Drinks in the Library

To support Drinks in the Library and listen to ad-free episode and additional bonus content, subscribe on Patreon The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien is a timeless adventure novel, tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger...

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. This is the wildly fun and fast moving plot from the book Starter Vill...

To support Drinks in the Library and listen to ad-free episode and additional bonus content, subscribe on Patreon Hannah Coulter is Wendell Berry's seventh novel and his first to employ the voice of a woman character in its telling. Hannah, the now-elderly narrator, recounts the love she has for the land and for her community. She remembers each of her two husbands, and all places and communit...

Transcendent Kingdom is a 2020 novel by Yaa Gyasi that follows Gifty, a Ghanaian-American neuroscience PhD candidate at Stanford, as she studies addiction and depression in mice while grappling with her family's history of trauma, addiction, and faith. The story explores the tension between science and religion, memory, and the search for meaning after her brother's opioid overdose and her...

To support Drinks in the Library and listen to ad-free episode and additional bonus content, subscribe on Patreon Set in a totalitarian superstate, George Orwell's 1984 follows Winston Smith, an official tasked with rewriting history to align with state propaganda. Driven by a desperate yearning for truth and individuality, Winston rebels against the regime by keeping a forbidden diary and pur...

To support Drinks in the Library and listen to ad-free episode and additional bonus content, subscribe on Patreon Set in a world where every person’s soul exists outside their body in the form of an animal companion called a dæmon, The Golden Compass follows a brave young girl named Lyra Belacqua as she uncovers a sinister plot involving kidnapped children. Lyra journeys from the halls of Jordan C...

To support Drinks in the Library and listen to ad-free episode and additional bonus content, subscribe on Patreon In Nikesha Elise Williams’ The Seven Daughters of Dupree, it's 1995, and fourteen-year-old Tati is determined to uncover the identity of her father. But her mother, Nadia, keeps her secrets close, while her grandmother Gladys remains silent about the family's past, including wh...

In How to Save Your Own Life , Erica Jong follows novelist Isadora Wing as she grapples with fame, aging, marriage, and the search for personal freedom after the success of her earlier books. Blending sharp humor with emotional honesty, the novel explores identity, desire, and self-reinvention in the face of midlife uncertainty. Award-winning author and creator Selene Castrovilla explores the cour...

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah follows two sisters in Nazi-occupied France as they navigate love, loss, resistance, and survival during World War II. Through their very different paths, the novel explores the courage of ordinary women and the sacrifices made in the face of war. My guest this week is Kara Infante, a mom, wife and host of the Bookish Flights Podcast At Bookish Flights , Kara Infa...

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens follows Pip, an orphan who rises from humble beginnings after receiving a mysterious fortune, believing it will transform him into a gentleman worthy of love. As he navigates London society, Pip becomes entangled with the eccentric Miss Havisham and her cold ward Estella, while slowly uncovering the true source of his wealth.  Francine Prose is the author of t...

In Sole Survivor  by Derek Hansen, Rosie Trethewey leaves her unhappy city life after inheriting a remote shack on New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island, hoping for a fresh start. There, she meets two isolated and troubled neighbors, Red O’Hara, a traumatized former prisoner of war, and Angus McLeod, a bitter retired policeman, whose lives she gradually changes. As outside forces threaten their islan...

Shark Heart by Emily Habeck is a surreal love story about newlyweds Wren and Lewis, whose marriage is upended when Lewis is diagnosed with a rare condition that will slowly transform him into a great white shark. As they confront grief, change, and the limits of love, the novel uses magical realism to explore what it means to stay connected when life becomes unrecognizable. A nonprofit leader by d...

Culpability by Bruce Holsinger is a techno-thriller and family drama about the moral fallout of a fatal crash involving an autonomous minivan. The novel follows the Cassidy-Shaw family as they confront guilt, secrets, and the ethical questions surrounding AI after their teenage son, Charlie, is involved in the accident while the car is in self-driving mode. It explores themes of technology's i...

We All Want Impossible Things is a tender, darkly funny novel about friendship, grief, and letting go. It follows Ash as she supports her best friend Edi through the final stages of illness, capturing the small, intimate moments that define a lifelong bond. The story balances humor and heartbreak while exploring love, loss, and what it means to say goodbye. Lindsey Goldstein is the author of Gap Y...

Nature's Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy argues that everyday homeowners can play a critical role in reversing biodiversity loss by transforming their yards into thriving ecosystems. Tallamy explains how replacing traditional lawns with native plants supports insects, birds, and other wildlife that depend on them for survival. The book offers a hopeful, practical roadmap for collective environ...

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez follows sisters Patria, Minerva, María Teresa, and Dedé Mirabal as they defy the brutal regime of Rafael Trujillo. It’s a powerful story of courage, sisterhood, and the price of resistance. Fran Dorsey is a mom, digital content manager, and writer who grew up loving the internet. When she’s not writing or busy with her kids and husband, she’s trying...

Gone by Michael Grant is a gripping dystopian novel in which everyone over the age of fifteen suddenly disappears from a small California town, leaving the kids to survive on their own inside a mysterious barrier. As food runs out and strange powers begin to emerge, the remaining children must confront fear, chaos, and the struggle for control in a world with no adults. Fiona Fenn  is an author of...

On Beauty by Zadie Smith follows two feuding families—the liberal Belseys and the conservative Kippses—whose lives collide in a New England university town, exploring themes of race, family, politics, and love through sharp satire and witty dialogue. Kirkus Reviews  calls  Marriage and Other Monuments , Virginia Pye’s recently published book, “A fascinating and audacious novel of family, marriage...

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica is a dystopian horror novel where a virus makes all animal meat poisonous, leading to the legalization and industrialization of human cannibalism! Yes, it’s quite a story by Argentine author Bazterrica, but it also does what great horror does so well, that it makes you think about parallels in our real world, and led to an amazing conversation between mys...

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a sharp, witty exploration of love, class, and social expectation in Regency-era England, centered on the spirited Elizabeth Bennet and the enigmatic Mr. Darcy. As misunderstandings and first impressions give way to self-awareness, the novel reveals how pride and prejudice can obscure, and ultimately illuminate, the path to happiness. Alexandra Potter always d...

2 Years of Drinks in the Library gets a special episode! Carrie Pruett, who did the DITL Wuthering Heights Book episode with me, and I discussed the Wuthering Heights Film by director Emerald Fennell , and it was so much fun! There are spoilers so please pause if you are waiting to see it (although the book came out in 1847 so you how mad can you be at spoilers?) The perfect drink pairing with thi...

This week’s book is The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow , the story of three sisters in 1893: Juiper, Agnes and Beatrice who are hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote, they must use their magic, their wits and alliances to find a way to survive. This led to such an interesting conversation about feminism, sisterhood, science, and lots of magic with this week’s guest: Angie...

Hi Librarian Nation! This week we are discussing Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, the now-ubiquitous tale of Bella Swan and the vampire who just can’t quit her, Edward Cullen. This story has, of course, been widely read and adapted into famous films, and I was so happy to discuss it with this week’s guests, Christina and Lelia from fellow Richmond book podcast Burn Before Reading ! I was on Burn Befor...

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  by Roald Dahl is a whimsical children’s novel about Charlie Bucket, a kind, poor boy who wins a once-in-a-lifetime tour of the mysterious Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Since so many know this story, Matthew and I were able to have a conversation about the book’s history and Dahl’s legacy, and about how art and our views of it change over time. Matthew Stern i...

This week’s book is Libby Lost & Found, by Stephanie Booth, about Libby Weeks, the reclusive author of the hit fantasy series “ The Falling Children” , who faces a crisis when she is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's and struggles to complete her overdue manuscript. In desperation, she enlists the help of eleven-year-old superfan Peanut Bixton, who knows the series inside and out but...