Reading Envy 223: Cicada Season with Rachel Mans McKenny

Jenny and Rachel discuss books that didn't get as much attention as they deserved during the early days of the pandemic, science in fiction, a new podcast, and more.

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Reading Envy 223: Cicada Season

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Books discussed: 

 

Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed
While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams, narrated by Adenrele Ojo
Lakewood by Megan Giddings
Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

Other mentions:

The Butterfly Effect by Rachel Mans McKenny
Blind Date with a Book Podcast (first episode posts June 30, 2021)
@bookmeetcute on Instagram and Twitter
Real Life by Brandon Taylor
Hex by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
A Broken Darkness by Premee Mohamed
Selena Montgomery
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Pisces by Melissa Broder
Bunny by Mona Awad
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Related episodes:

Episode 008 - Gone Rogue with guests Steve Richardson, Libby Young, and Mike Winiski
Episode 150 - Rife with Storytelling with Sara
Episode 164 - Character Driven with Carol Ann
Episode 186 - This is Gravity with Jeff
Episode 190 - The Good Life with Alex

Stalk us online:

Rachel's website
Rachel is @rmmckenny on Twitter; @rachelmansmckenny on Instagram; @rachelm on Litsy
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy

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 205: Life and Time with author Bryan Washington

Jenny speaks with author Bryan Washington about his new novel, Memorial, and also gets to know more about him as a reader. This bonus episode also contains information about a last-minute readalong, how to contribute to the best of the year episode, and what to expect for the rest of 2020.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 205: Life and Time

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner
Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe
Or listen through TuneIn
Or listen on Google Play
Or listen via Stitcher
Or listen through Spotify 
New! Listen through Google Podcasts


Books discussed:

Memorial by Bryan Washington
Lot: Stories by Bryan Washington

Other mentions:

Nights when Nothing Happened by Simon Han
Luster by Raven Leilani
Pieces by Helen Oyeyemi
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
Bestiary by K-Ming Chang
My Brother's Husband by Gengoroh Tagame
Breasts & Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
Dubliners by James Joyce
Daily Beast: Bryan Washington recommends 5 Books
Polar Vortex by Shani Mootoo
Book Cougars
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
Reading Envy Readers on Goodreads - Readalong discussion

Related episodes:

Episode 145 - Things Get Dark with Bianca Escalante
Episode 175 - Reading on Impulse with Marion Hill
Episode 196 - Miscommunication with Lindy

 
Stalk us online:

Bryan Washington website
Bryan on Twitter
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy

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, and less to Jeff Bezos. I only link to Amazon in cases where Bookshop.org does not carry a backlist title, which took place a few times for this list.

Reading Envy 038: Monica Byrne Wants to Make People Scream

Time traveling back to the hidden room only accessible by elevator, Jenny sits down to talk with author and playwright Monica Byrne. This was recorded on July 27, so a few mentions of "today" and "tomorrow" will be more in the past than it seems. See links below to view content.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 038: Monica Byrne Wants to Make People Scream


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Books discussed:



The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne
The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer
Hild by Nicola Griffith
Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Cave on Earth by James M. Tabor
A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire #5) by George R.R Martin

Other links/mentions:
"Pop Culture is 'Boring as F!@#': A Playboy Conversation with Monica Byrne" by Noah Berlatsky Electric Literature column - New Suns
The Actual Star (working title of forthcoming novel by Monica Byrne)
Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern
What Every Girl Should Know
Shared Worlds
The Martian by Andy Weir
Monica's palm tree tattoo

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny in Instagram
MonicaByrne.org
Monica on Twitter
Monica in Facebook
Monica in Instagram

Reading Envy 021: Amoebic Borders

Jenny and writer/editor/designer Darin Bradley sit down on a cold afternoon in the Reading Envy pub to discuss reading from a variety of perspectives. Get ready to add some books to your to-read lists!

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy Episode 21

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner

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Darin is the author of three novels—Noise (2010), Chimpanzee (2014), and Totem (2016)—as well as co-editor of the literary fringe journal Bahamut and editor-in-chief of the experimental ezine Farrago's Wainscot. With a Ph.D. in Literature and Theory, he works as an acquisitions and production editor at Resurrection House, having previously spent a number of years teaching writing and literature at several universities. He has also worked as the principal video game writer at id Software and has served in various editorial and design capacities for a number of independent presses and journals. He lives in Texas with his wife, where he dreams of empty places.

Credits: Darin Bradley (bio), Erin Rambo (photo)

This episode is not sponsored by Microsoft. We swear!

Books and authors mentioned:
 
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Light Years by James Salter
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
The Names by Don DeLillo
Afterparty by Daryl Gregory
Kelly Link
Jeffrey Ford
Jonathan Lethem
China Mieville 
Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
Trampoline: An Anthology edited by Kelly Link
Alfred Bester
Underworld by Don DeLillo
Falling Man by Don DeLillo
Totem by Darin Bradley (forthcoming)
Archangel by Marguerite Reed (forthcoming)
King of Shards by by Matthew Kressel (forthcoming)
We Dream of Water by Srdjan Smajic (forthcoming)
Chimpanzee by Darin Bradley - the audio play
Ready Player One by Ernst Cline
Word Made Flesh by Jack O'Connell
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

Other mentions:
Farrago's Wainscot - a quarterly journal of the literary weird in fiction and poetry
Bahamut Journal -  a biannual journal of the progressive fringe in transnational literature
University of North Texas English Department - Special Events (includes information on Darin's reading)
Texas Book Festival

Stalk us online:
Darin Bradley 
Jenny at GoodReads
Jenny on Twitter

Time Travel: David Mitchell Reading

In March earlier this year, I was very lucky to be able to go see David Mitchell read from Cloud Atlas and speak about his upcoming (at the time) novel.  I kept meaning to blog about it, and here I am, two weeks after devouring The Bone Clocks and still thinking fondly of this author.  It's time to share that experience.

Because of a generous endowment, the University of South Carolina has a spring author series called The Open Book.  They bring in five authors, many of them huge names.  On the Monday of that week someone from the university or some other scholar gives a lecture, and on Wednesday, the author appears.  I can't drive all the way to Columbia from Greenville more than once in a week, so I sadly have to miss the lectures, but the authors are highly worth it.  (I'm sad at the thought of not getting to see Nikky Finney lecture on the poet this next spring, so I might make an exception to drive down twice that week.) David Mitchell came in March, and was the only author I got to see this last spring.  Next spring, I am better planning my weeks to work around the occasional Wednesday afternoon.

One thing I want to say about David Mitchell is that he is SO charming and friendly. Sometimes I regret going to see an author speak, because their reality is so far from my expectations or beliefs about them. He was friendlier and had an obvious love of the writing and the reading that had gotten him there. He was also excited about his upcoming book and answered some questions about it too.

I discovered a colleague after the talk, while those of us wanting our books signed stayed behind. I stayed back in line with him because he had more books than anyone. This meant I heard David Mitchell talking for two hours by the time I spoke to him, and when I did, I accidentally did it in an accent similar to his own. This happens to me sometimes. Whoops. He asked my name for the first book, I said Jenny, and he said, "My Grandmother's name is Jennifer," and whatever I said in response made him perk up and ask if I was English. I apologized and said that just happens. Ha.

I brought two books along to be signed - Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.   He signed and drew pictures, so lovely! It was a great author visit, and I wish I could see him after reading The Bone Clocks, because I have questions.  Hopefully one of these days.