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Listen to our new podcast Check This Out! where we talk about all things books, movies, music, and go behind the scenes of the library! Find it wherever you normally find your podcasts.

Season 4

• Episode 1: "I Would Hope Someone Shows Up as a Boxed Robot!"
  • Welcome to Season Four of Check This Out! Join Danae, Whitney, and Amy O. as they discuss Norfolk Public Library's first ever Comicon!
• Episode 2: "I Feel Like I've Read a Movie"
  • Join Danae, Whitney, and Amy O. as they sit down to talk about graphic novels vs comic books and why graphic novels are such an important part of our library's collection. This is a continuation of our series on our Norfolk Library Comicon.
  • Graphic novels mentioned in this episode:

    • A Contract with God

    • The Road

    • One Piece series

    • Max Axiom

    • Babysitters Club

    • Magic Treehouse

    • Hello Kitty

    • Pokemon

    • Sweet Valley Twins

    • Percy Jackson

    • Artemis Fowl

    • Graphic Novel Suggestions:
      Adult:

      • Macbeth

      • Dune series

      • Jujutsu Kaisen manga series

      • The Three-Body Problem series

    • YA:

      • My Hero Academia manga series

      • Hakumei and Mikochi manga series

      • Othello

      • Heartstopper series

    • JF:

      • Yokai Cats series

      • Cupcake Diaries series

      • Nathan Hale History series

      • Smile

      • Dog Man series

      • The Bad Guys series

      • Narwhal series

      • El Deafo

      • Invisible

Bonus Episode: You Had to Sit at the Cold Lunch Table

• Join Danae and Allie in this special bonus episode where we unbox our new Patron Services supervisor, Andrew McClemens. Next week we will begin Season Four of our podcast all about our first ever Norfolk Library Comicon!
• Titles mentioned in this episode:
  • Drummer Hoff
  • Goosebumps series
  • American Girl Series
  • Wicked
  • Elphie
  • Berlin graphic novel
  • Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections Castle
  • The Perfect Couple
  • Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
  • Dune

Bonus Episode: Sunrise on the Reaping

• Join Danae, Allie, and Emily H., as they discuss their opinions of the latest Hunger Games book, Sunrise on the Reaping.

Season 3

• Episode 1: I Would, at Least, like, Rock Paper Scissors
  • Join Danae, Emily Hilkemann, and Allie Zuberbier as they discuss Part One of My Antonia for the Winter Reading Challenge.
• Episode 2: A Little Friend Zoned
  • Join Danae, Emily H. and Allie as they discuss Part Two of My Antonia for the Norfolk Public Library Winter Reading Challenge. Rachel Olsen, the Director of Education and Engagement at the National Willa Cather Center, sent us this link where you can go and take a virtual tour of the Institute and see the native prairie as it was in Willa Cather's time: https://www.willacather.org/visit/willa-cather-memorial-prairie
• Episode 3: Willa Cather is where we intersect on our Venn Diagram
  • Join Danae, Emily Hilkemann, and Allie Zuberbier as they discuss Part Three of My Antonia for the Winter Reading Challenge.
• Episode 4: No offense to people who are named Larry
  • Join Danae, Emily Hilkemann, and Allie Zuberbier as they discuss Part Four of My Antonia for the Winter Reading Challenge.
• Episode 5: I Think More was Happening on the Prairie than We Realized!
  • Join Danae, Emily H., and Allie as they discuss Part 5 and the wrap up of My Antonia.
• Episode 6: Do You Feel Like What You're Doing Would Be Missed?
  • Join Danae, Emily H, and Jessica as they sit down and discuss parts 1-3 of The Friend by Sigrid Nunez. 
• Episode 7: I Just Flâneured All Over the Place
  • Join Danae, Emily H, and Jessica as they sit down and discuss parts 4-6 of The Friend by Sigrid Nunez.
•  Episode 8: This is When I Fell in Love with the Dog
  • Join Danae, Emily H, and Jessica as they discuss parts 7-9 of The Friend by Sigrid Nunez.
• Episode 9: You Have to Find Out If We Know What We Are Talking About!
  • Join Danae, Emily H., and Jessica as we discuss parts 10-12 of The Friend by Sigrid Nunez.
• Episode 10: It Makes It Sound Like She's in a Training Program
  • We are ACTUALLY wrapping up Season 3 by talking about all of the categories of the Winter Reading Challenge and what we thought of this year's challenge.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode:

    • The Darling Dahlias and the Poinsettia Puzzle

    • Accidentally Engaged

    • What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking

    • The Track the Whales Make

    • Whale Day and other Poems

    • A Tale of Two Cities

    • This is a Love Story

    • The Thursday Murder Club

    • Leonard and Hungry Paul

    • Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk

    • Three Holidays and a Wedding

    • Some Desperate Glory

    • The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

    • You Know Her

    • The Friend

    • Deaf Utopia

    • Interabled: true stories about love and disability

    • The Night Circus

    • Headshot

    • Dinosaurs Before Dark

    • Enchantment

    • The Human Factor

Bonus Episode: Our Top Five Reads of 2024

• • Join Danae, Jessica, Emily H., Whitney, and Allie as we talk about our favorite reads of 2024!
  • Titles mentioned in this episode:
    • Verity
    • Black River Orchard
    • The Boys
    • Lanny
    • The Road
    • The Midnight Feast
    • The Book of Ichigo Ichie
    • The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
    • The Comfort Crisis
    • Cloistered: My Years as a Nun
    • The Third Wife of Faraday House
    • Down with the System: a memoir (of sorts)
    • The Age of Magical Overthinking
    • Less
    • James
    • We Used to Live Here
    • The Sentence
    • The Guncle Abroad
    • How to be Perfect
    • Time of the Child
    • the boy
    • The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell
    • Etta and Otto and Russell and James
    • Sandwich
    • Loved and Missed
    • The Three-Body Problem
    • Barbara Isn't Dying
    • All the Colors of the Dark
    • I Cheerfully Refuse
    • Author Chloe Liese
    • Well Met series by Jen DeLuca
    • Heartstopper graphic novel series
    • Miss Benson's Beetle
    • Invisible

Season 2

• Episode 1: "I'm Just Going to Go Make Dinner and Cry"
  • Join us for the first episode of Season Two as we sit down with Library Board member, Libby McKay, and choose some books for her to read.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode (*denotes Custom Reads recommendations):
    • The Cemetery Club
    • Sherlock Holmes series
    • Interview with a Vampire
    • Twilight series
    • Harry Potter series
    • Percy Jackson series
    • *The Thursday Murder Club
    • *Dearborn
    • *Hamnet
    • *The Art Thief
    • *Thirst
    • *Loved and Missed
• Episode 2: "Don't Do the Math"
  • Join Danae and Jessica Chamberlain as they sit down and chat with Susan Warneke about serving on the Library Foundation and reading books from the bottom shelf.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode (*denotes Custom Reads recommendations):

    • The Great Halifax Explosion

    • Tallgrass

    • The Women

    • To Kill a Mockingbird

    • Wish You Well

    • *The American Queen

    • *Absolution

    • *The Great Passion

    • *Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

    • *The Curse of Pietro Houdini

    • The Heist

    • *The Mitford Series

• Episode 3: "When You Go into a Library, You're Elevating Yourself"
  
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they sit down with Kurt Bogner, the president of the Library Board.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode (*denotes Custom Reads recommendations)

    • *Sharpe's Tiger

    • *The World's Fastest Man: The Extraordinary Life of Cyclist Major Taylor, America's First Black Sports Hero

    • *The Blue Zones

    • *12 Rules for Life

    • *Destiny of the Republic

    • The Heart Mender

    • *2034

• Episode 4: "Why Would I Do a Half, if There's a Full?"
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they sit down with Gina Lindsay, the treasurer for the Library Foundation.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode (*denotes Custom Reads recommendations)
    • *Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter
    • The Greatest Generation
    • *The Last Bookshop in London
    • *Just Another Love Song
    • *26 Marathons: What I Learned About Faith, Identity, Running, and Life from My Marathon Career
    • *The Holiday Swap
    • *Me and Patsy Kickin' Up Dust: my friendship with Patsy Cline
• Episode 5: "I'm Gonna Be Booked for Awhile"
  • Join Danae, and special co-host Whitney, as they sit down with Whitney Sunderman, member of our Library Foundation, and her 10-year-old daughter Daphne.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode (*denotes Custom Reads recommendations)
    • The Heroes of Olympus series
    • Eragon series
    • The Land of Stories series
    • Roswell Johnson Saves the World!
    • After Annie
    • The Glassmaker
    • Ordinary Monsters
    • *The Isle of the Lost Descendants series
    • Alex and Eliza series
    • *The Secret History
    • *Wrath of the Rain God Legendarios series
    • *All the Colors of the Dark
    • *Uprising
    • The Devil's Arithmetic
    • *American Dirt
    • *The Fight for the Hidden Realm Paper Dragons series
    • Percy Jackson series
    • *The Amateur Marriage
    • *Impossible Creatures
    • *Once Upon a River
    • The Snow Child
    • *The Dearly Beloved
    • *The Trials of Morrigan Crow Nevermoor series
    • Wings of Fire series
    • The Chronicles of Narnia
• Episode 6: The First One Ended Up Being Like a Prequel for Me"
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they sit down with Jazmin Goeden, a new member of the Library Foundation.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode (*denotes Custom Reads recommendations)
    • Firefly Lane
    • True Colors
    • The Four Winds
    • The Nightingale
    • The Winter Garden
    • The Women
    • *The Story of Arthur Truluv
    • A Man Called Ove
    • *When Twilight Breaks
    • *Lizzy and Jane
    • The London House
    • The Berlin Letters
    • *The Edge of Belonging
    • *Stay With Me
    • *The Help
    • The Time Traveler's Wife
• Episode 7 - Kind of Gritty, but with a Lot of Heart
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they sit down with Brian P., member of the Library Board, to give him some new book recommendations.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode (*denotes Custom Reads recommendations)

    • The River We Remember

    • This Tender Land

    • Bird Box

    • *Gabriel's Story

    • No Country for Old Men

    • The Road

    • *The End of the World Running Club

    • *Sleepwalk

    • *The River

    • *The Passage

    • The Girl with All the Gifts

    • The Ferryman

    • *Plum Rains

    • The Murder Bot Diaries

    • *The Last Cuentista

• Episode 8 - That Feels Like a Big Secret!
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they sit down with Don Polodna, member of the Library Foundation, and his wife Nancy.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode (*denotes Custom Reads recommendations)

    • *How to Read a Book

    • *The Frozen River

    • *The Nature of Fragile Things

    • *Summer Romance

    • *Cape Refuge

    • *The Maid

    • The Housemaid

    • Remarkably Bright Creatures

• Episode 9 - I Like It When a Character Surprises Me
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they sit down with Sue Burns, a member of our Library Foundation, to talk about books and give her some new title suggestions.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode (*denotes Custom Reads recommendations)
    • The House of Doors
    • *The Lion Women of Tehran
    • The Stationery Shop
    • *The Children's Crusade
    • *The Paris Wife
    • A Moveable Feast
    • *The Great Believers
    • *Braiding Sweetgrass
    • A Man Called Ove
    • *Barbara Isn't Dying
    • Commonwealth
    • The God of the Woods
• Episode 10 - This is Really Awful but I'm Still Laughing
  • Join us for the last regular episode of the season as Danae and Anneka do Custom Reads picks for each other with the help of Emily Hilkemann.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode (*denotes Custom Reads recommendations)
    • Song of Achilles
    • The Disenchantment
    • The Heart of Winter
    • The Night Boat to Tangier
    • Mirrored Heavens
    • *The Family Fang
    • *The Survivalists
    • *Faebound
    • *The Priory of the Orange Tree
    • *The Final Revival of Opal and Nev
    • *The Water Dancer
    • *The Girl who Drank the Moon
    • Piranesi
    • *Migrations
    • *Malas
    • *The Master Butcher Singing Club
    • The Round House
    • *The Morningside
    • *The Jetsetters
    • *Want
    • *Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
    • Blue Sisters
• Bonus Episode: I Get to Be a Patron
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they talk about how their recommendations were received and also make an announcement about the podcast going forward.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode (*denotes Custom Reads recommendations)
    • Ordinary Monsters
    • Once There Were Wolves
    • Want
    • Migrations
    • The Girl Who Drank the Moon
    • An Immense World
    • Immune

Season 1

• Episode 1 - I Think It's Called Jail

  • Welcome to Season One, Episode One of Check This Out! Danae Henkel and Anneka Ramirez will be chatting with full time Youth Services supervisor, Whitney Porn and getting to know all about her reading life.

  • Show Quote by E. B. White: “A library is many things. It’s a place to go, to get in out of the rain. It’s a place to go if you want to sit and think. But particularly it is a place where books live, and where you can get in touch with other people, and other thoughts, through books. If you want to find out about something, the information is in the reference books — the dictionaries, the encyclopedias, the atlases. If you like to be told a story, the library is the place to go. Books hold most of the secrets of the world, most of the thoughts that men and women have had. And when you are reading a book, you and the author are alone together — just the two of you. A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people — people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.”

  • Titles mentioned in this episode:

    • The Circle by Dave Eggers

    • The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

    • The Warehouse the Rob Hart

    • Digital Minimalism: choosing a focused life in a noisy world by Cal Newport

    • Slow Productivity: the lost art of accomplishment without burnout by Cal Newport

    • The Witches by Roald Dahl

    • Walden, or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

    • Slow Down: the degrowth manifesto by Kohei Saito

    • The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells

    • The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery

    • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

    • Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

    • The Office

    • Seinfeld

    • The Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen

    • Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

    • The Locked Tomb Series

• Episode 2 - It's Like a Cupcake

  • Join Danae and Anneka as they chat with Jessica Chamberlain, the director of the Norfolk Public Library, and learn more about her reading life.
  • Show Quote by Neil Gaiman: "But libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information." (from October 15, 2013 lecture - find the full transcript here)
  • Titles mentioned in this episode: 

    • A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

    • The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

    • The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

    • Joyfull: cook effortlessly, eat freely, live radiantly by Radhi Devlukia-Shetty

    • Parks and Recreation TV Series

    • Monk TV Series

    • Murder She Wrote TV Series

    • Columbo TV Series

    • The Princess Bride by William Goldman

    • Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

    • The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

    • Table for Two by Amor Towles

• Episode 3 - Come to My House and Give My Butler Your Card
  • Join Danae and Anneka as we have a conversation with Allie Zuberbier, who works part-time in our circulation department, and get to know more about her reading life.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode: 

    • American Girl series

    • Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

    • Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

    • Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer

    • Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn

    • James by Percival Everett

    • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

    • Middlemarch by George Eliot

    • I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

    • No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

    • River of the Gods: genius, courage, and betrayal in the search for the source of the Nile by Candice Millard

    • Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard

    • Sure, I'll Join Your Cult by Maria Bamford

• Episode 4 - It's a Huge Book Brain
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they sit down with Emily Hilkemann, who works full-time in our patron services department, and get to know about her reading life.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode:

    • Berenstain Bear series

    • American Girl series: Kit and Josefina

    • I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

    • Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

    • Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

    • The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

    • The Flash Fire by TJ Klune

    • Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

    • Mr. and Mrs. Smith TV series

    • The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

    • A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

    • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

    • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

• Episode 5 - We're Creating an Unstable Body
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they sit down with Amy Okamoto, our full time marketing director, and get to know about her reading life. *Disclaimer: Danae misspoke in this episode. The marketing position was not created for Amy, she just applied for the advertised position and is the first to hold it!
  • Titles mentioned in this episode:

    • Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss

    • Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

    • On the Road by Jack Kerouac

    • 1984 by George Orwell

    • The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

    • The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

    • Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Alphabet mysteries

    • Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series

    • The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

    • The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

    • Dune series by Frank Herbert

    • The Women by Kristin Hannah

• Episode 6 - What Even is a Book?
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they sit down with Emily Edmisten, who works part-time in our youth services department, and get to know more about her reading life.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode:

    • Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park

    • The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

    • Coraline by Neil Gaiman

    • Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

    • The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

    • The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett

    • My Hero Academia series by Kohei Horikoshi

    • Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

    • River of the Gods: genius, courage, and betrayal in the search for the source of the Nile by Candice Millard

    • Cloistered: my years as a nun by Catherine Coldstream

• Episode 7 - If We All Knew About the Same Thing, We'd Be in Trouble
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they sit down and chat with Lynn Hans, our library's full-time Administrative Assistant.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode: 

    • The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

    • Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

    • The Little House on the Prairie Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

    • It's a Long Story: My Life by Willie Nelson

    • The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians by James Patterson

    • Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty by Mandy Matney

    • Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi

    • 1984 by George Orwell

    • Julia

    • The Bible

    • The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

    • Poetry by Maya Angelou

    • Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

    • Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

    • State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

    • Piglet  

• Episode 8 - If There's Some Action, I'd Like to Know It
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they sit down with Amy Fuxa, who works full time in our Patron Services department, and learn about her reading life.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode:

    • Little House on the Prairie series

    • The Long Winter

    • The Walk series

    • Goldie: A Lotus Grows in the Mud

    • The Woman in Me

    • Dateline

    • Criminal Minds

    • Dream Like a Champion

    • The Help

    • A Beautiful Mind

    • The Sound of Music

    • Twilight

    • The Bear

    • Ulysses

    • The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

    • The Road

    • A Walk in the Woods

• Episode 9 - I Like My iPad!
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they unbox Mike Dittmer, the full time Tech Services Supervisor for our library.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode:

    • Green Lantern comic series 

    • Iron Man comic series 

    • Marvel movies 

    • Star Wars movies 

    • Call the Midwife series on PBS 

    • Jack Ryan series (Tom Clancy) 

    • Raise the Titanic (Clive Cussler) 

    • 1984 

    • The Hunt for Red October 

    • The Shawshank Redemption

• Episode 10 - "I Call It My Graveyard."
  • Join Danae and Anneka as they unbox Lisa Peters, our full-time Circulation Supervisor, and get to know more about her reading life.
  • Titles mentioned in this episode:

    • The Wednesday Wars

    • Okay For Now

    • The Song of Achilles

    • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

    • The Summer Book

    • Sandwich

    • The Ministry of Time

    • Long Island

    • You Are Here

    • The Bear

    • Succession

    • The Quiet Place

    • The Boxcar Children

    • The Women's Murder Club Series

    • Alex Kava books

    • Return to Harmony

• Bonus Episode - "I Do, Daily, Try to Assess if I Have a Problem."

  • Join us for a special Bonus Episode where Danae talks to Anneka about their reading lives. This is the last episode for Season One.

  • Titles mentioned in this episode:

    • Frankenstein

    • The River of the Gods

    • Cascade Failure

    • Sure, I'll Join Your Cult

    • Funny Story

    • Happy Place

    • New Girl tv series

    • Trust

    • Demon Copperhead

    • The Other Valley: a novel

    • The Village movie

    • The Giver