Episode 51: Amanda Oliver, Stumbling Into the Happiness of My Life. Part 2 of 2.

Welcome back to It’s the Journey for part of my interview with author, Amanda Oliver!

Below are the show notes from Episode 50 If you haven’t listened to that I’d recommend checking it out first!

Did you know your destiny when you were a child?

I always admired kids who did, and my next guest is one of those people who knew what she wanted and has been on a path towards her dream nearly all her life!

Amanda Oliver knew at the age of 4 that she wanted to be a writer. In this first episode of two amazing episodes, she shares her journey that began with a 4 year old creating her own writer’s nook, to an amazing adult who is an award winning writer and is now publishing her first book!

In this episode we talk about Amanda’s journey to writing OVERDUE: Reckoning with the Public Library. Often in life, the path to what we want isn’t a straight line. On her journey to writing this book, Amanda became a professional librarian only to learn how our libraries are filling too many rolls to list for our most vulnerable people.

Amanda summed it up the best in an NPR interview in 2019 when she said:

“I’m trained in information organization, but nothing...Nothing I learned in my masters program helped me with what being a librarian actually looks like, which was caring for the patrons.”  

Amanda has been interviewed about libraries and being a librarian for NPR, CBC Radio, The Associated Press, The Guardian, The American Scholar, and American Libraries Magazine. In addition to her own experience she interviewed 75 additional librarians while preparing to write this important book.

Listen now to hear her amazing story. I was blown away about all the things librarians have to do, and now I love and cherish them even more.

Learn more about Amanda at amandaoliver.com. On her site you can learn about and pre-order her book. (You can also order it at your favorite local bookstore to give them some love. I ordered my copy from Left Bank Books, here in St. Louis) In addition you can find some of her published essays, which are just beautiful.

I’m so grateful Amanda took time to talk with me about her book, and in the next episode a bit more about her journey. Don’t miss part 2!