These Books Made Me

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We couldn't decide what genre A Wrinkle in Time was but we definitely considered science fiction. To further explore our genre-confusion, we decided to talk to an expert about the actual math and science in A Wrinkle in Time. Is it fuzzy math? Is it fantasy? Is breathing flowers in an oxygen starved atmosphere really just a 1960s fever dream? We find out when we talk to Dr. Mike Duncan, an optical physicist with decades of experience and a personal connection to our book.

These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at [email protected]. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.  

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We're no strangers to books with religious overtones or stories meant to impart a moral lesson, but this episode's journey to Camazotz with Madeleine L'Engle's classic work A Wrinkle in Time is definitely the most overtly religious book we've tackled.  Jesus, Charles Wallace... or Jesus= Charles Wallace? We're not entirely sure. We're also not entirely sure if our extreme irritation with a 5 year old makes us terrible people. This book is a straight up romp where plot is concerned, but we lose the signal a bit with what the author is saying about gender roles, the nature of evil, faith, physics, and the world. We're discussing all things Who, Which and Whatsit, tesseracts, pulsating brains, and soft fluffy beasts to try to figure it out though!

These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at [email protected]. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.

We mentioned a lot of topics in this episode. Here’s a brief list of some informative articles and videos about some of them if you want to do your own further research:

The enduring impact of the book: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/remarkable-influence-wrinkle-in-time-180967509/

A remarkable journey: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2007/09/rereading-madeleine-l-engle.html

Sci-fi or no?: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/66705/how-wrinkle-time-changed-sci-fi-forever

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This is now officially an Ann M. Martin stan podcast. Ok, maybe not since our loyalties are divided between the many great authors we've revisited, but we are firmly team Ann. This episode we embark on our long-awaited journey into The Baby-Sitters Club. We are beginning at the only possible starting point: Kristy Thomas. We are tackling Kristy's Great Idea and Kristy's Big Day. Are you a Claudia or a Mary Anne? Maybe we were all just Claudia all along. These books explore feminism, demonstrate the value of a solid business plan, and offer some really weird takes on juvenile diabetes. We learn how many adults it takes to make an appetizer, discuss deadbeat dads and decorum, and unexpectedly uncover a potential bombshell about the CEO of a hot cocoa conglomerate during our Person in the Stacks segments.

These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at [email protected]. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.

We mentioned a lot of topics in this episode. Here’s a brief list of some informative articles and videos about some of them if you want to do your own further research:

Feminism in the BSC:  https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-feminist-legacy-of-the-baby-sitters-club

Representation in the BSC: https://bookriot.com/queer-history-of-the-baby-sitters-club/

All those original covers: https://the-niche.blog/2020/09/09/all-131-baby-sitters-club-book-covers-ranked-by-gayness/

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These Books Made Me... kind of upset to be honest. This week we're tackling local-at-one-point author Ann Brashares and her homage to pretty much everything that was wrong about the late 90s, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. This episode has everything: a book with casual racism in the second paragraph, really dodgy hygiene practices, flirting with your stepbrother, a love story that takes place internationally because it would have been illegal in the US, a heartbreaking cancer death, and more body image issues than Seventeen magazine.

These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at [email protected]. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.

We cover a lot of ground in this episode and used some books and articles as jumping off points. Here’s a brief list of some of them if you want to do your own further research:

It was tough having a body in the late 90s!
https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-millennial-vernacular-of-fatphobia

The OG Traveling Pants:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/the-worlds-oldest-pants-are-a-3000-year-old-engineering-marvel/

Please wash your pants (especially jeans you share with your friends for a whole summer)!
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pg5b3n/how-many-days-can-you-wear-the-same-pair-of-underwear

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We're back with part 2 of Anne of Green Gables, because we, like Anne, can talk the hind leg off a mule. Anne's a capital R Romantic and obsessed with beauty. She sees it everywhere from the Lake of Shining Waters to the fashion of the day. Speaking of the fashion a la mode, we delve a little deeper into the trends and beauty standards of Anne's (and Lucy Maud Montgomery's) time. Once again we ponder whether the 1985 Sullivan rendition might have improved the story a bit by abandoning the bank failure storyline and having (spoiler) Matthew die in the harness as it were. We're all a little traumatized by film Matthew's death and at least one of us is still heartbroken over Jonathan Crombie's death. All of us are quite torn about which adult in Anne's life would make the best adoptive parent and we chat with some library users about their own adventures with runaway imaginations. We learn which character from the book we each are too. Will this quiz be a perfect graveyard of buried hopes?

These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at [email protected]. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.

We cover a lot of ground in this episode and used some books and articles as jumping off points. Here’s a brief list of some of them if you want to do your own further research:

Don't internalize beauty norms, Anne!  https://misfortuneofknowing.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/dear-anne-shirley-redheads-can-wear-pink-2/

She's always a woman to me... https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=gsw_pub

Passing that Bechdel test with flying colors: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1522&context=theses

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This podcast crew has so much in common with the heroine of Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic, Anne of Green Gables. We too prattle on incessantly, have ill-advised adventures in hair dyeing, and we're big in Japan... one might say we're kindred spirits. In this episode we take a turn down the White Way of Delight and visit Avonlea as we return to a book that's an absolute mashed potatoes of a book for some of us. We discuss place as character, try to decipher Rachel Lynde's interesting brand of feminism, rhapsodize over the magic of childhood, and delve into the stigma faced by both orphans and redheads in the 19th century. We adore LMM's vivid landscape descriptions and economical writing, but we wonder if the 1985 Sullivan adaptation didn't improve Anne's puffed sleeve dress a bit by making it blue instead of... brown?!?

These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at [email protected]. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.

We cover a lot of ground in this episode and used some books and articles as jumping off points. Here’s a brief list of some of them if you want to do your own further research:

Make it Fashion! (Anne edition) https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1880-1889/

You're sick? How Romantic! https://hms.harvard.edu/magazine/handed-down/fever-dreams

The Edwardian era: https://www.anneofgreengables.com/blog-posts/the-edwardian-era-and-anne-of-green-gables

Barnardo's Boys:
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2015/06/19/a-timeline-of-barnardos-and-other-child-emigration-programs.html

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We discussed at length about Jane Austen's most famous novel, "Pride & Prejudice" (in 2 parts!). But in case you still had a taste for more Jane Austen content, we've included an expert interview with Ingrid Satelmajer, a professor at the University of Maryland, who has taught a class called titled, "Jane Austen: Her World, Our Obsession".  She discusses Austen's enduring legacy, what makes Elizabeth such a compelling protagonist, and how her students have engaged with Austen in a more modern setting.

These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at [email protected]. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.  

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We're back with part the second of our journey to Netherfield and Pemberley with the Bennet family. We delve into Lizzie as a character, whether Mr. Darcy really was in want of a wife, and who really got the short end of the stick in the Lydia and Wickham union. We discuss the long reach of Austen's works and marvel at her incredible skill for writing snappy dialogue. Most of us are hoisted with our own petard when all the shade we threw at Mr. Bennet comes back to bite us in a truly tragic quiz. 

These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at [email protected]. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit out blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.

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This episode we are taking a leisurely stroll through the gentle hills of Hertfordshire and the genteel romances of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  We're talking classics, love-hate relationships, £5,000 bachelors, loveless marriages, Mr. Bennet's zingers, and the cost of living index in Regency period England.  Our most subplot-laden book yet produces our most complicated plot summary and we marvel at how Jane Austen kept all of these threads together without major editorial help. We have so much to say about Lizzie and Darcy and this very important book that we are breaking this episode into two parts. Just as you can love both Colin Firth and Matthew MacFayden's Mr. Darcy, so too can you love episodes 1 and 2 of our very chatty dance with Pride and Prejudice.

These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at [email protected]. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit out blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.

We cover a lot of ground in this episode. If you'd like to learn more about some of the topics we touch on, here's some links you might enjoy:

The crunchiest economic explanation of money in Pride and Prejudice we could find! https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/vol36no1/toran/

The complicated Cassandra Austen: https://lithub.com/cassandra-austen-literary-arsonist-or-a-heroine-in-her-own-right/

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This episode finds us in the ambiguously located town of River Heights with teen sleuth, Nancy Drew. The Nancy series has mega intergenerational nostalgia vibes for a lot of us —that row of yellow spines on a shelf transports many of us straight back to childhood. But revisiting our Nancy-love by starting with book 1, The Secret of the Old Clock, produces some mixed emotions. Where are Bess and George? Why is Nancy blonde, wasn't she Titian-haired? While we may have been fuzzy on some of the details, Nancy's escapades are still a pretty wild romp. She's saving babies with massive head injuries, chasing a violent gang of thieves, helping little old ladies, and benefitting from all sorts of violations of attorney-client privilege. This book has everything... missing wills, two tragic boating accidents, a ripped evening gown, and a Euclidean lever. This episode has everything too... more sound effects, The Stratemeyer Syndicate, legal opinions, and a major spoiler for our next episode.

These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at [email protected]. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit out blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.

Midred Benson: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/adventurous-writer-who-brought-Nancy-Drew-to-life-180969479/

Changes from the 30s to the 50s revision: https://library.csun.edu/SCA/Peek-in-the-Stacks/nancy-drew