Completely Booked - Official Podcast of the Jacksonville Public Library

Dr. Michael Wiley is a local author and literature professor at the University of North Florida. He joins us today to discuss his latest novel, Monument Road, which is a robust and thrilling tale set right here in Northeast Florida. Dr. Wiley tells us about his writing process and the peculiar research that goes into writing crime fiction.

To help parents and kids get back in the groove of a school routine, we sit down with Rebecca McNeil, an early educator at Riverside Presbyterian Day School to help inspire you to start the year off right. We cover the things to do, read and say to make this transition a confidence-building experience for both you and your child.

On this episode of Completely Booked, we chat with Scott Meyer from Congaree and Penn. Scott started Congaree and Penn as a tiny rice farm in 2014 and with the help of his wife, Lindsay, it’s now a thriving farm that’s spearheaded a new wave of agrotourism in Jacksonville. Congaree and Penn is not your average farm, and Scott gives us his insight on what it has been like to grow the business over the years.

Bob Dekle was the leading prosecutor in the Ted Bundy trial for the murder of Kimberly Leach. He talks us through the process of piecing together evidence in a time before DNA testing was available and how he was able to convict Bundy of first degree murder. We pick Mr. Dekle’s brain a bit to find out what it was like to prosecute one of the most notorious serial killers in history.

In 2010, the library started a project called Voices of the First Coast. It was a local initiative modeled after StoryCorps, a nationwide story project, designed to record, preserve and share the stories from our local community. Jacksonville Public Library and the local National Public Radio station WJCT collaborated to capture these oral histories of Northeast Florida, and we wanted to share some of these stories on this week's episode of Completely Booked.

Today we chat with Amy Barnett, President of the American Civility Association. Following the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy, Amy founded the ACA in 2014 to implement programs under the multi-platform, interactive Brain-builder's Operation Safe Schools series that takes trainers, educators and their students on a journey into the world of civility and brain-building. As of 2019, B.O.S.S has reached over 25,000 students, educators and school counselors in Florida.

July 2019 marks the very first Graphic Novels in Libraries Month! Shawn Norton, manager of the Bill Brinton Murray Hill Library, chats with us about his personal graphic novel recommendations, as well as the literary merits of comics and graphic novels.

On this episode, we chat with former Times-Union photojournalist, Bruce Lipsky. He's captured 35 years worth of Jacksonville's history– the good, the bad, and the ugly– and today, he shares some of those experiences with us.

Today, we chat with Juan-Carlos Villatoro. He’s a Navy Veteran and entrepreneur who’s spearheaded a variety of startups and programs focused on environmental sustainability and challenging the way we recycle and process old materials. Juan-Carlos breaks down some pretty complex projects he’s been a part of, and what’s he's currently working on in his quest to change the industry for the better.

If you’re pining for some creative inspiration, Mark Ari has you covered. Ari is a writer, painter, singer-songwriter, and among many other things– a creative writing professor at UNF. On today's episode, he chats with us about his writing process, cultivating a creative community in Jacksonville, and how his Jewish American heritage shaped him an artist.