Stacks and Stories
This fun and informative podcast focuses on books, reading, and Mississippi’s libraries. MLC staff, public librarians, and other friends cover a wide variety of book and library related topics. Find out what makes Mississippi one of the most literature-rich states in the country.
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Episodes
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
Join Alex and Amanda as they talk all things book covers! From books that are better than their cover, covers that are better than their books, cover reprints that are just kind of bad, cover trends, and cover marketing, they cover (get it?) almost everything in the wide world of book design!
As a note, Alex mentions a book with an orange cover set on Jupiter that she can't remember the title of. This book is The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older.
Books mentioned in this episode
If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy
Happy Place by Emily Henry
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
The Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Anna & the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Old Enough by Haley Jacobson
My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
The Wayfairer series by Becky Chambers
The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer
The Stolen Heir by Holly Black
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
The Tia Rosie's Kitchen Mysteries series by Mia P. Manansala.
The Donut Legion by Joe R. Lansdale.
Wednesday Sep 06, 2023
Wednesday Sep 06, 2023
Join Riley, Shellie, and Tracy as they discuss dark academia, why they enjoy it, and if not, what they do enjoy that’s adjacent.
Books Mentioned
Blue Angel by Francine Prose
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
Possession by A.S. Byatt
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessel
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Wednesday Aug 30, 2023
Wednesday Aug 30, 2023
Join Alex and Tracy as they discuss the influential children’s book writer Beverly Cleary. Listen as they talk about their favorite books by her, toothpaste, wigs, and bad accents.
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
Join Katie and Natalie as they discuss why they prefer nonfiction to fiction, what their favorite nonfiction reads are, and more.
Books Mentioned
1776 by David McCullough
A Concise History of U.S. Foreign Policy by Joyce Kaufman
Educated by Tara Westover
The Encyclopedia of the Cat edited by Bruce Fogle
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party by Daniel James Brown
Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica’s Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham
The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values by Sam Harris
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
A Promise Land by Barack Obama
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
Join Shellie and Tracy as they talk about authors and panels they're looking forward to at this year's Mississippi Book Festival!
Wednesday Jul 19, 2023
Wednesday Jul 19, 2023
This year’s collaborative summer library program theme is ‘All Together Now’. The theme focuses on friendship, unity, kindness, and togetherness. We’ve asked various MLC staff to give a quick overview of a book or movie they love that they feel fits the theme. Want to hear seven different recommendations? Then stay tuned!
Books and films mentioned in the episode:
Calendar Girls, directed by Maria Loohufvud & Love Martinsen.
Dress-Up Day by Blanca Gómez.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
Hello Bookstore, directed by A.B. Zax.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune.
Lala's Words by Gracey Zhang.
Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton.
Still Life by Sarah Winman.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna.
Wednesday Jul 05, 2023
Wednesday Jul 05, 2023
Join Shellie and Tracy on this installment of Shelf Absorbed as they discuss what they’ve recently read and if one of them has started appreciating rereads. So, stay tuned.
Books Mentioned
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
Fifteen by Beverly Cleary
Gigi, Listening by Chantel Guertin
“Good Bones” by Maggie Smith
The Spectacular by Fiona Davis
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Trust by Hernan Diaz
The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett
The Weeds by Katy Simpson Smith
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
Wednesday Jun 21, 2023
Wednesday Jun 21, 2023
Join Katie and Lacy as they talk about adaptations and reworkings of books! They talk Mississippi movies, Mississippi musicals, and Mississippi books based off of previously existing books in three, quick, five minute MLC Moment snippets.
Wednesday May 17, 2023
Wednesday May 17, 2023
If you turn on the Mississippi Public Broadcasting radio station on Saturdays at 11 am, you’ll hear a short, five minute little MLC Moment from us. These are quick tidbits of information, all drawn from what you can find at your local public library. Because they’re so short, we’re combining some of them into a longer episode for our regular podcast feed. This episode is all things historical. Join Tracy as she talks about microhistories and a famous murder case, while Alex takes you deep into the WPA files created in the 1930s.
Wednesday Apr 19, 2023
Wednesday Apr 19, 2023
What's 'middle grade' mean to begin with? Join Charlie and Elisabeth as they talk all things middle grade, from past to present to future!
Books mentioned in the episode:
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine
The Birchbark House series by Louise Erdrich
The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
Hatchet by Gary Paulson
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
The Lucky Ones by Linda Williams Jackson
Lily's Promise by Kathryn Erskine
J.D. and the Great Barber Battle by J. Dillard
Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs by Pam Munoz Ryan
Gussy by Jimmy Cajoleas
Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Weird Kid by Greg van Eekhout
Hamra and the Jungle of Memories by Hanna Alkaf
Nic Blake and the Remarkables by Angie Thomas
The Secret Battle of Evan Po by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill
The Mississippi Library Commission was established in 1926 by an Act of the Mississippi Legislature. The agency was charged with giving advice, when asked, to schools and public libraries and to communities desiring to establish libraries. Further, the agency was required to obtain annual reports from all libraries in the state and to make a biennial report to the legislature of its work. The Act also authorized the Board of Commissioners to purchase and operate traveling libraries which might circulate to just about any library, organization or group including charitable and penal institutions. Today, the Mississippi Library Commission offers a wide variety of direct and indirect services to libraries, government agencies and the citizens of Mississippi.