This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Meg Anderson, author of THE MEMORY OF BORROWED BOOKS.

About THE MEMORY OF BORROWED BOOKS: In the coastal town of Foxhollow Bay, librarian Claire Ashford keeps her life as meticulously ordered as the centuries-old library she calls home. But when the town announces plans to shut it down, her sanctuary, and the life she’s built within its walls, begins to crumble.

One night, while wandering the stacks after hours, Claire discovers a door that shouldn’t exist. And behind it lies a secret room filled with books no one else can see.

Each book pulls her into the memories of those who have passed through the library’s doors?moments half-lived and stories left unfinished. Buried within these pages is a message the library has been trying to share, urging Claire to uncover the path to saving it.

With the demolition looming and time running out, Claire must piece together what the library is trying to show her. But one book keeps calling her back, and in its pages is a memory that could change everything. One that reveals the key to saving the library may be tangled in her own memories more than she ever could have imagined.

About Meg Anderson: Meg Anderson is married to her college sweetheart and is a mom to three kids and four very opinionated cats. Her days are often filled with folding an unreasonable amount of laundry, reheating the same cup of coffee for the third (fine, fourth) time and trying to steal moments to read or write in the middle of life’s beautiful chaos.

Meg lives in Indiana, and when she’s not writing or chasing kids, she’s probably buddy watching a reality show and texting commentary the whole time, wandering a hiking trail, or digging up treasures at a thrift store. She’ll also be the first to reassure you that you can never have too many books, no matter what your bookshelves try to say.

Meg lives with multiple sclerosis, a part of her life but never the whole story. Writing has always been her outlet, and where she first discovered that putting words on the page helped her make sense of the world around her, sparking her love for writing stories.

Whether Meg is dreaming up her next novel or getting lost in someone else’s, she believes in the power of stories to help comfort, connect, and create joy—even through life’s hardest chapters.

This week’s picks:

• Meg #1: The Haunting of Hill House (Netflix)
• Meg #2: Jimothy
• Tracy: A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
• Patrick: Ascendance of a Bookworm (Crunchyroll)

Links:

• Meg Anderson on Instagram
• Tracy Townsend on BluSky
• Patrick Hester on Instagram
• The Functional Nerds Patreon Page

© 2026 Patrick Hester

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