Reading with Libraries Podcast

his season we are moving through the state of Minnesota, looking at an interesting fact about each county and giving you a book prompt from that fact. We will share six book suggestions to meet that prompt, to get you started on reading new books. You can also take that prompt and find any other book to meet the challenge! This week we admire Goodhue County. James Madison Goodhue was the first newspaper editor in Minnesota. To celebrate the value he brought to Minnesota, read a book with a journalist or involving a newspaper. We give you links to each of these books on our show notes page, taking you to Amazon.com. If you click on any of them, and buy anything at all - including a nice book - Amazon will send us a small percent of the profits they made on these sales. Thank you for supporting CMLE!

This season we are moving through the state of Minnesota, looking at an interesting fact about each county and giving you a book prompt from that fact. We will share six book suggestions to meet that prompt, to get you started on reading new books. You can also take that prompt and find any other book to meet the challenge! This week we admire Faribault County. Two 1903 buildings are representative of the substantial railroad activity in Wells: a train station and a freestanding lunchroom that served crew and passengers. We suggest you celebrate these facts by reading a book about trains or train travel. We give you links to each of these books on our show notes page, taking you to Amazon.com. If you click on any of them, and buy anything at all - including a nice book - Amazon will send us a small percent of the profits they made on these sales. Thank you for supporting CMLE!

This is our season finale! It's been so great to read with you all season - thanks for sharing this journey with us. As we always do, we will be on hiatus for the summer. But don't worry about being left with no book discussion! We will be dropping a short Browsing Books episode every Tuesday here, with a fun fact about a Minnesota county, and six book suggestions to go with the fact. And we'll be back with another season of Reading With Libraries in September! Usually our final episode of the season looks at Minnesota books and authors, and of course we are always fans and supporters of these books! This season we are taking a different direction, and taking a closer look at DEI books - books that discuss diversity, equity, and inclusion. As library people, we of course recognize and celebrate the need and opportunity to add books to a collection to ensure everyone in the community will see themselves in a book. And books also give us a chance to reach beyond ourselves and our own experiences to learn more about other people. This should not be controversial - it's a chance to enjoy new books, learn about new experiences, and build empathy for people's lives. And we have a special guest joining us this week: Zurya Anjum is a member of the CMLE Board of Trustees and also the Great River Regional Library System Board! She is a parent, concerned about bringing the best books to schools; and she is a fan of promoting wider reading opportunities for DEI books. Thanks so much for joining us, Zurya!

This season we continue to explore a wide variety of book genres and topics so you can expand your reading horizons and share more information with your library community. We are having fun with pop culture references in our genres, and looking at some different sources for book ideas. This week we are looking at the prompt from the 2022 PopSugar reading challenge: A book set in the 1980s. Check out our show notes page, to get all the links to the beverages we are enjoying, and to the books we are sharing today.

This season we continue to explore a wide variety of book genres and topics so you can expand your reading horizons and share more information with your library community. And we're adding an additional element this season: many of our topics are coming from the 2022 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. We link to their challenge on our shownotes page. Pop Sugar says the goal of the challenge is to "is just to have fun, diversify your reading, and accomplish whatever goals you have set for yourself. There are no "rules"!" So we're incorporating some of their prompts into this season's podcast topics. If you are participating in their challenge - great! And if you just want to get some fresh book ideas to share with your patrons/students/community, fantastic! You are in the right place! This week we are looking at books about found family! You can find our show notes page here, with links to the beverages we share and the books we discuss today.

This season we continue to explore a wide variety of book genres and topics so you can expand your reading horizons and share more information with your library community. We are having fun with pop culture references in our genres, and looking at some different sources for book ideas. This week we are getting ready for the movie DC League of Super-Pets! IMDB gives this description: "Krypto the Super-Dog and Superman are inseparable best friends, sharing the same superpowers and fighting crime side by side in Metropolis. However, Krypto must master his own powers for a rescue mission when Superman is kidnapped. When the Justice League are captured by Lex Luthor, Superman's dog, Krypto, forms a team of shelter-pets who were given super-powers: A hound named Ace, who becomes super-strong, a pig named PB, who can grow to giant-size, a turtle named Merton, who becomes super-fast, and a squirrel named Chip, who gains electric-powers." And it comes out this weekend! Let's celebrate this movie with a look at books about animals doing amazing things - regular or superhero!

This season we continue to explore a wide variety of book genres and topics so you can expand your reading horizons and share more information with your library community. We are having fun with pop culture references in our genres, and looking at some different sources for book ideas. This week we are looking at the prompt from the 2022 PopSugar reading challenge: A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid. You can find our show notes page here, with links to all of our beverages and the books we share.

This season we continue to explore a wide variety of book genres and topics so you can expand your reading horizons and share more information with your library community. We are having fun with pop culture references in our genres, and looking at some different sources for book ideas. This week we are getting ready for the movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Let's celebrate this movie with a look at books that look at virtual reality worlds. Check out our show notes page, with links to all the beverages we are enjoying and the books we share today. This is such an interesting area to read stories. We are hearing more about virtual and augmented reality in our daily lives, in all sorts of areas - reading about virtual worlds that are more advanced than our current technology gives us some perspectives on where we could be heading.

Thank you for joining us on the 8th season of our book group and Reader's advisory podcast! Our organization is the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we work with all types of libraries. Schools, public, academic, history centers, and more! We are here to support you and to bring you new knowledge to inform your library work. This season we continue to explore a wide variety of book genres and topics so you can expand your reading horizons and share more information with your library community. This week we are continuing to look at the prompts from the PopSugar challenge. Check it out for yourself, so you can keep finding all kinds of new books for yourself and to share with your library community! And the prompt we're fulfilling today is Social-Horror books.

This season we continue to explore a wide variety of book genres and topics so you can expand your reading horizons and share more information with your library community. We are having fun with pop culture references in our genres, and looking at some different sources for book ideas. You can read all of our show notes right here, and find links to our beverages and the books we chat about today. This week we are getting ready for the movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Nicholas Cage stars in this. From IMDB "Nicolas Cage begrudgingly accepts a $1 million offer to attend the birthday of a billionaire super fan. When things take a wild turn, Nic is forced to become a version of some of his most iconic and beloved characters in order to extricate his wife and daughter from the fan who is a notorious drug lord." Let's celebrate this movie with a look at books that are social satires. Good social satires use some basic writing tools to make the story both entertaining and share their message: irony, exaggeration, ridicule, and humor. These should be fun stories to read, or watch, with the good guys making their points and the bad guys getting their just punishment.