The Berkley Public Library, with support from the Friends of the Berkley Library, have been hard at work reimagining their media room to not only refresh the space, but also to show patrons who are more interested in television and movies than books that the library is a place for them, too. Lisabeth Posthuma, from Berkley's circulation department, is here on the podcast to discuss the vision of: Berkbuster Video! Your neighborhood video store is back, celebrating the glories, the nostalgia, and the bonds-forged around the experiences offered by physical media--particularly when you can rent it for free! The Berkley Library having a launch party for their new Berkbuster Video space on Friday, November 14, at 6:00 pm (3155 Coolidge Hwy, Berkley). Posthuma will be there for the ribbon cutting, and delivers all the details in this episode of our podcast, including some background on her life, working in video stores during her youth, and her YA novel, Baby & Solo, which is set in a video store!     

A conversation on the horror genre in literature, with a rundown of recent reads and top recommendations! The List:    The Reformatory by Tananarive Due You Weren't Meant to Be Human - Andrew Joseph White The Buffalo Hunter Hunter - Stephen Graham Jones Episode Thirteen - Craig DiLouie (Audiobook!)  From Below, Ghost Camera, the Gravekeeper Series - Darcy Coates The Twisted Ones, What Moves the Dead - T Kingfisher  Ballad of Black Tom, The Changeling - Victor LaValle  The September House - Carissa Orlando Diavola - Jennifer Marie Thorne House of Hunger, The Year of the Witching - Alexis Henderson  Helm of Midnight - Marina J Lostetter  Any and everything written by Junji Ito   More Gothic than Horror: Mexican Gothic, Silver Nitrate, the Bewitching - Silvia Moreno Garcia Dowry of Blood - S. T. Gibson   Hungerstone - Kat Dunn

We've got another podcast episode with our panel of romance readers diving into a nuanced topic around the popular genre: this time, we're running through our wishlists of things, tropes, devices, and twists that we'd like to see more of (or less of?) when it comes to romance novels! And, p.s., our next ROMANCE BOOK CLUB meets on Tuesday, Nov. 4 at 6:30 pm at Urbanrest! P.p.s.: We now have our own Romance Section! All romance titles in adult fiction have their own location/shelf/section!

This week, Becca from the Royal Oak Public Library joins Jeff & Mary Grahame, here at Ferndale, to chat about some deeply held appreciations for historical fiction, particularly from the late 90's and into the early 00's, with a focus on the American Girl book series, along with Dear America, and others! This inevitably leads into discussions of Banned Books Week, which, by the way, we're in the middle of, right now!  Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to read and raises awareness about attempts to censor/remove books from the shelves of public libraries, school libraries, and bookstores.   

Today, we're joined by Emily and Savannah, the President and Vice President of the Friends of the Ferndale Library! We'll talk about all the mighty work that this volunteer organization does to support the library, its programming and resources, as well as its staff, AND we'll talk about all the amazing events that the Friends host throughout the year, including their Park & Read program AND their upcoming Dip-Off, a juried competition for the best dip recipes!  The Friends of the Ferndale Library Dip-Off is on Sat., October 25, from 1pm-3pm, the culmination of National Friends of Libraries Week! Find more information at: ferndalefriends.org + Follow them at @friendsofferndalelibrary on Instagram! 

Our Romance Panel discusses the nuances of the subgenre that combines fantasy and romance! You'll hear hot takes, you'll get recommendations, and, together, we'll consider the virtues of finishing a book only to see the culmination of its subtly compelling subplots. 

Do you remember when you signed up for your very first library card? Has it been a while since you've had one? Well, tune in to our panel discussion this week when Rae from the Madison Heights Library and Becca from the Royal Oak Library join Jeff and Mary Grahame to revel in the wonders of having a library card! Did we mention it's Library Card Sign-Up Month? 

You could win fabulous prizes just by using your library card! And in case you've forgotten, or never paused to appreciate fully, just how fantastic your life could be when you fully utilize the wonders and whimsy of a library card, well..., then tune in to this week's podcast to hear all about it! We'll also share details about our current Bingo Challenge, which you can participate in through Beanstack! fadl.org/sign-up 

We're back to finish up a short RPG game, with our players returning, taking on the roles of monster hunters, to investigate and resolve a supernatural mystery! Stay tuned, because we'll be announcing details about our new (quarterly) TEEN RPG Group, starting in October! 

This week, our Romance Reading Squad is talking about the particular subgenre known as historical romance, including their recommended favorites, some of the prevailing tropes, the highs, the lows, and the Bridgerton-of-it-all... Tune in! 

This week, our staff are playing a live one-shot Tabletop RPG Game called Monster of the Week: where they'll take on the roles of a group of monster hunters who have to get creative when facing off against the terrors that prey on humanity... Wild! In harmony with the spirit of this "game" today, we not only host a Tabletop RPG Group for middle-schoolers, but we'll SOON be introducing a recurring quarterly RPG program for teens!! Tune in and enjoy the chaos! 

"There's probably NOT going to be another crazy Corn/Clown Cult this time..." That's just one direct quote from the episode you're about to listen to! We're discussing the ins and outs of Tabletop RPGs! We'll discuss our current bi-monthly Middle Grade Table Top RPG Group, but also our upcoming quarterly Teen RPG Group, which launches in October! We're also teasing an upcoming episode in which our staff will PLAY a one-shot RPG game for you--sure to result in entertaining shenanigans!   

This week, our Romance Reading Panel returns to discuss their favorite and least-favorite tropes that appear across a variety of romance novels! Keen ears will be able to pull a lot of excellent reading recommendations from their lively discussion! Plus, we have an announcement about our upcoming Romance Book Club, which officially launches in October! 

This week, we're chatting with em dickson, author of Beyond They/Them: 20 Influential Nonbinary and Gender-Diverse People You Should Know, illustrated by Cameron Mukwa.  Turns out em went to college with our Podcast's cohost Mary Grahame, over at Simmons University in Boston; you'll get a lot of their charming history together, including Mary Grahame's path to becoming a Youth Librarian and em's journey to become a published Children's Author! em dickson (e/em/eir/she) holds an MA in Children's Lit, along with an MFA, both earned from her time at Simmons; along with er recently published book, e is a school librarian, authenticity reader, competitive sailor, and sea shanty enthusiast. Like Peter Pan, e has a strong emotional attachment to eir shadow, a fluffy black muppet of a dog called Luna. When not reading or writing, e can be found harmonizing to random sounds, collecting trinkets in eir pockets like a dragon, or promoting the color teal. E feels most at home by the sea, which is convenient, since e spends most of eir time in coastal Massachusetts. You can find em on Instagram @mlereads Along with some overdue catching up, em and Mary Grahame mention another excellent book that em contributed to, Athlete is Agender. We also discuss a lot of other noteworthy authors, including ND Stevenson, Esme Symes-Smith, Maia Kobabe, and more! We also give some shout-outs to our librarian programming, including our Reading Rainbow social-hour/book club, and our Rainbow Club at Ferndale Middle School! Tune In!  

This week, we have an energized panel discussing a wide range of topics related to the romance genre! This is all building up to some big news, actually: we're start hosting monthly Romance Book Club meetings beginning in October! Also, for the first time, we'll be assembling a separate section of fiction dedicated entirely to the genre! Tune in! 

Here are some things we know to be true: 1.) The Detroit Institute of Arts is simply a gem of a cultural destination and community resource that enlightens, educates, enriches, and entertains the tri-county Metro area and beyond! 2.) Their incredible exhibition, Painted with Silk, just closed last week, spanning the art of early American Embroidery from the 1600s up into the 1830s, just one of many special exhibitions curated by the DIA and open to the public year-in and year-out! 3.) We have two podcast cohosts, Erin & Mary Grahame, who are enthusiastic practioners and appreciators of the Fiber Arts, so they thought a field trip TO the D.I.A. with our library mascot, Fern the Frog, could prove to build a budding partnership between the museum and our library! They were right! Tune in for our conversation!  Oh, and stay tuned for updates, coming later in the Fall, when the Ferndale Library partners with the D.I.A. to coordinate guided tours, including free shuttle transportation (from the library) down to the museum!  https://dia.org/  IG: @diadetroit 

Award-winning singer/songwriter, musician & poet Carolyn Striho will be here at the Ferndale Library on June 18 for a live performance in our courtyard to kick off our annual Summer Concert Series! Visit https://www.carolynstriho.com to find more information about this incredible artist, previous albums, songs, and her poetry collection , Detroit Maiden Energy.  Featured music in this episode, by Carolyn Striho:I Will Rise Piano Moon

This week, we're getting nostalgic AND providing some reading recommendations! It's our podcast's annual Summer Reading Spectacular! We're talking about books that we have fond memories of reading during the summers of our past, as well as particularly fond memories tied to the Summer Reading Programs hosted by the public libraries we attended as kids/teens!    Correction: We discuss the 2024 book Bitter Water Opera by Nicolette Polek, because we're huge fans and it's a fine novel to read during the summertime, HOWEVER, we mention that Polek graduated from Harvard, but she in fact graduated from the Yale Divinity School ~ and currently teaches creative writing at SUNY Purchase. Hopefully Polek will be a guest on this podcast some day soon!    Also, mark your calendars for our Kickoff Party happening here on Saturday, June 7, from 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm: www.fadl.org/summer     

Michigan Author and poet Linda Nemec Foster joins us to cap off Poetry Month and discuss her latest book, The Lake Huron Mermaid, with Anne-Marie Oomen; recently released on WSU Press.   https://wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814347416/  https://www.lindanemecfoster.com/works/the-lake-huron-mermaid/  https://anne-marieoomen.com/  https://lafontsee.com/artist/meridith-ridl 

The Library of Michigan is the state library of the U.S. state of Michigan, located in the state capital, Lansing. It is housed in the 5-story Michigan Library and Historical Center building. Our guest, Adam Oster, is the Community Engagement Librarian for the Library of Michigan. Adam holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Grand Valley State University with a minor in Political Science and Secondary Education Certification.    Adam loves history! He loves Michigan; he loves libraries! He also loves local authors, which we discuss in this episode, particularly highlighting the upcoming Michigan Notable Books tour! All that, and so much more!  https://www.michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan