Completely Booked - Official Podcast of the Jacksonville Public Library

Follow the Lemon Racing Dynasty

Take a ride through the raucous racing circuits and strip malls of South Georgia in the new novel, Can't Shake the Dust, by St. Augustine author C.H. Hooks. Throughout the year, we offer programs like Lit Chat Author Talks and Writer's Lab workshops to spotlight our local author community and inspire others to follow in their literary footsteps.

"Can't Shake the Dust is a singular addition to the South's raucous storytelling tradition. As much about aging as coming of age, Can't Shake the Dust takes you beyond-the-track and into the blue-collar lives of those who can't quit this beautiful, DIY sport. At once hilarious, strange, and tender—this brilliant novel you won't soon forget..."—Caleb Johnson, author of Treeborne Q11

Lit Chat Interview with C.H. Hooks

C.H. Hooks was in conversation with Shep Shepard on Monday, July 28, 2025, at the Willow Branch Library.

C.H. Hooks is the author of the novels Can't Shake the Dust and Alligator Zoo-Park Magic. His work has appeared in print and online publications including: The Los Angeles Review, American Short Fiction, Four Way Review, The Tampa Review, The Bitter Southerner, and Burrow Press. He has been a Tennessee Williams Scholar and Contributor at Sewanee Writers' Conference, and attended DISQUIET: Dzanc Books International Literary Program. He teaches at Flagler College, and lives in St. Augustine.

C.H. Hooks was also one of the many talented local authors who contributed a short story or essay to 15 Views of Jacksonville : Short Stories from a Bold City. The full list includes Sohrab Homi Fracis, Laura Lee Smith, Mark Ari, Teri Youmans Grimm, Tim Gilmore, Marcus Pactor, Michael Wiley, Hurley Winkler, Solon Timothy Woodward, Duncan Barlow, Tiffany Melanson, Jackie Hutchins, Nan Kavanaugh, Alex Ender and Shane Hinton.

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Exploring and Collecting African American History

Harriet Tubman is, if surveys are to be trusted, one of the ten most famous Americans ever born. Yet often she's a figure more out of myth than history, often rightly celebrated but seldom understood. Tiya Miles's Night Flyer changes all that, probing the ecological reality of Tubman's surroundings and examining her kinship with other enslaved women who similarly passed through a spiritual wilderness and recorded those travels in profound and moving memoirs.

Tiya Miles is the author of eight books, including four prizewinning histories about race and slavery. She is a two-time winner of Yale's Frederick Douglass Prize and a two-time winner of the National Council on Public History Book Award. Her 2021 National Book Award winner, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, was a New York Times bestseller that won eleven historical and literary prizes, including the Cundill History Prize. All That She Carried was named A Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, NPR, Publisher's Weekly, The Atlantic, Time, and more.

Her latest work, Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith and Dreams of a Free People, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in biography. Her other nonfiction works include Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation, The Dawn of Detroit, Tales from the Haunted South, The House on Diamond Hill, and Ties That Bind. Miles publishes essays and reviews in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, and other media outlets. Miles is also the author of the novel, The Cherokee Rose, a ghost story set in the Native American plantation South.

Check out more books by this author at your library.

Miles has consulted with colleagues at historic sites and museums on representations of slavery, African American material culture, and the Black-Indigenous intertwined past, including, most recently, the Fabric of a Nation quilt exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Her work has been supported by a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award, the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Miles was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, and she is currently the Michael Garvey Professor of History and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University. You can find her online at https://tiyamiles.com/ or on Facebook and Instagram @TiyaMiles.

Interviewer Tammy Cherry has taught at FSCJ as an English professor for 22 years. Along with composition classes, Tammy teaches African American literature and honors classes. She is a lifelong Jacksonville resident and recently served as co-host for the WJCT podcast Bygone Jax.

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Osa Atoe is an artist, teacher, and ceramicist operating Pottery by Osa, producing small-batch handmade ceramics. Currently residing in Sarasota, Florida, Osa previously lived in Portland, Oregon, and New Orleans, Louisiana. It was these two cities where she primarily made her punk zine, Shotgun Seamstress. Osa is also a punk musician who performed in numerous bands including VHS, New Bloods, and Firebrand.

Read the Book

Place a hold on Shotgun Seamstress in the Library's online catalog.

Did you know that any book by a featured Lit Chat author counts toward the Jax Stacks Reading Challenge? Join in on the fun! Find out what authors we're hosting in the next few months.

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Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: [email protected]

Are you a fan of Southern Gothic, ghost stories, speculative fiction, or horror? Do you love supporting local authors? Are you hoping to follow in their footsteps and publish your own short stories or novel? This summer, we brought two Jacksonville authors together for a "spirited" discussion at the Library. They'll talked about Daniel's writing process, what inspires him, and what he's working on next.

Daniel Powell teaches a variety of writing courses at Florida State College at Jacksonville. He enjoys reading and writing stories across a broad spectrum of genres, but he has an affinity for horror, science fiction, and fantasy. He lives with his wife and children near the Timucuan Preserve, where you can frequently find him jogging those haunted trails. Some of his works include Down in the Sawgrass Boneyard, These Strange Worlds: Fourteen Dark Tales, and In the Walls and Other Stories.

Read Daniel's Work

Place a hold on Daniel's books the Library's online catalog. Note: If you don't like waiting on holds, you can also find several of his e-books on BiblioBoard Library. Several of his books were given a "Select Award"—meaning his books don't just appear in the Indie Florida collection, they are available and recommended to readers nationwide.

Did you know that any book by a featured Lit Chat author counts toward the Jax Stacks Reading Challenge? Join in on the fun! Find out what authors we're hosting in the next few months.

Interviewer Tim Gilmore is a prolific local history author who has written extensively about Jacksonville. As the writer and creator of www.jaxpsychogeo.com, a project that explores place and catalogs the Southern Gothic, he has told more than 700 stories of strange and historic locations in and around Jacksonville, Florida.

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Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: [email protected]

Few people beyond South Carolina's Lowcountry knew of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston—Mother Emanuel—before the tragic events on the night of June 17, 2015. Although the shooter had targeted Mother Emanuel to agitate racial strife, he could not have anticipated the aftermath or the out­pouring of forgiveness from victims' families.

Kevin Sack is a veteran journalist and Jacksonville native who has written about national affairs for more than four decades and has been part of three Pulitzer Prize–winning teams. His debut book, Mother Emanuel, is a sweeping history of the first AME church in the South and a profound story of courage and grace amid the fight for racial justice.

A native of Jacksonville, Florida, and a graduate of Duke University, Kevin Sack spent thirty years on the staff of The New York Times, where he specialized in writing long-form narrative and investigative reports, often related to race. He also has written for the Los Angeles Times and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and his work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine. He was a 2019 Emerson Collective Fellow at New America.

Interviewer Isaiah Oliver is the third president of The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, Florida's oldest and one of its largest community foundations, established in 1964. He leads a seasoned 30-person team that manages more than $700 million in assets and distributed over $85 million in grants in 2024. Isaiah's commitment to community leadership is evident through his service on the Jacksonville Civic Council and as Co-Chair of the Jacksonville Transformation Coalition. Nationally, he serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for CFLeads and holds board or advisory roles with the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy, ABFE (Association of Black Foundation Executives), Independent Sector, and the Council on Foundations Public Policy Advisory Committee. A Fellow of the inaugural class of the Civil Society Fellowship—a partnership of the AntiDefamation League and The Aspen Institute—Isaiah is also a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

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Are you a fan of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, or epic fantasy worlds? In this Lit Chat, local author Michael Regina interviews celebrated fantasy author Django Wexler, the featured guest at this year's Jax Pop Con. Django shares insights into his writing process, his love for tabletop games, and the inspiration behind his latest novel, "How To Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying."

Check out Django's books from the library: https://jaxpl.na4.iiivega.com/search?query=django%20wexler&searchType=agent&pageSize=10

Learn more about Django Wexler on his website: djangowexler.com Learn more about Michael Regina on his website: michaeleregina.com

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Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: [email protected]

A Story of Freedom and Accomplishment 

It’s 1746 and Georgian London is not a safe place for a young Black man. Charles Ignatius Sancho must dodge slave catchers and worse, and his main ally―a kindly duke who taught him to write―is dying. Sancho is desperate and utterly alone. So how does the same Charles Ignatius Sancho meet the king, write and play highly acclaimed music, become the first Black person to vote in Britain, and lead the fight to end slavery? 

“I had little right to live, born on a slave ship where my parents both died. But I survived, and indeed, you might say I did more.”

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho is a lush and immersive tale of adventure, artistry, romance, and freedom that begins on a slave ship in the Atlantic and ends at the very center of London life. Based on a true story, Joseph channels the writing style of the day and draws on the real-life Sancho’s diaries to give voice to his interior life

Paterson Joseph is a beloved British actor and writer. Recently seen on Vigil, Noughts + Crosses and Boat Story, he has also starred in The Leftovers and Law & Order UK and he also plays Arthur Slugworth in the Wonka movie. He has won the Royal Society of Literature’s Christopher Bland prize and the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Historical Crown 2023 award. The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho is his debut novel.

Did you know that all of our Lit Chat authors' books count toward your Jax Stacks Reading Challenge completion? Find out what authors we're hosting this month and join in on the fun!

Interviewer Kelsi Hasden has worn many hats in her career; whether she’s taught composition courses at local colleges or worked as a technical writer or content designer, her primary focus has always been user experience. Currently, Kelsi is researching older African American neighborhoods and crafting their historic narratives to help advocate for inclusive revitalization. She’s written and edited articles for MetroJacksonville.com and its current version, the Jaxson. She loves reading, petting cats, and, as a true geriatric millennial, embroidery.

For Fans of Paterson Joseph:

• If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
• The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
• Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• New Black Playwrights, and Anthology by William Couch
• In Their Own Words : Contemporary American Playwrights by David Sayran
• To Be Young, Gifted, and Black : Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words by Robert Nemiroff
• The Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse
• Shadowplay : The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare by Clare Asquith
• William Shakespeare : Playwright and Poet by Pamela Hill Nettleton
• The Armor of Light by Ken Follett

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Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: [email protected] 

A Haunting Southern Story Set in the Wild Mississippi Delta

Four years after Kelly Mustian's USA Today bestselling debut novel, The Girls in the Stilt House, started appearing on "must-read" lists and earning starred reviews, the author is set to release her much-anticipated second novel on April 1, 2025. Like her first, The River Knows Your Name is already gathering buzz as a tumultuous and "well-woven mystery."

Emily Matchar, author of In the Shadow of the Greenbrier, wrote, "You won't be able to put the book down until the last puzzle piece of their dual-timeline family mystery clicks into place."

Attend the Author Interview & Book Signing

Kelly Mustian was in conversation with interviewer Jane Wood on Monday, April 7, 2025 at the Beaches Branch Library. This program was made possible by the support of the Friends of the Beaches Branch Library.

The River Knows Your Name

For nearly thirty years, Nell has kept a childhood promise to never reveal what she and Evie found tucked inside a copy of Jane Eyre in their mother's bookcase—a record of Evie's birth listing a stranger as her mother. But lately, Nell has been haunted by hazy memories of their early life in Mississippi, years their reclusive mother, Hazel, has kept shrouded in secrecy. In dual storylines decades apart, Nell, forty-two in 1971, reaches into the past to uncover dangerous, long-buried secrets, and Becca, a young mother in the early 1930s, presses ahead, each moving toward 1934, the catastrophic year that would forever link them.

From a windswept ghost town long forgotten to a river house in notorious Natchez Under-the-Hill to a moody nightclub stage, Evie's other mother emerges from the shadows of Depression-era Mississippi in a story of hardship and perseverance, of betrayal and trust, and of unexpected redemption in a world in which the lines between heroes and culprits are not always clearly drawn.

Kelly Mustian is the USA Today bestselling author of The Girls in the Stilt House and The River Knows Your Name. She is the recipient of the Mississippi Library Association's 2023 Author Award for Fiction, and The Girls in the Stilt House was shortlisted for the 2022 Crook's Corner Book Prize for best debut novel set in the American South. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and commercial magazines. Originally from Mississippi, she currently lives in North Carolina.

Read Her Work

Check out Kelly's books from the Library: https://jaxpl.na4.iiivega.com/search?query=Kelly%20Mustian&searchType=agent&pageSize=10

Did you know that all of our Lit Chat authors' books count toward your Jax Stacks Reading Challenge completion? Find out what authors we're hosting this month and join in on the fun: https://jaxpubliclibrary.libnet.info/events?term=lit+chat&n=180&r=days

Interviewer Jane R. Wood is the author of six award-winning juvenile fiction books where she weaves history and science into stories filled with mystery, adventure, and humor for young readers ages 8-14. She has also written a nonfiction how-to book for authors called Schools: A Niche Market for Authors. Note: All of her books are available at Jacksonville Public Library.

You May Also Like... Read-Alikes for Kelly Mustian

• The Women by Kristin Hannah
• The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
• None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
• Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera
• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
• The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger
• If the Creek Don't Rise by Leah Weiss
• The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
• Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner
• Find Me by Alafair Burke

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Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: [email protected]

A Tale of Resistance... Based on a Real Story

Hannah longs for the days when she used to be free, but now, she is a Jewish prisoner at Theresienstadt, a model ghetto where the Nazis plan to make a propaganda film to convince the world that the Jewish people are living well in the camps. But Hannah will do anything to show the world the truth. Along with other young resistance members, they vow to disrupt the filming and derail the increasingly frequent deportations to death camps in the east.

From the author of Cradles of the Reich comes a poignant and inspiring tale about resistance, friendship, and the dangers of propaganda, based on the real story of the Nazi "show camp" Theresienstadt.

Jennifer Coburn is a celebrated historical fiction author. Her latest book, The Girls of the Glimmer Factory, is an illuminating tale of resistance and the dangers of propaganda. Her other novel, Cradles of the Reich, is a historical novel about three very different women living at a Nazi Lebensborn at the start of World War ll. She has also published a mother-daughter travel memoir, We'll Always Have Paris, as well as six contemporary women's novels. She has also contributed to five literary anthologies, including A Paris All Your Own.

Jennifer lives in San Diego. When Jennifer is not going down historical research rabbit holes, she volunteers with So Say We All, a live storytelling organization, where she is a performer, producer, and performance coach. She is also an active volunteer with Reality Changers, a nonprofit that supports low-income high school students in becoming the first in their families to attend college.

Interviewer Jane R. Wood is the author of six award-winning juvenile fiction books where she weaves history and science into stories filled with mystery, adventure, and humor for young readers ages 8-14. She has also written a nonfiction How-To book for authors called Schools: A Niche Market for Authors. (All of her books are available at Jacksonville Public Library.)

Wood is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and television producer, who often speaks at book festivals, conferences for writers and publishers, podcasts, webinars, and at education conferences. Wood has a BA from the University of Florida and an M.Ed from the University of North Florida. She is the past-president of the Florida Authors and Publishers Association and lives in Jacksonville. Her website is www.janewoodbooks.com.

Read her books

Check out Jennifer's books from the Library! For more books about the Holocaust, read our blog.

Did you know that all of our Lit Chat authors' books count toward your Jax Stacks Reading Challenge completion? Find out what authors we're hosting this month and join in on the fun!

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Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: [email protected]

Interview with a Debut Author

This January, we spoke with the author of Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins's Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany. Released on January 21, 2025, this new book is a fascinating portrait of the progressive female trailblazer and US Secretary for Labor who navigated the foreboding rise of Nazism in her battle to make America a safer place for refugees.

As Hitler rose to power, thousands of German-Jewish refugees and their loved ones reached out to the Immigration and Naturalization Service—then part of the Department of Labor—applying for immigration to the United States, writing letters that began "Dear Miss Perkins . . ." This outstanding, inspiring new narrative of the first woman to serve in a president's cabinet reveals the full, never-before-told story of her role in saving Jewish refugees during the Nazi regime. As Secretary of Labor, she wrestled widespread antisemitism and isolationism, finding creative ways to work around quotas and restrictive immigration laws. Diligent, resilient, empathetic, yet steadfast, she persisted on behalf of the desperate when others refused to act.

Dr. Rebecca Brenner Graham is a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University who has a PhD in history from American University. She previously taught at the Madeira School and American University. In 2023, she was awarded a Cokie Roberts Fellowship from the National Archives Foundation and a Rubenstein Center Research Fellowship from the White House Historical Association. Her writing has been published in The Washington Post, Time, Slate, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere.

Interviewer Jennie B. Ziegler, Assistant Chair of English at the University of North Florida, completed her M.F.A. in Nonfiction at the University of Arizona. Her work has been published in the University of Texas' Bat City Review, New York University's The Washington Square Review, Bending Genres, Roanoke Review, Squawk Back, MAYDAY Magazine, The Normal School, Essay Daily, and the Appalachian Review, among other outlets. She often focuses on history, the body, folklore, region, science, and identity in her lyric essays. Currently, she is working on Still-Wilds, a collaborative collection of photography and essays that document the preserved areas of Northeast Florida. Find more of her work at jennieziegler.com.

Read the book

Check out Rebecca's debut novel from the Library: https://jaxpl.na4.iiivega.com/search?query=Rebecca%20Brenner%20Graham&searchType=agent&pageSize=10

Did you know that all of our Lit Chat authors' books count toward your Jax Stacks Reading Challenge completion? Find out what authors we're hosting this month and join in on the fun!

Rebecca Recommends

• Never Caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
• Red Comet by Heather Clark
• Dolls of Our Lives by Mary Mahoney and Allison Horrocks

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Jacksonville Public LibraryWebsite: https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaxlibrary Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaxLibrary/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaxlibrary/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jaxpubliclibraryfl Contact Us: [email protected]