Completely Booked - Official Podcast of the Jacksonville Public Library

Jacksonville artist Michael Regina published his first books with Kickstarter money back in 2013, and now his newest book,  The Sleepover , is being published by a major imprint. Find out how he achieved this success in our Lit Chat! Michael Regina has been drawing comics since the third grade, and his passion for art and storytelling has stayed with him his whole life. He studied painting and dra...

We sit down with Dawn Wailey and Lindsey Anderson from DCAZ to talk about the Duval Comics and Zine Fest. Originally scheduled for March 28 at the Main Library, the event has been postponed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.  DCAZ will be Jacksonville's first event designed to celebrate regional self-publishers. This free event will offer tabling for self-publishers to showcase their work, bookbinding,...

Hello book friends! We're back with another bonus podcast to chat about new releases you'll ♥ this March.

Brad Meltzer  is the No. 1  New York Times  bestselling author of  The Inner Circle ,  The Book of Fate , and 10 other bestselling thrillers including  The Tenth Justice ,  The First Counsel ,  The Millionaires ,  The President's Shadow , and  The Escape Artist . Meltzer has books on bestseller lists for nonfiction ( The First Conspiracy ), advice, children's books, and even comic books, for which...

Action News Jax anchor Tenikka Hughes joins us on the podcast to chat about Tenikka's Books for Kids, an annual effort to collect book donations for children who participate in our Summer Learning Program. We chat about her passion for literacy in children, her career as an Emmy-award winning journalist and everything you can expect during the book drive's kick off at Jax Book Fest this Saturday,...

Calli Marie is the author of BAKES and co-owner of BREW Five Points, a coffee shop and craft beer bar in Jacksonville's historic Riverside neighborhood. Calli chats with us about her journey as a baker, becoming a successful business owner and the process of publishing her first book.

Theresa and Todd Rykaczewski  are the founders of Word Revolt Art Gallery in Atlantic Beach. It's a non-profit gallery dedicated to hosting free exhibitions and events that benefit artists, charities and the community.

Hello book friends! We're back with another bonus podcast to chat about new releases you'll ♥ this February, plus details on African American History Month programs , free tax help , Book Fest and more.

Stacey Horan is an award-winning author of young adult novels including Inland , Sycamore Lane and The Elixir Vitae Adventures . Stacey chats with us about her journey from corporate lawyer to full-time writer and podcast host. To chat more with Stacey, you can meet her at Jax Book Fest 2020 on Feb. 29 at the Main Library.

Allison McGill is the author of  The Adventures of Duke, the Therapy Do g: Duke Finds a Home .  Based on a true story, this picture book for children shares the tale of a rescue dog and his new life with a happy ending. She chats with us about her writing process, starting her own publishing company, and upcoming projects she has on the horizon.

We were off this Monday, so we dug into the archive and pulled a great podcast from earlier last year! On this episode, we chat with former Times-Union photojournalist, Bruce Lipsky. He's captured 35 years worth of Jacksonville's history – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and today, he shares some of those experiences with us.

Steve Williams is well known throughout Jacksonville as the CEO of Harbinger Sign,  the owner of  Florida Mining Gallery , and a hard-core advocate of the arts and development in the urban core. He chats with us today about Mapping Jax, an initiative to  inspire, preserve, educate, and advocate for our city's natural and built environments.

Tim Driscoll is a film producer here in Jacksonville, and has been a major force in cultivating the local film community. Today, he chats with us about JAX Film Bar Mondays, a casual meetup group that brings producers, actors, directors, writers, and technical experts together.

Happy New Year, book friends! Shawn Norton from the Readers' Advisory Committee joins us again to chat about new releases coming to the library this January. If your New Year's resolution is to read more, this podcast is for you.

Happy New Year's Eve from all of us at the Jacksonville Public Library! Our guest, Justin Tichy, joins us today to talk about something wildly popular for NYE festivities: Champagne. We talk about the history of the Champagne region in France, how to decode labels on a bottle, misconceptions people have about popular Champagnes, the best places to find a good bottle of bubbles in Jax, and more.

Gayle Hart is the VP of Marketing for the Greater Jacksonville Agricultural Fair. She joins us on today's episode of Completely Booked to chat about the wonderful things her team does for the community and how she first became involved with the fair.

TubaChristmas is a free concert that's presented around the world where tuba and euphonium players get together and play Christmas music for one hour every year. Today, we chat with Marc Dickman and Suna Hall, the conductor and coordinator of Jacksonville's TubaChristmas performance, about the upcoming show on December 14, 2019 in Jacksonville Beach at 1:30 p.m. Our producer, Justin, guest hosts t...

Hello book friends! This segment is for you. Welcome to our first Wednesday podcast episode highlighting new releases to look out for this month! We sit down with Shawn Norton from our Readers' Advisory Committee to chat about materials coming to the library in December 2019.

Local author and historian Tim Gilmore returns to Completely Booked this week to chat about his recently published book, Channeling Anna Fletcher: On Seances and Women's Rights . We also talk about Tim's website, Jax Psycho Geo , that contains nearly 500 unique, unusual, and macabre stories on local Jacksonville history.

The holiday season is here, so we have preschool teacher Rebecca McNeil back on Completely Booked to help you get your family ready. We go over tips for handling holiday traditions and gift-giving with your children, fun activities you can do with your family over the break, and, of course, her top holiday book recommendations for the little ones.

Anna Claire Hodge is a writer and professor based in Jacksonville, Florida, and holds a Ph. D in creative writing from Florida State University. We chat about everything from her greatest literary inspirations to the hidden world behind beauty blogging and Instagram influencing, which ultimately led to how she found her voice as a writer.

Today is Monday, November 11, which is Veterans Day. So on this episode of Completely Booked, we interview Joe Tillman, President of the Buffalo Soldiers Historical Society here in Jacksonville, Fl. We explore ways to go beyond the uniform and express appreciation for veterans on Veterans Day.

Each year JaxbyJax hosts a literary arts festival highlighting Jacksonville stories and settings, and this year one of its main venues is the Main Library! On this week's episode of Completely Booked, we chat with the driving forces behind JaxbyJax, Darlyn and Brad Kuhn, about everything you need to know for the upcoming festival on Saturday, November 16.

Halloween is right around the corner, so this episode is a spooky special edition of Completely Booked.  We teamed up with PFC Paranormal to investigate the  Willowbranch  Library. Located in Riverside, the  Willowbranch  Library opened in 1930, making it the oldest existing library branch in Jacksonville. This episode includes our interview with  Misty Darnell, the founder of PFC Paranormal, and...

On this episode we chat with the founder of Jax Cooking Studio , Terri Davlantes. Terri believes that food should enrich your life, so she started Jax Cooking Studio to teach people how to plan and cook hearty, delicious meals that are easy and affordable.