Reading Envy 241: Feral Pigeons with Laurie

Laurie is back and we talk about book challenges, even one in French! Since she is a biologist, science comes up as a theme in multiple ways.

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Reading Envy 241: Feral Pigeons

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Books discussed:

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
The Trees by Percival Everett
A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching by Rosemary Mosco
Broken Halves of a Milky Sun: Poems by Aaiún Nin
The Unwinding and Other Dreams by Jackie Morris

Other mentions: 

Think Again by Adam Grant
The Hall of the Singing Caryatids by Victor Pelevin, translated by Andrew Bromfield
The Possessed by Elif Batuman
Putin's Russia by Darryl Cunningham
Lilly Library - Kurt Vonnegut collection
Telephone by Percival Everett
The American Pigeon Museum
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Pigeonetics
Unbound Publisher
The Silent Unwinding by Jackie Morris
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson
Great Plains by Ian Frazier
Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
  by Ali Hazelwood
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
The Three Robbers by Tomi Ungerer

Related episodes: 

Episode 065 - Creeping through the Uncanny Valley with guest Bryan Alexander 
Episode 069 - Evil Librarian/SFBRP Crossover Episode with Luke and Juliane 
Episode 201 - Wrestling with Complexity with Elizabeth and Laurie
Episode 216 - Eloquent and Elegant with Kala
Episode 231 - Psychological Terrorism with Reggie
Episode 233 - Get Into Trouble with Ruth
 

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Laurie on Twitter
Laurie is @dryapyapi on Instagram
Laurie at Goodreads


All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.

Reading Envy 069: Evil Librarian SFBRP Crossover Episode

Luke and Juliane drop by the Reading Envy pub with Icelandic air still in their lungs. Close to the end, you will discover why Jenny might not be saying much. We talk sports, science fiction, art, and even one from the Man Booker Prize shortlist.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 069: Evil Librarian SFBRP Crossover.

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Luke and Juliane always post pictures with their books, so we did that for this episode!

 

Books discussed:



Digging Up Mother: A Love Story by Doug Stanhope
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
The Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time by Steve Flink
Just Kids by Patti Smith

Other mentions:

Luke and Juliane's video blogs of Iceland
SFBRP Episode 301: The Dying Earth
The Eyes of the Overworld by Jack Vance
Cugel's Saga by Jack Vance
Rhialto the Marvelous by Jack Vance
Doug Stanhope podcast
Man Booker Prize
Jeanette Winterson
The Martian by Andy Weir
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
My Sergei: A Love Story by Ekaterina Gordaeva
The Real All Americans by Sally Jenkins
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
The Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
The Sympathizer by Viet Thahn Nguyen
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge

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
Episode 037 - Breakdancing to Bach with Juliane Kunzendorf
Episode 044 - Of Survival and Memory with Luke Burrage
Episode 052 - The Man with the Eyebrows with Philip and Scott

Stalk us online:
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Juliane's Website
Juliane at Goodreads
Luke Burrage on Twitter
Luke's podcast/blog, Science Fiction Book Review Podcast
Luke at GoodReads

Library Books Mid-June 2016

I resurfaced from teaching my reading class on June 1, and went overboard at all the libraries! I need to get through these soon or I will have to return them unread, especially the interlibrary loan titles.

A General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Agualusa

Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter

The Book That Changed My Life: Interviews with National Book Award Winners and Finalists edited by Diane Osen

Walking with Abel: Journeys with the Nomads of the African Savannah by Anna Badkhen

The Secret Lovers by Charles McCarry

Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett

The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand

The Visiting Privilege: New and Collected Stories by Joy Williams

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King

Two of these novels are for my Africa 2016 reading project - the Agualusa is from Angola and was also a nominee for the Man Booker International Prize this year. The Badkhen is non-fiction and looked good. I can't remember where I saw it mentioned, but I requested it from the library immediately.

I had pulled the King off the shelf when I was contemplating books in genres I don't usually read (and ended up with Amish romance and sports), and this is a book that comes up often in my book club. They read it before I joined them, but it stuck. I'm sure I'll like it once I get into it (why is non-fiction so hard to start?) I'm not sure I'll end up really reading the Osen but will definitely skim it for the titles. That was one that was near another book in the library and came home with me.

Some books were because of frequent mentions - Williams, Chee (also the June pick of one of my Goodreads groups), and Fuller. Fuller was also recommended by Nathan Ballingrud, the Hand (and maybe the Bennett) was recommended by Jeff VanderMeer, and the McCarry is just the next Paul Christopher book in my attempt to work through those spy novels. 

Reading Envy 042: It Begins with Rain

Jenny is joined by Jason, a welcome repeat guest! We take shelter from the incoming rain accompanying Hurricane Joaquin, but we had no idea how bad the devastation would be in our home state of South Carolina. Jason's home and my home were okay, but that definitely isn't true for everyone! You can donate to aid victims of the flooding in South Carolina if you so desire.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 042: It Begins with Rain.

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Book selections:



By the Iowa Sea: A Memoir by Joe Blair
The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterrill
The Painter by Peter Heller
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
All the Living by C.E. Morgan
The Professor's House by Willa Cather

Other books mentioned:
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
Delicate Edible Birds: And Other Stories by Lauren Groff
Arcadia by Lauren Groff
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave by Peter Heller
Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibet's Tsango River (Vintage Departures) by Peter Heller
The Whale Warriors: The Battle at the Bottom of the World to Save the Planet's Largest Mammals by Peter Heller
Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Stoner by John Williams

Other mentions:
National Book Award longlists
NPR "Morning Edition" Book Club
Avid Bookshop (Athens, GA)
Wild (movie)
Dual Survival (tv show)
5 Under 35 Award from the National Book Foundation
"Twins" by C. E. Morgan (in the New Yorker)
The Readers (podcast)
Books on the Nightstand (podcast)

Related podcast episodes:
Reading Envy Episode 014: Flannery O'Connor with Zombies
Reading Envy Episode 025: Mule and Plow
Reading Envy Episode 037: Breakdancing to Bach

Stalk us online:
Jason on Twitter
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter

Books Added June 2015

 

I was in Beaufort, SC last week on vacation and many of the new books in my house come from that trip. I also have some birthday presents on this pile, as well as some books my father-in-law brought home from Charleston and gave us.  I brought fiction set in South Carolina with me on my trip (which I will discuss on an upcoming podcast episode) but we came home with a bunch of non-fiction.

1,000 Foods to Eat Before You Die by Mimi Sheraton
Food Blogging 101 by Malika Harricharan Bowling
Rehearsal for Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment by Willie Lee Rose
Fort Sumter National Monument: "Where the Civil War Began"
Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne
South Carolina's Revolutionary War Battlefields by R. Barbour
Gullah Statesman by Miller
Food Photography: from Snapshots to Great Shots by Nicole S. Young
Boone Hall Plantation by Michelle Adams
The Charleston Chef's Table by Holly Herrick
Cake My Day!  by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
Beautiful Beaufort: Pearl of the South by Martin McFie

 

I also picked up an adult coloring book (they are all the rage) and a bookmark about the upcoming Pat Conroy festival for his 70th birthday. He is the local darling of Beaufort since he lives there, and the two bookstores we visited had a Pat Conroy section. s

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

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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