Podcast:Borrowed & Returned Published On: Thu Aug 06 2026 Description: Over forty years after The House on Mango Street came out, Sandra Cisneros is still hearing from readers about how her words healed them. In this episode, the award-winning writer shares the books that were her medicine growing up, and the prescription she has for all of us. Show notes:How many books have you read? Check out BPL’s full list of 250 books that influenced America. Then check out our booklist with all the titles Sandra mentioned in this episode.Watch parts of the opera version of The House on Mango Street, and learn more about the production from Glimmerglass.Read Sandra’s essay for The New York Times, “A Year Among My Fellow Banned Writers.”Listen to our interview with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States.Want more interviews with authors on BPL’s 250 for 250 list? Check out the following interviews: Linda Sarsour, We Are Not Here to be Bystanders; Julia Alvarez, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents; Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory; Jacqueline Woodson, This Is the Rope; Jose Antonio Vargas, Dear America; Maia Kobabe, Gender Queer; Art Spiegelman, Maus; N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season; George M. Johnson, All Boys Aren’t Blue.