Lexivore

Join Melanie and Mary for a chat about the buzz-worthy memoir by Ashley C. Ford, Somebody's Daughter, and how it relates to this year's theme.

Join Mary and Megha as we introduce our new co-host, Melanie. We will also be reviewing this year's theme, "By Me, For Me". This year plan to hear a new episode every month covering a variety of topics from mental health representation and women's voices.

Join Renee and Megha with special guest Nancy as they discuss their favorite books of the year as well as the most circulated items from this past year. This is our last episode of the year and we look forward to reading more with you next year!

On this episode of Lexivore, Megha and Mary are joined by Emily, the Adult Program Coordinator. Together they will discuss what they've been reading and what they recommend for the fall. This episode will leave with a stack of books to read and movies to watch as we settle into the spookiest season of the year. Make sure to listen for a little known RL Stine fact and stay until the end to hear what the last episode of the year will be.

In this episode of Lexivore, Mary and Renee discuss literary festivals, awards and pilgrimages. We discuss our favorite awards and book lists, some of the biggest literary festivals in the world as well as those close to home, and our own personal literary (wish list) pilgrimages.  We enjoyed chatting about our favorite awards and which books we don't think award worthy.  We also briefly talk about library events and programs, including the county-wide Summer Quest program and which programs we are most excited for.  We also chat about what we have been doing and reading, our new plan for rotating podcast recording now that there's three of us (Megha and Mary next, and we will go from there). And we also include a brief teaser for our next episode, where we will be discussing spooky reads for fall with a special guest.  Join us, jooiiin us, we'll be waaaaiiting... Mwahahahaha!!  We enjoyed making this podcast and hope you enjoy it as well!  Thanks for Listening!

In episode 21 of Lexivore, Renee and Megha are joined by a guest, Mary Graham, in discussing 'The Midnight Library', a New York Times Best Seller by Matt Haig.  It's an exploration of the lives one could have lived, the things that shape us and the possibilities that open up or close behind us.  We discuss the book itself, including the work as a whole and in depth look at several sections - including one section in the middle that included a polar bear (everyone's favorite!), and the ending with a little bit about how we expected the story to go.  We had a lot of fun during that discussion! We also briefly talk about library events and programs, including our new subscription boxes and kits like mental health, antiracism, and even baking, as well as discussing the possibility of in person programming this summer.  We also chat about what we have been doing and reading, and include a brief teaser for our next episode, where we will be discussing literary culture, including literary trips, festivals, and prizes.  We hope you will join us for that one, too! We enjoyed making this podcast and hope you enjoy it as well!  Thanks for Listening!

Welcome to Episode 20, All Things Digital, in which Renee and Megha explore and explain some of the digital resources available to us - including from our own lovely Abington Community Library, the Free Library of Philadelphia, Libby the library app and the digital collections available through that, and some that are just generally available online. We also talk about digital reading in general, from ebooks to audiobooks, to reading newspaper or magazine articles online through websites, to some of the interesting options available with ebooks that may not be available in print books - like using a special font that helps readers with dyslexia or works that incorporate technology more deeply - like using links to cleverly present a "choose your own adventure" story, or including pictures, playlists or videoclips for a multimedia approach to storytelling, or the fun little stories or discussions that can pop up in comments on a work between the readers and with the authors. Also our next episode will be reading and discussing Matt Haig's Midnight Library - Get excited, it sounds so interesting :) We hope you enjoy our podcast. Thanks for Listening!

In episode 19 of Lexivore, the first episode of 2021, Renee and Megha tackle the genre of Romance, discussing a few different subgenres and various topics including representation and the meaning of love and romance. We also talk in depth about three books - Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory; Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev; and Lets Talk About Love by Claire Kann. We also briefly talk about our library's winter challenge and include a teaser for next time, when we will be tackling digital book technologies - including ebooks, eaudio and evideo, as well as playaways and our libby app. Get excited! We hope you enjoy our podcast! Thanks for listening!

We're featuring local educator and Civil War expert EJ Murphy on this special mini episode. Hear EJ share about his favorite Civil War books, his current research, and more! Connect with him on social media to find out about him and his work. Instagram: @e_joseph_murphy or @destinationfreedomwaverly Twitter: @e_joseph_murphy

In the 18th episode of Lexivore, the last of this year, Megha and Renee cover the mystery genre, including talking about the books from authors from various styles of mystery like cozy mysteries, or suspense, intricately written ones and a few darker, crime-novel style mysteries. We include some widely read authors, like Agatha Christie and Mary Higgins Clark, and some that are a bit less well known. We also cover some YA mystery series and even a few well read children's mysteries like Boxcar Children and Encyclopedia Brown, stories that we read when we were younger and that are still read today, We also briefly discuss what might draw us to the mystery genre, or related genres like true crime. And there is a brief teaser included, for the episode beginning our next season, which will be Romance - get excited! We hope you enjoy our podcast! Thanks for Listening!

We're delighted to welcome Dr. Larry Cook, author and presidential historian for this mini episode. He'll share about his upcoming book, "Symbols of Patriotism: First Ladies and Daughters of the American Revolution." The Abington Community Library will have a copy of this book available for checkout.

Episode seventeen of Lexivore, has Megha and Renee tackle music, and pairings of music with books. We discuss our own genre preferences for music, briefly touch on the music our library has to offer, and discuss a few authors who use music - either directly in their books like Mercedes Lackey or in the background processes of writing like Rainbow Rowell. We also discuss some works that are paired by subject, like the Hamilton Soundtrack with a history book, "The Good Fight: Feuds of the Founding Fathers", or mood, like Miles Davis's "Birth of the Cool" with R.O. Kwon's "The Incendiaries", or by theme, Sharon Van Etten's "Are We There" pairing with Sally Rooney's "Normal People", and add a few more suggestions and recommendations along the way. We hope you enjoy our podcast! Thanks for Listening!

In this episode 16 of Lexivore Renee and Megha come back to the library and back to detailed book discussions with Delia Owen's widely acclaimed novel, Where the Crawdads Sing. Our discussion includes our own reactions to the book, some of the author's backgrounds and how that might influence our reading, and even some of the things we wish were addressed in the work. Additionally, we chat a bit about current events, especially our library's reopening and how that looks, as well as what we have been doing and reading, as well as a brief teaser for our next episode. We honestly enjoyed making this podcast a lot and hope you enjoy listening to it just as much. Thanks for listening!

In episode 15 of Lexivore Megha and Renee take a detour from our regular book discussions to chat about current events, how the library is continuing services during these times, how we personally are doing (and what we are doing nowadays as well). We also have some suggestions for our listeners with books to read, mental health resources to look over, in honor of mental health month, and some ideas for projects that might help pass the time while we all are spending so much time at home. We had a lot of fun making this podcast, it was helpful to talk some of these things through so we hope you will find it useful to hear as well - though please forgive us if the sound wavers in a few places, we were dealing with unfamiliar recording technology. We hope you enjoy our podcast! Thanks for Listening!

Episode 14 has Renee and Megha joined by a guest, Sheli Pratt-McHugh from Scranton university, to talk about movies and book adaptations. We touch on some interesting books and their movie adaptions, with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the TV show Shit's Creek, to Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Greta Gerwin's adaptation, The Witcher tv series, Atonement by Ian McEwan, and Little Fires Everywhere by Celest Ng. and a few more. We also briefly talk about the movies, and the book pairings, we mentioned in our teaser - Marvel MCU, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. We had a great episode and hope you enjoy it to! Thanks for listening!

A mini episode from Renee sharing about an exciting upcoming cruise we're offering to Bermuda!

The thirteenth episode of Lexivore, the first of season 3, has Renee and Megha starting the year with an episode about Graphic Novels! We discuss the nonfiction graphic novel The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan With Doctors Without Borders by Lefevre, Guibert, and Lemercier, and touch on several other graphic novels, mentioning some for children, young adults, and adults, including both fiction and nonfiction. We also talk about about graphic novels in general - starting with some of the reasons graphic novels should be considered real reading, who might like them (mostly, anyone) and some of the benefits that come from including graphic novels in collections in libraries and schools, in summer reading recommendations and book discussions, and on one's own to-read lists. We hope you enjoy our podcast! Thanks for Listening!

In the twelfth episode of Lexivore, the last episode of year two!, Renee and Megha talk about the upcoming holidays with a gift giving guide how-to for book lovers - and some book suggestions to get one started! We include books recommended by our own library staff alongside our own picks to cover a broad range of interests. We also discuss some eclectic nonfiction, for those who are looking for something to read before the end of the year, including some history, some recipes and crafty things, with advice to take and interesting facts to ponder. We also have a teaser for the next episode, which will be about Graphic Novels. We hope you enjoy our podcast! Thanks for Listening!

In Episode 11 of Lexivore, Renee and Megha are joined by two guests, local authors - Becky Loescher who writes children's picture books and poetry, and Cindy Noonan who writes historical fiction for children. We discuss writing, publishing, and the writer's group they are both members of, and then a few of their works - Cindy Noonan's book Dark Enough to See the Stars and a poem by Becky Loescher called To Be or Not To Be, which is about writing, grammar rules, and writing mentors, and we also talk some about children's literature.  We also include a brief mention of the topics for next episode, which will include a holiday gift giving guide and some recommendations for interesting eclectic nonfiction. We hope you enjoy our podcast!

In the 10th episode of Lexivore, Renee and Megha welcome a guest for this episode, Chris Fotta, and have some lovely conversation with him about libraries, books, and other interesting things. We also have some listener participation going on, so like we did for last year's mid-year-episode, for this episode we went looking for patrons willing to answer questions like "what's your favorite book of the year" or "what do you like to see in a library, what books, services, events?", and it's nice to hear the answers. We hope you enjoy our podcast! We'd love to hear from you!

Hello, Listeners! We have for you here, in a tiny little interlude between regular episodes, a few minutes of Renee talking up next year's Literary New England Trip! The trip is though our library, the Abington Community Library, and will be visiting a number of sites celebrating the rich literary culture of New England. It sounds pretty interesting to me :) If you're interested in the trip, we do have a flyer posted with our usual activities signups and flyers, and there's also a couple of information sessions, on Wednesday June 26th and Wednesday July 10th, where you can get more details and have your questions answered. Thanks for Listening!

In Episode 9 of Lexivore, Megha and Renee dive into all things local - with local authors, the local history section, local events, the local artists who display at the library. We also talk briefly about May as Mental Heath Awareness Month, and our recent reads, library events, and a teaser - which is also a call-out for patron participation for our next episode, a mid-year roundup for Patron Answers! We hope you enjoy our podcast! We'd love to hear from you!

This is the 8th episode of Lexivore, and Renee and Megha join with a guest, Elizabeth Davis from Albright Library, to discuss the social justice book clubs both libraries hold, as well as touching on some different social justice topics. There is also, as usual, a bit about library events, books we've recently read, and a teaser for our next episode - which focuses right back in on local authors, local color. local happenings! We hope you enjoy our podcast! We'd love to hear from you!

In the 7th episode of Lexivore, the first episode of Season 2, Renee and Megha talk about Black History month, touching on some black authors to read and enjoy, and some of the history behind the civil rights movement, including both fiction and nonfiction. Books touched on include Bloodchild by Octavia Butler, Becoming by Michelle Obama, Well Read Black Girl by Gloria Edim, The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory, Freedom's Daughters by Lynn Olson, and a handful of others. We also include a teaser for our next episode, which is going to be about social justice, yay! We hope you enjoy our podcast!

In the fifth episode of the podcast, Abington Library staff Renee and Megha, come together with a guest, Jeannie Sluck from Taylor Library, to discuss the Great American read. We share a bit of its history, some comments about literary canon, and the issues of inclusion and representation, and include our own experiences with various books from the list. There is also teaser for our next episode, coming up in November.

The 6th episode of Lexivore, the last of this year (wow!), has Renee and Megha talking about inclusion and representation - yet again - and this time touching on some of the darker aspects of our history, with Native American Literature - one historical fiction: I am Regina by Sally M Kheen, and one by a Native author: Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko.  It seems a fitting time, since November is Native American Heritage Month.  We also include a teaser for our next episode, in January, which is going to be for Black History Month.  We hope you enjoy our podcast!

In this fourth episode, Renee and Megha each present a handful of their favorite books, and then include the recordings and reviews we had collected last month - patrons and audience members sharing their favorite book this year. We also talk a bit about the Great American Read and next month's podcast.  We hope you enjoy it!

Episode 3 explores epistolary novels and features our first guest, Mary Garm. Happy listening!

In episode 2, Megha and Renee discuss what they're reading, "Terrier" by Tamora Pierce, Women's History Month (especially Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden), and tease about their May episode. Happy listening!

Lexivore is a podcast produced by the Abington Community Library, with library staff Renee Roberts and Megha Baikadi hosting it. We will be talking about library programs, book recommendations and explorations, and fun facts. This first episode, we speak a bit about who we are and what we hope the podcast can be, then start off with a brief discussion of Harry Potter – since it’s the 20th anniversary of its release – including some library events and the possible historical roots of one of the more fun cultural Harry Potter references, butterbeer. There is also a written transcript, linked below, which includes some notes on the research and resources we used to make this podcast. We hope you enjoy listening!