The Librarian Is In

Latest Episodes:

The Dog-Eared Days of Summer Jul 25, 2019

Show notes

Do you dog-ear? Use bookmarks or sticky notes? Write notes in margins? Or do you—heaven forbid—underline? We delve deep into the ethical implications of leaving your mark on library books. Plus: two new summer reads and one musical cue.

Suggest Hot Topix(TM) or tell us what you think about summer reading!

Email podcasts[at]nypl.org or call 507-NYPL-LIB.

The Katniss Konundrum Jul 11, 2019

Show notes

To prequel or not to prequel? Frank and Gwen debate the new installment of the Hunger Games franchise and two very different books about life in two very different places.

Suggest Hot Topix(TM) or tell us what you think about summer reading! Email podcasts[at]nypl.org or call 507-NYPL-LIB.

Are You There, Frank? It's Me, Gwen Jul 04, 2019

Show notes

Frank and Gwen announce their return date plus reveal their Summer Reading Challenge

Gwen's Book Flare (Rebroadcast) Jun 27, 2019

Show notes

What's the opposite of a book slump? We're calling it a flare, and Gwen is on one. She and Frank have a flurry of adult book recommendations, from dystopian novels to innovative science fiction.

What we are reading now

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

Semiosis by Sue Burke

Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl

The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst

Peyton DisPlaced (Rebroadcast) Jun 20, 2019

Show notes

Another crossover episode with our fine friends from the Overdue podcast! Frank and Gwen join Craig and Andrew in Philadelphia to discuss the 1956 novel Peyton Place. Is it a classic? A soap opera? A groundbreaking statement about sexuality? Is it "ripe, hotly passionate, but fickle" — the first line of the book? You decide.

Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

More Peyton Place...

TV and film available from the Library
Unbuttoning America A Biography of Peyton Place by Ardis Cameron
The Vanity Fair essay about Metalious that we mentioned
Her NYT obituary

If you liked this episode, check out our first TLII/Overdue collab: "Lord of the Guys," back in January 2017!

The Librarian Is LIVE (Rebroadcast) Jun 13, 2019

Show notes

This week we take you back 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.

Guest Star: Eric Klinenberg

Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg

More of his work in our catalog and on his website

$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America by Kathryn Edin

Books by Barbara Ehrenreich

O Cafe in Greenwich Village (and pão de queijo)

Hogwarts & Hollywood (Rebroadcast) Jun 06, 2019

Show notes

It's the first-ever Reading Challenge episode! Gwen and Frank assigned books to each other to read and discuss on the air. Hijinks ensue...

Book Recommendations

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Ava Gardner: 'Love Is Nothing' by Lee Server

Also mentioned:

Our fourth episode, when Gwen flipped out on Frank for not having read Harry Potter.

Several of Ava's movies, available from NYPL:

The Golden Girls of MGM by Jane Ellen Wayne

Pottermore online

That great tweet about girls with frizzy hair (warning: language!)

Never Let Me Go. Seriously, Never. May 30, 2019

Show notes

This week: a rebroadcast of one of our favorite episodes. Gwen and Frank take a deep, emotional dive into Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go.'

DIY ASMR, Library-Style May 23, 2019

Show notes

This episode is brought to you by our soon-to-be-rival podcast, dreamed up by YA librarian Crystal Chen—who's also this week's guest! All rights reserved by her! We talk musicals, poetry, what it really means to create a list of "best" books, and professional development for library staff members.

Book Recommendations

NYPL's Best Poetry Books (and our most recent best books lists)

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright

Bad Blood Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

Kiss Number 8 by Colleen A.F. Venable

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Also recommended:

The Woodstock Library in the Bronx

ASMR, or autonomous sensory meridian response

"VEEP" and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"

Comfort Reads May 16, 2019

Show notes

Gwen and Frank tackle one book that feels comforting and homey; one that's distinctly unsettling; and one that's somewhere in between. Plus: A stranger on the train helps us deconstruct the genius of J-Patt.

Book Recommendations

Your Duck Is My Duck: Stories by Deborah Eisenberg

The Farm by Joanne Ramos

Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home by Nora Krug Also mentioned:

Mary Poppins Returns

Emily Blunt and the rest of the cast going down the bathtub slide!

Everything Doris Day