Books
Calling all book worms and bibliophiles! Listen to the latest book news, reviews and author interviews aired from leading talk radio shows and premium podcasts.
The Book Review
Doerr, Powers on Fiction Longlist for National Book Awards
"Also this week. We got the long list for the national book awards and there's quite a few more books on these lists. There are five categories including one for literature in translation which i think is a great category at even though it's the national book awards it's a nice way to alert readers to literary works from other countries that might be not on our radar otherwise so between the booker and the national book awards at this point. There's only one author on both lists and it's richard powers. Richard powers is on the long list for fiction with anthony door who has a previous nominee. He is nominated. Were cloud-cuckoo-land lauren. Groff who is also a previous nominee. I think two time national board finalist is nominated for matrix. Which is her novel. That's set in a nunnery. In france jacob ones and is nominated for abundance. It's a debut novel that follows a father and son after their visited from their trailer on new year's eve. And that's from gray. Wolf press gray wolf. Ross has had a really good showing at all kinds of literary awards for several years. They publish really interesting. Experimental and groundbreaking works and the other fiction nominees. This year are layered hunt for zuri honore fan jeffers for the love songs of w e b boys. It's her debut novel and it's already gotten a tremendous reception. Great reviews a little. Bit of a boost from oprah and the novel traces our family across two centuries starting in a small town where her ancestors lived in georgia. And we're enslaved and it's been described as sweeping epic. There's another debut by robert. Jones jr. called the profits and this is a love story about two black enslave men in the deep south on a plantation who find love in these unbelievable horrendous circumstances
Sway
Dave Eggers: Is Limitless Choice a Good Thing?
"So let's start talking about this book the every so it's a sequel to your two thousand thirteen book the circle which is about a search company that bears its will essentially or possibly facebook. Tell me why you decided to write. This sequel in which the circle gobbles up in ecommerce company named after south american jungle so basically amazon and creates the every Which one character called the most monopolistic control hungry corporation ever to plague the world. So why do the sequel tell me how you thought about this. Well i think you know. When when i was done with the circle i had never thought about a sequel never written a sequel to anything and But i kept taking notes. And i sort of you know would jot things down over time and i remember at one point A friend of mine who She treats students at a college. She's that she was on campus psychologist and She was saying that the thing that her students came in with more than anything. The thing that problem that plagued them was choice. There were anxious about a lot of things but more and more students needed how more and more students were plagued with like unlimited choices unlimited. Input too much to think about on a given day and too many choices to make on a given day. And i thought that was really interesting because we would think you know at this sort of apex point of human evolution. We would want all these choices and sort of that would be some sort of glorious now plays to arrive at that we could order anything and have it arrive at our doorstep the next morning but these kids were far more anxious than they had been ten years before in fifteen years before and i thought well that's an interesting starting point and what if there were a monopoly that would not only sort of tell you which choices are correct which ones are the most You know beneficial to the environment and progressive in different ways and they would help you given your preferences and algorithm ick sort of determined personality. They'd help you become a better version of yourself and the ultimate version of yourself as a personal person and a member of the broader
No Stupid Questions
Why Do We Forget so Much of What Weve Read?
"I've been thinking about a conversation that we had about a tree grows in brooklyn. Do you recall this conversation. Do you said you loved. That book loved loved. Loved it. but you couldn't remember single thing about it. Yes so. I thought you might have forgotten the conversation about how i had forgotten but anyway my point is that it's a really interesting thing that people can read books that they absolutely love so much that they're like evangelical trying to get everyone to read this book and then when you ask that person oh well what's it about. There's this long pause because like me. They have no idea at all who the protagonists were the plot. Was it a tragedy. They just have this residue of emotion. That says i loved the experience of the book and it makes me think of that actually. I don't think he's actually my angelou quote. People may forget what you said but they'll never forget how you made them feel. I don't think my said that. But i do think it's an interesting question whether we may forget what is in a book but we don't forget how it made us feel. What do you think. There's a nice thought on this topic that resonated with me. pamela paul. who's the editor of the new york times book review. She says when. I'm reading a book that i even really like. I remember the physical object. The addition the cover says. I usually remember where i bought it. Or who gave it to me. Which to me is really lovely and important information. What i don't remember she rates. Is everything else. So what's in the. I don't think that this is uncommon. You have those kind of connections to books. I do sometimes remember the cover. Or even whether i took out like outside papery part it gets in the way so i often remember. Did i take the cover off of this one or did i not. I find that my memory does hang onto some things. Which honestly i find to be. Not that useful. Mostly i remember how i felt. I remember whether i liked it. Or whether i didn't like it. Maybe that's what i want to remember. Like when i'm reading it i want to know whether i'm going to want to look fondly back at this or recommended to stephen. It could just be functional.
HISTORY This Week
The True Winnie-the-Pooh
"A canadian soldier buying an orphaned bear cub from a trapper is not the way you imagine the origins of winnie the pooh. You are not alone. It's really strange. A person who was once called the world's leading who scholar agrees switch. I'm bravo aged biographer. And tweet is eighty eight years old. She's been a raiders since the late nineteen fifties. I writing children's books and then trying to biographies in the nineteen seventies and eighties. One of those books about the english writer edmund. Gos- won a big prize and after that amply was under a bit of pressure as she selected her next subject of publishes approach with ideas and most of them were wildly unsuitable but one publisher pitched a person she liked a mill author of the winnie. The pooh books. I said immediately that would be marvelous if i could because i always loved a mill. I love books. I've read them as a child. He was perfect subject for me but there was a catch. We didn't want to do the book. Without the permission of millns living son christopher robin milne who inspired the character of christopher robin i had said jewish this just a momentum was agreeable and i understand that he has turned down number biographers in the past in fact he had said in cringe that she didn't want anyone to write about farther but this time he agrees he even gives tweet permission to access all kinds of archival documents. She's able to visit the milam country home in southern england which helped inspire the pooh books. And which was and still is off to the public if it's a lovely place. Remarkably and unspoilt sexy now as it was then and she gets to meet with christopher robin milne himself.
Joseyphina's World
In Need of Lenses, Perhaps?
"Influences perspective we determine how important things are by the way we perceive them. The president of your country surely may be apparent but you do not necessarily see him the same way you see your father. Why is that because the president seems far away from your world and you only perceive him as an authority. Figure your father's always around or perhaps a phone call away so you define your father by the emotional attachment you have with him. The same can be said of god people define and describe him in varying ways because of how they perceive him some perceive god to be this awesome being far away in the heavens ruling the world and his majesty others also see him to be the loving father who looks after us and response whenever we call upon him. Both perspectives are true but we would be missing out on half the holistic experience of knowing him with we have either near or far view of him. Not both so the same way. We find corrective lenses whenever we have a visual disparity it is about time we adjusted our god lenses. If you only have a short sighted view of god it is necessary to get your vision. Balanced. so you do not ignore the fact that although he's your best friend and father he's also the majestic king and creator of the universe. This is crucial because we are sometimes tempted to ignore the greatness of our god and see him as a mere psychic whom we call on whenever we are lonely and in need of something. And if you have the long-sighted view of god is being fearful and just who rewards people according to their deeds you should readjust your view because although he is all that he's also the most dependable and closest friend you can ever have. This is also significant. Because some people believe he is so far away and preoccupied with bigger issues that he cannot have time for our little daily problems but that is not true so why not take some time and get your vision checkout if you're missing view then you should reposition your perspective and if you are seeing everything clearly both far and near the almighty god in all his splendor and glory coming down to earth man to die for us so we can regain our place with him in heaven then rejoice because you are enjoying the whole view.
Monocle 24: Meet the Writers
Deborah Moggach on Her New Book, 'the Black Dress'
"W was sitting in your beautiful garden on the south coast and a lot. These towns around here are characterized by the fact that pickup lots of charity shops and also ladies of a certain age. And that really is the starting point for your new book which begins with this wonderful find in a charity shop with the heroin prue who seventy and dumped by her husband and rob a desperate. She goes down to deal where i live for the day and sees a little black dress in a charity shop. This triggers an idea in an idea so bold and reckless really that it takes a breath way but she decided to go through with it and in fiction you can always push character that bit further than one would in real life. I would never do this so what she plans to do. It is also triggered this idea by her going to the funeral somebody. She doesn't know by mistake. 'cause she arrives half an hour at goethe's green crematorium they have. They run very tight ship. They're in and out in half an hour says she finds herself in the wrong funeral. And somebody says one of the other people. I didn't know anybody here to you. Because of course funerals people come out of the woodwork. From all parts of your life and we'll have many different personalities by the time we die and unto had different knives so she decides because as i said she's dumped by her husband it desperate for man. She's ashamed of herself for being so helpless but she is. She decides to get dressed up to look in the local paper of war for. I'm laughing own joke. Look in the local paper for forthcoming funerals of women of her age. And then gatecrash get the little black dress on gatecrashed the funeral and trying to get first dibs on the grieving widower because as we all know. When a man is bereaved women crawl out the woodwork. again crawling out of the woodwork. To offer condolences in casseroles. And they say things like my 'cause making a funny noise would you possibly help
Storybound
Myriam Gurba Reads Her Story, "Writing Ourselves Into Bed"
"I appreciate you sitting down with me today. Your episode affected me in multiple ways in ways that i've experienced trauma firsthand and also second hand through friends and family and it wasn't just the story itself that affected me when you were in the studio Before we hit record you give us a heads up that you might have some difficulty reading the story which you did beautifully. And i'm curious the way you write about. Your experiences is harrowing to read. So how do you prepare yourself to write it and do you place boundaries for yourself as far as when you deliberately choose to remember it and examine it. Maybe if you could expand a little bit on that for that is an excellent question or those are. That's an excellent set of questions. The reason that i appreciate that question. Because i've encountered during interviews. The fallen question isn't writing about abuse. Cathartic and while writing has cathartic elements. There's nothing innately cathartic about it. And when a person creates our that is rooted in a history of trauma. That person does have to revisit those moments and that person is required to remember them reimagined them and in many senses reconstruct them and i think that it is that reconstruction that can be incredibly difficult and that reconstruction cannot only awake in the prior wound but can bring a new injury
Dual Threat with Ryen Russillo
Author Jonathan Eig Discusses His New Book 'Ali: A Life'
"Book is ali a life biography. And it's incredible and the author of jonathan joins us on the podcast. We're going to kind of do an ollie specific pot here so let's start at the beginning just like the book does his family's two generations removed slavery. We know there are some history that none of us really knew about. Even he didn't know about about his own grandparents. He has a father whose abusive but talented. They weren't a destitute family by any means In their neighborhood louisville it was. It was a family that was probably doing better than some others. But i think the the foundation of who ali became as a person. How did he develop this kind of unpolished. Personality is non compromising personality at such a young age. That's really one of the central questions to understanding. Ali and i think it goes to understanding american history. You know when. I interviewed dick gregory for this book. He said to me e books not going to be worth a damn. If you can't explain. What made a kid from the jim crow south same age as emmett till think that he could talk back to white people and get away with it that he can call himself the greatest when everybody around him was telling him he was a second class citizen. You got to be able to understand what made ali capable of that. And it's a really difficult question. I mean it's really complicated. Part of it is that he grows up in. Not the deep south louisville thinks of itself as more progressive. There are some opportunities That wouldn't be available to him anywhere else For example to to walk into a boxing gym at age twelve and have a white cop offer to help him and to be to get in the ring and mix it up with white kids. That didn't happen in alabama or mississippi. But it did happen in louisville and so all of these things And the fact that his father was really a you know a fighter Not in the boxing sense. Which is somebody who didn't think that we should have to take the the conditions that we were born into because of this racist country that that That we live in.
The Book Review
Dana Spiotta Talks About Wayward
"Deana spilled a joins us now. From the catskills. She is the author of many novels including innocence and others lightning field and stone arabia and her latest book is called wayward dana. Thanks for being here. Thanks so much for having me pamela. So this book begins with a house. Why what is this house. And what role does it play in the novel. Well it's a falling down arts and crafts house. That's in the city of syracuse. The main character. Sam has a habit of going to these kind of open houses. With no intention to buy and she finds us wreck of a house and syracuse you can actually buy houses for forty thousand dollars thirty thousand dollars that are completely falling apart and she just impulsively signs a contract for this house senate. Only when she's driving home that she realizes she's going to leave her husband and her entire life. And i think one of the questions that drives the novel in the beginning is why does she do this really reckless thing with her life and and i think she falls in love with the and i am part of me was thinking of writing a midlife person blowing up their life but i didn't want it to be because they fell in love with a younger lover which seems kind of cliche. I thought we're done with that. We're dealing with no this house. And i think the question is what is the house speak to her and i guess it wasn't what i was writing it. I didn't think about it as much. But after i thought okay. The house is hiding in plain sight at you could ignore it or you can look closely and see the beauty there and i think she's she thinks it speaks to her and she's the only one that can still see that it's beautiful and so maybe that has something to do about the state. The cheese in or that. Her life is in to that. She needs to kind of look at her life in a different way so she can see what's still beautiful and what still needs work. Maybe
Joseyphina's World
To My Would-Have Been Sibling
"I wished i could have met you. I can't tell if my life would have been much easier or more complicated with you. In when i still wished i had met you when i heard my mom lost you before you could join the world. I was dumbfounded. I never knew until recently. Although i have been blessed with lovely siblings i couldn't help but feel a pang of pain tugging at my heart when my mother told me she didn't see much affected by the ordeal like i was. I guess time has helped. Heal that wound. Ever since i found out about you. I've been wondering how you'd have looked like and how you fit into our family. Would you be as reserved as i am. While this my little sister or a little bit of both like my brother. I guess i would never know. Mom is amazing in every sense of the word. Extremely selfless and very protective. Dad is firm and supportive. They are not very good at showing emotions but they are great to my siblings can be a headache but would have loved them. I can't imagine my life without them but a part of me is also glad that you dodge the bullet entering this crooked world. I find myself in. Life isn't fair. But the god who created life is faithful. So there's hope. I know you would never get to read this but i needed to write down how i feel about you. You never existed. So i have no reason to miss you but i felt a part of me died when i heard about you for all persons out there who have lost a child or a sibling. I know it is a terrible feeling. We may never understand why they were taken away from us. But god knows best god always restores what has been taken from us and what he gives them. Return is more than what was taken. Take heart and comfort yourself. Knowing that they're gentle souls are at peace away from this chaotic
Joseyphina's World
What To Do When Threatened By A Flash Forward?
"She was finally getting her life back together again. She could now sleep through the night without having to wake up screaming from yet another nightmare. She could smile at people without faking it. Her heart was feeding normal. Now she could tell she had healed nor is he had managed to put her horrifying past behind her. She came out of herself made confinement and began to put yourself out there again. As long as you keep yourself lonely you will never get rid of that. Fear my dear. Her anathema amused. Ital- her thanks to her pretty look. It wasn't difficult for her to get a male attention. She got her fair share of ugly frogs to which she heated no attention before she found her prince charming. He was indeed charming and had a good heart. He had his act together to intact that nervous. He sometimes wondered if it was fair for him to end up with a once broken and glued backup girl like her. Don't feel guilty for the good things that come your way her. Andy's words would ring in her ear and banished the thoughts away. She was excited when he'd popped the question. She was going to be a wife but after the initial thrill subsided. She began to worry nanayakkara. Being the known media specialists would want to let his social circle know about the good news. She was however skeptical of doing that. She had moved to the city for a reason she was still in hiding although she was doing so in plain sight. But why are you not proud of getting married to me. Of course not nanna. I just don't want the unnecessary attention. Social media brings personal events. Like this i worked in the media. I've read the media. I've a lot of friends who would love to join us on our happy day. Why deny them that chance. How could she tell him. She didn't want to ruin the moment from him. I know he reserved. And you love your privacy. And i respect that but could you please meet me halfway here. He pleaded she forced to smile. What the hell. She wouldn't be able to hide forever so why not let go and live while it lasted. Sure sweetheart sorry for trying to ruin it. This is your day as well. I want us both to be happy. That's my girl. He said happily and kissed her forehead.
The Book Review
Katie Kitamura Talks About Intimacies
"K. Kimura joins us now from somali tennessee to talk about her new novel. Intimacies katie. hi hi family. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks for being here and from sony. What are you doing there. I am taking part in the swannee writers conference which is a gathering of. i think almost two hundred writers. And there's a series of workshops and readings and many many dinners and late nights all right. That sounds very un. Quarantine like yeah. It's a little bit of a shock. I think everybody's adjusting to the experience of being in a room with other people than trying to remember socialize. You know that actually brings us to the subject of this novel. Because i i do feel like we're all relearning how to socially communicate with peanut person and not on a screen and i feel like when i see someone now. I'm like hello. I am a person and i just everything like slightly off and this book. Intimacies is in part about language and communication. And you tell us in your own words. The premise of the book. The novel is about a woman who moves from new york to the hague in the netherlands to take a job working as an interpreter. At a war crimes tribunal and very quickly she becomes entangled in a series of professional and personal situations which destabilize for a sense of the world around her and also her place in it and a lot of the novel is really occupied by her. Not only doing the interpretive work in her in the court in her professional context but also in our own life as she can scans people around her and tries to understand what they're feeling what their motivations might be how they're reacting to her so when you said that it's a little bit related to the way i think we're all feeling i certainly feel like a kind of almost hypersensitivity every time i meet a person. Now as i'm trying to relearn all the cues of body language and and everything else that is part of how we interact with people
Monocle 24: Meet the Writers
Interview With Ellen Wiles, Author of 'Live Literature'
"Welcome to monaco reads very much. No let's start with a little bit of your background because you've been a barrister and a musician that some way away from way you are. Now it is yes. I've had an interdisciplinary background or checkable trades. You could say yeah. I think having a background in music and also in advocacy is embarrassed as bobby shape the way i think about literature and the relationship between the texted. The voice of before wins. Allston bed into my approach to this new book on life that you now absolutely. Because you've got this wonderful kind of very clean analytical thought going on and i guess that's the barrister side of you but also the lovely rhythm that goes through the book and i'm guessing that's music i think so yeah i'm really interested in rhythms and the sound of words and the sound of voices and the way that those will feed together to affect how we think about about text books about communication meeting so this book live literature. The experience and cultural value of literary performance events from silence to festivals is absolutely fascinating particularly to me because my other job is as a charrette literary events. And you'll very much drilling down into into what live literature is how would you define it. Well i defined as events where literature and abroad senses performed. I'm in this country. Focusing live in person events so what happens when people get in a physical space together. And that's become all the more heightened importance and challenged in this pandemic times when sunday. All these live in person events had to change and that will happen just as as this book was about to come out so it forced me to really thank you. Know what what is the difference between a live in person event in digital abandon. How can we value them differently. But yet It's huge. It's increased so much. This century the tweet festivals loomed all over the world but also other events. And i want to take about the importance of little events in bookshops and miss recitals. Different kinds of ways in wichita can be full audiences.
Joseyphina's World
Baby Mama: A Trophy Wifes Headache
"Was feeling over the moon toward her upcoming nuptials. She was on the verge of giving up and calling it quits. When elvis proposed she was surprised at the out of the blue popping the question she was suspecting him of seeing another lady and she wasn't going to allow herself to be dumped so an elvis invited her to dinner at a restaurant. She knew the day of reckoning head. Come she prepared herself mentally and emotionally for the moment. She watched him warily as they ate. What was he waiting for for her to finish her dinner before he said so she would puke them out or would he say that she was chewing so it would choke her. No she would say it first. Margaret will you elvis. I know what. You're going to say. Mary me maggie eyes bulged. Was she dreaming. Are you asking me to. Elvis smiled and got down on one knee and ask the unbelievable yet overdue question again she said yes breathlessly. Still in shock over the turn of events so he chose her. Whoever he was seeing must not have had enough to keep her efforts. She feared she was going to lose him on the basis of her decision to abstain since he was sexually active when they met but it looked like the good girl won the battle over the bad boy but her tail wasn't going to have the usual happy ending about four days to the wedding. Margaret found out. Elvis had a baby on the way so he found himself someone to sort him out after their brief. Make out sessions no wonder. He didn't protest much about the abstinence. Pledge she had made years ago was she disappointed yes. She was heartbroken that although she was the one he had chosen to marry. A part of him would always be out there a part of him. That didn't include her. She wanted to call off the wedding but she couldn't. How could she when all the invitation cards had been sent and the event planner caterer and make up artist of all been pay. How was she going to explain to her family. Friends colleagues at work her facebook and instagram friends and followers that she was going to remain single a little while longer.
Therapy for Black Girls
Romance Novels for Black Women
"You so much for joining these day. I really appreciate you hanging out and talking about romance novels with me this afternoon. I'm so excited. It's my favorite thing to talk about likewise so to you i would love for you to just kind of get us started by talking about what actually makes a romance novel a romance novel. Like how is their genre classified. Well there are some actual hard and fast rules that you have to follow. Were to be considered a romance. Like a romance isn't just fiction with a love story in it. The love story has to be prominent. So it can't be like a thriller where they're solving a murder or something and they accidentally way in the background fall. But that's not point at all so the love has to be or front and there has to be a happy ending if there is an. Yeah if there is no happy ending. It's not a romance in. Who says these rules. Where do these rules confirm. Maybe the romance writer association Their long-held hardened basked rules. Okay and the phantoms. Get into battles over at honey yes it. Yeah this doesn't classify you know so like we were speaking in technical terms. That's what that is. But like i grew up on romancing the stone and things like They're like on adventures in cartagena colombia. Like solving insane mysteries following romance to me that might not technically classify. No yeah interesting. So very i saw you shaking your head when she said the phantoms. Kinda get into a would have been some of your favorites. And how did you get into this genre. I would say like. I've always been a reader. I don't know how to explain that. The people but i've always been a deep reader and one of the children were meet other women. They're like yeah. I was picking books that people's houses and disarray minimum. That was me picking people's houses.
Books and Boba
An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim
"All right so let's get started re-re. Can you read into in minutes in this novel. America is in the grip of deadly flu. Pandemic when frank catches the virus. His girlfriend polly will do whatever it takes to save him. Even if it means risking everything when she finds out there's a company that has invent a time travel she agrees to a radical contract if she signs up for a one way trip into the future to work as a bonded laborer. The company will pay for the life saving treatment. Frank needs polly promises to meet frank again in galveston texas where she will arrive in twelve years but when polly is rerouted an extra five years into the future. Frank is nowhere to be found alone transformed and divided america with no status. No money paulie must navigate a new life and find a way to locate frank determine if he is alive and if they're love has endured so i was pretty surprised for a time travel novel. It was said in the past because a when you travel into the future. It's like a time period that we haven't Experience in in real life but the future in this book is two thousand two. Yeah it was actually took me a while to wrap my head around the fact that this takes place in an alternate timeline. It's a u Of our timeline were a mutated flu. Pandemic sweeps nation slashed the world and Nothing like her times. Nothing nothing like what's happening right now. The united states. That was the thing i was like. This book came out in twenty eighteen. And you know when people were reading it it was like oh this is what life would be like if a pandemic hit. You know. it's like an all but but now that we are living through a pandemic and we have been living through on for the past like year and like whatever buns almost two years at this point. we're just like yeah like a lot of similarities and a lot of
The New Yorker: Fiction
Ann Patchett Reads Maile Meloy
"High an cli- deborah welcome So you and miley moyer friends. It's true it's and i've heard that you were in a way the trigger for this story. The proxy marriage. Can you tell me about that In a very small way Molly and i were in australia together. We were on book tour separately. But when you fly to australia with someone and you're there a couple of weeks and then fly back. You have a lot of to talk. And at one point miley was telling me about proxy marriage. She is from helena. Montana and montana is the only state where you can have a double proxy marriage which means neither the bride or the groom has to be present in order for forward the wedding to happen and while she was telling me about that i said wow that sounds like a short story. What do you think that miley does best in her writing. What is it. Sp- greatest characteristic my gosh Such a fan. I'm not even going to say. This is the greatest characteristic of miles writing but the greatest characteristic of miley as a person is that anything she decides. She wants to put her mind to she and she is always trying new things. She will research and study and practice and then be fantastic at it. When i met miley. She wrote short stories. I really believe she is one of our absolute greatest living short story writers and then she decided she wanted to write novels and then she decided she wanted to write middle grade fiction and then picture books and now. She's working on a graphic novel and she's doing screenplays and this also applies to things like laying tile which she can also do
The Book Review
Echoes of a Fairy Tale in a Devastating Novel
"Omar el cod joins us now from just outside portland oregon. His latest novel is called. What strange paradise omar. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much for having me. So you are in portland now. I believe that the united states is your fourth country of residence. Stop me if i'm missing something but you were born in. Egypt lifted in cutter and canada and now in the united states. I've been a guest on someone else's land since i was five years old. How has that influenced you as a writer. I mean it seems pretty clearly evident in both this novel. What strange paradise and in your debut novel american war but maybe you can talk a little bit more about that. Only it shows up in almost everything. I write in a number of ways. One of them is that a lot of my characters. have to deal with the sense of being unanswered. Both in american warrant what strange paradise. That's kind of one of the defining character. Traits is the sense of not being able to look at a particular part of the world or even a particular set of stories and be able to say this is mine. So that's certainly a theme that runs through a lot of what i write but also it puts me in a position where a just by temperament don't really care all that much about the nation state is an entity. I don't care too much about borders hard lines between places which was obvious from the first novel where i have a map of beginning of the book the tears these things apart so certainly plays into almost everything i write.
Monocle 24: Meet the Writers
Interview With Tharik Hussain, Author of ‘Minarets in the Mountains’,
"Tareq thanks so much for joining us on this program. I really think that your background and your experience of of growing up in britain is so important and so informative to what then comes in the book so so tell us about that because you you talk about growing up feeling like they were huge swathes of society that hated me just for being me and would happily kill me to prove that yes indeed. That might sound like an overstatement now actually. Sometimes i struggled to get those sentiments across to my children who spite of is still going on in spite of all the horrific vitriolic stuff you might see on line and sometimes even being sending public still. It's impossible for my children sometimes to appreciate exactly what i experienced. As a child on what people of my generation experienced as a child in fact writing it felt slightly traumatic. Because i went back to a time when i knew that there were individuals out there who wanted to kill us. And that's not an understate overstatement by any stretch of the imagination because we knew about the racist attacks that led to the deaths of people out of ally in the east end of london later on during my lifetime could this guy. He died again because of his race and we knew people were hospitalized. People often permanently damaged immuno physically mentally because of these attacks and of course i witnessed attacks on people myself and narrowly escape them. You know by the skin of my teeth.
Joseyphina's World
Pandemic Lockdown: A Boy Toys Dilemma
"Twenty nineteen was robbie's best year yet while people grumbled wishing that the year passed quickly. So they could see what twenty twenty held for them. It was his turnaround here. He was a struggling graduate from a humble home. Whose only source of income came from the occasional modeling gigs gut for either commercial shoots or fashion. Runway shows ravi taken to drinking to cope with a feeling of disappointment which had become his constant companion on his last day in the dark tunnel which was his life. It started just like any other his father calling him a bump with the mornings greetings. His mother giving him the sympathetic look and defending him as a preamble to fight. That had been stewing between the couple for days. Ravi went over to a friend's place where they're wild away. The time playing video games checking out the snaps and insta- stories of hot checks after sharing a meal of red read fried plantain and beans from the neighborhood's best food join play slipped a greater part of the afternoon away around five pm robbie's friend. Leslie had a phone call. By the time the call ended he was beaming. My bb just called going to the club. Tonight i'll definitely get enough to see me through the week. Leslie said excitedly rubbing his palms together your bb which one. I thought your girlfriend dumped you. Because you're broke nece exceeded your cuteness but you see. God works in mysterious ways through the heartbreak. I met a wonderful well established woman who was willing to nurse me back with love and of course money. you mean you have a sugar mummy. Yes the city is brimming with them. You see all these big women in their big cars. Were sunglasses everywhere. Because they don't want you to see their faces. They're all looking for some young male vitality to pump some fun into their prison like. mary lives. come to think of it. Why don't you come along with me to the club. My bb can hook you up with one and you wouldn't have to worry about what to eat anymore. Is that why you have stopped looking for work. You're being spoon fed by a married woman. Drop that self-righteous tone before. I reconsider my offer to take you with me. Fake it till you make it right. You gotta do what you gotta do before you get your big break. Then when the time comes when you're being interviewed about your journey to success you can come up with that rags to riches story that people like to gamble on our media. Are you coming. I guess there's no harm in trying right.
The Book Review
A Heartbreaking Novel About Mothers, Daughters and Secrets
"Elizabeth egan joins us now to talk about her latest. Pick for group taxed. Hey liz hi pam i thanks for having me. What's the book. The book is called. I couldn't love you more. And it's by esther freud. This is her ninth novel. And it's a book about three generations of women kind of circulating between ireland and england and the first one is a woman named ika. We get to know her in the nineteen thirties than her daughter. Roseline in the nineteen fifties and then a woman who we find out. And i'm not giving anything away that you won't learn fairly early in the book is kate who and we meet her in. Nineteen ninety-one and roseline is the linchpin of the whole story. She becomes pregnant in her early twenties and winds up in a home in ireland outside of cork a mother and baby home. Run by nuns. Who force her to give up her daughter kate for adoption and so the book is the story of these three women. And how e phi is continuing to look for roseline who disappears and kate is looking for roseline. She's looking for birth mother. And it's this incredibly powerful story about mothers and daughters and also an interesting and really heartbreaking. Look at what was happening in ireland at the time that really went on for about one hundred years where the catholic church ran the. They were like prisons for women who were in trouble in some in some way and they forced women to change their names and to give up their babies. And it's an incredibly heartbreaking walk at that legacy of secrecy.
Joseyphina's World
An Excerpt from Choristically Incorrect 2
"The service to charlotte singing debut ended with the head pastor acknowledging the choirs wonderful ministration. Who else thinks that. The choir sang exceptionally well today. Please applaud them. The congregation came alive with cheers. And i can see some new faces. Indeed god is doing a new thing in this church. God bless those who have chosen to use their talents to serve in his house. Turn and ask your neighbor. Wouldn't you serving god within his house. Charlotte was busily fanning her face. She couldn't afford her makeup messing up. Now she noticed some of the members glancing at her nodding approvingly. She smiled and nodded back. This was her moment and she was going to revel in it. You sang really well today. Frank complimented after the service end in. Thank you frank. I really feel fulfilled. I didn't know there was so much contentment and serving in church. Indeed that is why it is written at one day. In god's presence is better than a thousand elsewhere indeed. The bible doesn't lie using our gets and serving. God is more rewarding than the temporary applause. The world gives to secular artistes. Charlotte smiled in reply. She struggled to agree with that philosophy. The reward of being clapped for only occurs during services but the artistes enjoy acknowledgement every single day thousands of followers on twitter and instagram. And the elation of having fans requesting the take selfies with you charlotte hough. I thought i lost you. No you didn't. I was pondering over your words. Frank nodded deports Was he patting himself on the back. The choir was doing some boca warm-ups during a rehearsal when a lady strode in frank turned k. sandy's back charlotte heard comfort a few ladies crown. Who is she she wondered. Charlotte me sandra. She is one of best vocalists. She went away for a while to school. And now she's back. I'm sure the two of you with your powers combined with make us a formidable force in this church.
Books and Boba
Author Chat with Emiko Jean
"And we are here with emiko gene. The author of will never be apart impressive. All seasons and most recently tokyo ever after emiko so nice to have you on the podcast. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Thank you for having me today. Yeah congratulations on your recent book. Launch of my girlfriend has already re-regular. She read your book before. I even had a chance to receive your book. I think she's very excited. I'm talking to you right now. So we usually like to ask our authors like if they were always a writer if it's a passion that came later in life. I know that like i was looking at your bio earlier and it seems like you've juggled a lot of things in your past in your past life. You were an entomologist. You were a candle maker. You were a teacher. So how did you become a writer. Yeah so my road to writing and publication was really windy and long always been a really voracious reader. Remember getting stacks and stacks of books from the library on my mama. Take me there like every weekend. And i would get you back then. I think libraries have limited to now. But back then you. It was as much as you could carry over like rain. Myself down with books But i never really saw myself in any of the books that i read. I looking back now as i am. Kind of examining my adolescents. I i had never read a book. By japanese american author or even an asian american author. Add never read a book as a young person that featured in asian american protagonist And so i think that was really formative The clothes that pathway. So although i loved reading i never thought that i could be a writer
Joseyphina's World
An Excerpt From 'Its a Walk'
"Everyone is new to something at one point in life or the other from trying on high heels for the first time first day in a new school first day to first day at work. There's a moment when you stop yourself to wonder if you are at the right place. We're doing the right thing but with time you realize that practice indeed makes perfect. You feel comfortable again. Everyone was someone else before we encountered christ for real and thanks to the gift of salvation. We are born in. We're no longer who used to be. But as we would have all realized by now our relationship with god is a walk one which takes commitment time comfort in practice one might look really cleaned up but once gates can give him or her away just as one can tell when someone's wearing high heels for the first time one may not totally get his or her act together right after accepting the lord and his or her life. It may feel frustrating to still be fighting the temptation of going back to pick up the habits that we lay at his feet. When we walked up to the altar to be completely transformed in the ways of god takes a determined mindset. In god's grace just as a baby's first steps guided with time. Don't expect to start this new life all by yourself. Reach out to the people around you who are already matured in god to help you out and bill feel insecure. When you have thoughts of going back it is just the enemies way of making you feel. You're not cut out for this new life and that is not true. And when you feel the urge to pick up the cigarette the drink or whatever you used to do before just say to the enemy boldly that you have jesus and you now and so he has no hold on you any longer declare you are a new creation in him and only righteousness peace and joy is your portion not his lowering pleasures and he'll flee from you and for those of us who have grown in the lord let's pray that god opens our eyes to identify the newborns in god can help them in the baby steps til they get on their feet. Let them feel part of us. Nothing works better than making someone feel belong to a family where they are not supposed to this way. We won't use them to the enemy in this dark world again. Have a
AP News Radio
Prince Harry Working on 'Intimate and Heartfelt Memoir'
"Britain's prince Harry is riding with his publisher Random House schools an intimate and heartfelt memoir expected in late twenty twenty two on Monday Harry the Duke of Sussex said in a statement he's writing a book north as the prince I was born but as a mom I have become I think that at thirty six he's worn many hats over the years but eventually I'm figuratively and his hope is that in telling my story the highs and lows to mistakes the lessons learned he hopes he can show that no matter where we come from we have more in common than we think financial terms have not been disclosed but Random House says prince Harry will donate proceeds to charity I'm Charles de Ledesma
Latino USA
Hector Rodriguez on What Inspired Him to Create El Peso Hero
"I. Am the creator of the graphic novel lattes next series as best so hero hours raised in the border so specifically i was raised in eagle pass texas. Which is about two hours away from san antonio in the sister city of being that us negative. While we la norfolk mexico. The border is a whole different world. It's rage between cultures languages food and growing up. I had a huge appetite for mexican entertainment media. And so i used to watch a lot of lucia di team flask staticky of when the yolk when the letter mccain and my grandparents loved the golden age of mexican cinema. Aw and so. Those characters are greater than life. And i had that influence. My father was also huge geek himself with being raised by watching. You know the old scores star trek. And you know reading captain herkus upturn rock and so i had these two worlds and i was just fascinated with these greater than life characters by you know. The american characters never really spoke to me. You know i like. I like to get around you know. When was the last time you saw batman eat bananas. You know or superman eat bundled say a spider meeting poly no of of course it wasn't until By ninety late ninety one eighty two. We moved to middle of texas college station which to me was a huge culture shock going from a majority latino classroom bilingual classroom to a general ed monolingual classroom but really cool thing about college station that they actually had independent comic bookstores. And so my dad would take me and my siblings to pick up comic books.
The Book Review
S.A. Cosby on 'Razorblade Tears'
"As a cosby joins us now from southeastern virginia gloucester specifically he is the author of the new book razor blade. Tears also blacktop wasteland. And a few other books sean. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much. Haven't usa pleasure. So this is a spoiler free. Podcast i just want to say that front because this is a book that is full of really unexpected. But well earned plot twists. Give us the premise of razor blade. Tears basically reasonably tears the story of two one black one white both ex-cons whose sons on mary and at the beginning of the book. Unfortunately these two sons murdered and these two fathers who will never accepting of their son's sexuality decided to investigate the crime when be lease investigation stalls and in doing so they are trying to achieve thinned for their sons but also i think trying to get redemption for themselves in the ways. They weren't there for their children in life. They're attempting to be there for them in death. Let's talk a little bit more specifically about those two anti hero. Heroes you've got buddy lee jenkins and slash riot randolph. Who are they. They are men of certain age that come with a certain amount of baggage. Because of that age they are both hard scrabble. Southern men who are more alike in have more in common than either one of them could imagine but they're also meant that i think are internally broken in a way that precluded him being able to communicate their sons and i think hinder their relationship with their children and also hinders relationships with other people. I for all his self possessed. Gravitas is still battling with his temper at moments with buddy lee. He's kind of mired himself. This sort of self imposed existential exile from the rest of humanity and so when their sons is sort of snaps amount of this spiritual me ease that they put themselves into the giving to their darker impulses but for a greater good.
One Great Book
The Other Black Girl
"I got my copy of the other black girl months before it came out as i often do. I started reading and through its pages. I got to wonder the halls of wagner books alongside black editorial assistant nella. Who's been there about two years at this point. I sat with her in her cubicle and listened in on the often-frustrating conversation she had with vera her white boss. I noted her ambition to become an editor herself following in the footsteps of her idol. The conic black editor kendra ray whittaker who edited the books of. Noah's all time favorite author. The incredible diana gordon author a burning heart. A book meant so much to her. And so many other young black girls kendra ray whittaker had once walked the halls of wagner books herself and now delegates to work there every day. Sure the pay isn't enough to live on and she puts up with a lot of crap. I mean so much crap. The way the microaggressions she endured portrayed in these pages is illuminating. But also it was noah's dream to walk these halls wagner is the hardest publishing house to get into in here. She is now she just has to work her way up. That's proving harder than she imagined. I held my breath when nellis spots another black girl and the halls of wagner a girl named hazel. Who's come to interview. Nella knows not to get her hopes up as she says she only believed that the higher ups at wagner had finally considered interviewing more diverse people when she saw it because over the last two years the only people who've been interviewed or hired were very specific people from a very specific box.
Joseyphina's World
Pandemic Lockdown: A Boy Toys Dilemma
"Twenty nineteen was robbie's best year yet while people grumbled wishing that the year passed quickly. So they could see what twenty twenty health for them. It was his turnaround here. He was a struggling graduate from a humble home. Whose only source of income came from the occasional modeling gigs. He got for either commercial shoots or fashion. Runway shows robbie a taken to drinking to cope with a feeling of disappointment which had become his constant companion on his last day in the dark tunnel which was his life it started just like any other his father calling him a bomb with the mornings greetings. His mother giving him the sympathetic look and defending him as a free ambled to a fight that had been doing between the for days. Ravi went over to a friend's place where they wild away. The time playing video games checking out the snaps and insta stories of hot chicks after sharing meal of red red fried plantain and beans from the neighborhood's best food join play slept a greater part of the afternoon. Away around five pm robbie's friend. Leslie had a phone call by the time the call ended. he was beaming my bb. Just call going to the club tonight. I'll definitely get enough to see me through the week. Leslie said excitedly rubbing his palms together your bb which one i thought your girlfriend dumped you. Because you're broken. Succeeded your cuteness but you see. God works in mysterious ways through the heartbreak. I met a wonderful well established woman who was willing to nurse back with love and of course money. You mean you have a sugar mummy. Yes the city is brimming with them. You see all these big women in their big cars. Were sunglasses everywhere. Because they don't want you to see their sad faces. They're all looking for some young male vitality to pump some fun into their prison like. mary lives. come to think of it. Why don't you come along with me. The club my bb can hook you up with one and you wouldn't have to worry about what to eat anymore. Is that why you have stopped looking for work. You're being spoon fed by a married woman. Drop that self-righteous tone before. I reconsider my offer to take with me. Fake it till you make it right. You gotta do what you gotta do before you get your big break. Then when the time comes when you're being interviewed about your journey to success you can come up with that rags to riches story that people like to gamble on our media. Are you coming. I guess there's no harm in trying right. Would any such women find me attractive enough. Leslie gave him a once-over now with what your wearing. I'll give you something to wear after your fresh
The Book Review
The Lives of Flies
"Jonathan bell joins us now from belleville ontario. His latest book is called superfly to unexpected lives of the world's most successful insects jonathan. Thanks for being here. Good to be here pamela. I have to ask immediately about that. Subtitle why successful. It's not greatest. It's not most exciting or most helpful. It successful what is success for a fly. Well i'd say a a number of measures the diversity for one there's over one hundred sixty thousand described species and it's important to add that qualifier described. Because it's estimated. There may be about five times that many that are undescribed and consider just how numerous flies are an insect insects up eighty percent of all animal species on the planet. So that says something right there. About how incredibly successful they are and flies are arguably the most species rich subset of insects. It's estimated there's about twenty million flies on earth at any one moment for every human who's on the earth and they occupy all seven continents so those are just some of the measures by which we might conclude that flies are enormously successful. See all of those numbers to me are horrifying and i guess you know flies to me are the stuff of horror movies and also very good short science fiction story on which those movies are made. What was the draw for you to look at flies this extensively and write an entire book about them. The fact that they are so unpopular is one draw for me. I love to explore unpopular animals and usually when one does that one finds many reasons to like them in the case of flies. We should recognize that they are vital pollinators. They ranked second only to bs as the most important pollinators. And they're actually the champion pollinators at high latitudes and altitudes. they're also absolutely vital. Waste disposers yet. That may give us a gross reaction when we consider that many flies cleanup poop and rotting bodies. But if they didn't do that the world would be a lot fowler and more pestilential place and their vital elements of food chains both predators and consumers of microorganism other insects and other creatures but also as food for fishes birds mammals. They play an incredible role in making microbes bioavailable to organisms higher up in food chains microbes are just too small for for other bigger animals to eat insects. Make make make that energy available. So that's another vital thing that they do
Joseyphina's World
Legally Married, Physically Single
"You must be wondering what the caption means. How can one be married in single at the same time. Well it is not that strange. Where i come from lots of women find themselves in this predicament. Want to understand stay can stay legally married but physically and emotionally. I'm a single as ever. I was wetted in grand traditional style with lots of guests. Little did i know there were too many a witness to miserable ever after everyone knew i was taken so i couldn't risk doing even a little flirting. At least every wedding guests automatically became a fidelity spy. I was happily in fully married for just five months until my husband came home. One day with the idea of traveling overseas for greener pasture. I was excited and immediately images of me. Walking on snowy pavements wearing some fancy winter were flashed in my mind but unfortunately they all went pouf when he added only he could go first. He would find a job and settled quickly. And then come get me. It didn't sound that bad. So i agree. I didn't even have a choice. Otherwise so all. I could do is to wish him well on see him off. We used to keep in touch regularly for the first month apart. But as the days it added on the lesser. I heard from him. All i got was his voice voicemail. Whenever i tried calling all my texts and emails were not replied then after some time what i heard at the other end of the line was that the number no longer existed. I began to worry that something bad had happened to my husband. Three months soon became three years here. I was aging way. too quickly. thanks to loneliness unsettled depression. I remember being so happy getting married. Because i finally had a ring on my finger so i would not be counted among the ladies who failed to grab a man in their prime years but looking at me now what was the point. At least they could have a bully. Make their desperate intentions known to any man who is interested but for me the ring which i wore proudly for the first five months after my wedding was now a chain choking me even as i dared to remove them in an attempt to find myself someone to comfort my lonely body and soul. I definitely come face to face with someone who attended my wedding and the first thing they would check with my ring finger