Kayla Cottingham is a Boston-based YA author and librarian. She is passionate about connecting young people with books featuring diverse voices so they can see themselves and their communities represented on the page. We're discussing Kayla's debut novel, My Dearest Darkest, a cosmic horror story about boarding school students who unknowingly awaken a supernatural evil. https://www.kaylacottingham.com/ 

Rodi and Jeff welcome Aby back to the podcast to discuss anime & manga. We particularly talk a lot about our favorite anime shows, genre breakdowns, favorite narrative tropes, and how there really is "an anime for everyone." 

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Jeff and Kelly discuss some of their favorite audiobooks, particularly their appreciation for each title's narrator! Then, in the second half of the episode, (at 25:44) we feature an interview with Dan John Miller, an award-winning Detroit-area audiobook narrator (as well as musician/actor), discussing the nuances of the profession and what he enjoys most about performing a book. 

Dan has garnered multiple Audie Award nominations, winning for The Wrecking Crew by Kent Hartman; has twice been named a Best Voice by AudioFile magazine; and has received several AudioFile Golden Earphones Awards and a Listen-Up Award from Publishers Weekly. 

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Tune in to hear sci-fi and fantasy recommendations from two librarians, specifically presenting books for readers who haven't tried either of these genres yet and are curious..., or perhaps you have and just haven't found the right book yet? 

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We're at it again! Rodi and Mary Grahame join Jeff to discuss why we are drawn (or repulsed) by certain antagonistic characters, or villains, in literature. The books we talk about the most include the Winternight Trilogy, the Murder of Mr. Wickham, and a classic: Les Miserables. 

Librarians Sarah Bowman & Kricket Hoekstra join Jeff to discuss "beach reads," along with some of this summer's most anticipated books. We also delve into books that either evoke pure "summer vibes" or favorite books we've all read "during" the summer. 

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In Far Company, we hear Cindy Hunter Morgan thinking about the many ways we carry the natural world inside of us as a kind of embedded cartography. Many of these poems commune not only with lost ancestors but also past poets.  Morgan's previous book, Harborless, was a Michigan Notable Book of 2018. We spoke with Morgan about her new collection of poems, out this week via Wayne State University Press. 

"Ding ding on the 'Gothic Bell'"  |  We started out talking about the films of Guillermo del Toro but quickly realized just how much of a similarity his films have with classic gothic literature! So, just in time for World Goth Day, we bring you the venn diagram between one of our greatest living directors and the books of Shelley, Bronte, and even Horace Walpole!