Amanda Dembiec

Amanda is a classically-trained pianist who loves to read. Like any good librarian, she also has two cats named after Italian cities. Amanda spends her free time sitting in Nashville traffic, baking, and running the Interlibrary Loan office at the Nashville Public Library.

Latest Blog Posts

What? The library doesn't have enough weather books for you? Have no fear! ILL is here!!!

Imagine being a single mother to thirteen girls - all before you turn 21! Not many people would choose that life, but Katie did.

An original author, creating a fictitious author writing what amounts to fan fiction, that was then borrowed by another fictitious character for more fan fiction, and then back to the original author who took the fictitious author's character and wrote her own fan fiction? What's not to love about that?

When we travelled to Italy, I really wanted to learn more of the language because Italians don’t, as a rule, speak much English. What no one tells you before hand is that Italian is hard to learn. When I came across this book, I was hoping that it would give me the added insight to get better at Italian.

 A Southern family dynasty romance? I’m so in. I have a real soft spot for Southern literature and family sagas, so to put those together was very exciting.

Who do I love? Hmm...let's see. I love my husband. I love my crazy kittens. I love my family. I more than like my job. I love...

Wait.

What?

Oh. Who Do You Love is the title of a book by Jennifer Weiner?

A few years ago we all (and I mean ALL of us) geeked out over a little book called Ready Player One. It was an epic battle filled with gaming, fun 80′s stuff, and adventure. It even made our Best of 2012 Popmatic Podcast episode as one of our favorite books of the year. Thanks Crystal for bringing us so much fun and entertainment!

I kinda hated school. I know a lot of people think that high school is the “time of your life” or it’s “the glory days.” To you I say, “Bah. Humbug” and then I shake my cane. But even middle school wasn’t that great for me. My mom taught 8th grade math in my school, so she was always there with me. This meant I could do nothing wrong ever because everyone (and I do mean everyone – even other teachers) would run to my mom to tattle. And yet…

Working downtown like I do it’s hard...no, nigh unto impossible to ignore the existence of the food truck phenomenon. A few of them even park directly in front of the library on 6th Avenue. And yet…I’ve never officially eaten at one.

Our whirlwind library culinary tour continues with one of my favorite ingredients - is it savory or is it sweet? Nope. It's just The Egg.

If Julia Child is the grande dame of cooking, then MFK Fisher is her counterpart in the land of food writers. There is no way we could possibly Savor Summer without mentioning her brilliance.

3 nights at a 4 star hotel in a warm climate: approximately $1000

Car rental to get you to the beach: $100

Reading a good book at said beach while you dig your toes into the warm sand: Priceless. Oh wait. No, I’m sorry. The name of the book is Priceless. You don’t have to read it at the beach. You can read it anywhere you want.

And now I want to go to culinary school. Don’t get me wrong I love my job and I really have no desire to start working every night and holiday in a hot, sweaty kitchen being yelled at by some Gordon Ramsey wanna be because my risotto’s al dente.

And yet.

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I love to watch the Food Network. I can watch hours upon hours of food TV even if I never make anything the fancy chefs are cooking. I do think, though, that my cooking has improved just by proximity. Watching all that good cooking - some of the tips and techniques had to get buried in my brain somewhere.