Reading Envy 060: A Good Era for Communists

Jenny is joined at the Reading Envy pub by Rose Davis, one generation removed from a previous guest! We cover a lot of ground, historically and geographically, from moody moors to being raised by vampires for political reasons to whether or not an Oprah Book Club sticker makes us more or less interested to read a book.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 060: A Good Era for Communists.

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner
Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: Subscribe
Or listen through TuneIn
Or listen on Google Play (new!)  


Books discussed:



Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Miernik Dossier by Charles McCarry
Prudence by Gail Carriger
Ruby by Cynthia Bond

Other mentions:
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
Don't Look Now: Selected Stories by Daphne du Maurier
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle
Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett
The Tears of Autumn by Charles McCarry 
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
Soulless by Gail Carriger
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin
The Lady of the Camelias by Alexandre Dumas
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast Episode 134: Aliens

Related Episodes:
Episode 052 - The Man with the Eyebrows with Philip and Scott
Episode 055 - Too Late for an Autopsy with Julie Davis
 
Stalk us online:
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter

New Books In (all book club related!) for December 2015

Slight delay in this monthly post, due to all the year-end posting! This month has a tiny stack because I don't buy many books for myself in a holiday month.

Changeless (Parasol Protectorate #2) by Gail Carriger
The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It (P.S.) by Tilar J. Mazzeo
The Potbellied Virgin by Alicia Yánez Cossío

One of the online bookclubs I participate in, less so these days since I go to bed around the time they meet (10 pm est! I'm old and my dogs get up super early; by 10 I'm beat.) But once upon a time we read the first book of the Parasol Protectorate, and it was a lot of fun. I have been snagging other books in the series when I see them for under $3, but still didn't have #2. I did a little used bookstore hopping between Christmas and New Years and there it was, book #2, for around $2. 

My library's copy of the Mazzeo was checked out and I just knew I wouldn't find it before my in-person international book club meets (on the 4th of January), and was just going to skip this one. Used bookstore #2 had it, shiny and in great condition, in the food writing section. It was $4 but I had more than that in bookstore credit, so it was like a free little gift. 

The Cossío is for that same international book club, in April, but I am leading discussion that month so I wanted to have a chance to read it ahead of time. Amazon had a used copy for super cheap so I snagged it.

Did you get any books for the holidays? Do tell!

Reading Envy 033: An Undulating Thrum

Jenny sits down with Ruth and Elizabeth, two readers who connected via Goodreads. As listeners of numerous reading podcasts, their reading experiences are varied and rich. I hope you enjoy our conversation!

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 033: An Undulating Thrum

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner

Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: Subscribe

Books featured:



In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides
The Aloe by Katherine Mansfield
Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding
The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt
Stoner by John Williams
Armadale by Wilkie Collins

Other mentions:

"The Readers" podcast and group in Goodreads
Virginia Woolf
Elizabeth von Arnim
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Wonders by Paddy O'Reilly
Lost and Found by Brooke Davis
D.H. Lawrence 
BookTubers (Google it!)
Firefly (TV show)
The Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch
A-Team (TV show)
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
Keeper by Kathi Appelt
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
#thrumspotting
Wake by Maia Sepp (can you spot the thrum?)
Dear Sugar Radio
The Case of the Missing Moonstone by Jordan Stratford
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Anthony Trollope
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
Virago Publishing
Persephone Books
NYRB Classics
Nancy Pearl

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Ruth at Goodreads
Elizabeth at Goodreads 

The Kingdom of Ohio by Matthew Flaming

I've knocked out a bunch of books from my to-read list in the last week, and have 1-2 more I'm hoping together through before January 1.

The Kingdom of Ohio by Matthew Flaming
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I was pretty entertained by the faux historical fiction this turned out to be. Enough of it is true... enough, but a lot of it has sent me running off to fact check, only to be chided for believing it to begin with. Tesla and Edison were real people, at least. :)

Part of the novel has a steampunk-friendly tinkerer-hearted side, and then it will have sudden emotional gutpunches like this, which I took the time to type up before finishing, just so I wouldn't lose it:

"Walking alone through the city streets, I'll start thinking about you and all the ways it could have been different - and then suddenly find myself, as if just woken up, baffled and blinking on some honking street corner, or standing in a fluorescent supermarket corridor, or sitting alone at the dark little bar near my apartment, at a loss for what I'm doing in this ill-fitting world of unknown faces and chaotic shapes, where all that makes sense are my memories of a vanished time, and you."

The narrator's story is perhaps the most interesting one of all, but you have to read most of it between the lines (and footnotes), until the end. You know something is coming though the whole novel, and while I would have preferred to be more surprised, I did stay up until 2am to get there.

Some book titles trigger songs. Just like last time, I kept singing one song to myself every time I saw the title. Take a listen to Bloodbuzz Ohio by The National.

I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees.
I never married, but Ohio don't remember me....

We need more songs about Ohio!