You could win fabulous prizes just by using your library card! And in case you've forgotten, or never paused to appreciate fully, just how fantastic your life could be when you fully utilize the wonders and whimsy of a library card, well..., then tune in to this week's podcast to hear all about it! We'll also share details about our current Bingo Challenge, which you can participate in through Beanstack! fadl.org/sign-up 

We're back to finish up a short RPG game, with our players returning, taking on the roles of monster hunters, to investigate and resolve a supernatural mystery! Stay tuned, because we'll be announcing details about our new (quarterly) TEEN RPG Group, starting in October! 

This week, our Romance Reading Squad is talking about the particular subgenre known as historical romance, including their recommended favorites, some of the prevailing tropes, the highs, the lows, and the Bridgerton-of-it-all... Tune in! 

This week, our staff are playing a live one-shot Tabletop RPG Game called Monster of the Week: where they'll take on the roles of a group of monster hunters who have to get creative when facing off against the terrors that prey on humanity... Wild! In harmony with the spirit of this "game" today, we not only host a Tabletop RPG Group for middle-schoolers, but we'll SOON be introducing a recurring quarterly RPG program for teens!! Tune in and enjoy the chaos! 

"There's probably NOT going to be another crazy Corn/Clown Cult this time..." That's just one direct quote from the episode you're about to listen to! We're discussing the ins and outs of Tabletop RPGs! We'll discuss our current bi-monthly Middle Grade Table Top RPG Group, but also our upcoming quarterly Teen RPG Group, which launches in October! We're also teasing an upcoming episode in which our staff will PLAY a one-shot RPG game for you--sure to result in entertaining shenanigans! 

This week, our Romance Reading Panel returns to discuss their favorite and least-favorite tropes that appear across a variety of romance novels! Keen ears will be able to pull a lot of excellent reading recommendations from their lively discussion! Plus, we have an announcement about our upcoming Romance Book Club, which officially launches in October! 

This week, we're chatting with em dickson, author of Beyond They/Them: 20 Influential Nonbinary and Gender-Diverse People You Should Know, illustrated by Cameron Mukwa. 

Turns out em went to college with our Podcast's cohost Mary Grahame, over at Simmons University in Boston; you'll get a lot of their charming history together, including Mary Grahame's path to becoming a Youth Librarian and em's journey to become a published Children's Author!

em dickson (e/em/eir/she) holds an MA in Children's Lit, along with an MFA, both earned from her time at Simmons; along with er recently published book, e is a school librarian, authenticity reader, competitive sailor, and sea shanty enthusiast. Like Peter Pan, e has a strong emotional attachment to eir shadow, a fluffy black muppet of a dog called Luna. When not reading or writing, e can be found harmonizing to random sounds, collecting trinkets in eir pockets like a dragon, or promoting the color teal. E feels most at home by the sea, which is convenient, since e spends most of eir time in coastal Massachusetts. You can find em on Instagram @mlereads

Along with some overdue catching up, em and Mary Grahame mention another excellent book that em contributed to, Athlete is Agender. We also discuss a lot of other noteworthy authors, including ND Stevenson, Esme Symes-Smith, Maia Kobabe, and more! We also give some shout-outs to our librarian programming, including our Reading Rainbow social-hour/book club, and our Rainbow Club at Ferndale Middle School! Tune In!

This week, we have an energized panel discussing a wide range of topics related to the romance genre! This is all building up to some big news, actually: we're start hosting monthly Romance Book Club meetings beginning in October! Also, for the first time, we'll be assembling a separate section of fiction dedicated entirely to the genre! Tune in! 

Here are some things we know to be true:

1.) The Detroit Institute of Arts is simply a gem of a cultural destination and community resource that enlightens, educates, enriches, and entertains the tri-county Metro area and beyond!

2.) Their incredible exhibition, Painted with Silk, just closed last week, spanning the art of early American Embroidery from the 1600s up into the 1830s, just one of many special exhibitions curated by the DIA and open to the public year-in and year-out!

3.) We have two podcast cohosts, Erin & Mary Grahame, who are enthusiastic practioners and appreciators of the Fiber Arts, so they thought a field trip TO the D.I.A. with our library mascot, Fern the Frog, could prove to build a budding partnership between the museum and our library! They were right! Tune in for our conversation! 

Oh, and stay tuned for updates, coming later in the Fall, when the Ferndale Library partners with the D.I.A. to coordinate guided tours, including free shuttle transportation (from the library) down to the museum! 

https://dia.org/ 

IG: @diadetroit 

Award-winning singer/songwriter, musician & poet Carolyn Striho will be here at the Ferndale Library on June 18 for a live performance in our courtyard to kick off our annual Summer Concert Series! Visit https://www.carolynstriho.com to find more information about this incredible artist, previous albums, songs, and her poetry collection , Detroit Maiden Energy. 

Featured music in this episode, by Carolyn Striho:

Piano Moon