Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat about our October reading challenge, Folklore, Fairytales, and Cryptids! We discuss the wide range of cultures and genres this topic overlaps. Russell gets very excited about every cryptid from Bigfoot to Nessie, the chupacabra to the hodag. The gang's all here!

Books we discuss include:

• “The Island of Forgotten Gods” by Victor Pineiro
• “Dear Mothman” by Robin Gow
• “Gilded” and “The Lunar Chronicles” series by Marissa Meyer
• “Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre” by Max Brooks
• “Monster” by Frank E.Peretti
• “Rougarou Magic” by Rachel M. Marsh
• “Empire of Wild” by Cherie Dimaline
• “Windigo Island” by William Kent Krueger
• “Cryptids, Creatures & Critters: A Manual of Monsters and Mythos” by Rachel Quinney
• “The Menagerie” series by Tui T. Sutherland, Kari H. Sutherland
• “Greenteeth” by Molly O’Neill
• “Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery” by Brom
• “Monster Hunter” series by Annelise Ryan
• “Impossible Creatures” series by Katherine Rundell
• “Four Treasures of the Sky” by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
• “Carmilla: The First Vampire” series by Amy Chu, Illustrated by Soo Lee
• “Big Pumpkin” by Erica Silverman

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat with our guest Angela Longerbeam, Assistant Branch Manager at the Mount Hermon Branch Library in Pittsylvania County. We discuss cozy fall reading, experiencing other perspectives through novels in verse, and exploring our murder book era. Listen until the end for the library crime of the century!

Books we discuss include:

• “Bread and Jam for Frances” by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban
• “Shady Hollow” series by Juneau Black
• “Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees” by Patrick Horvath
• “The Spellshop” series by Sarah Beth Durst
• “The Examiner”, “The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels” and everything by Janice Hallett
• “You Know Me Al” by Ring Lardner
• “Under the Dome” by Stephen King
• “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls” by Grady Hendrix
• “The Only Purple House in Town” by Ann Aguirre
• “Before the Ever After” by Jacqueline Woodson
• “Good Different” by Meg Eden Kuyatt
• “The Crossover” by Kwame Alexander
• “Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds
• “Apple Crush” by Lucy Knisley
• “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway
• “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad
• “Cujo” by Stephen King

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat about our September reading challenge, books set in a library! We discuss the wonders libraries can bring into your life and Russell’s library fever dreams.

Books we discuss include:

• “The Great Library” series by Rachel Caine
• “The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry” by Gabrielle Zevin
• “The Secret, Book & Scone Society” by Ellery Adams
• “The Haunted Library Mysteries” series by Allison Brook
• “The Library at the Edge of the World” by Felicity Hayes-McCoy
• “The Library at Mount Char” by Scott Hawkins
• “The Woman in the Library” by Sulari Gentill
• “The Invisible Library” by Genevieve Cogman
• “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig
• “The Library of Ever” by Zeno Alexander
• “The Legend of the Last Library” by Frank L. Cole
• “Mr. Limoncello’s Library” series by Chris Grabenstein
• “The Library” by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small
• “A Library” by Nikki Giovanni
• “How Can I Help You” by Laura Sims
• “The Library Book” by Susan Orlean

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat with special guest and local bookfluencer Jasmine Sutton of @JazzysReadingCorner on Tiktok and Instagram. We discuss the wonders of the online reading community, #Booktok drama, and Russell admits to more crimes!

Books we discuss include:

• “The BFG” by Roald Dahl
• “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
• “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” by J.R.R. Tolkien
• “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London
• “One Day” by David Nicholls
• “1984” by George Orwell
• “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• “Beartown” by Fredrik Backman
• “From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home” by Tembi Locke

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat about our August reading challenge, True Crime novels. We discuss ethical aspects of consuming true crime, what fascinates people about crime, and the wide variety of stories in this genre.

Books we discuss include:

• “Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail” by Andrea Lankford
• “Bandit Heaven: The Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West” by Tom Clavin
• “Famous Sheriffs and Western Outlaws: Incredible True Stories of Wild West Showdowns and Frontier Justice” by William MacLeod Raine
• “The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century” by Kirk Wallace Johnson
• “Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks” by Patrick Radden Keefe
• “Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion” by Tori Telfer
• “The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper” by Hallie Rubenhold
• “The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France” by Eric Jager
• “Crimes of the Centuries: The Cases That Changed Us” by Amber Hunt
• “Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder” by Rachel McCarthy James
• “The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird” by Joshua Hammer
• “American Cult” edited by Robyn Chapman
• “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” by David Grann
• “A Devil Went Down to Georgia: Race, Power, Privilege, and the Murder of Lita McClinton” by Deb Miller Landau

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat with our guest Josh Lineberry, on-air personality for WBTM/WAKG, dubbed by Russell “The Voice of Danville”. We discuss the power of telling your own story, the wonders of audiobooks, and how to foster a love of reading in the next generation.

Books we discuss include:

• “The Indian in the Cupboard” series by Lynne Reid Banks
• “Encyclopedia Brown” series by Donald J. Sobol
• “My Next Breath” by Jeremy Renner
• “Tooth and Claw” by Craig Johnson
• “Dungeon Crawler Carl” series by Matt Dinniman
• “Under the Dome” by Stephen King
• “Jericho Quinn” series by Marc Cameron
• “Ready Player One” series by Ernest Cline
• “Goosebumps” series by R.L. Stine
• “Ranger’s Apprentice” series by John Flanagan
• “Dogman” series by Dav Pilkey
• “Room on the Broom” by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat about our July reading challenge, a book that takes place in another world. We discuss how we define ‘another world’, our love of all things cozy, and Russell’s many animal adventures.

Books we discuss include:

• “The Lord of the Rings” series by J.R.R. Tolkien
• “The Spider Chronicles” series by Tony DiTerlizzi
• “Lightraider Academy” series by James R. Hannibal
• “A Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula K. Le Guin
• “The Mistborn Saga” series by Brandon Sanderson
• “The Wheel of Time” series by Robert Jordan
• “Tress of the Emerald Sea” by Brandon Sanderson
• “The Wingfeather Saga” series by Andrew Peterson
• “The Spellshop” by Sarah Beth Durst
• “The Tea Dragon Society” by Kay O’Neill
• “The Well” by Jake Wyatt
• “The Infinity Particle” by Wendy Xu
• “Wilderlore” series by Amanda Foody
• “Januaries: Stories of Love, Magic, & Betrayal” by Olivie Blake

Danville Public Library's Youth Services Department, Chrislyn Gardner and Jess McAllister, join Russell to talk all things children's programming, summer reading, and library memories.