NL: Can you share a bio with us?
TD: Hi! I’m Tracy. I’m the Assistant Director & Head of Adult Services. I’ve worked at Nyack for 7 years. I previously worked as a Librarian in Clifton and Passaic, NJ. I enjoy traveling, writing, theatre, cats, and reading. Fun fact, I have an identical twin.
NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
TD: I’m currently reading One of Us Knows: A Thriller by Alyssa Cole for a book club I’m in with some friends. I’m also reading the Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley by David Waldstreicher. I’m not liking the thriller as much as I thought I would but the biography is interesting. I was a huge fan of Ann Rinaldi when I was growing up and her books got me into history. Her YA book Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons: The Story of Phillis Wheatley is worth checking out too.
NL: Which character in a book do you most identify with?
TD: I’d like to say someone cool like Hermione Granger but I’m probably a Mallory Pike or a Meg/Beth March.
NL: What books are on your night stand?
TD: Reign by Katharine McGee, The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs: A Novel by Katherine Howe, We Were the Lucky Ones: A Novel by Georgia Hunter, and The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas.
NL: Are you a re-reader?
TD: I used to re-read so many books! It was one of my favorite things to do. Unfortunately the older I get, the less time I have for reading so I haven’t done it in awhile. I do co-host/ produce a Potter podcast so I do re-read those books for it though.
NL: Thoughts on prologues? Epilogues?
TD: I’m indifferent about prologues but I really like epilogues when done right.
NL: What’s the first book that you remember reading?
TD: My mother claims it was a Dr. Seuss book but the first book I remember loving was Kristy and the Mother’s Day Surprise in 1st grade. I was obsessed with that series for a good while – check out the podcast Stuck in Stoneybrook. I also really loved Mine Eyes Have Seen by Ann Rinaldi, The Ear, The Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer and Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.
NL: What’s your least favorite book?
TD: I didn’t like the Divergent series at all. I have a lot of feelings on it so next time you’re in the Library, ask me! I thought Unwind by Neal Shusterman was well written but probably the bleakest book I had ever read. It’s stuck with me all these years later.
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?
TD: It would be modeled off bookstores from Colonial Williamsburg with that historic charm. I’d arrange the books like in a library and I would serve coffee and comfort food. It would be right here in Nyack, (though check out the two great bookstores we have here already – Big Red Books & Pickwick Books!)
NL: Are you a one-book-at-a-time reader? Or do you like reading multiple books at the same time?
TD: I have a long drive to the library so I’m usually listening to an audiobook and reading several other books at once.