Friends at the Library: Recent Episodes

Jennifer Wong

Join librarian Jenn Martin and comedian Jennifer Wong to enthuse about books, reading, and everything in between. Expect discussions ranging from The Babysitters Club as self-help to reading science fiction for the first time, plus reading suggestions from Jenn Martin.

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Jennifer Wong shares one of her favourite books with Jenn Martin, which happens to be called My Favourite Things! Jenn then shares some ideas for books to read if you like character-driven novels told by multiple narrators.

Books, authors, websites mentioned in this episode

  • My Favourite Things by Maira Kalman
  • Maira Kalman in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/maira-kalman
  • Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum: https://www.cooperhewitt.org/
  • Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Vorst
  • Brainpickings: https://www.brainpickings.org/

Reading suggestions for Claire

Claire loved:

  • Goodwood by Holly Throsby
  • The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
  • Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
  • Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
  • The Overstorey by Richard Powers

Jenn’s suggestions:

  • Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver
  • The Celestial Jukebox by Cynthia Shearer
  • The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
  • A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
  • Ghostwritten by David Mitchell

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books and to get your own reading suggestions from Jenn: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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Join Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong to talk about the long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments. Jenn then provides some suggestions for a listener who enjoyed reading An Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales.

Authors and books mentioned in this episode

  • The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
  • Ursula K. Le Guin, by Margaret Atwood: 'One of the Literary Greats of the 20th Century' https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/24/ursula-k-le-guin-margaret-atwood-tribute
  • Review of Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood by Ursula Le Guin https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/29/margaret-atwood-year-of-flood
  • What to Read Next if you loved Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments and The Handmaid’s Tale https://www.abc.net.au/life/what-to-read-after-margaret-atwoods-the-testaments/11549416
  • Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Reading Suggestions for Sonya

Sonya loved:

  • An Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales
  • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Jenn’s suggestions:

  • Fake by Stephanie Wood
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama
  • The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
  • A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
  • Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
  • Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books and to get your own reading suggestions from Jenn: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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What’s on your TO READ List, and how long have those books been sitting there? Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong come clean about all the books they've not yet read, and talk about why we read what we read and how best not to feel guilty about it. Jenn then shares how much she enjoyed reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and suggests some ideas for other reads fuelled by the power of art.

NEW Watch this episode which was recorded on Facebook Live: https://bit.ly/2kgZPEN

Disclaimer: We did not list all the books WE HAVE NOT READ, just the ones that we did read that we thought were really good

Authors, books, and websites mentioned in this episode

  • Not Nearly All, But Some of the Books from the Last Century That Are Totally Worth Reading: https://girlinlibrary.com/2016/01/29/not-nearly-all-but-some-books-from-last-century-that-are-totally-worth-reading/
  • Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
  • The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
  • The Top 100 Novels of All Time: https://www.buzzfeed.com/shylawatson/top-100-book-library-checklist-quiz
  • We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
  • Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
  • Longbourn by Jo Baker
  • Tsundoku: http://www.openculture.com/2014/07/tsundoku-should-enter-the-english-language.html
  • Top 100 Books to Read Before You Die: https://www.listchallenges.com/bbcs-top-100-books-you-need-to-read-before-you-die
  • Journal of a Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
  • Tristram Shandy by Laurence Stern
  • The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
  • High Rise by J.G. Ballard
  • The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
  • Australian Reading Hour: https://readinghour.org.au/
  • Middlemarch by George Eliot
  • Lithub: https://lithub.com
  • Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity edited by Randa Abdel-Fattah and Sara Saleh
  • Growing Up Queer in Australia edited by Benjamin Law
  • Growing up Asian in Australia edited by Alice Pung
  • Growing up African in Australia edited by Maxine Beneba Clark, Magan Magan and Ahmed Yussuf
  • Growing up Indigenous in Australia edited by Anita Heiss
  • Boundless Festival: https://boundlessfestival.org.au/
  • The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
  • Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
  • A Little Life by Hana Yanahigara
  • Possession by A. S. Byatt
  • Station Eleven by Ann Patchett
  • The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

Reading suggestions for Vinh

Vinh loved The Giver by Lois Lowry and Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

Jenn’s suggestions

  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  • Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
  • Neuromancer by William Gibson
  • The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
  • Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
  • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  • Divergent by Veronica Roth

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What does a comfort read mean to you? Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong discuss what books are on their comfort shelves and explore the reasons why we read for solace, hope or reassurance. Then, Jenn shares a favourite comfort read - an absurdist love story about two people who save each other from life and death.

Authors and books mentioned in this episode

  • The Most of Nora Ephron by Nora Ephron
  • Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
  • Tables for Two, The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/tables-for-two
  • Letters to a Young Artist by Anna Deavere Smith
  • Worstward Ho, Samuel Beckett - "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
  • Mouth Full of Blood by Toni Morrison
  • In the Pink, poems collected by the Raving Beauties
  • Riddley Walker by Russell Hobam
  • Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
  • The Lady’s Not for Burning by Christopher Fry
  • Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Reading suggestions for Nicola

Nicola loved:

  • Wilderness series by Sara Donati
  • Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
  • We Are Water by Wally Lamb

Jenn’s suggestions:

  • The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
  • Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris
  • The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve
  • Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
  • Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books and to get your own reading suggestions from Jenn: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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Can reading change the world? Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong discuss reading and writing that makes a difference, then Jennifer Wong shares a personal life-changing read - How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee.

Events, authors, and books mentioned in this episode

  • Mudgee Readers Festival - https://www.mudgeereaders.com/
  • Writing NSW - https://writingnsw.org.au/
  • Cat Sparks on Climate Fiction - https://espace.curtin.edu.au/handle/20.500.11937/70516
  • Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
  • Growing up Queer in Australia edited by Benjamin Law
  • Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
  • Mouth Full of Blood by Toni Morrison
  • Don’t Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff
  • How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee
  • What Girls Got Wrong (and Right!) About the Iowa Writers’ Workshop https://www.vulture.com/2015/01/what-girls-got-wrong-about-iowas-mfa-program.html
  • Pilgrim at Tinkers Creek by Annie Dillard

Reading suggestions for Liz

Liz loved Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Jenn and Keryn’s suggestions

  • London Falling by Paul Cornell
  • Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw
  • The Rook by Daniel O’Malley
  • The Company series by Kage Baker

Thanks very much to Keryn Stewart for being our guest Readers Advisor on this episode!

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books and to get your own reading suggestions from Jenn: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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How do you work out what to read next? Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong discuss the concept of ‘Reading Doorways’ and why certain books appeal to certain readers, then Jenn shares a favourite novel that has a language doorway - Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban.

Authors and books mentioned in this episode

  • Nancy Pearl’s Reading Doorways: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/nancy-pearl/article/51109-check-it-out-with-nancy-pearl-finding-that-next-good-book.html
  • Extinctions by Josephine Wilson
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
  • Normal People by Sally Rooney
  • Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
  • Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
  • Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
  • The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
  • Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
  • The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman
  • The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall
  • Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
  • The Wayfarer series by Becky Chambers
  • Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
  • Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
  • Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre
  • Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
  • A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chamber
  • Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

Reading suggestions for Kristy

Kristy loved:

  • Wild by Cheryl Strayed
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama

Jenn’s suggestions:

  • Educated by Tara Westover
  • The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
  • The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander
  • Dear Sugar - https://therumpus.net/sections/dear-sugar/
  • Dear Sugars - https://www.wbur.org/dearsugar
  • Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
  • How to Be a Person in the World by Heather Havrilesky
  • Ask Polly - http://nymag.com/tags/ask-polly/

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books and to get your own reading suggestions from Jenn: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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Do you like a Happily Ever After ending? Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong discuss what they personally enjoy in a love story before looking at a complicated novel about young love, Normal People by Sally Rooney.

Authors and books mentioned in this episode

  • Bookthingo Romance Blog: http://bookthingo.com.au/
  • Mr Impossible by Loretta Chase
  • The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
  • Bellwether by Connie Willis
  • Dubliners by James Joyce
  • The Flywheel by Erin Gough
  • One Day by David Nicholls
  • If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
  • An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
  • Normal People by Sally Rooney
  • I Want to Get High My Whole Life With You by Hera Lindsay Bird
  • How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee
  • Possession by A.S. Byatt
  • Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Cruise

Reading suggestions for Anna from Sydney

Anna loved:

  • The Milkman by Anna Burns
  • The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland

Jenn’s suggestions:

  • Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
  • Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
  • Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
  • All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books and to get your own reading suggestions from Jenn: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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Memories and nostalgia are a mainstay of fiction. Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong talk about their favourite nostalgic moments and what happens when nostalgia looks not only backwards, but forwards. Then Jenn and Jenn discuss the book started their friendship, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg.

Authors and books mentioned in this episode

  • Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry
  • The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
  • Through the Children’s Gate by Adam Gopnik
  • The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
  • Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
  • Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
  • The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
  • High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
  • Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth by E.L. Konigsburg
  • About the B’nai Bagels by E.L. Konigsburg
  • A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver by E.L. Konigsburg
  • The Second Mrs Giaconda by E.L. Konigsburg
  • The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper by E.L. Konigsburg
  • The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
  • The Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans
  • The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg
  • The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber

Reading suggestions for Lauren from Sydney

Lauren loved:

The Nancys by R. W. R. McDonald

Jenn’s suggestions:

  • Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
  • The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
  • Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books and to get your own reading suggestions from Jenn: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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Families are complicated! Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong discuss what makes a good family saga and share their experience reading a multi-generational novel about a Korean family living in Japan: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.

Authors and books mentioned in this episode

  • Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  • Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
  • The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
  • Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
  • Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
  • The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
  • The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
  • Praise Song for the Day by Elizabeth Alexander
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
  • Middlemarch by George Eliot
  • Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
  • The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
  • The Makioka Sisters by Junichirō Tanizaki
  • The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Reading suggestions for Annabel from Sydney

Annabel loved:

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Jenn’s suggestions:

  • A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
  • The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig
  • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
  • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  • A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

See you at the Mudgee Readers Festival! https://www.mudgeereaders.com/

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books and to get your own reading suggestions from Jenn: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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What do you do when you want to share a book with someone and they hate it? Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong discuss how protective you need to be when you share a beloved book with others and Jennifer talks about one of her favourite reads, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.

Authors and books mentioned in this episode

  • The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
  • The ‘Girl’ Phenomenon in Book Titles: A Survey from ‘author friend’ of the podcast, Emily St. John Mandel
  • Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
  • Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
  • Less by Andrew Sean Greer
  • Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
  • Fraud by David Rakoff
  • The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Reading suggestions for Lauren from Sydney

Lauren loved:

  • The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
  • Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
  • The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet from the Wayfarer series by Becky Chambers

Jenn’s suggestions:

  • Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh
  • The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
  • All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

(Jenn got this book confused with Evie Wyld’s All the Birds Singing, but the book is definitely called All the Birds in the Sky!)

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books and to get your own reading suggestions from Jenn: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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What do you like to read when you travel? Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong discuss what goes into selecting a holiday read and why we sometimes have such high expectations! Jenn shares some ideas for books to read on holiday in Japan, and discusses her favourite science fiction reads for long plane trips.

Authors and books mentioned in this episode

  • Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
  • Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
  • Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
  • New Yorker Article: The Invention of the Beach Read by Katy Waldman
  • Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
  • Possession by A.S. Byatt
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
  • Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
  • Neon Pilgrim by Lisa Dempster
  • Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
  • Out by Natsuo Kirino
  • Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell
  • Luna: Moon Rising by Ian MacDonald
  • Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
  • Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
  • Normal People by Sally Rooney
  • My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
  • Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
  • A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
  • The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
  • The Story Girl by L. M. Montgomery
  • Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

Reading suggestions for Megan from Melbourne

Megan loved:

  • American Gods by Neil Gaiman
  • Saffron and Brimstone by Elizabeth Hand
  • Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

Megan didn’t enjoy The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund as much.

Jenn’s suggestions

  • Trader by Charles de Lint
  • Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint
  • Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
  • A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
  • White Tears by Hari Kunzru
  • Circe by Madeleine Miller
  • The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books and to get your own reading suggestions from Jenn: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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The magic of reading children’s books, even as adults, is something that Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong love to enthuse about. Plus, Jenn shares what she thinks makes the perfect picture book.

Authors and books mentioned in this episode

  • The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
  • The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate by Margaret Mahy
  • The Changeover by Margaret Mahy
  • The Babysitters Club by Ann M. Martin
  • Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
  • Kenny’s Window by Maurice Sendak
  • Kenny's Window narrated by Tammy Grimes
  • Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
  • Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban
  • Moonlight by Jan Ormerod
  • Sunshine by Jan Ormerod
  • Thomas the Tank Engine
  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (narrated by Stephen Fry)
  • Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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What does it take to make a good TV adaptation of a favourite novel? Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong discuss this as well as Jennifer’s reading of The Handmaid’s Tale for the first time.

Authors, books, and shows mentioned in this episode

  • Game of Thrones on HBO
  • A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin
  • The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
  • Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
  • Big Little Lies on HBO
  • Matthew Reilly
  • Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
  • His Dark Materials
  • The Handmaid’s Tale on HBO
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  • Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
  • Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
  • Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuarón
  • Children of Men by P. D. James
  • The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • The Hours by Michael Cunningham
  • The Golden Compass directed by Chris Weitz
  • A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
  • The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong discuss Jennifer’s litmus test for a novel likely to be a comforting read and Jenn shares her thoughts on reading a recent dystopian novel, Severance, that may be enjoyed by fans of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven.

Authors and books mentioned in this episode 

  • Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt
  • Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
  • Zero History by William Gibson
  • Far From the Madding Crowd - film adaptation directed by Thomas Vinterberg
  • The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
  • After the Plague by T. C. Boyle
  • The Terranauts by T. C. Boyle
  • The Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
  • The Left Hand Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
  • Severance by Ling Ma
  • Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
  • The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  • Dawn of the Dead directed by George Romero
  • Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary

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Jenn Martin and Jennifer Wong talk about why they love libraries and Jennifer Wong shares about a favourite book from childhood, Harriet the Spy, which she still reads at least once a year.

Authors, books and libraries mentioned in this episode

  • Dunedin Public Libraries
  • Pip Adam
  • Hornsby Libraries
  • Sue Grafton
  • Janet Evanovich
  • Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson
  • From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
  • Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
  • Among Others by Jo Walton
  • Ursula Le Guin
  • James Tiptree

Music by Blue Dot Sessions. New episode every Saturday. Join us on Facebook to chat more about books: facebook.com/friendsatlibrary