Continuing the 2025 Summer Reading Spectacular, Steve chats with Rachel Louise Driscoll, author of The House of Two Sisters, about her background as a librarian, the blending of Victorian Gothic and Egyptian mythology in her book, sisterhood (real and mythic!), and why Victorian England was primed for Egyptomania! Following the interview, in The Circ Desk segment, Rebecca from Library Reads and April from NoveList offer reading recommendations related to Rachel’s book!

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A young Victorian Egyptologist traverses the Nile River on a mission to undo a curse that may have befallen her family in this spellbinding novel.

Essex, 1887. Clementine’s ability to read hieroglyphs makes her invaluable at her father’s Egyptian relic parties, which have become the talk of the town. But at one such party, the words she interprets from an unusual amulet strike fear into her heart. As her childhood games about Isis and Nephthys—sister goddesses who protect the dead—take on a devastating resonance in her life, and tragedy slowly consumes her loved ones, she wonders what she and her father may have unleashed.

Five years later, Clemmie arrives in Cairo desperate to save what remains of her family back home. There, she meets a motley crew of unwitting English travelers about to set sail down the Nile—including an adventurer with secrets of his own—and joins them on a mission to reach Denderah, a revered religious site, where she hopes to return the amulet and atone for her sins.

With each passing day, she is further engulfed in a life she’s yearned for all along. But as long-buried secrets and betrayals rise to the surface, Clemmie must reconcile the impossibility of living in the light while her past keeps her anchored to the darkness.

SHOW NOTES:
The House of Two Sisters

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Library Reads

The Circ Desk recommends:
 London Seance Society by Sarah Penner
 Veronica Speedwell series by Deanna Raybourn
 A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
 Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef

Continuing the 2025 Summer Reading Spectacular, Steve chats with James Yang, author and illustrator of The Universe, Big and Small: A Story About Carl Sagan, about his creative process, the influence of libraries and picture books on his career, working with creative people in his family and later at his publisher, and the picture book illustrators who inspired him. And in The Circ Desk segment, April Mazza and Zach Woods from NoveList offer reading recommendations related to James’s book.

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Geisel Award–winning creator James Yang explores the mysteries of the universe, inspired by the work of lauded astronomer Carl Sagan.

When Carl stared out the window, he had many questions.

Astronomer and scientist Carl Sagan loved asking questions—he wanted to learn about everything from the smallest atoms to the vastness of the galaxy. And by using his imagination and allowing himself to dream up questions big and small, he inspired others to keep exploring the mysteries of the universe and our place in it.

Geisel Award-winning author and illustrator James Yang invites readers on a fantastic journey through the cosmos, inspired by the life and work of Carl Sagan.

SHOW NOTES:
A Universe Big & Small: a Story about Carl Sagan

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Library Reads

The Circ Desk recommends:
Your Place In The Universe by Jason Chin
Another by Christian Robinson
Mae Among the Stars written by Roda Ahmed, illustrated by Stasia Burrington
What Miss Mitchell Saw written by Hayley Barrett, illustrated by Diana Sudyka

Continuing the 2025 Summer Reading Spectacular, Steve chats with Sherry Thomas, author of The Librarians, about her love for libraries, learning English from reading books, her Lady Sherlock series, and her writing process, especially for her first contemporary mystery novel. And in The Circ Desk segment, Rebecca Vnuk from Library Reads and from April Mazza from NoveList offer reading recommendations related to Sherry’s book.

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Murder disrupts the routine for four quirky librarians who hide among books to keep their secrets in this mystery from USA Today bestselling author Sherry Thomas.

Sometimes a workplace isn’t just a workplace but a place of safety, understanding, and acceptance. And sometimes murder threatens the sanctity of that beloved refuge….

In the leafy suburbs of Austin, Texas, a small branch library welcomes the public every day of the week. But the patrons who love the helpful, unobtrusive staff and leave rave reviews on Yelp don’t always realize that their librarians are human, too.

Hazel flees halfway across the world for what she hopes will be a new beginning. Jonathan, a six-foot-four former college football player, has never fit in anywhere else. Astrid tries to forget her heartbreak by immersing herself in work, but the man who ghosted her six months ago is back, promising trouble. And Sophie, who has the most to lose, maintains a careful and respectful distance from her coworkers, but soon that won’t be enough anymore.

When two patrons turn up dead after the library’s inaugural murder mystery–themed game night, the librarians’ quiet routines come crashing down. Something sinister has stirred, something that threatens every single one of them. And the only way the librarians can save the library—and themselves—is to let go of their secrets, trust one another, and band together….

All in a day’s work.

SHOW NOTES:
The Librarians

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Library Reads

The Circ Desk recommends:
Village Library Demon Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner
How Can I Help You? by Laura Sims
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentil
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Continuing the 2025 Summer Reading Spectacular, Steve chats with Alma Katsu, author of Fiend, about her experiences with libraries, her career in intelligence, the evolving nature of the horror genre, and artificial intelligence. And in The Circ Desk segment, Rebecca Vnuk from Library Reads and Yaika Sabat from NoveList offer reading recommendations related to Alma’s book.

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Historical horror maven Alma Katsu turns her talents to the modern world for the first time, in this terrifying tale about an all-powerful family with an ancient evil under its thumb.

Imagine if the Sackler family had a demon at their beck and call.

The Berisha family runs one of the largest import-export companies in the world, and they’ve always been lucky. Their rivals suffer strokes. Inconvenient buildings catch on fire. Earthquakes swallow up manufacturing plants, destroying harmful evidence. Things always seem to work out for the Berishas. They’re blessed.

At least that is what Zef, the patriarch, has always told his three children. And each of them knows their place in the family—Dardan, as the only male heir, must prepare to take over as keeper of the Berisha secrets, Maris’s most powerful contribution, much to her dismay, will be to marry strategically, and Nora’s job, as the youngest, is to just stay out of the way. But when things stop going as planned, and the family blessing starts looking more like a curse, the Berishas begin to splinter, each hatching their own secret scheme. They didn’t get to be one of the richest families in the world without spilling a little blood, but this time, it might be their own.

SHOW NOTES:
Fiend

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Library Reads

The Circ Desk recommends:
Mexican Gothic by  Silvia Moreno-Garcia
 Weyward: a Novel by Emilia Hart
 Galilee by Clive Barker
 Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

Continuing the 2025 Summer Reading Spectacular, Steve chats with Jayson Greene, author of UnWorld, about his personal experiences with libraries, the emotional and thematic underpinnings of “UnWorld,” including grief and the concept of memory, as well as the novel’s speculative exploration of AI. And in The Circ Desk segment, Rebecca Vnuk from Library Reads and Zack Moore from NoveList offer reading recommendations related to Jayson’s book.

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From the author of Once More We Saw Stars comes a gripping novel about four intertwined lives that collide in the wake of a mysterious tragedy. Set in a near-future world where the boundaries between human and AI blur, the story challenges our understanding of consciousness and humanity.

Anna is shattered by the violent death of her son, Alex, and tormented by the question of whether it was an accident or a suicide. Samantha is Alex’s best friend, and the only eyewitness to his death. She keeps returning to the cliff where she watched him either jump or fall, trying to sift through the shards. Aviva is an “upload,” a digital entity composed of the sense memories of a human tether. But she’s “emancipated,” having left her human behind. Set free from her source and harboring a troubling secret, she finds temporary solace in the body of Cathy, a self-destructive ex-addict turned AI professor and upload-rights activist.

With UnWorld, Jayson Greene envisions a grim but eerily familiar near-future where all lines have blurred—between visceral and digital, human and machine, real and unreal. As Anna, Cathy, Sam, and Aviva’s stories hurtle toward each other, the stakes of UnWorld reveal themselves with electrifying intensity: What happens to the soul when it is splintered by grief? Where does love reside except in memory? What does it mean to be conscious, to be human, to be alive?

SHOW NOTES:
UnWorld

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Library Reads

The Circ Desk recommends:
The Ferryman: A Novel by Justin Cronin
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Toward Eternity by Anton Hur

Continuing the 2025 Summer Reading Spectacular, Steve chats with Rob Hart, author of The Medusa Protocol, the follow-up to Assassin’s Anonymous, about the importance of libraries in his life (and how he’s fought for them!), the inspiration behind his unique take on the assassin genre, his creative process, and much more! Following the interview, in The Circ Desk segment, Rebecca Vnuk from Library Reads and Yaika Sabat from NoveList offer reading recommendations related to Rob’s book.

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Welcome back to Assassins Anonymous, the only twelve-step group where joining can be deadly.

When Astrid, known in her assassin days as Azrael, stopped showing up to Assassins Anonymous, the group assumed her past had caught up with her. Only her sponsor Mark, formerly the deadliest killer in the world, holds out hope that she’s okay. Then, during a meeting, the group gets a sign, or rather, a pizza delivery. Is there another psychopath out there who actually likes olives on their pizza, or is Astrid trying to send Mark a message?

Meanwhile, Astrid wakes up in the cell of a black site prison, on a remote island. A doctor subjects her to mysterious experiments, plumbing the depths of her memory and looking for a vital clue from her past. She’ll do anything to escape, except…killing anyone. Hmm. Turns out it’s not easy to blow this joint without blowing anything, or anyone up.

SHOW NOTES:
The Medusa Protocol
Assassin’s Anonymous

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Library Reads

The Circ Desk recommends:
Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
Fate of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
Battle Ground by Jim Butcher
Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon
The Recruiter by Gregg Podolski

Continuing the 2025 Summer Reading Spectacular, Steve chats with Alison McGhee, author of Weird Sad and Silent, about her childhood experiences with libraries, themes like childhood trauma, resilience, and the importance of being seen, and the real life inspiration for the librarian character in the book! And in The Circ Desk segment, Rebecca Vnuk from Library Reads and Lindsey Dunn from NoveList offer reading recommendations related to Alison’s book.

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In this touching novel by the acclaimed author of Telephone of the Tree, an intriguing new boy at school helps Daisy cope with both bullying and past trauma.

Daisy has been working on invisibilizing herself—ever since living with her mother’s violent ex-boyfriend, and now to avoid the school bullies who are targeting her. She keeps a low profile, eating lunch with the librarian instead of in the Lunchroom of Terror and secretly counting whenever she’s anxious.

But things are looking up. A new boy has befriended her and seems able to stand up to the bullies, and the stray cat she’s been feeding is starting to almost trust her. Maybe she can finally focus on futurizing rather than invisibilizing.

ALISON McGHEE has been awarded the Minnesota Book Award and the Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award for her first novel, Rainlight. This is her second novel. Her short fiction has been published widely in literary magazines. Born and reared in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, she currently lives in Minnesota.

SHOW NOTES:
Weird Sad and Silent

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Library Reads

The Circ Desk recommends:
If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy
By the Book by Jasmine Guillory
Kiss the Girl by Zoraida Córdova
Tangled Up In You by Christina Lauren
Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto
A Boy Called Bat by Elena Arnold
Close to Famous by Joan Bauer

Continuing the 2025 Summer Reading Spectacular, Steve chats with Melanie Sweeney, author of Where You’re Planted, about her experiences with libraries through her life, the inspiration behind Where You’re Planted, her writing process, and how she incorporates intimate scenes with character arcs. And in The Circ Desk segment, Rebecca Vnuk from Library Reads and Yaika Sabat from NoveList offer reading recommendations related to Melanie’s book.

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From the author of the “phenomenal achievement” (Kirkus) Take Me Home, a children’s librarian must temporarily move her public library into a shed in the county botanic gardens, where her archnemesis is the assistant director.

Single mom Tansy Perkins only has room in her life for her daughter and her library. And maybe the next book to add to her collection. But after a catastrophic hurricane severely damages her library, she’s forced to temporarily move her branch into the adjacent county botanic gardens, where Jack Reid—the world’s grouchiest gardener who rescued her and her daughter from the flood—happens to be the assistant director.

Jack has always preferred plants over people, having  built a strong track record of avoiding relationships ever since his divorce six years ago. So, Tansy and her quirky band of bookish colleagues’ encroachment into his carefully-kept territory is a little more than irksome, especially when it means sharing his already-scarce resources.

When Jack and Tansy are tasked with working together on the spring festival, they have no choice but to call a truce. And soon their newfound professional partnership gives way to a deep intimacy that they’ve both been silently craving. But Tansy has lost too much to risk her heart, and Jack has sworn off real love. When an opportunity arises for funding that both the library and gardens need, will their loyalties lie with the futures they’d always planned for, or the new spark they’ve found with each other?

Melanie Sweeney is the USA Today bestselling author of Take Me Home. She writes contemporary romance in which ordinary people find extraordinary love, and she lives near Houston, Texas, with her husband, three kids, and too many cats. When she’s not writing, she’s figure skating, embroidering, or playing her ukulele.

SHOW NOTES:
Where You’re Planted

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Library Reads

The Circ Desk recommends:
What You Wish For by Katherine Center
Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady
Pick-Up by Nora Dalia
A Dash of Salt and Pepper by Kosoko Jackson

In this kick-off to the 2025 Summer Reading Spectacular, Steve chats with Jessie Rosen, author of All the Signs, about the inspiration behind her book, her writing process, personal discovery in her narrative, and how much she believes in astrology! In the return of The Circ Desk segment, Rebecca Vnuk from Library Reads and Yaika Sabat from NoveList offer reading recommendations related to Jessie’s book.

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Leah Lockhart is more than her astrology. She’ll search the world to prove it.

Leah Lockhart is proudly science-minded and woo-woo averse. But the life she’s carefully curated is knocked suddenly off course, first by a destabilizing case of vertigo, and then by an astrology reading that claims she’s living way out of line with what was written in her stars. 

Incensed, Leah sets off on a mission to prove that astrology is bogus by comparing her life to that of her Star Twins around the world—people born under her exact same map of the stars. But her even deeper guides on a whirlwind journey through Venice, Istanbul, New Orleans, and beyond turn out to be three people already in her orbit: the mother she thinks abandoned her, the father she thinks saved her, and the former boy next door whose love could be the path to her truest self.

Jessie Rosen is a writer who got her start with the award-winning blog 20-Nothings. She  has sold original television projects to ABC, CBS, Warner Bros., and Netflix, and her live storytelling show Sunday Night Sex Talks was featured on The Bachelorette. She is the author of The Heirloom, and lives in Los Angeles.

SHOW NOTES:
All the Signs
The Heirloom

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Library Reads

The Circ Desk recommends:
Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
Two Lives of Lydia Bird: a Novel by Josie Silver
Miranda in Retrograde by Lauren Layne
Half-Blown Rose by Leesa Cross-Smith

In this episode, Steve chats with Bobbi Newman, editor of Well-Being in the Library Workplace: A Handbook for Managers, about her path to librarianship, the importance of fostering a wellbeing-centric culture in libraries, and topics including vocational awe, emotional and invisible labor, the key role of communication, recognition and appreciation, addressing loneliness, fostering trust and connection, and tackling burnout and moral injury.

Read the transcript!

Fostering well-being in today’s library workplaces is no longer a luxury but a necessity, particularly for managers tasked with guiding and supporting their teams. Amidst budget cuts, attempts to ban or restrict books, attacks on library staff online and in-person, and potentially hostile and aggressive patrons, taking care of ourselves and our staff by putting good policies and practices into place is more important than ever. In this book, Newman and her expert contributors will lead you through creating an environment that nurtures the health, satisfaction, and well-being of its workers and helps prevent or reduce the internal factors that create an unhealthy workplace. You will receive actionable advice on

Bobbi L. Newman (she/her) is a librarian, Certified Wellness Practitioner, and workplace well-being expert dedicated to helping libraries create environments where individuals feel empowered, supported, and free to bring their best selves to work. Bobbi specializes in evidence-based strategies to cultivate psychologically safe workplaces that foster trust, collaboration, and open communication. As a consultant, speaker, instructor, coach, and well-being advocate, her comprehensive approach includes workshops, keynote presentations, strategic consulting, and coaching to help organizations establish sustainable practices that reduce burnout, increase engagement, and ensure team members feel genuinely valued. She also writes about workplace well-being on her blog, Librarian by Day, and is a sought-after speaker at state, national, and international conferences.

SHOW NOTES:

Well-Being in the Library Workplace: A Handbook for Managers
Librarian By Day