Hartland Library READS

In our 16th  episode Nancy talks about Bravehearted, the Women of the American West by Katie Hickman (2022) and how our popular culture version of the West is very unlike the day to day real life experiences of women. Especially those women's voices we don't hear from - Black women, Indigenous women, and Chinese women. Nancy also takes a wild ride with The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley (2023) and its two unlikely road buddies Louise, 81 and recovering from hip surgery and Tanner, 21 and recovering from a soccer injury and loss of a college athletic scholarship. Nancy's third book is a small gem by Paul Harding, This Other Eden and she'd like to see it reach a wider audience.

Peggy starts with two non-fiction books to help you understand and be your best self. Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain, 2022 and The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance - What Women Should Know by Katty Kay & Claire Shipman, 2014. Peggy always has a new/old discovery from the Children's Room and today she goes back over 100 years to discover, The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit, 1906. 

In this episode we welcome special guest, Lyndsie Perkins, the Interim School Principal at Hartland Elementary School. Lyndsie has been reading audiobooks on her commute to school and her book is When the Adults Change Everything Changes: Seismic Shifts in School Behavior by Paul Dix (2017).  Liz shared a Hartland Library Book Discussion pick, and her new favorite, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (2012). And Traci talked about the joys of expanding your reading comfort zone to include new genres. Traci's book is A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong (2022), a time-traveling, historical fiction pageturner.

In this rainy day episode, Peggy discusses a "Delicious" memoir by Ruth Reichl, goes back to a simpler time with the L.M. Montgomery classic, Anne of Green Gables, and talks about The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.

Erik also headed back in publishing time, to the future with Ursula Le Guin's 1968 classic, A Wizard of Earthsea and the Coretta Scott King honor book, Black Hands, White Sails by Pat and Frederick McKissack which details the bravery of black sailors who were desperate to escape slavery and became whalers. They also discuss the connection between whaling and the abolitionist movement.

Correction: In this podcast, Erik refers to Ged, the protagonist of A Wizard of Earthsea, as black. The character's skin color is described as "red-brown" in the book. The importance of diverse characters in fiction was championed by Le Guin. We offer this correction in support of the text and in continuing to challenge our assumptions."

A podcast of staff favorites from the Hartland Public Library. In this episode, Nancy finds three pageturners -  including Chemistry Lessons by Bonnie Garmun, a gentle fantasy with an octopus as a main character, and a brownie sundae of a cozy mystery. Peggy shares a book about how we breathe, takes a hike with The Day Hiker's Guide to Vermont, and gets real with Molly Shannon's memoir.

Erik, the newest member of the Hartland Library staff, shares their love of sci-fi and a cinematic graphic novel.  Liz reads an fantastical Nora Roberts series and tells us about the pleasures of escaping into another world.  They each share the good and the bad of series fiction and why it's okay to judge a book by its cover. 

Listen to Amy and Peggy talk about some of their favorite reads, past and present.

Nancy and Peggy talk about a few of their staff favorites on this month's episode. Nancy discovers a novel in letters about food and friendship that takes place in the 1960s and a gender bending historical novel based on the real life of Dr James Miranda Barry born as Margaret Anne Bulkley in 1979 Cork, Ireland. 

Peggy has a great way of re-discovering older titles on the library shelves and sharing them with a new audience of readers. She starts of with Patrick Taylor's Irish Country Doctor series and a well known children's series from the 1980s.

We wrap it up with a couple of non-fiction books, one an investigative journalism report on Green Bank, West Virginia and the internet and cell phone free area surrounding the Green Bank Observatory; and a book about the Japanese practice of Forest Bathing. Can you guess who chose which title?

Some great staff favorites this month! Amy our Children's Librarian talks about the Libba Bray YA novel, The Diviners (2012) and if you haven't discovered it yet...the ever popular YA Jackie Faber series. Yay for pirates! Yay for pirates who identify as a girl!
It's Liz's first time on the podcast. She's our new Community Engagement Librarian and plans adult programs and is our marketing and social media specialist. Liz is chatting about two books that were on our monthly book discussion list, Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate (2017), a novel based on the real life story of Georgia Tann, director of an adoption organization, kidnapped and sold children to the highest bidder; and The Night Tiger  by Yangsze Choo (2019) is a coming of age novel set in 1930s Malaysia and has an ending which surprised Liz.

We're back!!  This month Dennise and Peggy talk about a few of their favorite books and one movie. Dennise discovers  two books with "house" in the title and a novel that has a mystery inside a Hello Kitty lunchbox. Peggy talks about honeybees, Paris, and a film about the creation of a sustainable farm on 200 acres outside of Los Angeles.  A full list of books mentioned in the podcast can be found here. 

In this month's episode, Nancy's first book is a satisfying historical fiction read about an orphan girl who is taken into the home of an eccentric and brilliant doctor and becomes his (illegal) assistant. Her second book is a non-fiction book about the natural world and why it matters to each of us. Amy talks about a charming love story between two Muslim teens and a graphic novel about being the "New Kid" in a not-so-diverse school. Dennise shares a bestselling novel that tells the story of Shakespeare's wife and a novel that explores the lives of two sisters, their life paths, and how addiction alters their lives. Peggy shares book three of a classic children's series and a memoir from a popular cookbook author. This is the last episode for Kelly who is leaving the library to continue her adventures with books in other places. She compares her first read to Kevin Wilson's books and also talks about a memoir from author Ann Patchett. You can find all the books we talked on this list and at the library.

The Hartland READS podcast is taking a summer hiatus as we start to open the library building to the public. We'll be back in September with more staff picks and a little more conversation about our favorites. Thanks for listening and if you like what you hear, please consider giving the podcast a favorable rating in iTunes or your favorite podcast app.