Introduction to Checkout Stack and Guest Adam Clery
00:00:19
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to the Checkout Stack, where we talk books with a new library every episode. I am your host and the world's biggest library superfan, Maria Skogin, and I'm so excited to introduce our guest today, Adam Clery from Bridgeport Public Library in Connecticut. Adam, thank you for being here today. Can you introduce yourself to our guests and tell us a little about you and your library?
00:00:41
Speaker
Absolutely and thank you for having me Maria. This is fun. I am I through my library. I am the host of Our own podcast Bridgeport unmasked about our city Bridgeport, Connecticut This is my first time in the passenger seat as a guest of the podcast So I am excited and a little nervous, but I'm sure we'll do just fine, you know, so yes, we are and in Bridgeport, Connecticut. And if you're asking what state is Connecticut in, just i think a little north of New York City and and you you got us pretty much pegged. Yeah, so Bridgeport Public Library, we are obviously the public library for the city.
Bridgeport Unmasked Podcast Overview
00:01:24
Speaker
We have six library branches within Bridgeport and we serve the Bridgeport area. So thank you for having me, Maria.
00:01:34
Speaker
Yes. Tell us a little more about your podcast. What what are the episodes about? Oh, absolutely. so ah So our podcasts are about anything Bridgeport, but to be a little more specific and actually useful, we have four podcasts currently up and they kind of do a good job covering the areas that I want to have covered eventually as we go along with this podcast, right? The first one is about the murder of one of the greatest Bridgeport benefactors, James Beardsley. You find the name Beardsley everywhere in Bridgeport, and it's named after him. And he was murdered for $60 in a pocket watch. So that's a fun podcast. We talk about Hollywood people who came from Bridgeport. We have a debate over ah some weird things that happened
00:02:25
Speaker
in Bridgeport in the 1970s and whether that was supernatural or physical. The ghosts on Lindley Street is actually ah connected to the people that the Conjuring is about, the Warrens. So we kind of have that little cap in our feather, have a feather in our cap rather.
00:02:44
Speaker
the kind of laing Yeah, this is a movie series oh interesting that yeah, if if you're if you're into horror, you know you've at least heard of The Conjuring if you haven't for watched it one of those things. And the other podcast is an author talk that I will not talk about now because it is the local it's about the local book that I chose to talk about.
00:03:09
Speaker
of today here on the checkout stack. So that's that's that's what I'm looking forward to.
Philosophical Themes in the Ishmael Trilogy
00:03:15
Speaker
So so yeah, that's that's what Bridgeport MS is all about. That's awesome. I love that. So just all things Bridgeport.
00:03:24
Speaker
Absolutely. Yes. All right. Go Park City. Yes. Yes. so So let's dive into books. We're going to do a little bit different order today and we're going to start off with our bookend. So the bookend is our guest can choose any topic that they want to talk about and pull three books on it. So Adam, what was your bookend topic today?
00:03:49
Speaker
ah Yes, and Maria, thank you very much for letting me start with this one because I wanted to start off on an excited note and I love this trilogy. ah So the the subject of the bookend is, and this is a direct quote from the first book, teacher seeks pupil must have an earnest desire to save the world. And this is a reference to Daniel Quinn's Ishmael trilogy. ah And so the trilogy includes the books Ishmael, The Story of Bee, and My Ishmael. I know this sounds a little cheesy and cliche, but it's it's the best way I can put it. This book completely changed how I looked at a lot of things. How I looked at, you know, why is the world in such a mess and what happened to make it that way. And I'm not alone. There's quotes from other people expressing
00:04:41
Speaker
similar bits and basically the Ishmael trilogy in Ishmael, which is the major book. If you can only read one book from the trilogy, in fact, if you could only read one book for the rest of your life, I would recommend Daniel Quinn's Ishmael. In that book, a a sapient gorilla and a man get together and they start talking about What went wrong? Why is the world like so crazy, right? And so the notions they come up with is actually, it's, it's not uplifting, but at least gives us a little bit of hope that we could do something. Basically the the final point they get to is that the problem is not humanity.
Britney Spears' Memoir Discussions
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Speaker
The problem is human culture, right? It's this need to grow, grow, grow.
00:05:32
Speaker
It's this sense that you know the world was made for us to dominate and we need to kill the world. And frankly, we've been doing a pretty good job. ah you know The book looks at you you know cultures before modern culture, you know the other 200,000 years that Homo sapiens have been alive without destroying the world and says, you know what's let's look at what they did.
00:05:56
Speaker
and figure out a way to incorporate that in how we're living now. And combine the two to figure out a way that we can, you know, get along and not destroy, ah you know, the Earth's ability to contain us. So I okay, I didn't mean to get that, you know, deep and dark, I forgot just how deep and dark ish mile sounds when you when you try to condense it into a few sentences, and you don't get the whole effect of the entire book. So yeah,
00:06:24
Speaker
Wonderful. Thank you. It's like a mix between science fiction and philosophy. Is that how you would categorize it? That is a fantastic way to put it. Thank you. I hadn't put it quite in those words, but that's that's exactly what it is. right so Ishmael actually won the I forget what the name of the award is, but it's the ah biggest award amount ever given for a science fiction book and it won it. So yeah, it's definitely science fiction, but it feels like nonfiction, right? You forget very quickly that there's a gorilla talking.
00:07:01
Speaker
And it it reads like a book of philosophy or or even even more even closer to sociology and in how the environment impacts sociology. right if If anyone out there is familiar with Silent Spring by Rachel, and i'm I'm blanking on her last name, it's it's it's it's in the same camp as that. Actually, the story of B mentions Silent Spring in it. so That's awesome. And would you say like if someone has never read a philosophy book before, is this a very approachable intro to philosophy or does it help to kind of come in with a background?
00:07:40
Speaker
Oh, completely approachable. Ishmael is the story of B is a little heady, to be honest, but Ishmael and then my Ishmael, right. So Ishmael essentially lays out the ideas that I tried to summarize in a few sentences. The story of B kind of takes it up the intellectual part of it up a few notches. And then my Ishmael is a bunch is essentially a bunch of practical applications of it. like How would the ideas about you know saving our world by changing our culture affect the education system? For example, specifics you can you know you can do. Implementations. Yes. Well, that sounds fascinating. Ishmael is definitely going on my TBR list. That's wonderful. That warms my heart. Thank you.
00:08:34
Speaker
And this next book ah that we're about to talk about is also on my list. So now we're going to move into the new book segment. So this is a book that came out in the last year. Adam, what did you pick for us? I picked The Woman and Me by Britney Spears. It's the Britney Spears audiobook. And it it's just it's it's a very It's a great read about, so I know, i obviously, I think I'm a millennial, I know Spears' work, right? I've heard nothing but wonderful things about who she is as a human. And I'm very happy to say that after reading this book, which essentially goes her childhood, Mickey Mouse Club, you know, adulthood, including the Justin Timberlake thing, and then obviously, a lot of the book is about the conservatorship.
00:09:22
Speaker
the i After reading that, I'm completely convinced that she really is as wonderful a person as everybody says. It's also very clear from like the language that this is her writing. It's very clear. It's not it's not like like sterile academic where you're like, is is a ghost writer writing? You you could tell that Britney Spears is writing this. And actually that that kind of warms your heart after you read the half of the book. That's about the fact that for 13 years, she could make no choices as a free willing human being and now she gets to
Teaching Teens About Finance
00:10:01
Speaker
write a book. So that's that's fantastic. Yes, I am also a millennial and followed really closely when the documentary came out about her life. Did you watch the documentary?
00:10:13
Speaker
I did not. I did not actually i'll I'll take that as a recommendation. Yeah, no I don't know it after the top of my head. I think it was on Netflix though. Okay. But I as is everything think but yes. ah Right. It was it was fascinating though, because it was before her conservatorship ended. So all of it is from the outside view trying to understand what what the heck is going on in there. So i'm I'm really excited to kind of learn the interior details of like what she was thinking and feeling during that time.
00:10:42
Speaker
Absolutely. Actually, now that I know that I think she refers to that documentary in the book, and she's actually a little she's, she's more than a little ticked that these people talked about her who were her close friends, etc, without saying, Hey, do you mind if I spill the beans in this documentary? yeah So so yeah and yeah, no, no, she got it she got more than a role. I don't know what term like goes beyond raw deal, but she got more than a raw deal. So yeah. totally Yeah. All right. Well, that was The Woman and Me by Britney Spears. Next up, we're going to go to a backlist title. So this is something that's been on the shelves for a long time and you might be able to pick it up right away without having to put on a hold. Adam, what is the backlist book?
00:11:28
Speaker
Awesome. So I'm sorry to keep you on your toes here. I did change it up because I remembered there was a backlist book that I was like, how did I not remember this one? And it's definitely far more interesting to me and hopefully to the good folks out there.
00:11:47
Speaker
than the one I was going to do initially. And this backlist book is the Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens by Dave and Tom Gardner, 2002. And I believe is still in print because I found it advertised through Motley Fool.
00:12:07
Speaker
currently. The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens writes, if Ishmael was a watershed book for me as a person, and like what am I supposed to be doing here? This book was completely a watershed book for the way I look at finances.
00:12:27
Speaker
and And so there is a little story behind this story, which is which is always fun and deadly. So before I was a reference librarian, I was the teen librarian. And one of my jobs was to go through books and make sure they were up to date and not damaged. And if they were, ah replace them with with a newer, more accurate, more accessible version and I come across this book, the the the teen guide that I was just talking about. And in this book, I opened it up and I'm with my coworker, we opened it up. And it's published 2002. And we laugh for like a 20 year old book on finance. How did this ever last? This log on the shelf, but something inside me said,
00:13:13
Speaker
you want to check the book out first before you throw it away and so I open up the book and I read it and it's no exaggeration to say that all the financial decisions that I make for myself, I and my family today either come from that book or come from a resource that I'm looking at ultimately, you know, enough on the chain of cause and effect back to this book. So so yeah, no, it's it's ah it's a very insightful book about how compounding interest works, ah where you want and don't want to invest. And it really doesn't matter that it's now 22 years old. the The wisdom applies. And and the honestly, the few details that you don't get
Abortion Practices in the 1800s
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Speaker
In fact, it's kind of charming because it suggests you go and you fax companies there for their information. So there is there are some fun bits to to being 22 years old. Yeah, no, no info about buying stuff online, I bet. So that in the title, it said teenager, right? So is that kind of the entry level? It's for early adults thinking about finance for the first time.
00:14:25
Speaker
Absolutely. So it okay, so it is written with teens in mind are still applicable to adults, but it's the the more the message for teens is not a difference in the finances is not a difference in what is being taught, but rather the company choices.
00:14:47
Speaker
are based on teens like there's a lot of Nike and Adidas and they they intentionally chose examples that teens at least teens of 20 years ago, you know, us, Maria would be ah interested in. And in addition, there are a lot of parts are talking about somebody who has the for good fortune and the wisdom to start investing when you're a teen and they do the math out and it is possible for a teen who is investing $100 a month to at retirement have more money than a 30-year-old such as myself investing $5,000 a month because
00:15:28
Speaker
compound interest works best over a long time. So I wish I wish this book was in the hands of more teens or adults, you know, that's amazing. It's interesting too, because I know they say with nonfiction, like the lifespan is usually only about 20 years before you want to replace it. Am I am I naming that correct?
00:15:48
Speaker
I can believe that for for various subjects. it It wanes a lot with subjects like, and you know, engineering and the sciences are going to be considerably shorter. But yes, no, this is it's it's really the fact that it's an introductory book. So it's highly conceptual. That's why it survived 20 years right off of ah the more specific you get the less time. You're still relevant. Awesome. Well, can you repeat that title one more time for us?
00:16:17
Speaker
Absolutely. That was the Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teams by Dave and Tom Gardner, the co-founders of The Motley Fool. Great. Next up, we're going to get to hear a little bit more about your latest podcast episode. We're going into our local author pick. Adam, what did you pick for the local section?
00:16:41
Speaker
Absolutely. So ah the disquieting death of Emma Gill by Marcia Biederman, who by complete coincidence, ah stars just lined up is actually doing a book talk right now in this building downstairs. Oh my gosh. For this book. So that's just kind of how things happened. Thank you for skipping it to talk with me.
00:17:04
Speaker
Oh, trust me, Marcia and I know each other. She knows it's no problem. it's a you ah you know And I got to set up the room with her, you know, so that was cool. We chatted then. But no, I'm i'm just as excited to be here as I was talking to her. So that's no problem at all. So yes, the disquieting death of Emma Gill ah is Marcia's work about abortion practices. ah Generally speaking, it's about abortion practices in the late 1800s here in Connecticut. About a half to a third of the book happens in Bridgeport specifically, and that's that's why I was able to get into our podcast. But yes, it follows mostly one practitioner, Nancy Guilford,
00:17:47
Speaker
Nancy Guilford kind of got into the business when she met her future husband and very famous quack and would sell you anything and tell you it cures all ailments possible, which was actually incredibly common in the late 1800s, including Connecticut. And so, Marsha- We didn't have reference librarians to to correct us. They could say anything and no one would jump in.
00:18:15
Speaker
there There is less fact checking. um Look, the internet the internet is a double-edged sword, but at the end of the day, You're only ignorant if you choose to be. you know you you could you could You can look up things and not be taken by things. But anywho, so Marsha Biedermann Wright is writing about and Nancy Guilford who gets into the the into into the field of abortion and she performs abortions throughout Connecticut.
00:18:45
Speaker
She's actually a very, it's a very high class, clean, legitimate operation, except it's totally illegal, like one to seven years. And if your patient dies, five to 20. And she did face criminal charges a number of times throughout her career and frankly, she did have three patients pass away while under her care and the third one is Emma Gill for whom the book is named and that one happened in Bridgeport. So that's what our podcast focused on mostly and it's it's a wild ride. So yeah, no, no, Emma dies and some some wild things happen to cover up the murder and they fail and even even though
00:19:31
Speaker
I don't suggest murdering people, but I do, as a general rule, but I do have to throw in that that Nancy did a pretty good job of of trying to cover it up. she She basically got very unlucky.
00:19:47
Speaker
And and she she ended up escaping to Europe and they brought her back and she went on trial and yeah and she did FaceTime. So this this book, um I mean obviously, it deals with themes that are hard. I think for that podcast, actually I'm certain,
00:20:05
Speaker
The Bad Podcast has the longest trigger warning at the beginning of it of any of my podcasts. It is a hard book. It's a theme that I don't need to tell anybody, still very relevant today. What I will say is that Marcia handles it with a high degree of professionalism. Nancy herself, if you're reading without a bias, comes off completely neutral, right?
00:20:31
Speaker
Marcia did not go with the she's a monster route, she nor did she go. She's some kind of great heroine route. Part of that is good writing and part of it is because Nancy lied constantly about everything. So it's kind of hard for anybody to pin anything down. After reading the book twice, the only thing I can say for certain about Nancy is she always did what she thought was best for her kids.
00:20:59
Speaker
We might disagree heavily on her belief that it was best for her kids, but but you know, getting this practice and getting money into the family, taking care of her loser husband, a tale as old as time right there, ah with her with her with her practice is very much who Nancy was and who and what you get out of this book.
Exploring 'Red Paint' and Ancestral History
00:21:21
Speaker
That is fascinating. So that was the disquieting death of Emma Gill by Marcia Bitterman. If our listeners wanted to read that book, they should wait to listen to your podcast. Cause I'm guessing it has the whole story and would include spoilers, correct? Yes, there would be, there would be, there would be ample spoilers. That's that's yeah, where we, we dive pretty deep. But if you just want to hear the short, the short story of it, go on over to the podcast.
00:21:51
Speaker
All right, next up, we are going to go into our recent reads. So I will take over here to share my recent read, which was red paint, the ancestral autobiography of a Coast Salish punk. This is a memoir by Sasha Takshabloo-Lapointe, who is an indigenous artist and punk aficionado living in the Pacific Northwest.
00:22:14
Speaker
The book explores the connection between her ancestral history and the trauma kind of that happened in her family and her own life. In particular, she discusses a lot about a woman in her family who was in the Pacific Northwest when white settlers first came to the area.
00:22:33
Speaker
That woman was nine years old and most of the people in her community died from diseases that settlers introduced. Then when she grew up, she was married to a settler so that he could get twice the land allotment, but she was not allowed to live in the same house as him. So as part of the book, Sasha actually finds the cottage that she lived in and visits it and she spends a lot of time exploring kind of that experience and what it must have been like and then also maybe how that experience in her family history has passed down and affected her own life. As I mentioned, Sasha is a punk. She is dirty and gritty and she does a lot of drinking and going to shows and that is reflected in her writing. It's a very
00:23:19
Speaker
gritty memoir. And she makes some decisions that, as the reader, you're like, no, don't do that. But it's true. And that's I think it's a good reflection of how people deal with trauma. They don't always make the best choices. And they can still continue to grow and heal even through those bad choices. So that was Red Paint, The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk, by Sasha Takshabloo-Lapointe. Adam, what was your recent read?
00:23:47
Speaker
i'll i will I'll tell you about that. I just want to say that sounds fascinating. So in my sphere of people, like, you know, I do have a person who's been a punk forever and has punk, you know, connections. And I do have ah someone who's very is actually studying um indigenous ah studies formally,
00:24:07
Speaker
ah So between the two, I
Censorship in Folklore Studies
00:24:09
Speaker
really like this. That's awesome. I mean, most of the indigenous stuff I know is is is about the, you know, the the Northeast. So it might be cool, might be cool to see into that. Cool. Thank you for the recommendation, Maria. Yeah. And the last thing I'll say about it is it is a very short memoir and so it reads pretty quickly. So it's a good one to hand off to the people who maybe aren't big readers.
00:24:31
Speaker
or me if it's not an audiobook. i don I can't do very long print books, so I appreciate, i appreciate you know, ah print books when they're shorter, so thank you. A print book that I did, you know, read in full, ah Dirty Jokes and Baldy Humor by Susan Davis, don't worry. Despite the title that I just gave you, you're not going to have to put, ah you know, special warning markers or any of that jazz on this podcast.
00:24:59
Speaker
It itself doesn't have dirty jokes and body humor. It's about a folklorist named Gershon Legmant, who is known for his work in collecting erotic folklorists, his biography. And ah this book is of interest to me because i'm I am a fan of his collection of limericks that he compiled.
00:25:21
Speaker
i He would you know talk to people of various social economic classes. he would He would dive into academic collections that were. off limits to most ah scholars. And he's a lot of of our oral history ah would have been lost if he didn't do his work. And this is where this book turns from being cool to me because I'm a nerdy limerick fan and becoming something that a lot of people I think are in the library field and
00:25:57
Speaker
library fans, but you know, but probably people who are interested in podcasts like these would be interested in the book because it has to do a lot with censorship, right? ah the The predominant like undercurrent theme throughout the book is heavy censorship. Obviously, censorship and culture wars are very powerful and real today in libraries. This book takes place predominantly in the Depression and see the the years after that, the World War II years in the 50s. And i'm not I'm not denouncing how much i we have today, how much censorship we have today. ah But back then, it was it was government policy, right? um the f For example, the FBI rated
00:26:45
Speaker
legally Gershon Legman's home and destroyed the best majority of the of the books he was collecting ah because they were erotic. ah The Comstock laws were in effect. The post office, it was a illegal to send anything essentially that the government didn't want you sending through the post office and before the internet. That is the only way you send things.
00:27:10
Speaker
So it is an interesting book, especially the first half before Gershon goes off to France because he can't do work here because his line of work of collecting erotic folklore is essentially illegal. The first half especially is a great ah work on censorship. And for that reason might be of interest to the to the folks listening to this.
00:27:36
Speaker
Interesting. i and I imagine that at the time people's idea of censorship and what was inappropriate is very different. Did they give any examples that you read it and you just laughed because nowadays anyone could say that?
00:27:50
Speaker
Okay, so that there were a few set samples sprinkled throughout. And the answer is, i I'm glad you asked that question, because the answer is absolutely not. The stuff he was collecting, but but I want to be completely clear about this, is bad. It's disgusting, raunchy. Don't worry, there's not too many of it sprinkled throughout a 200 page book. ah But the but but yeah no going into this, he was not collecting like, you know, I know exactly what you're talking about. like honey leme ri Right, or or you know, like by things of the nature of of like television shows from back then had married couples sleeping in separate beds and he showed a picture of like two couples sleeping in a bed. No, no these are bad. Like i'm I'm sometimes ashamed when I see my mother right after reading this book. But the point of the story, yes, thank you. Thank you. The the point of the story is that if we throw away even the
00:28:49
Speaker
stuff that almost everybody finds disgusting. The point is we were we're we're whitewashing history to a certain degree and we are throwing away an aspect of the human culture that even if it's not good, we should be paying attention to perhaps especially because it's not good if people are this disgusting.
Reading Preferences and Podcast Invite
00:29:11
Speaker
Why are they being this way and that's kind of what Gershon Legman devoted his life to not just collecting these but figuring out like, why are humans, you know, this gross? What's going on? I wonder what happened. Does it to talk about what happened in his early life that that was the career path he chose for himself?
00:29:33
Speaker
Oh, it absolutely does. Thank you for asking. It certainly does. So so it was it was it was all his father. It was 100% the father for two reasons, right? First, so Gershon Legman, a very devoutly Jewish family, had him go to a regular school. We call it a public school, right? And then after regular school,
00:29:57
Speaker
he would go to to the synagogue or wherever they would have specific lessons for Jewish people and then after that he would come home and do homework. So his father very much instilled in him the sense that he was an academic, gave yeah frankly gave him the skills two to be such a prolific member of of ah of thekull of the scholarly community, even though he was always on the edge because his stuff was so disgusting and extreme that he was dealing with, right? People didn't take it seriously. But the other end is that his father was very repressive when it came to sexual stuff. So it's it's very it's very much implied that ah Gershon was overcompensating.
00:30:46
Speaker
for the oppression of his household by seeking out these erotic things. And then, and you know, it it does, without going into detail, this is still a PG-13 book, but without going into detail, it talks about how i active he was as a young man, ah you know, doing those things. He wasn't just collecting the silly songs. So, and that's that's the essence of the book there.
00:31:13
Speaker
Well, what a fascinating history. That was Dirty Jokes and Body Songs by Susan Davis. I'm just realizing that I think two thirds of the books we just talked about are nonfiction. you I'm not surprised. You're not surprised. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. No, no. Are you mostly a nonfiction reader?
00:31:34
Speaker
I am. I am. I am. I'm ID though. i'm I'm not sure if there's a better way to put it. I'm a typical bro when it comes to what I read, right? It's a lot of nonfiction. It's a lot of biography. And when it's when it's when it's fiction like Ishmael, it's fiction that kind of reads as nonfiction, right? You know,
00:31:54
Speaker
Or or or else it's the science fiction fantasy bit there so i'm i'm the first to admit i need to expand my horizons i don't know i think if you if you found what works for you i love it and i feel like we covered a lot of ground between the different pics and there's all kinds of different histories and writing styles.
00:32:16
Speaker
We've got memoirs, we've got biographies, we've got the philosophy. I love it. This was a great collection of books. That wraps up all of our book recommendation segments. So Adam, is there anything you want to plug for you or your library out in Bridgeport, Connecticut?
00:32:36
Speaker
Okay, absolutely. yeah You know, I am sad all the good things come to an end. I was just getting started in my opinion, but that's okay. Still excited, still going strong. But anyways, yes, i' I'm going to shamelessly plug the podcast that I'm doing. Again, that's Bridgeport Unmasked. It is about all things about Bridgeport, Connecticut, which is a, you know, very urban New England ah city just to give you an idea of what's going on there and yet we have we have to link down there going on and you know again ah the podcast we've done have dealt with everything from local history of people who have ah been ah important to Hollywood that have come from Bridgeport right down to
00:33:22
Speaker
did that refrigerator that lifted off the ground multiple times but with nothing um pulling it up. um Was that a ghost or not? ah So yeah, those are that's that's that's what i'm doing I'm doing there. So I mean, this has been fun, Maria. and i ah I hope you're plugging your thing right now because this is pretty cool. I think this is going to really take off. so Thanks, I hope so. Well, this has been a wonderful episode. Adam, thank you so much for sharing your time with us and your amazing book picks. Listeners, if you enjoyed, please give us a five star review to help us grow our numbers. And if you are a librarian and are interested in being on the show, please reach out to me at the checkout stack at gmail dot.com. all Alrighty, thank you for joining us today. Now go forth and use your public library.