NL: Can you share a bio with us?
HKB: Hello! My family and I moved to Nyack in the summer of 2024 and my parents, children, partner, dog and I love this community- all of us. I grew up in Washington Heights on the Hudson. I love gardening- to eat, cooking- to eat and going out to restaurants- to eat. For my day job, I used to teach Spanish literature and language, but now I work as a librarian with early college students in Queens. I love to help my students find the books that make them feel good, especially if they are quirky character-filled books with a good dose of humor to lighten the mood.

​NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
HKB: Right now, I am reading a book a friend gave me called The Library at Night, by the Argentine author Alberto Manguel (not the one by Matt Haig, called The Midnight Library, which I like as well). I am enjoying it very much. It’s like a meditation on the books in his library and how he haunts his library at night. Manguel is not an ordinary person though- he is quite privileged (his library is a reconstructed barn with like 35,000 volumes), but he loves his books and is a good storyteller, so I am happy to be along for the ride. I also always have a cozy mystery to read before bed. Right now I’m reading A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Pennant. It’s so good- about a group of Jamaican-born British people in the 1960’s who form a pardner, which is a lending scheme to pool their wealth.

NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
HKB: I would invite Olga Tokarczuk. She is just awesome. Also, her book Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead was truly surprising, thoughtful, and entertaining- and would make a great movie too. But my daughter says, Judy Bloom, duh.

NL: If you could step inside a story, which book’s world would you choose to live in?
HKB: That’s easy! I would love to sleep over in the Metropolitan Museum of Art like the kids do in the book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg. You know, running around, trying on the Egyptian jewelry…

NL: If you were stranded on a deserted island, which book would you bring and why?
HKB: A long one. Maybe the encyclopedia?

NL: Are there any books that you feel are overrated?
HKB: Hmmm…. I don’t really want to knock anyone. But for me, I didn’t really need to read all the Steinbeck books in high school. My parents were going through a divorce and I already had enough real-life trauma to have to endure The Red Pony. Maybe they could have changed things up a bit.

NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
HKB: Definitely murder mysteries. And when they include detailed descriptions of food, I am a goner. I confess I have read every single Andrea Camilleri book on the Nyack library’s shelf. That’s a lot of books- check them out for yourself.

NL: Which book are you most hoping to see adapted into a film or TV series?
HKB: There’s a wonderful debut novel called Greta and Valdin, about siblings who are half Maori (indigenous peoples from New Zealand) and half Russian, by Rebecca Reilly. It’s hilarious and it should definitely be a series.

NL: What book do you think defines your generation and why?
HKB: Probably any Judy Blume book. Our parents, the boomers, were just obsessed with the idea of “coming of age.”

NL: What’s your least favorite book?
HKB: Manuals. I am so bad at reading manuals.

NL: If you were to own a bookstore, what would it be like? How would you arrange the books? Would you serve coffee and food? Play music? Where would it be? 
HKB: First of all, all the book covers would be facing out. It would be a gallery of book covers- I always judge a book by its cover. There would be coffee in the morning, switching to wine and beer in the afternoon. A record player in the corner with some Miles Davis. Local art on the walls and in a space with lots of light, plants inside, and nature outside. Come to think of it, we will need a glass garage door that can be opened in the nice weather.

NL: If you could throw one book (lovingly!) at someone’s head so they’d absorb its wisdom instantly, which book would you choose?
HKB: To my kids- I lovingly throw any book on cleaning up after yourselves- at your head!