In the Stacks

Did you know that Sylvia Plath stayed in a famous all-female hotel with other budding authors to work a NYC internship at a magazine? Many novelists stayed at the Barbizon, like Meg Wolitzer and Joan Didion, launching their author careers in the 20th century. Prior to Paulina Bren’s book “The Barbizon: The Hotel that Set Women Free,” there was not much information about the history of the hotel. In this interview, Paulina explores why she decided to research the hotel in the first place and the challenges that she was faced with in her process.

What happens to you when most of your life is experienced through a screen? Roisin Kiberd talks about her new collection of essays called “The Disconnect: A Personal Journey Through the Internet,” sharing her observations on social phenomenas like Get Ready with Me videos on Youtube and working at tech startups. Online platforms have shaped how we communicate with another, and we talk about some of the strange realities that come with caring a phone around with you everywhere. In this interview, we mention Shoshanna Zuboff’s book “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” and David Graeber’s book “Bullshit Jobs.” You can purchase the book at the following link: https://www.amazon.com/Disconnect-Personal-Journey-Through-Internet-ebook/dp/B08FNQ3Y9Z.

Have you ever found pleasure in consuming rom-coms, “chick lit,” and fictional stories dazzled with beautiful dresses and happy endings? These phrases are never associated of being worthy intellectual pursuits, instead they are seen as trashy and guilty reads targeted for a female population. In this interview, I talk with Arielle Zibrak about her new book "Avidly Reads Guilty Pleasures" and she lets us in on how she came to write the book exploring the cultural stigmas around femme-led stories, the historical tradition of literature consumption and more.  You can find Arielle Zibrak's book "Avidly reads Guilty Pleasures" at the link: https://bookshop.org/books/avidly-reads-guilty-pleasures-9781479807093/9781479807093. 

Join me in the stacks with my first episode with author Alisse Waterston and illustrator Charlotte Corden of "Light in Dark Times: The Human Search for Meaning." In this interview, we dive deep into how the two of them came together to create a graphic novel that explores anthropology, the structure of social injustices, how we can make the world a better place and more. I hope you get a chance to pick up a copy of the graphic novel for yourself and support your local bookstores: https://bookshop.org/books/light-in-dark-times-the-human-search-for-meaning/9781487526405 You can find more of Alisse's written work here: https://www.jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/alisse-waterston.  You can view Charlotte's art here: http://cordenstudios.com/about-1.