Reading Envy 030: Bring Back the Guillotine!

Jenny sits down with Bryan Alexander (from Reading Envy Episodes 002, 011, and 019) and Steen Hansen at the Reading Envy Pub to discuss books.  It should be said that until we sat down, we had not known the books would fit so well together. Just a normal day of reading serendipity!

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 030: Bring Back the Guillotine!

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Featured books:



The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert Putnam
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty

Other mentions of books, authors, movies, and blog posts:

One of Ours by Willa Cather
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
Declare by Tim Powers
The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
The 39 Steps - movie
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
Larry Niven
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Embassytown by China Miéville
Jack Vance
Ursula K. Le Guin
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam
Bryan Alexander's blog discussion of Our Kids by Robert Putnam
Norton Critical Editions
The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Apocalypse Now - movie
Bernie Sanders
The Wire - tv series
Kim Stanley Robinson article about the Booker Awards - through New Scientist magazine (requires subscription)
Robert Graves
Margaret Atwood
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - interview with Edward Snowden

Stalk us online:

Jenny at GoodReads
Jenny on Twitter
Bryan at his blog
Bryan at GoodReads
Bryan on Twitter
Steen will remain mysterious.
 

Jenny's Library Books Mid-May 2015

Life has been crazy since the beginning of April. New dogs (yes, that's plural), the end of the semester, the start of the May term (where I teach a storytelling class) - I'm surprised I've read anything at all! I brought home a few more books from the library and think it's fun to talk about.

 

I took this first picture when I had to return some books I had borrowed through interlibrary loan. One duplicates April's list, and another appears on both piles. Did I mention I'm not sleeping much with the yelping puppy?

 

Library Wars: Love & War #1 by Kiiro Yumi

The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris

Southern by the Grace of God by Lewis Grizzard

The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna

Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on love and life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

Your Face Tomorrow v. 1: Fever and Spear by Javier Marías

Back in the Day Bakery Made With Love by Cheryl and Griffith Day

The Adventures of Odysseus by Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden

The Marías and Yumi were recommended to me, the Forna was for my International book club and the Grizzard was the moderator pick for my Southern literature book club. The rest I either came across in my reading or on the shelf at the library. The Keegan will be discussed on an upcoming episode of the podcast, and I hope to meet the Days tomorrow at the SC Book Festival. 

Doyle the boxer mix puppy

Reading Envy 029: Joni Tevis and the Secret Shape

Jenny sits down with the writer Joni Tevis to discuss her upcoming book of essays, what inspires her to write, and the writers she likes to read. 

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 029: Joni Tevis and the Secret Shape

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner

Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: Subscribe

Featured books:



The World is On Fire: Scrap, Treasure, and Songs of Apocalypse by Joni Tevis
The Wet Collection: A Field Guide to Iridescence and Memory by Joni Tevis


Other books and authors mentioned:

Michel de Montaigne
David Foster Wallace
The Joseph Cornell Box
Chuck Close
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
"Total Eclipse" by Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard
Annie Proulx
Anne Carson
The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
Things That Are by Amy Leach

Upcoming and recent readings by Joni Tevis:

May 2, 4 pm - Fiction Addiction (Greenville, SC)
May 16, 7 pm - Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe (Asheville, NC)
May 20, 7 pm - Hub City Bookshop (Spartanburg, SC)
June 12, 6:30 pm - Avid Bookstore (Athens, GA)
July 22, 7 pm - Politics and Prose (Washington DC)

Stalk us online:
Jenny at GoodReads
Jenny on Twitter
Joni Tevis personal website
Joni Tevis on Twitter