This week on The Book Drop, your hosts Amy and Maggie are joined by Learning Librarian Emily Beasley to kick off the Reading Challenge with a discussion on the theme to read a book to boost your happiness! Emily submitted the theme idea, which was picked by OPL’s collection development team.
Note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability while preserving the original intent of the conversation. It is provided to improve accessibility and may not be a strictly verbatim record of the audio.
Transcript
Maggie: One, two… Say happy on three. One. Two. Three.
Group: Happy.
Maggie: Okay, great. It worked.
[Music]
Maggie: Hello and welcome to The Book Drop, Omaha Public Library’s podcast about books, our community and the joy of reading. I’m Maggie Petersen, and I’m the outreach manager for Omaha Public Library. And I’m joined as always by…
Amy: Amy Mather, the partnerships manager for Omaha Public Library.
[Music crescendo and ends]
Maggie: Hi, Amy.
Amy: Hi, Maggie.
Maggie: How are we doing?
Amy: I'm doing pretty well today.
Maggie: You seem pretty happy.
Amy: I am. I'm super caffeinated.
Maggie: And you might have taken a Sudafed.
Amy: I did. Can you see that? I'm bright eyed.
Maggie: You are exuding some energy today. It's a fun day in the podcast.
Amy: It sure is, but I'm sneeze free. [Laughter]
Meet our Guest: Emily B., learning and development librarian at OPL
Maggie: Great. It's even better today in the podcast studio because we have a guest today.
Amy: I know, I'm so excited about this guest.
Maggie: This is my favorite moment. Every time that we have a guest is when I get to accusingly say, "guest, who are you? How did you get in here?"
Amy: And this guest brings me so much joy and happiness because that is her spirit. Now everybody's like, who is this?
Emily: Yeah, I'm Emily Beasley, and I am a librarian in the learning and development department.
Amy and Maggie: Yay!
Amy: Thank you for providing all the tools for us to learn and do better at our job. We appreciate it. Thank you.
Emily: I love it.
Amy: I love that you love it.
Maggie: So tell us a little bit about, because okay. First of all, there are one million jobs in libraries in general. But there are also. there are jobs here, specifically at Omaha Public Library. So tell us what your job is. Tell us how you got here. Because I feel like everybody's library journey is a little bit different.
Emily: It's true. It's true. So my job is, supporting and working in learning and development. And that's like a really broad term. But specifically what we've been working on recently is, building training for new employees. We just finished creating a full two day new employee orientation, which will hopefully help our new employees just really be ready when they come in and it's going to be in their first week, like their fourth and fifth day.
Amy: Okay, I love it.
Emily: So all kinds of just this is our organization. This is how things work. History about libraries. Introduction to like borrower services. How do I check out books? Like what does this look like? What is readers advisory mean? Like all kinds of things to help get new employees ready to go when they get here.
Amy: So it's a lot. Yeah. And I imagine this is going to be very delightful for them to learn all the things and get them rooted into our organization.
Emily: Yeah. So that's that's one project. We also are in charge of like, continuing education for our staff members. So some of that is facilitation of outside things. You know, we find stuff and say or people send us stuff and say, "hey, would this be helpful?" And we share it out to the staff at large. And some we develop, like we recently developed a program delivery workshop, to help branch staff that are new to delivering programs kind of feel more comfortable, and it's super interactive. They get to role play with each other and read scripts and practice and give each other feedback. And it's so far we've heard it's been really, really helpful.
Amy: Oh that's great, I love it. So all that kind of stuff. So you support us.
Emily: That's the goal.
Maggie: How did you get into your work in the library?
Emily: So my background is education, but also libraries. I was a school librarian for eight years before coming to OPL. I was in OPS. And I was an elementary school librarian. So my heart is in children's literature. It really is. That's like my my favorite. When I was looking to leave a couple years ago, from there, I was like, it's time for a career change. I need something new. I need something different. What do I like about my job? What do I want to keep? And I really liked books. And I was like, I like the library part of my job. And I really loved something that had, like, giving back to people where I felt like I was doing something, giving something to the community in some way. So I was like, okay, these two things, public library and here I am. So it's been a perfect fit.
Amy: I love it. Yeah. We are so grateful that you are here.
Emily: Thank you.
Maggie: So did you start in because it's like everybody has had so much movement. We've had a lot of crazy years. So did you start in a branch or did you start in…
Amy: Florence, right?
Emily: I started at Sorensen. So I started, part-time as a specialist there. I actually moved to be an assistant branch manager, and I stayed there because a whole bunch of people were moving at that time. And then from there, I went to Willa Cather as assistant branch manager. And from Willa Cather, I came here.
Amy: Oh, so not Florence. Why did I think you were Florence?
Emily: I live by Florence. I go there all the time.
Amy: Oh, okay. Got you. Okay. So
Maggie: Okay. I was just, like, hearing people's stories. I know, like, the origin story. Some people have the trajectory of, like, I knew I was going to be a librarian, and I just. I did all the things, and I got there, and I think we're a room of people that did not realize we were going to be true.
Amy: It's like we fell into it.
Maggie: I feel like, Amy, that's maybe our vibe in normal cases. Oh for sure. Two people who did not realize they were going to be somewhere.
Amy: I know. And here we are. Yes. I love it. It's good timing.
Reading Challenge: Read a Book to Boost Your Happiness
Maggie: Okay. Main, main reason we brought you on is because of the reading challenge. But also, you are a very enigmatic speaker. I feel like you do a really good job in front of crowds, but big reason this is our first reading challenge episode of the year. Yay! So if your listeners, if you are unfamiliar with Reading Challenge, it's something we do every year here at the library. There are 12 challenges meant to expand your reading horizons, maybe kind of break you out of some habits, maybe kind of, expose you to some new, new thoughts, new ideas, things like that. So, in previous years, Amy and I have read all of the challenges in order. This one is in the right order. This is the very first challenge in the notebook. Which is, read a book to boost your happiness. And how we even come up with the challenges each year. It is generated by our staff. So we'll put out a call for ideas. Our collection development team goes in, they figure out which are the ones they're going to do. They make book lists around them. But anybody can submit an idea for the reading challenge. And tiny drumroll Emily. Emily did the one for this one,
Amy: Which makes total sense.
Maggie: But I also love when I emailed you to say, hey, can you do you want to come be on the podcast because you submitted for the, [read a] book about your happiness? And what did you tell me back?
Emily: I was like, are you sure that was me? Because that was six months ago, and I actually can't remember.
Maggie: Time is meaningless.
Emily: Yeah, it really is. Like, it sounds like something I would do, but absolutely no, I could I mean, when I typed that, like, yeah, that was like a lifetime ago, I don't, I didn't remember. So so I definitely love this one.
Amy: I know and I'm so excited to hear like books and things that like promote your happiness or joy or delight, which are two of my favorite words.
Maggie: So even if you can't remember the moment that you were submitting it when you did tell me, they're like, it sounds like something I do. Tell me more about that. What do you, why do you think this is an important challenge or what? What do you think about it?
Emily: I love this one for a couple reasons. First, there's just so much not happiness around us in the world, and we're just, like, barraged with that all the time. And it's really easy to just get caught up in everything that's not happy around us. And so I was like, how do we? I don't like to live like that. Like, I like to live in more happiness and joy and delight and those things. So it's like, what? What can we do? Well, I read a lot. Let's read in a way that would make me more happy. That's that's part of it. The other reason I love this one is it's so versatile. Like, the things that boost my happiness might be different than what boosts your happiness or your happiness. And so I love the challenges that are like, it's challenging you to do something different, but also so many different things could fulfill this one.
Amy: Sure, So it could be applied differently. I can't wait to hear everybody's picks.
Maggie: I feel like that's something that comes up in a lot of other reading challenges that we've done. Is that when Amy and I then sit down to kind of go through our book picks, we talk about that as like, how did you approach this? Like, what was your how did you kind of look at it? And our end is being so very, very different for sure.
Amy: And we've had challenges that were challenging for us to. And then we're actually surprised at how much where we landed on like for our title selections. And what a joy that was to like, oh, I actually am very excited to read this now, even though it really did get me out of my comfort zone and I was challenged. Were you challenged by this, Maggie?
Maggie: I actually was. I didn't think I would be. I am, I think I'm naturally more like positive.
Amy: I agree. I support that.
Maggie: So I kind of thought, oh, this would just be an easy challenge for me. But then I feel like I sat down to look and I'm like, oh God. Like almost overwhelmed by choice, overwhelmed by choice of what I wanted. Like, what's the path that I want to kind of take on, on? You know, what I'm going to recommend is that nonfiction? Is it being literal of like how to boost your actual happiness? Or am I just saying these are things that make me happy? I feel like in the end, I kind of came out in the middle a little bit, of finding those of of those little pieces.
Amy: And I would say what you described was exactly my experience, too. Yeah, we were mind melded.
Emily: I kind of struggled to like, yeah, because I, I love boosting happiness. But I also read a lot of crying books. I was looking through like, what have I read in the last year that could really I loved that I would recommend for this. And I was like, that one made me sad. That one made me feel like a good, sad, right? You know that it's complicated. There are only a few where I was like this. Just there was just all joy. That I can think of. It was more difficult than I thought.
Maggie: Another thing I feel like that's informing this challenge for me right now. And he didn't mean for this to hit at this moment. But I told you, Amy, about this, that. Well, I've talked previously about how my only intention this year, my only resolution. I'm leaning into discomfort. I was watching a lot of discourse on TikTok about, how we live in an era where, you can basically avoid discomfort almost entirely, like physical discomfort, but also emotional discomfort. There's always something to distract you. It can be taken a lot of different ways, but somebody the person who I first watched today, she said she'd realized how much time she was spending in her life, just avoiding discomfort in all sorts of areas. So I was like, okay, I think that's what I'm going, I see myself.
Amy: What does that mean when you're avoiding it? Like, what are you doing instead of it?
Maggie: Oh, for me, it was like doomscrolling. Okay. Like using my phone to just disassociate a little bit. It's like if I got the downtime, if I got the spare time, I'm just scrolling. And, and that might be a TikTok, that might be on Reddit, that might be on something else. But it's just like constant letting new things into my brain so I don't have to, like, dwell on any thoughts. Like reflect or do anything. It's like and and, , and definitely falling into a trap of thinking like, well, because you have little kids and you're doing this and so this is your time and you deserve it, and you can do this and it's okay to like, this is how you're going to, like, build yourself back up and, you know, get the dopamine and the serotonin you need to like to keep going. But then this person was talking about how it's like she basically she realized how much time in her life she was spending avoiding discomfort. And like, I am doing that, like, I, I saw a lot of myself in that. And, I mean, you and I talked about this off mic last week. I deleted TikTok, which was huge for me. Huge on TikTok. I'm on there all the time. And it was just on Sunday. I was like, I felt the spirit moving me. And I was like, well, I'm thinking about it. It's like it had been on my mind to do. But I kept thinking like, well, I'm gonna wait for like the right time to do it. And then it was all of a sudden, this moment where actually it didn't feel like good. It was just like, you should just delete it, like you're feeling like this right now, and you should just you should just remove it off your home screen.
Amy: And then what was your feeling right after that?
Maggie: Right after. It was a little like [deep sighs] Because I'd been using it, I think like as a crutch. It was something that I could just, you know, that was my ASMR. It just put on, you know, landlord-tenant body cam disputes. Let that play while I'm doing stuff. It sounds insane. If you live in my brain, I'm like, no, no, no, that was white noise. Like. So I got rid of that. I put it in our little chatter notes. I said, "Maggie deleted TikTok." Did it make me happier? I'm sad to report. It kind of did. I'm amazed at how much happier and how much clearer my brain feels with just that. I'm spending so much less time on my phone. And I am more uncomfortable. But I'm never been more happy about it.
Amy: But you're you're leaning into it and you're learning some things.
Maggie: So it was a lot of my picks. I feel like were informed around that moment. I didn't mean for that to happen, but so it happened.
Amy: I want to think about like, this is our second episode of the year. So I want to know and I want you to just notice, and maybe we'll circle back to this in six months or at the end of the year if your picks or something is different about your reading habits.
Maggie: Interesting. Yeah. So that was one thing that it kept holding me back from, is because I learned about so many new books and trends from TikTok, from TikTok, and I'm going to be like, this book is coming, or this person's doing a book, or people are mad at this author because they did a bad thing on Goodreads. I think I'm coming in with all my stuff and I'm like, oh my God, where am I gonna get my stuff now?. But I think it's just it's I'm gonna have to learn new ways to kind of lean into that. I think ultimately too, when I deleted it, it was like, just see how it feels. Just you don't have to be. And that's why it was just removed from the home screen. You have to delete entirely. Just just take it off the home screen. And I was amazed how much I don't go to it if it's not on the home screen. I'm not. I thought I was going to break down and end up seeking it out and I didn't. So we'll see. But yeah, we'll do some check in moments to see, Because we're still less than a week in. But yeah, I would, I'm interested to see how this progresses for me and how it makes my, my happiness progress with it.
Amy: This is great, Maggie.
Maggie: Thank you. Yeah. So this brings up a good point. I sometimes like to feel sad. To feel happy. Yes, absolutely. I think that is I think a lot of that reflected. That was my breakthrough moment in finding my book picks was when I allowed myself to put in book picks like that. I think that's where I started to feel limited. I'd be like, no happiness, happiness, boost to happiness. , and then finally let myself put in the things that like, what are the things that have actually, I feel like boosted my happiness or made me more aware of my happiness. And it's when it's juxtaposed, possibly with sadness. I say that because we're talking about The Goldfinch and the book and the movie. That film trailer dropped right when my son was born, whose name is Theodore, and we were at the time calling him Theo. He ended up being a Teddy. He's absolutely a Teddy. , but that the main character in the book is Theo. He's Theodore. And that trailer, the movie trailer is beautiful. I will stand by that. It is gorgeous. It is so moving and just postpartum, just for a fun time. Sometimes I would watch that trailer with my little earbuds in while I was like feeding it and cry. Cry for fun. Yeah, and it brings up a quote I feel like I have said frequently on this podcast, sometimes I like to have a bad time to have a good time, and I feel like.
Amy: But I think that's true what it is. You have to have everything in order.
Maggie: To feel things.
Amy: You can't have joy. You have to feel all the other stuff in order to understand what joy and delight and happiness is.
Maggie: You've just described the book The Giver, by the way, by Lois Lowry. That is the entire concept of, I would say, The Giver. I did not put it on the list. I thought about doing it. Well, you could stop. I want to do it now.
Amy: Writing it on my list. It's going in The Giver.
Maggie: I feel like I've talked about The Giver a lot, but it's, I would say the most impactful book for me, for sure. I love that book. Yeah, but it is all about the full spectrum of human emotion and, like, what society looks like when we've mellowed out and, like, everything's pretty neutral. And then there's this one person, though, that is like the memory keeper and is going to remember that, you know, the, the joy of being at the beach, but then the pain of a sunburn later, like the, the love of grandparents and like that like warm emotion. But then you lose them and like you can't, it's you. You have to take everything all together. Yeah, exactly. And all of that leads to, I mean, it is happiness, but happiness can be complicated, too.
Amy: Happiness can be complicated.
Maggie: Should we talk about some of these? Yeah. Let's do it. Book picks as opposed to just teasing around them?
Amy’s Recommendations
Amy: I'd lifted a lot from the book list. Okay. So thank you. Collection development for making the book list for this, because it really helped me in determining my picks.
Maggie: That's usually my first stop, even if I'm not going to pull books from it. It's helpful for me. I feel like to get my head wrapped around because it will sometimes push me in other directions. I'm like, oh, I didn't even think about taking that angle. What other books are in that little, little driveway?
Amy: Right, well, I mean, all of mine actually came from the list. And I feel like sometimes what we could do is celebrate the list more and, like, lift up those titles. Yes. But I so my first book title is any book by Ross Gay “Incite Joy,” which was so lovely. But I will say, even though he investigates joy and delight even on his website, it's kind of funny, he says, , Ross Gay is interested in joy. Ross Gay wants to understand Joy. Ross Gay is curious about Joy. Ross Gay studies Joy, something like that. And I think that's hilarious. It was all in a bulleted list and I love that. And he's also has a couple other books out that I have not read yet, but I just read him for the first time last year. And so the Book of Delights and The Book of Delights. So I love thinking about the word delight. And I love joy. So delight to me is I mean, I think you can feel that multiple times a day. It could really be like the comfort of your office chair. Hopefully it's comfortable. For me, is that first sip of coffee in the morning. It is very delightful. , or on a Friday, that first sip of a Negroni. So delightful as well. , but I think he is so great, and I think. But I will just say he's an essayist, so they're just chock full of essays. But the one thing I love, like he really does investigate that, but he also has a lot. There's a lot of pain around. I mean, he talks about some really tough issues as well. So I think it's full of all of that. But the thing is, is he's really looking for the joy and delight through his, , , figuring out like, his, you know, traa or drama or whatever has happened in his life. And I think that's really important because I think that's all work that we can do. So Ross Gay and all the ways and I listen to him because I love listening to essays. I think that's the best. And the second and I will just say anything by Ross Gay.
So I will list three books on our supported list. Any book. You know, I'm a huge fan of Samantha Irby, and I will say that she when you and I would listen to her in a heartbeat. "Quietly Hostile." "We are Never Meeting in Real Life." I mean, just that title alone, you're like, oh, I gotta read that book. Hostile is oh so good. And her book covers are so bright and she always has an animal. Some kind of funny hedgehog. It's hilarious. But I think what she. She is so real about her life that sometimes you're like, oh, you feel almost like, cringe with her, but very authentic. She's super authentic, but hilarious. And and I always feel like, yeah, I'm there, I feel you. Like, she's talking about stuff that you and your mind would never utter out of your mouth, ever. It's only staying in your mind. Locked in. But she is unlocked. That and she does it in a very irreverent, hilarious way. And she's a brilliant writer and I think anybody. And it's joyful for me to like to listen to her works is just. She's just so funny. Absolutely funny. And I can't wait to. She writes again. So I subscribed to her Substack. Judge Mathis, she's a little obsessed on. And she, like, she, she recaps and sort of like, thinks about. So she kind of dives deeply into that. So I'm wondering if you're going to, like, subscribe to more substacks without , TikTok?. But anyway. And she has another one where she's just sort of making a huge list of like, what she's vibing on at the moment. Like it's either music, could be something like cosmetic related, , clothing. So I actually go down that list because I, I'm very curious and love it. And I'm like, oh yeah, just like, oh, I want to know who what cosmetics you're looking at and or food that you're, you're eating right now. And then throughout, she's just like putting all her really funny bits and pieces and like, she's just great. Like, I love Samantha Irby. I cannot have enough of her. Like she's great.
And the last one that was actually on our list. And I'm telling you that I read this. So it came out in 2021. I laughed, I LOL’d all through this book. It was so funny. And it is “Several People are Typing.”
Maggie: I almost put that one on.
Amy: Yes, and it's by Calvin. Do you know how to say his last name? What's so funny is like, we use Slack in our organization, so it is really, it's it's a just a kind of description from the website is a mid-level employee of a New York based public relations firm. Finds his consciousness uploaded into the company internal Slack channel. And it is literally the funniest. Like at first you're like, what? You're kind of because you have to kind of change the way that you're the way that this fiction prose is like presented to you. You have to switch brains and be like, oh, I'm reading a slack fiction story here. But it was hilarious. And the thing that I loved the most was they always threw in this emoji, the dusty stick. Do you remember that? It's like the wand and it's hilarious. So every time it actually, if it never used to come up on our slack channel, somebody would be like dusty stick. And I'd be like, I know what you're talking about. It's like secret emoji code. But it is absurdly funny. And I'm surprised I liked it so much just because I didn't think I was going to like it because of the way it was. Like, I do love a book that is written really in an interesting format, and this one is, but I wasn't sure how much I was going to like sort of the deep dive into, like, Slack and like that.
Maggie: Oh, it's like an ode to the modern workplace.
Amy: Yeah, it sure is. And how and but it really makes you think about how humans connect with each other. And I think about that all the time, actually. You know, whether it's like, in person and or through all the other channels that we have, which is a tremendous amount. So I highly recommend that one because I think it is, you know, you always think about this book where you literally laughed out loud. I mean, so you're like. But that one, I was in my bed just laughing my [bleeped with squeaky toy sound] off.
Emily’s Recommendations
Maggie: Emily, what did you. Yeah, for your tops.
Emily: My tops. I had a lot of fun looking at these. Oh, I my process was I went, I used Goodreads. Yeah. Still, I know, but I still do. It works for me. But I mostly like it just for how it organizes stuff for me. I use tags so I look at like per year what I read. So I looked at what I had read.
Amy: It's very librarian like of you. It's so organized. Wow.
Emily: So I looked at the last, like, two years, and I just kind of scrolled through and full disclosure, when I read a book, a lot of the time, like a month later, someone was like, “oh, tell me about this book?” And I'm like, “yeah, it was a book.” Same. Everything in there is gone from my brain. I think same, fairly normal. Like, I know I was having a good time. I remember how I felt about it. Yeah, that's what I remember. I remember how the book made me feel. Yeah.
Amy: So I'm your twin, basically.
Emily: I have actually read the same book again, not realizing it. And then I was like, this seems so familiar. Same thing with movies. I'm a great audience. Yeah. So entertaining. They contain multiple times.
Amy: Yes, I do that with film as well. Yeah, because I'm like, oh, it's so great. What was it about? Who was in it? Some people.
Maggie: That's why I have to go back and read the Wikipedia page and be like, oh, did that happen? It did happen. Okay, yeah, I thought so.
Amy: Because I rely on you, Maggie, to know all the things.
Emily: Okay, so I looked at my list and I was like, what? Which of these still feel happy to me? I look at them like. Because that's what I remember. The story is how I felt. So my first one, is a really, it doesn't seem like it would be a happy book. So it's called “I Think We've Been Here Before” by Suzy Krause, and it's actually a book about the world ending, like the world is for real ending. Yeah. And I don't I don't remember exactly why the world is ending, but it's, you know, there's some, like, cosmic event is going to happen. We know it's going to happen. We have like a month and then the world is going to end, right? , and that does not sound like it would be a happy book at all, right? But instead of focusing on, like so many of these types of books, focus on, you know, all the bad ways that can go in this scenario. And instead it was all of the good things, and it was just it was so beautiful. And it was, you know, it kind of mentioned, like, you know, some people aren't responding this way, but it talked about how people started talking to people they hadn't ever talked to before, and people in their relationships were like, wait, I only have this much time. Like, what am I going to do? And it was all just, like, so positive and uplifting. I'm like, going to start crying, thinking about like, the happy crying,
Amy: Right!
Maggie: Do it. Love it.
Emily: But when I finished reading it, I was like, oh, I just feel like I have. So the world ends. Like the world ends in the book. Spoiler alert the world ends because, you know, the whole time this is what's going to happen, right? And instead of it being like, oh, this is devastating, or I'm like, panicked. Like, I was just like, that was so beautiful. I love this so much. And and it just made me so happy. Like, I just, I lived on the happiness of that book for like, two weeks. Like, it's so refreshing. We just we don't see books that have like and see.
Maggie: I think I avoided books like of the apocalypse because I don't have the emotional bandwidth, although maybe I do now because I deleted TikTok. But how you describe it, I'm like, yeah, I might actually pick that up. And as you're talking about, I was looking up the book and somebody described it as, , cozy apocalypse.
Emily: Yes. That is a perfect description.
Amy: I didn't even know that was a thing.
Maggie: Well, I think they I think this might be the first one. The first apocalypse. Yeah. Cozy apocalypse book.
Amy: Well, Emily, how do you describe that? It's like I think about, you know, I think practicing gratitude is an exercise. It really is. And often when I'm, like, not in a great mood, I'm. I have to think like, what is it around me that I can really have a lot of gratitude? And that's exactly what this sounds like for the book. It's like waking up and realizing, like, oh, I've had this all along and I need to look at it through fresh eyes.
Emily: I love this book, too. I recommended it a bunch of times since I read it. I have a friend who's in medical school, and she. So her life is super stressful and everything is very heavy, and she's almost done, so she's. It's, like cumulative. And she'll ask me, she'll be like, I need something that is just light. But like, I need something uplifting that I can just listen to like nothing heavy. And she loved this one. She was like, “oh, that was such a great book.”
Amy: Oh my God, I can't wait to read it.
Maggie: Really big, huge endorsement of it.
Amy: And did you listen or read it?
Emily: I actually read it okay. And she listened to it. I think she listened to it probably because of her schedule. She mostly listens.. So, second on my list, since we're saying anything by, I'll say anything by Daniel Nayeri. I love, love him. He, , the one that I wrote down is probably one of my favorite book titles ever, which is The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams. That is the title.
Maggie: That came up on one of my Google searches. I saw the title briefly and went, wow, I don't think I've ever seen a book with assassinations in the title promoted for a Happiness Challenge.
Amy: I can't wait to hear more about this.
Emily: So I'm just a huge fan of a good story. Doesn't matter what the story is about. Honestly, , but I also, as I said earlier, I was a children's librarian for a long time. I love J-Fic .So this is kind of this really appeals to all of the things for me. It's a great story. It's J-Fic. And if you have the hor of like a twelve year old, this is perfect for you, which I do. So it's fantastic. It's amazing. It's, you know, lots of like, you know, fart jokes and stuff like that. But it's set in a time. It's set in, like a thousand. Yeah, like we're in twenty twenty five. It's in, like, one thousand. And it happens on the Great Silk Road. So it's something I really know like nothing about. I know just a teensy. It's like I understand it. It happened. Everything that Daniel writes, he's just such a beautiful storyteller. Okay. His. I don't I don't know what it is about his storytelling. It's just fantastic. , so whenever I see that he has written a new book like that gives me great happiness. And I'm just like, there's more. There's another story. Yeah. , I also realized when looking at this that everything he's published has won some kind of award. So I'm clearly not alone in my love of his work. But this one was one kind of like you were saying. I just laughed so much like I was literally laughing out loud. , and I listened to it as he reads it, so I love that. Then I, my husband and I have very different tastes. Like he does a lot of nonfiction. I do a lot of fiction. I said on a road trip, you have to listen to this with me because I want to hear it again. And I just. And he was laughing and I was like, okay, universally appeal here. So it's just it's a it's a fun story, but it's just funny. And it's just he does such a great job.
Amy: I want to read both of those.
Emily: And it's short. Yeah. It's a J-Fic. And then my last one is Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson.
Amy: It has been on my list. I just have so many on my TBR. I just it's on pause at the moment because that came up for in the top five, I think for Omaha Reads. Right? In 2025?
Emily: I love this one. Brandon Sanderson. You know, when you think about Brandon Sanderson, you're like, oh my gosh, this is a huge commitment. This is, you know, 17 books. And he probably hasn't even finished writing all of them yet. Maybe depending on what we're right, it's like,
Maggie: Oh, I'm investing and you have no idea what's coming.
Emily: Yeah, but this is a standalone. Oh, good. And it's it just has everything. It it's it's fun. It's light. It's fast paced. It's funny. , every time I've thought about it since I've read it, I've, like, smiled to myself because it was just like, it was such a fun reading experience. , if you've ever watched the, The Princess Bride? Yes. So it's not that. But he does say like his. I think his wife asked him to write a story. Like, that's her favorite movie. And he was like, write a story like that or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. But something with, like. So something with the vibe of Princess Bride. And as I was, you know, that movie just had. It's funny. It's light.. It's everything.
Maggie: It's the reason it stood the test of time.
Emily: And so this book to me was, was that it's it's just a mood booster. It's a little fantasy. , Pirates, romance. Lots and lots of hor and love it. Oh, my God, that's beautiful too. Yeah, like that's another. I love a beautiful book.
Amy: Me too
Maggie: The cover is very enchanting. And we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but. But we do. And I'm like, oh, yes, it looks very enchanting. I love it. We do judge. We do? Yeah, exactly. Except for right now, which I'm doing it out loud, I guess. Whatever.
Amy: I love it, thank you. That was great. And I love that you said that. , I too read books in film, and I have the feeling. And that's what I carry with me. So sometimes it's so hard for me to articulate and tell people about the book when I'm like, is this really good?
Maggie: And I think some people, when they want to talk about it that way, they might feel like the pullback of like, no, I have to be a serious book person, and I can't use a book or a movie or something, or, you know, a TV show to, to describe this. But no,
Amy: You described three books via feeling and I want all. I want to read all of them.
Emily: Yay!
Maggie: So you might be coming back on the podcast.
Amy: Yes, I was going to say. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I love it. Maggie. Your turn.
Maggie’s Recommendations
Maggie: Close us out with a wild ride. So the first book, the book title is amazing. It's a series of essays by Nora McInerny, and it's called Bad Vibes Only and other things I bring to the table. So this was really when I started to kind of flex a little bit and be like, okay, let me talk about the things that actually make me happy because I'm going to describe this one. When I think about this book, I think of another one of my all time favorite books, which is one of the funniest books I ever…
Amy: The cult one?
Maggie: The which?
Amy: The Cult. I always think about the...
Maggie: Oh, “Sure, I'll Join Your Cult” by Maria Bamford. Also love that one. No. This one. Okay, one of my all time favorite books I almost put on here, but didn't. But I think it could be an honorable mention because I didn’t is. Because I know I've already talked about it on the podcast frequently, and that's “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” by Dave Eggers. So that book is his memoir of, raising his younger brother. So he was like 22, his sister's 24, his older brother is 26. And then they have, like an 8-year-old brother. So that 8-year-old brother was a surprise baby. Both their parents passed of cancer within six weeks of each other when they were at those specific ages. So if I remember correctly, the idea was that they were going to kind of joint raise the brother together, but it ended up being really just David and this kid. And that was just for like just life reasons, of like other things were going on for the older two. He was a little bit less like on a path because he was only 22. So it's just they turned into this duo. So when I describe that, that sounds so unbelievably heartbreaking and tragic and it is. It was one of the funniest books I've ever read. You're listening to a 22-year-old raise an 8-year-old. And how they kind of, it sounds cheesy, raise each other. Like how they, how they really, you know, brought each other through, like, this terrible moment, a very just self-reflection, finding the beauty and the hor in like, really sad times. This book reminded me a lot of that. So if you're somebody who read “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” and liked it, you will like Bad Vibes Only and Other Things I Bring to the Table. And my little note I put for it is “finally something for us little balls of hair and anxiety,” which is what I feel like I am. , one of the great quotes is “I was a child who lay in bed crying about a pain I hadn't yet experienced,” which I think I could identify with.
Amy: Really?
Maggie: Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Did I ever tell you about the time? The time? Time. Multiple times that I would cry myself to sleep. , being afraid that aliens were going to come, but also crying because then I would start crying of, like, what if they never come? I wanted them to be there.
Amy: Oh, my gosh. That is hilarious.
Maggie: Anyway, I identified a lot with this. So she talks each little essay kind of just talks about another aspect of the bad vibes or like different things that have happened to her. So she was experiencing some memory loss and memory issues at the same time that her aunt was having a dementia diagnosis that obviously caused her to be very anxious. If this was early signs of something, her husband died at 35 of brain cancer. So it was one of those things, like everything was fine. And then he was very suddenly not fine. The book is really just all about kind of taking the good and the bad. It's living in the times of live, laugh, love when you don't want to live, laugh, love. I'm tired of it. It's also a reminder you don't have to be, you don't have to be oppressively optimistic, toxically positive, or obsessed with self-improvement to be happy.
Amy: I really now want that live, laugh love behind us.
Maggie: I'm gonna punch it every day on the way out and be like, eat this! I identified a lot with her vibe. It was very similar. Identified a lot with when she talks about her struggles with anxiety. I think I was probably I was pretty anxious kid, but hid it under a veneer of silliness. And I feel like she was very similar. So it's, , I identified just so much with this book, and I loved it. it. It did make me very happy at the end, because I think we also live in a society where if you're pessimistic or you're, you know, , being very sarcastic, that people don't think you're happy, but you are very happy. It's just how you portray it. So for her, it is about taking the good, the bad, putting it all together, coming through as a person. My next book I put in, I'm gonna actually flip them because I think I'm gonna finish with that one. Next book I put, I put sorry, next book I put in is actually an older title. I think it came out in 2012. , but it's Miranda July's “It Chooses You.” Have you read much of Miranda July?
Amy: No, none.
Maggie: Have you seen any of her movies?
Amy: Tell me one.
Maggie: She, Oh my God.
Emily: We know how we would feel. We don't remember it.
Maggie: Speaking of, speaking of memory issues, memory loss, what? I can, I can remember what? Okay. Opposite. I can remember what happens in these movies, and I cannot remember their titles. Kajillionaire. Is that the name of it?
Amy: I've never heard of it.
Maggie: Evan Rachel Wood movie that came out a few years ago. There was another one that came out that is partially narrated by a cat that is going to be adopted, but it has to sit in quarantine for 30 days, and it's this married couple that's coming to get it. But then in the thirty days to like, get it, like their lives kind of start moving apart. And that sounds really sad. And it is very funny and sad. And also it's one of those of like sad things are happening, but they might happen for the reason that they need to happen. Anyway, that's Miranda July. She also, though, is a writer. She also oh, I'm going to miss this has the most amazing social media channels. She makes the most amazing content. Sometimes it's her just dancing. She had a multi, multi, I don't know if you want to call them episode? Because they were just Instagram videos that she made with Margaret Qualley of them portraying themselves. But like that there is some kind of deeper relationship dynamic. And the first time I watched them, I was like, I didn't know they had this complicated of a relationship like that. There was like stuff that had happened and gone on. It was very real. I 10 out of 10 recommended. It was like ten years ago that this happened. Oh, , I want to see if I can find it, but I was, and it was really getting into Margaret Qualley, and I was like, ooh, I like this. Also, she's named Margaret, and that's my name. Anyway, anyway, Miranda, I love all things Miranda July, but the one that came to mind for this was “It Chooses You”, which was a book I read forever ago. And it is nonfiction. So she, during that time of her life, and it was like 2010-ish. She was really into reading the Pennysavers. Sure. Before, like the Facebook Marketplace.
Amy: I love the Pennysavers.
Maggie: She was just in the Pennysaver. She started, she was really, you would love this. I think. She, she's very into, you know, finding, you know, just thrifting and finding pieces. So she would look on the Pennysaver and find these things of, like, someone's selling a leather jacket for ten dollars, like someone's giving this thing away for free. And she would literally just go to go buy that thing and then convince that person to let her interview them and talk about, like, why are you selling this jacket for ten dollars?
Amy: Oh, I would love doing that.
Maggie: Everything about it. And it did like spiral a little bit that it's like getting really involved with like other people's lives in a way. Beautiful. The thing that we talk about, like what sticks with you from that book, what stuck with me was like the emotion, the connection that, like, this is a stranger. And actually, after walking away, like talking from them, they are connected forever, right? And you see the threads of also, I think just processing other things that happen to us. And it's like this thing happened to me forever ago and I don't know what to do with it. And sometimes just talking to a stranger that had something similar or happening to them that it's like, oh my God, all of a sudden I'm able to make sense of things and I can put this away and move it on. And so the whole idea of it chooses you of like these items that it's like I'm, I want to I'm going to buy this or like I'm drawn to this ten dollar leather jacket. It chose her because she needed to go talk to this person. It's like that whole concept of, you know, I'm not I'm not a spiritual or, like, kind of religious person, but I will say I buy into a lot of like there are threads that kind of connect us. And we need to just kind of follow them.
Amy: I'm having a ton of synchronicity stuff happening to me right now,
Maggie: Thread all around here, baby. Threads. Yeah. So anything Miranda July. But I think it chooses you. What I left with that book was was really uplifting. Really happy. I want to read it, I loved it, Then the last one I'm going to end with is, Richard Ayoade's “Afterthoughts: Or Some Pistachos Won't Open: Wisdom for the Unreflective.” Are either of you familiar with the great Richard Ayoade?
Amy: No
Maggie: I never, I can I always mess up his last name. The reason I mess up his last name so frequently is because he's British. And so anytime I see him, like on a chat show or talking, it's another British person that's saying his name. And so then I get in my head of like, am I saying it with a British accent? I might be, am I trying to do that? So, , if you've ever watched the IT Crowd, do you ever watch the IT Crowd?
Amy: I might.
Maggie: The original. They tried to do it in America with Joel McHale, can't do it and it didn't work. Richard Ayoade came over and did his same character on the American IT crowd. So the IT crowd is my number one. Like, I want to be in a good mood. Like, I just want to. I have to watch a show. It's the IT Crowd. It's low hanging fruit in the sense that it's like it's only three seasons long and you don't have to watch every single episode to get it. You can just jump in. And on that note, if you want to jump in on this show, I would recommend season two, episode one called The Work Outing. You don't need anything else. You'll get all the pieces you need from that. It is one of the funniest things I have ever watched in my entire life. Every beat is right on it. Anyway. Richard Ayoade, who wrote the IT crowd. And then also just wrote a lot of other funny things that I love. I think he's by far the funniest part of the. It also, probably after we're done with this, I'm going to show you a picture of him. You definitely know who he is. You've seen him, but you just don't probably know his name. , so his book afterthoughts is his second book. I want to say it came out this year, so it goes beyond, past pondering, probing further than ever before. Drawing from a deeply private pool of questions or reservoirs. So refreshing you may never need to think again. Yeah, I'm like, how can you not with that? I had to pull out some of his little tidbits of wisdom that made me laugh, which is TV detectives need a gimmick and mine would be not caring who did it. Like if he was a TV detective, that that would be like, you know, Sherlock Holmes is autistic, I guess. And. If one door shuts, it goes. If when one door shuts, another door opens. There's something wrong with those doors. They shouldn't be doing that. And there's that actually good thing to reflect on is this. Where's the box to tick if you are a robot? And my mother used to say, manners maketh the man. But I didn't think it was very mannerly of her to make fun of my lisp. , he's so charming. He is so funny. He just makes me happy. And hor and funniness. Just always, and again, if you like the IT crowd or if you haven't got to do it yet, you should. , yeah, I like I had to put him in. Oh yeah. Laugh I had one other little thing I wanted to tuck in here because it's not in the in our collection, and it's not really a book that can be in our collection because it's kind of workbook-y. But it's one of the things that I, I got after I was leaning my whole idea of leaning into discomfort, which is a book called Offline Hans. I will link to their website, , because they, you can just see and you can also purchase it at your favorite local bookseller, which is where I got mine. But it's a book all about, , like, , disentangling yourself from the digital space. It has really good little, like, reflection pieces. But also, I think what, what ended up being, I think probably helping me kick off on the TikTok thing of being able to delete it. It started with really easy, like little things of just like you're not going to like cut down your phone usage entirely this week. It's like just literally look at reducing it by five percent. Just five percent. You did that. It's so little. But that's a reduction. And I think as opposed to looking at like the bigger like where you want to go, it's like it's just breaking it.
Amy: I have always believed in baby steps to whatever you're trying to get to, because that's the only way you're going to achieve it.
Maggie: It's a very modern, non-judgemental book. I'm still working through a lot of the pieces, but I will say I think it has made me happier.
Amy: Do you know what I almost tucked in here, but I'm going to talk about it anyway. Bob's burgers.
Maggie: Oh, I love Bob's Burgers.
Amy: And we do have it. So I think I'm gonna add it wasn't a book, but I kept thinking about the Burger of the Day, and that literally is, like, my favorite thing in the world. And I have a new car that I've named. I always named my car Ethel, and she's an EV. But my husband was like, we should have named her Tina because she is a little bit of, she has some anxiety. She does because it has so many bells and whistles. So if anything is near her, she goes, [imitates Tina’s vocalization] So we should have named her Tina because she's very full of anxiety when she gets near stuff. And I was like, it's okay, Tina. All of that. Ethel.
Maggie: One of the best Bob's Burgers moments ever. When Bob lets Tina drive in the empty parking lot and she hits the only car like there's literally only one car in this giant. I love it, and she's driving like like a snail. But she just was so anxious. And she locks in and she hits the only other car in the parking lot going one mile an hour.
Amy: I love, I don't like I'm not a cartoon person, but Bob's Burgers by far is the best. So I'm gonna link some episodes or, you know, our DVDs. We have some DVDs.
Maggie: Yeah, we even might have some Bob's Burgers inspired books. I know, I think those might belong in there.
Amy: Oh, my God, it's so funny. And I just want to say one other thing that I just gotta. I get Weather Channel alerts and it says “Moose on the Loose." I'm just saying it. How funny is that here? I don't even know where I left off. But I'm just going to be thinking about moose on the loose all day long.
Maggie: I am too, I'm worried it's here and I'm going to be looking for.
Amy: No. You're fine.
Amy: Yeah, it's probably in Alaska. is this problem? It's in Alaska, I'm sure.
Maggie: Okay, great. Well, on that note. Yes. , Emily, thank you so much. Yes. Thank you. This was a delight. This is. No, really. This was such a good challenge.
Amy: We want you back. Yeah. We're going to figure out ways.
Emily: Thank you for having me.
Maggie: So if you are going to be joining us on the reading challenge, you can stop in at any of our branches to get one of the notebooks. Yes. Fill out. So if you a little incentive, if you finish your reading challenge notebook, do all of the challenges. Oh, by the way, you again, you can read them out of order. Read them as fast as you want to. , but once you finish your little reading challenge notebook, bring it back into one of our branches and you get a cool enamel pin. And then you can show off to people and we talk.
Amy: We did talk earlier about that. We're mixing it up this year with Reading Challenge.
Maggie: Before I get there, if you're interested in participating in the Reading Challenge in other ways too. , there's a reading Challenge book club at the W. Clarke Swanson branch every second Saturday of the month. So if you are looking to kind of connect with other readers doing this, it's a great place to do it. You can also see the entire Reading Challenge list, along with books, book lists of suggested titles for each theme at omahalibrary.org/reading-challenge. And again, you can also visit our nearest branch for a tracking booklet. And Amy, you brought up a great point. We're doing things a little different this year. It was a loosey goosey ship before. Get ready for more goose on the loose.
Amy: Goose. Moose on the loose. Moose and goose. Goose.
Maggie: I'm overwhelmed with choices right now.
Amy: Which, by the way, I know we're gonna read them out of order a little bit.
Maggie: Going crazy this year, guys. It's a weird year. Weird us. It's only getting weirder. Yeah, we decided to try to put some of the reading challenges in months that might speak to that challenge a little bit more. Next month's challenge is actually going to be challenge nine. , read a love story
Amy: Because it is February. It's Valentine's Day.
Maggie: Why shouldn't we do it that way? It's the month of love. It's the month of something. Yeah, we'll find out. Next week, we're gonna have a super cool episode dedicated to the state of local journalism. We're going to be talking to, actually, teen journalists from Westside High.
Amy: I'm so excited about that.
Maggie: They are very cool. And we're going to touch base with Flatwater Free Press. Lastly, if you would like to participate in our query, we are also going loosey goosey on the query this year. , we have one query that lasts the entire month, and then we're going to do a master drop of all of the answers at the very end of the month. So if you'd like to tell us our query for this month, it is “what's at the top of your TBR for 2026?” Yeah. Get people excited about what they're going to be reading. I've already been peeking at the answers and oh yeah, getting myself on hold list a little early. Exciting times.
Amy: Oh, look at you.
[Music]
Every book, resource or thing that we mention that we can link to on the internet can be found in list form in our episode description, so if you miss something we talked about, check out that list.
The Book Drop is produced by Omaha Public Library. Our theme music is Trapped in Amber courtesy of the band Lucid Fugue.
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