Reading Envy 044: Of Survival and Memory

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 044: Of Survival and Memory.

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Book selections:


Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson
This Earth of Mankind (Buru Quartet #1) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Left for Dead: The Untold Story of the Tragic 1979 Fastnet Race by Nick Ward and Sinead O'Brien, read by Simon Vance
The Liars' Club: A Memoir by Mary Karr
The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski
The Chimes by Anna Smaill

More mentions:
Touching the void (documentary)
Everest (film)
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
Into Thin Air (film)
BBC film reviews podcast 
Hello Internet podcast
Traveler's Century Club list of nations
The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
Star Wars Episode 7 (film)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Serpent in Paradise by Dea Birkett
We Dream of Water by Srdjan Smajić
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
Luke's review of the North


And check Luke out juggling in all the places!


Related Episodes:
Episode 017 - Homeric Radiation at Lake Inverness with guest Luke Burrage
Episode 032 - Her Smoke Rose Up Forever with Luke Burrage, crosspost with SFBRP podcast

Stalk us online:

Luke Burrage on Twitter
Luke's podcast/blog, Science Fiction Book Review Podcast
Luke in GoodReads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny in GoodReads

Participate in the 2015 Wrap Up Episode

Last year, I asked for submissions for a Reading Envy Best of 2014 episode. Here I am again, asking for submissions for the best book you read in 2015. Your best read from 2015 does not have to have been published in 2015, just something you read since January 2015.

To be included in the end of the year podcast, please do one of the following by the 18th of December at 11:59 pm EST.

1. Submit an audio file that includes:
-Your name
-Your location (if you desire)
-Your best read from 2015 (does not have to be published in 2015, anything you read in 2015 counts) and anything you'd like to say about it

2. Schedule a time with me to have me record you in Skype, maybe you don't have a way to create your own audio file?

3. Email me or tweet me what you want me to read out on the podcast on your behalf.

Contact info:
email: readingenvy [at] gmail
twitter: @readingenvy

Library Books Mid-November 2015

Faces in the Water by Janet Frame
Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story by Christine Thompson
New and Selected Poems by Lauris Dorothy Edmond
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
Mislaid by Nell Zink
The Oxford Book of New Zealand Writing Since 1945 (out of print, and I couldn't find a record in Amazon or Goodreads to link to! Thank goodness for libraries)
The Sunlight Dialogues by John Gardner
Wulf by Hamish Clayton

I have already posted about my New Zealand November project (see the post where I introduced it, and the first week report) so it should be no surprise that the majority of books I brought home from the library this past month are New Zealand related. That explains the Frame, the Thompson, the Edmond, the Oxford Book, and the Clayton. I've already read the Clayton (see my review) and the Frame (see my review) and have started the Edmond poetry. I am unlikely to read the entire Oxford volume but I like poking around in it and finding New Zealand authors I haven't heard of before.

The Flournoy is on the shortlist for the National Book Award (see my review) - I liked it but not as much as the two others I've read. The award is announced on the 18th and I'm skeptical that I'll be able to read all the remaining finalists. The Zink was on the longlist but I had it on hold at the library and went ahead and brought it home. I always meant to read her, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. 

The Gardner was mentioned to me by a friend whose reading tastes I trust, but it hasn't made it past the end table yet.

Up next: maybe another update about New Zealand November? We'll see. I have to work the Sunday shift at the research assistance desk and that might cut into my time.

Reading Envy 043: Librarian Time Capsule

Jenny recently attended the South Carolina Library Association conference in Columbia, SC. It was our 100th anniversary as an organization, so Jenny decided it would be fun to try to interview 100 attendees about books they've read recently (or are currently reading.) Librarians read everything, which you will experience as you listen to them talk about books. Also included: library science students, vendors, and speakers who were in attendance. There are more than 100 books because some people can't just pick one.

One hundred years from now, this recording could serve as a capture of a moment in time for the South Carolina Library Association. A huge thanks goes out to everyone who participated!

Most interviews were conducted in a conference facility with other people in the background. You could say the Reading Envy Pub was just having a busy day....

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 043: Librarian Time Capsule

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner

Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: Subscribe

Books mentioned (in order, so there are a few duplicates of titles multiple people are reading):



(images displayed are just a selection of titles mentioned)

1. F*ck Feelings: One Shrink's Practical Advice for Managing All Life's Impossible Problems by Michael Bennett and Sarah Bennett
2. Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber
3. Mrs. Duck's Lovely Day by Vivienne Blake
4. Finders Keepers by Stephen King
5. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
6. Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
7. The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance---What Women Should Know by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman
8. The Martian by Andy Weir
9. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
10. The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope by Austen Ivereigh
11. Purity by Jonathan Franzen
12. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
13. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mendel
14. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
15. The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh
16. "Marginalia" also available on The Best Cigarette by Billy Collins
17. Jambusters: The Remarkable Story Which Has Inspired the ITV Drama Home Fires by Julie Summer
18. The Gold Train: The Destruction of the Jews and the Second World War's Most Terrible Robbery by Ronald Zweig
19. I Crawl Through It by A.S. King
20. The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory
21. The Strain by David Lapham
22. Under a Crescent Moon by Mercy Celeste
23. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
24. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
25. The Martian by Andy Weir
26. Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street by John Brooks
27. Rules for Ghosting by A. J. Paquette
28. Counting Crocodiles by Judy Sierra and Will Hillenbrand
29. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
30. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King
31. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
32. The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
33. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
34. The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload by Daniel Levitin
35. Not Gay: Sex between Straight White Men by Jane Ward
36. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
37. On Writing - A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
38. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems
39. Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson
40. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
41. River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
42. Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh
43. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonatahn Lethem
44. Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive by T.D. Jakes
45. In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
46. How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer
47. Under the Same Sky: From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America by Joseph Kim
48. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (could have been Girl on a Train by A.J. Waines!)
49. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
50. Gone by James Patterson
51. How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg
52. Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
53. Brown-Eyed Girl by Lisa Kleypas
54. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
55. The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel by Deborah Hopkinson
56. Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan
57. Ideas Are Free: How the Idea Revolution Is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations by Alan Robinson
58. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey
59. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
60. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
61. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
62. The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
63. This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash
64. Start a Revolution: Stop Acting Like a Library by Ben Bizzle and Maria Flora
65. The Marvels by Brian Selznick
66. Different Seasons by Stephen King
67. All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin
68. Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
69. The Shining by Stephen King
70. The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
71. Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney by Lee Cockerell
72. The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport
73. Descent by Tom Johnston
74. Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
75. Infinite in Between by Carolyn Mackler
76. Come Rain or Come Shine by Jan Karon
77. The Escape by David Baldacci
78. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
79. The Giver by Lois Lowry
80. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown
81. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
82. 1882: Custer in Chains by Robert Conroy
83. Serpent in Paradise by Dea Birkett
84. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny
85. Beacon Hill series by Cynthia Peale
86. The Selection by Kiera Cass
87. The Elite by Kiera Cass
88. The One by Kiera Cass
89. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
90. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire by Jack Weatherford
91. White Cat by Holly Black
92. The Blue Moon Circus by Michael Raleigh
93. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
94. The Martian by Andy Weir
95. The Three Bears
96. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
97. Wind/Pinball: Two novels by Haruki Murakami
98. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
99. Black Widow Forever Red by Margaret Stohl
100. The Rose Society by Marie Lu
101. The Princess Who Defied Kings by J. Kirsch
102. The Princess who Tamed Demons by J. Kirsch
103. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
104. Trail of Broken Wings by Sejal Badani
105. No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin
106. Petey by Ben Mikaelsen
107. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
108. HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes
109. Traveling Sprinkler by Nicholson Baker
110. The Martian by Andy Weir
111. Penn Center: A History Preserved by Orville Vernon Burton
112. George by Alex Gino
113. Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
114. Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham

Related podcast episodes:
Reading Envy Episode 008: Gone Rogue
Reading Envy Episode 027: A Conference of Librarians

Stalk us online:
Jenny on Twitter
South Carolina Library Association