Season 5, Episode 40: ALA President Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada

On this week’s episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee is chatting with a special guest. Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada, the president of the American Library Association is here to talk about:

Bookish Moments: a bookish feature on TV and different readers choosing their TBR
Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately
Deep Dive: Lessa is giving us a brief rundown (which I could have easily made 6 hours long) about the American Library Association and the state of libraries in the US.
The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives

As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you’d like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don’t scroll down!

We are now including transcripts of the episode (this link only works on the main site). The goal here is to increase accessibility for our fans!

*Please note that all book titles linked below are Bookshop affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. If you’d prefer to shop on Amazon, you can still do so here through our main storefront. Anything you buy there (even your laundry detergent, if you recently got obsessed with switching up your laundry game) kicks a small amount back to us. Thanks for your support!* 

1:20 - Lessa’s ALA President Page

3:47 - Bookish Moment of the Week

4:13 - Lessa’s Good Morning America article

7:14 - Current Reads

7:30 - Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith (Lessa)

10:31 - Platonic by Marisa G. Franco

10:34 - The Life Council by Laura Tremaine

10:54 - Solomon’s Crown by Natasha Siegel (Kaytee)

14:36 - Kapaemahu by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson (Lessa)

19:12 - Sea Change by Gina Chung (Kaytee)

22:45 - Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout (Lessa)

27:13 - The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea (Kaytee)