A LITTLE TOO QUIET: THE FERNDALE LIBRARY PODCAST

This week, pod cohost Mary Grahame is back, and we're catching up on all the good things we've read and watched this year. Plus, we'll share our thoughts on WICKED and A CHRISTMAS CAROL!

It's our continuing series, "Cool Library People," where our staff (here at Ferndale) help introduce you, dear listener, to a variety of library workers based all around Michigan. It's a fun chance to hear different perspectives on the awesomeness of libraries, as well as get to know other institutions, as we do today, with the Berkley Public Library. We're chatting with one of its clerks, Lisabet...

Our staff provide you with their personal recommendations, listing their favorite books of 2024! 

This week, we're spotlighting the Van Buren District Library with our guest, Elissa Zimmer! Elissa is currently Van Buren's Assistant Director. Still, she was once, not too long ago, a Youth Librarian here at Ferndale, which will explain why our hosts are so familiar with Elissa from the get-go. Van Buren District Library serves residents with seven branch libraries. Elissa has been the branch man...

On this week's episode, we have a panel discussion focusing on BAKING SEASON! Staff are talking about their favorite (and sometimes least favorite) things to bake, as well as playing a fun True-False-structured quiz to dispel myths and spread knowledge! We ALSO have some fun recommendations of books to check out from the library! 

This week, we're interviewing Rae Stoloff, the community engagement librarian at the Madison Heights Public Library. We're also joined by a special guest cohost, Becca Russell (former guest, as well), from the Royal Oak Public Library! We're talking about makerspaces, third places, libraries of things, and so much more! https://www.madison-heights.org/library   https://ropl.org/1532/Library  

Every once in a while, our staff will pick up a book that has a bit of a strange premise, something that might be a little difficult to describe... Today, we're providing a roundup of odd books that we loved, weird books that we'd still recommend, eccentric reads that we found appealing!   

Part of our ongoing series of chats with "cool library people," we're interviewing Sean Peacock from the Center Line Public Library! Sean is a library clerk at Center Line Library and has generated some amazing content for social media, but he's also an illustrator and comic artist! Find "A Little Too Quiet" wherever you get your podcasts! https://www.centerline.gov/202/Library     https://www.all...

Our staff provide you with a round-up of scary book recommendations! 

This week, Jeff and Mary Grahame are chatting with Katie Rothley from the Northville District Library. Katie is the Marketing & Public Relations Librarian at Northville! She has a lot of energy and ideas and plenty of interesting things to share about her library and the resources it offers to the community of Northville! https://northvillelibrary.org/  

  What's a book you Did Not Finish? This week, our staff confess to some of their unfinished reads that still haunt them to this day! Sometimes it's just because we couldn't stand the book, but often it "just wasn't the right time..."     

This week, we're starting a new series where we invite librarians and staff from other libraries to chat with us about a number of different library-adjacent topics, particularly giving our guests a chance to talk about the specific libraries where they work. This week, Becca Russell, Youth/Teen Librarian at ROPL, joined us to talk about her passion for connecting with teen patrons and developing...

We're back, after a brief hiatus, here on the last day of 2024's Banned Books Week. Hosts Jeff & Mary Grahame talk about the importance of observing Banned Books Week and why they prefer a bit of a cuter phrase for it, such as "Freedom to Read 'Em."  This ongoing podcast is hosted and produced from inside the Ferndale Area District Library, just one mile north of Detroit, Michigan. Coming up i...

This week, we're chatting with Metro Detroit's own Josh Malerman, the NY Times Bestselling author of Bird Box, as he looks ahead to the forthcoming release of his latest work of suspenseful (and supernatural) horror, Incidents Around The House (out on June 25, via Del Rey). Malerman talks about his deep dive into the literary tradition of "haunted house" tales with this new story about Bela, an 8-...

Looking for something to read this summer? We've got you covered! Not only can you get a list of great recommendations from our staff, but you can also mark your calendars for SATURDAY, JUNE 8, when we will host a Summer Reading Kickoff Party here at the library! Swing by to sign up for our fun reading challenge! www.fadl.org/kickoff   The Summer Book by Tove Jansson The Guest by Emma Cline Margo'...

Tune in to the podcast this week to hear our chat with Sheela Lal, the host of Ferndale Radio 100.7 FM 's South Asian Shuffle (streaming Wednesday nights)! We also chatted with Sheela about the Unerased Book Club, which she co-founded back in 2018. Oh, and we ALSO chat about our monthly Chess Club!  https://www.unerasedbookclub.com/   https://ferndaleradio.com/   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?l...

Sacha Lamb is a 2018 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult fiction, and graduate in Library and Information Science and History from Simmons University. Their debut novel, When The Angels Left the Old Country, is a Sydney Taylor and Stonewall award winner, a Printz Honor book, and a National Jewish Book Award finalist, and received the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Sacha lives in New England with a mi...

Ruth Behar is a Cuban-American author and currently a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. Her work, spanning fiction, poetry, and memoir, includes Lucky Broken Girl, Letters From Cuba, and her latest, Across So Many Seas. As you'll hear on the podcast, Ruth has a lot of fans here at the Ferndale Library.  About her latest book, Across So Many Seas: Spanning over 500 years, Pur...

This week, we're chatting with esteemed studio artist Boisali Biswas, who specializes in mixed-media fiber arts. Biswas recorded this podcast episode just before the closing of her exhibition, which was hosted here at the Ferndale Library throughout the late winter and featured some of her painted weavings and quilts. Biswas has an incredible story—she grew up and studied art in India before movin...

We went ahead and recorded an entire episode using the phrase "Third Space," which is used significantly less than the original phrase: "Third PLACE." But oh well. As library staff, we like the word "space" because it just seems to imply much more possibility! Anyway, whether you say "Third Place" or "Third Space," the idea is simple: it's not your  workspace, it's not your home space, it's your T...

Felicia B. George is a native Detroiter who loves Detroit history and culture. She earned her doctorate in anthropology from Wayne State University, where she is now an adjunct professor. Her new book,  When Detroit Played The Numbers , tells the true story of how Detroit entrepreneurs created a thriving - if illegal - lottery system to support themselves and uplift their communities. On Friday, M...

Roman Historian, author and podcaster, Emma Southon joined us on the podcast (all the way from Belfast) to discuss two of her recent books, A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome and A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire.  Emma Southon has a PhD in Ancient History from the University of Birmingham and researches subjects of sex, the family, ge...

This week, we have a panel comprised of DOCTOR WHO fans who are not only ready to discuss their favorite "doctors," their favorite episodes, and their favorite companions, but they're also here to explain the long popular British science-fiction television series to the "uninitiated," and get them excited about diving in. In fact, curious new fans will receive recommendations of "where to start" a...

They're considered classic for a reason, right? This week, our film-loving staff are talking about movies that have stood the test of time, from 1934's The Thin Man, to 1979's Alien, to a pair of John Carpenter picks, including 1988's They Live. Find us on social media and tell us YOUR picks for "classic films that still hold up..." And remember, you can find ALL of our picks HERE at the Ferndale...

We're talking about music books! Books about musicians and music history! In your local library, following the Dewey Decimal System, you'll likely find them between 780-782, as far as call numbers go.  Titles discussed include: Meet Me In The Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman Life by Keith Richard Please Kill Me by Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil Season of the Witch by Peter Bebergal Trouble Boys by Bob Me...