Overdueing It: The Rhode Island Library Podcast

Tochi Onyebuchi joined the Providence Community Library as part of their PCL Reads series on Wednesday, February 10th to discuss Riot Baby, a companion read for the 2021 Reading Across Rhode Island program. Co-hosted virtually by Amy VanderWeele at South Providence Library and Rhode Island Center for the Book, the conversation was moderated by Jonathan Pitts-Wiley, the Artistic Director of Mixed Magic Theatre (MMT) in Pawtucket.  To watch a recording of the interview, visit the Providence Community Library Youtube Page. 

Find Riot Baby at your local library, as an ebook through RI's eZone, or contact Amy Vanderweele at the South Providence Library for multiple copies for a book club. 

The music in this episode is Soft Inspiration by Scott Holmes. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of Beasts Made of Night, its sequel Crown of Thunder, War Girls, and his adult fiction debut “Riot Baby,” published by Tor.com in January 2020. He has graduated from Yale University, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia Law School, and L’institut d’études politiques with a Masters degree in Global Business Law.  His short fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Omenana, BLACK ENOUGH: STORIES OF BEING YOUNG & BLACK IN AMERICA, and elsewhere. His non-fiction has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Nowhere Magazine, Tor.com and the Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy. He is the winner of the Ilube Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by an African and has appeared in Locus Magazine's Recommended Reading list.  

Born in Massachusetts and raised in Connecticut, Tochi is a consummate New Englander, preferring the way the tree leaves turn the color of fire on I-84 to mosquitoes and being able to boil eggs on pavement. He has worked in criminal justice, the tech industry, and immigration law, and prays every day for a new album from System of a Down.

ABOUT THE BOOK  Rooted in foundational loss and the hope that can live in anger, “Riot Baby” is both a global dystopian narrative and intimate family story with quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.  Ella and Kev are brother and sister, both gifted with extraordinary power. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by structural racism and brutality. Their futures might alter the world. When Kev is incarcerated for the crime of being a young black man in America, Ella―through visits both mundane and supernatural―tries to show him the way to a revolution that could burn it all down.

New & Notable Books brings you book recommendations from Rhode Island Librarians. Listen to new reviews every week, and find something wonderful to read.

New Generations Carry On with Mary Anne

• The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flagg

• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Every day, all around us, there are people making sound, recording sound, and editing sound, and they're using sound to make us think and feel and understand.

Sound is a powerful tool with strong effects, and it can create strong reactions and produce good and bad results.

Take a journey through sound. See how it makes you feel, and think about how sound can pull you in and show you everything.

New & Notable Books brings you book recommendations from Rhode Island Librarians. Listen to new reviews every week, and find something wonderful to read.

Swoonworthy Romances with Jen

• One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London

• You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria

• Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert

This week we're sharing an excerpt from the podcast Down Time with Cranston Public Library. Host Tayla Cardillo is joined by Emily and Amy from Reading Across Rhode Island to talk about their pick for 2021 - Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You - as well as the companion titles to complement this selection and the events taking place across the state featuring these books. During The Last Chapter, they answer the question: What author alive or dead would they most like to meet?

Like what you hear? Rate and review Down Time on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice! If you’d like to submit a topic for The Last Chapter, send your suggestions to [email protected]. Our theme music is Day Trips by Ketsa. Thanks for listening!

New & Notable Books brings you book recommendations from Rhode Island Librarians. Listen to new reviews every week, and find something wonderful to read.

It Happened in the Library with Siobhan

• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

• The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

• Unseen City by Amy Shearn

Learn about veterans from the War for American Independence and the U.S. Civil War and other notable figures in Rhode Island history who are buried in Warwick.

Pegee Malcolm, chair of the Warwick Historic Cemeteries Commission, walks us through people and monuments to search for in a safe activity during the coronavirus pandemic.

Find cemeteries:

Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Commission

1) Go to "Cemetery Database"

2) Choose "View all cemeteries in one town"

3) Select "Warwick"

4) Click "Details" for cemetery locations

Explore Warwick's historic cemeteries with more episodes of 166 Historic Cemeteries.

New & Notable Books brings you book recommendations from Rhode Island Librarians. Listen to new reviews every week, and find something wonderful to read.

Texas Rangers in Fact and Fiction with Mary Anne

• Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers by Doug J. Swanson

• Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke

• Strong from the Heart: A Caitlin Strong Novel by Jon Land

• Strong Enough to Die: A Caitlin Strong Novel by Jon Land

Take a socially-distant walk up Scafell Pike — England’s tallest mountain — with writer, historian, teacher, and landscape designer, Kathryn Aalto.  Our episode begins with Aalto reading her opening essay on Dorothy Wordsworth from her new book, Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World (Timber Press, June 2020). Aalto then joins us for teatime from her home in Devon, England to share insights into what inspired her to write the book, the research process, and the women she selected to be profiled in the book. From Mary Oliver to Elizabeth Rush, she sheds new light on women’s evolving role in the canon of nature writers.

Book Summary:

Who are the pioneering and imaginative women who dared … to take simple walks without the chaperone of men? To pick up a pen and write under their own names? To record their protests, poetry, and prose? To change history? In Writing Wild, Kathryn Aalto lyrically profiles 25 women, both historical and current, whose influential nature writing has deepened our connection to and understanding of the natural world.

Part travel essay, literary biography, and cultural history Writing Wild ventures into the landscapes and lives of extraordinary writers and encourages a new generation of women to pick up their pens, head outdoors, and start writing wild.

About the Author:

In addition to Writing Wild, Aalto is the author of The New York Times bestseller, The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest that Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood (2015) and Nature and Human Intervention (2011). Her essays have appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Buzzfeed, Resurgence, the Ecologist, and more. She is currently working on her fourth book. You can learn more at https://www.kathrynaalto.com.

New & Notable Books brings you book recommendations from Rhode Island Librarians. Listen to new reviews every week, and find something wonderful to read.

Travel Romances with Jennifer

• Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

• Wanderlost by Jen Malone

• Love & Other Train Wrecks by Leah Konen

• I See London, I See France by Sarah Mlynowski