Make sure to hop on over to Libraries Beyond the Bookshelf to follow up with more episodes of our newly revamped podcast!

It's been a hot minute since we've been here chatting about books with you, but we're so excited to bring this joint venture between the Anamosa Library and Learning Center, where Erin is now director, and the Columbus Junction Public Library, where this all originated! We'll be in your ears every Wednesday for short, sweet, and *mostly* to the point conversations about books and their intersection with our daily lives. So, allow us to reintroduce ourselves to you and what we're reading now.

We'll be posting the first 5 episodes here, but please make sure to follow us on under our revamped podcast title Libraries Beyond the Bookshelf at:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/libraries-beyond-th/episodes/Whatcha-Reading-e23e670

We love a good pet story - the furry friends in our lives keep us entertained to no end! In this episode, we talk about a variety of picture books and juvenile fiction with pets as the central theme but tons of variations around it - dragons, seahorses, goldfish, horses, and more!

Alternative titles to this episode include "The One Where Mandy Definitely Does Not Have Gills" and "The One Where We Overshare Entirely too Much About Our Own Pets." But seriously, we'd love to see pictures of your pets, hear stories of your pets, meet your pets...it doesn't much matter! We want it all! Feel free to email us at: [email protected]

Exit music credit: AleXZavesa via Pixabay

We're taking a quick detour this episode from books and onto programs available within the Louisa County community. On this episode, MaKayla Glenn from the RSVP (Retired & Senior Volunteer Program) shares about the various programs the Iowa Department on Aging supports in our area, including services for aging in place and opportunities for volunteerism! We hope you take a listen about the amazing things she has to offer and get in contact with her directly if you're interested! MaKayla serves Iowa, Keokuk, Louisa, and Mahaska counties currently, but if you're in another area, we're sure she'll help you get in contact with the person you need to!

iowaaging.gov/rsvp

[email protected]

Alternate title to this episode: "What is your drink of choice at work?" and honestly, it sounded a lot better in Mandy's head.

Exit music from: AleXZavesa via Pixabay

We're putting this year's favorite books up against each other in a single elimination style March Madness bracket! Each day during the month of March, visit our Facebook page (@ColumbusJctPublicLibrary) for a poll for that day's match up - the winning book (with the most votes) will move on to the next bracket until we have one final winner by the end of March! So in this episode, we give you a run down of all 38 eligible books!

Alternative titles to this episode include "The One Where Erin Discloses She Actually Has Gills" and "Patty Wilson."

As always, feel free to email us with all your burning questions and recommendations: [email protected]

Closing music credit: AleXZavesa (Via Pixabay)

We're back with PART II (*FINALLY*) with our interview with LeAnn Kunz, answering the burning question of which main character from a book would you like to be snowed into a cabin with? We also discuss side characters and authors. As you can imagine, there's a wide variety of reasons for our choices and we're excited to share with you! Alternative titles to this episode: "It All Comes Back to Outlander" and "LeAnn wins the podcast!"

We'd love to know which characters (and reasons why) you'd like to be snowed in with them! Email us at: [email protected]

Closing music credit: AleXZavesa (Via Pixabay)

We’re SUPER EXCITED to get part 1 of our interview with Washington Public Library’s Assistant Director, LeAnn, out today! After some wild audio issues and technology that decided to have a case of the Mondays for weeks on end, we’re super excited for you to hear a little bit more about LeAnn and some of the amazing things happening right down the road from us! We’ll have part 2 out next week, where we dive into some burning questions with LeAnn, specifically, which book characters she’d like to be stuck inside with!

Alternative titles to this episode include “That’s an unfair question” and “Erin has strong opinions about Collections.”

Closing music credit: AleXZavesa (Via Pixabay)

In this episode, Erin and Mandy chat about Iowa-adjacent books - books with Iowa as a setting, Iowa authors, crowd-sourced by Iowans, or some other connection to the state! Also in this episode - a slight digression about words that sound made up, some of our own spooky stories, and Mercury Retrograde. We hope you enjoy!

Thank you for your patience, as our release schedule got ALL messed up. We're hoping to have other episodes up next week, and the following week, to get us back up-to-date with our normal schedule but also get out a FANTASTIC guest episode in 2 parts (again, tech issues, tears, and all around what is happening vibes with this).

We'd love to hear from you! Email us at: [email protected]

Visit our website for all the information about previous episodes and a list of all the books we've talked about: https://www.columbusjct.lib.ia.us/programs/beyond-bookshelf-podcast

We’ve come to the end of another year, so it’s another wrap-up list! Top books checked out in the library and online, top videos and TikToks, and podcast year in review. Have you read any of these top titles?! There’s some surprises along the way as well!

As always, feel free to check out all of our podcast episodes on our website: https://www.columbusjct.lib.ia.us/programs/beyond-bookshelf-podcast. If you’re feeling so inclined, we’d love to hear from you! Send us an email at: [email protected].

Close music credit: Take Me Out To The Ball Game sung by Edward Meeker in 1908 on a phonograph cylinder by Edison recordings

We're throwing DOWN for DONUTS! Over winter break, the Library has challenged our local elementary school to a reading contest! We're sending home logs to record every 20 minutes read over break, and the winning classroom will be surprised with a donut breakfast party the first week back after break! Prizes will also be awarded for the individual in each grade level who reads the most.

So to help with the reading challenge, we've collected 8 middle grade (elementary level) books to chat about! These are perfect chapter books and graphic novels to read independently, read together, or have older kiddos even read to younger ones. 

As always, head over to https://www.columbusjct.lib.ia.us/programs/beyond-bookshelf-podcast for info on each episode and a list of all the books referenced in those episodes!

We'd love to hear from you! Send us an email at: [email protected]

Close music credit: AleXZavesa (via Pixabay)