Blogs & Podcasts

Find early literacy tips and children's books on the Children's Blog. Discover your next great read on the Books Movies Music Blog. Dig into Nashville history with the Community History Blog. Listen to stories, history, and culture on NPL Podcasts. Please see this Note for Readers.

Book cover for "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark".

Skulls, Spirits, and Monsters - Oh My!

October 25, 2016

Terri Thomas

Is your tween's favorite holiday Halloween? Do they love creepy, spine-tingling reads? Are you worried they aren't ready for certain titles? Check out these titles that are varying degrees of terrifying.

Two book covers by William Sloane: the eerie "To Walk The Night" and the dark, atmospheric "The Edge of Running Water."

The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror

October 23, 2016

Ben English

Two standout genre novels of the 30's finally get some overdue recognition.

The Parthenon in Nashville during a snowfall. Ducks in foreground.

Nashville Family Collection - Can you locate where these pictures were taken?

October 22, 2016

Sarah Arntz

Metro Archives recently received a donation of photos, clippings, and documents from the McClanahan and Weakley families, two prominent Nashville families by marriage. Many early 20th-century photos lack captions and show travel outside Nashville. Can you help us identify the locations?

The Origin of Teddy Bears

October 18, 2016

Jenny Ellis

Teddy Bears: Our favorite furry friends!

Book cover for Good and Cheap, features a book title of a photo of a stack of sandwiches.

Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4 a Day

October 17, 2016

I love this cookbook for so many reasons--its fun, veggie-filled recipes, its attention to fixed grocery budgets, and its PDF version with a creative commons license for online sharing.

Original soundtrack album of The Get Down showing silhouettes of figures dancing.

Because you watched The Get Down…

October 15, 2016

Megan Adovasio-Jones

Shining a light on disco and hip-hop with the Netflix original series The Get Down!

A circular infographic on a yellow background shows baking ratios for items like muffins, bread, and pasta dough.

Ratio by Michael Ruhlman

October 13, 2016

Amanda Dembiec

Happy Artober! Let's celebrate with a book about food math that is so cool, even a nonmath person (like me) will love it!

Bob Dylan Primer: Dig into Works by the Newly Named Nobel Prize Winner

October 13, 2016

Jenny Ellis

Bob Dylan joins the ranks of previous American laureates in literature--Faulkner, Hemingway, and Steinbeck--with the honor of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2016, "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

Book cover for Lolita is a close-up of a woman's lips.

Lolita: He broke my heart. You merely broke my life.

October 10, 2016

Lolita is a darkly humorous tragedy about a young girl and a man's obsession with her.

Teen Read Week

October 9, 2016

Greg Hall

Know a Teen with a broken library card? Prescription: Teen Read Week