Book Bites: Season One

We are sharing quick looks at books our Guest Hosts are reading, have loved, or even enjoyed in their childhoods. If you are looking for something new to try, we have a bunch of suggestions here from you!

We produce two podcasts: Linking Our Libraries and Reading With Libraries. We encourage you to subscribe to one, or both. While we produce and distribute a season on one show, the other is hiatus. But we don’t want people to be left with a sad, empty podcast feed! So when a show is on hiatus, each week they get a new Book Bite. Subscribe to the podcasts to get these delivered right to your phone or tablet – or you can just come here and get them all at once!

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach (live!)

On Desperate Ground: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War’s Greatest Battle, by Hampton Side (Live!)

Island of the Mad: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, by Laurie R. King (Live!)

Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners, by Therese O’Neill


Live! Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism, by Robert Zubrin  (recorded live at the Great River public library in St Cloud)

Live! I Am Still Alive, by Kate Alice Marshall (recorded live at the Great River public library in St Cloud)

Live! Lethal White, by Robert Galbraith (recorded live at the Great River public library in St Cloud)

Live! The Trouble With Goats and Sheep, by Joanna Cannon (recorded live at the Great River public library in St Cloud)

The Outsider, by Stephen King

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman

My War Gone By: I Miss it So, by Anthony Loyd

Backstagers, by James Tynion

A Darker Shade of Magic, by V. E. Schwab

Deep River, by Shusaku Endo

To celebrate Election Day on Nov. 6, we had a special episode to discuss several books. Check them all out here, and listen to the episode!

Today’s book is from Leigh Lenzmeier: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

Dumplin‘ by Julie Murphy

Seven Days of Us, by Francesca Hornak

The Rice Mother, by Rani Manicka

This week Leigh Lenzmeier shares Walking Point: A Vietnam Memoir, by Robert Kunkel

Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

Holy Ghost,by John Sandford

Where’d You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot, by John Callahan


A Simple Favor, by Darcey Bell


Today’s books are from Lydia:

Today’s book is from Joe Wilkins, the author of Gates of the Arctic National Park: Twelve Years of Wilderness Exploration


Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Loving Eleanor, by Susan Wittig Albert

Cooking topic: The Last Chinese Chef, by Nicole Mones AND Seconds: A Graphic Novel, by Bryan Lee O’Malley

The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero

The Hating Game, by Sally Thorne

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss

Beauty Queens, by Libba Bray