapped
A book Anthony likes for storytime: Jump by David McPhail
NYPL's Best Books for Kids and Teens and Anthony's 2017 list with Bookshare links
"Book That Talk and Books You Touch": Jill Rothstein's TLII episode about technology for print-disabled patrons
Kris Jenner... and All Things Kardashian (and her cookbook)
Fake Blood by Whitney Gardner
Jabberwalking by Juan Felipe Herrera
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina by Roberto Aguierre-Sacasa (and RIVERDALE!)
Garfield: The Complete Works, 1978-1979 (coming soon to the Library!)
A library podcast about a book about libraries? Sign us up! Frank goes meta this week with an in-depth review of Susan Orlean's new page-turner, and and Gwen sees an author of children's classics in a new light.
Frank & Gwen's Recommendations
The Library Book, The Orchid Thief, and several other books by Susan Orlean
Check out the Library Talks podcast (after Sunday, Nov. 11) to hear an interview with Orlean!
The works of Canadian children's author Robert Munsch:
And “The Story Behind ‘Love You Forever’ Is Probably Not What You Thought”
It's almost Election Day. Do you know where your voting rights are? Christopher Famighetti, professor at Jefferson Market University, joins Frank and Gwen for an in-depth convo about voting — and what libraries have to do with it. Plus: a different take on Tolstoy and the surreal films of Luis Buñuel.
It's almost Halloween, and it got so creepy we scared Gwen away. Frank braves the gore with Isaiah Pittman, horror aficionado and adult services librarian at NYPL. They talk scary books AND movies.
Book Recommendations
Paperbacks From Hell: The twisted history of 70's and 80's horror by Grady Hendrix
The Hungry Moon by Ramsey Campbell
Night Shift by Stephen King
20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Final Girls: A novel by Riley Sager
The series-- Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
You Were Neve Really Here by Jonathan Ames and the film adaptation
Non-Book Recommendations
Kanopy-- stream movies for free with you NYPL card!
Check out Gas Station Horror, the monthly improv show in NYC that turns bad horror movies into comedy.
Gwen and Frank tackle a near-future dystopian novel about space colonization and a sobering work of journalism about the fallacy of modern philanthropy. Plus: why pho is objectively the best food ever.
Frank and Gwen's Recommendations
Haaaave you read "The Yellow Wallpaper" yet? Try the Insta Novel!
Frank's old favorites: Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith, Pure Hollywood and Other Stories by Christine Schutt, I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
Foe by Iain Reid
Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas, and his recent conversation with Joy-Ann Reid
His previous book, The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas, which won NYPL's Bernstein Award in 2015
Kadiatou Tubman, Education Coordinator from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, joins Gwen and Frank for an intense analysis of Angie Thomas' classic: book vs. movie, casting choices, implications in the classroom, and much more.
Frank and Gwen are all about feminist texts this week. They go back in time with the classic short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" — which is also NYPL's newest Insta Novel — and then hit the present (hard) with "Red Clocks." In between, there's a beautiful picture book for kids. Plus: Frank figures out a literary puzzle.
When we asked our book experts about books that changed their lives, we fell in love with their picks — and we wanted you to hear what they had to say, in their own voices. Plus: Frank and Gwen add their own childhood game-changers.
Check out the full list: 40 Books that Changed Librarians' Lives
Gwen and Frank discover two very different alternate worlds that speak to our present times. Their seemingly mismatched books offer stellar writing and clever takes on fantasy, dystopias and cringe-worthy identity politics. Plus: Frank has some, um... words for the author of his book.
Book Recommendations
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahniuk
Rosa Caballero-Li, manager of Ask NYPL, has all the answers! Rosa tells Frank and Gwen about the ins, outs, ups, and downs of the Library's multifaceted reference service, staffed by real-live human people. Plus: a story within a story presents some guessing game twists.
Need assistance? Have a question? Get in touch with Ask NYPL.
Book Recommendation
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado
Non-Book Recommendations
"Lots of People Love ‘To Kill A Mockingbird.’ Roxane Gay Isn’t One of Them."
The album "Dirty Computer" by Janelle Monae
The best way to support this podcast is with a gift to The New York Public Library. Click here to donate.
Which books do you wish you'd read in high school? Frank and Gwen offer up some ideas and then move on to city novels with urban themes and a picture book about a dog who tries to be a fork. Plus: what to do if you can't get enough of the Queer Eye guys.
Book Recommendations
"NYT: If You Could Add One Book to the High School Curriculum, What Would It Be?"
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
Bull by David Elliott
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
The City and the City by China Miéville
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Non-Book Recommendations
Short videos of the Queer Eye guys on YouTube, such as 9 Things They’ve Never Done Before (in which Jonathan and Tan bedazzle a tie), a round of Never Have I Ever, and a bizarre social-media compliment battle.
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter, Gwen and Frank fall hard for the wise and wonderful Vanessa Zoltan of the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast! We talk Harry and Jane, try the spiritual practice of lectio divina, discuss the healing power of romance novels, figure out Frank's Tinder profile... get ready for some serious revelations.
Vanessa's book recs:
Frank and Gwen get a visit from BridgeUP, NYPL's holistic academic support program for NYC teens. They talk to a teen scholar and program leader about this unique library initiative, what students want and need outside the classroom, and everything that goes into getting them where they want to go in life.
Discussed this week:
BridgeUp's podcast on Latino stereotypes
Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott
1984 by George Orwell
The new HBO series "Random Acts of Flyness"
Answer: anything! Frank and Gwen discuss why for-profit businesses cannot and should not take libraries' place in society. Plus, recommendations for two small books that contain very big worlds.
Book Recommendations
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey
The Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
Oleg Kagan's opinion piece about how libraries are not companies, and more information about Forbes deleting the original op-ed.
The best way to support this podcast is with a gift to The New York Public Library. Click here to donate.
It's our third annual Summer Reading Challenge! This year, Frank and Gwen picked America Is Not the Heart, a debut novel by Elaine Castillo, about language and love and revolution and family and the meaning of home—it's about everything, and it's incredible.
Frank and Gwen break down romance novel stereotypes with fellow NYPL librarian Anne Rouyer. The genre often gets dismissed as fluff, but romance can subvert the traditional confines of gender, power, class, and more. (Gay Regency, anyone?)
Anne's Recommendations
Social Intercourse by Greg Howard
The Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah Maclean
Unmasked by the Marquess and It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian
My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan (for those who love Me Before You by Jojo Moyes)
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison
And for a non-book recommendation: 'Hiyori's Bed & Breakfast'
We're finding our midsummer vacation reading groove! Gwen is spectacularly awed by a debut novel and Frank gets drawn into a thriller (with a dash of reader real-estate jealousy).
Our Book Recommendations
"There There" by Tommy Orange
"One Dark Throne" by Kendare Blake
Transcription by Kate Atkinson
"The Incendiaries" by R.O. Kwan
"The Woman in the Window" by A.J. Finn
Non-Book Recommendations
Frank: The film "Shadow of a Doubt"
Gwen: These seriously comfortable boxer briefs
We're 100 episodes old! Frank and Gwen mark their centennial by responding to listener messages and revisiting some favorite themes. Plus: a list of our favorite episodes for new (or new-ish) listeners.
It's time again for our Summer Reading Challenge! In this mini-episode, Frank and Gwen pick a book to dive into together and invite you to read along with them, so place those library holds for a copy of "America Is Not the Heart" by Elaine Castillo. Discussion to air August 9!
Gwen is so moved by one of the three poems she brings to the studio that she can't even read it (she tried!). And Frank is transported by a novel about a marriage in Nigeria he can't NOT talk about it. Plus: the perils of social media and why Frank feels he is pretty much free of FOMO.
Frank's Book Recommendation
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
You can also listen to the author discuss this book on the NYPL podcasts here.
Gwen's Poetry Recommendations
“Airplanes” by Maggie Smith, in the Spring/Summer issue of Ninth Letter
“Ghazal: America the Beautiful” by Alicia Ostriker, and the Dear Poet video series of her reading her own work
"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver
Gwen and Frank discover some surprising pieces of family history when Rhonda Evans, Electronic Resources Librarian at NYPL, arrives in the studio with a pile of documents and connects the dots from long-ago paper trails. Plus: Guessing game shenanigans.