Episode 17: Summer Reading and the Art of Community
Our hosts talk summer reading and books with Kate Newcombe - CADL's Youth Services Specialist.
Cheryl’s Books:
My Friends: A Novel by Hisham Matar
Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
Mentioned:
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Jessica’s Books:
Don’t Trust Fish by Neil Sharpson
How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong
Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
Mentioned:
My Presentation Today is About the Anaconda by Bibi Dumon Tak
Mari’s Books:
I’m Sorry You Got Mad by Kyle Lukoff
The House on the Canal: The Story of the House that Hid Anne Frank by Thomas Harding
Chickenpox by Remy Lai
Mentioned:
The House by the Lake by Thomas Harding
Kate’s Books:
Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood by Isabel F. Campoy
Dog’s Colorful Day: A Messy Story about Colors and Counting by Emma Dodd
Chasing Vermeer series by Blue Balliett
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41:37
Episode 16: Deep Dives and Beloved Reads
Histories, memoir, historical fiction, Richard Scarry…. and serial killers?
Cheryl’s Books:
Foreign Fruit: A Personal History of the Orange by Katie Goh
Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford
Mentioned:
Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories by Amitav Ghosh
The Digging-est Dog by Al Perkins (can be found in collection)
Summer Pony by Jean Slaughter Doty
Keeping Barney by Jessie Haas
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
2024 National Book Critics Circle Award Winners
Jessica’s Books:
The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue
The Black Utopians by Aaron Robertson
Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
Links:
Michigan Notables: https://www.michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan/public/mnb
Foster Event: https://www.cadl.org/event/14379951
Mentioned:
Best Word Book Ever—Richard Scarry
Mari’s Books:
The Pecan Sheller by Lupe Ruiz-Flores
Whale Eyes: A Memoir About Seeing and Being Seen by James Robinson
Watch his award-winning short film: https://www.whaleeyes.org/watch
The Couch in the Yard by Kate Hoefler
Mentioned:
Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume
Our Producer, Rissa’s Books:
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath
Big Kids by Michael DeForge
Mentioned:
Skippyjon Jones books by Judith Schachner
The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka
Junie B. Jones books by Barbara Park
Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Some of books mentioned in response to CADL’s Facebook question “What story began your love of reading?”:
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Babysitter’s Club by Ann M. Martin
Books by Madeleine L’Engle
The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve
The Valley of the Dolls by Jacquelinn Susann (available through MELCAT)
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52:01
Episode 15: Her Story, Her Voice
Summary: Women’s history, women’s voices… and murder ballads?
Cheryl’s Books:
A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma by Noreen Masud
How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty by Bonny Reichert
The New Yorker – Sisterhood: The Nuns Trying to Save the Women on Texas’s Death Row by Lawrence Wright (Issue: February 17 & 24, 2025 – pg. 110)
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
Mentioned:
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright
Jessica’s Books:
Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother by Peggy O'Donnell Heffington
Lone Women by Victor LaValle
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
Mentioned:
“Live Oak” on Southeastern by Jason Isbell
Mari’s Books:
Catwings series by Ursula K. Le Guin
My Presentation Today is About The Anaconda by Bibi Dumon Tak
Seeds of Discovery : How Barbara McClintock Used Corn and Curiosity to Solve a Science Mystery and Win a Nobel Prize by Lori Alexander
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49:41
Episode 14: History and Hope
Jessica, Mari, and Cheryl talk about reading during complicated times, ALA book award season, and book purchasing.
Cheryl’s Books:
American Primitive: Poems by Mary Oliver
They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us: Essays by Hanif Abdurraqib
Mentioned:
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024 edited by Bill McKibben
A Rose, A Bridge and a Wild Black Horse by Charlotte Zolotow
Mentioned:
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko
There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib
Books by Bill McKibben
Books by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Hope and Joy book list
Jessica’s Books:
Women’s Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery
Waiting For the Long Night Moon: Stories by Amanda Peters
Life Hacks for a Little Alien by Alice Franklin
Mentioned:
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction: https://www.ala.org/carnegie-medals/2025-winners
Mari’s Books:
Will’s Race for Home: A Western by Jewell Parker Rhodes
2025 Mildred L. Batchelder Award: John the Skeleton by Triinu Laan
For a complete list of ALA’s 2025 Youth Media Awards visit: https://tinyurl.com/37ncj3c9
Tangleroot by Kalela Williams
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51:54
Episode 13: New Year, New Reads
Holiday reading round up, series picks, and more.
Cheryl’s Books:
Sustainable Wardrobe: Advice and Projects for Eco-Friendly Fashion by Sophie Benson
Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future by Oliver Franklin-Wallis
A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter
Tove and the Island with No Address by Lauren Soloy
The Summer Book and other books by Tove Jansson
Jessica’s Books:
I Heard There Was A Secret Chord: Music as Medicine by Daniel J. Levitin
The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill
Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman by Callum Robinson
Mentioned:
Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks—Marcia Bjornerud
Eve Dallas series by JD Robb, first book: Naked in Death
Guild Hunter Series by Nalini Singh, first book: Angel’s Blood
Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire, first book: Every Heart a Doorway, latest Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear
Mari’s Books:
Ode to Grapefruit: How James Earl Jones Found His Voice by Kari Lavelle
These Deadly Prophecies by Andrea Tang
The Judgment of Yoyo Gold by Isaac Blum
Mentioned:
Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger
Wings of Fire by Tui Sutherland
Dragon Girls by Maddy Mara
Dragons in a Bag by Zetta Elliott
Magic Tree House Original Series by Mary Pope Osborne
Series Mentioned:
Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files
Louise Penny’s Inspector Armand Gamache Mysteries (Three Pines Mysteries)
Diana Gabaldon Outlander Novels
Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe Series
Looking for more books to read? Here is the first selection of titles suggested by CADL Staff members at our annual in-service:
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado
True Gretch: What I've learned Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between by Gretchen Whitmer
Capital Area District Libraries is excited to produce the Book Bound podcast which is hosted by some of CADL's literary experts. Content centers around the library and its collection, book recommendations, events, partnerships and services.
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