Reading Envy 227 - Strong Words with Ed Needham

Jenny is joined by Ed Needham, who has singlehandedly been producing a literary magazine in the UK. We talk about books we've read recently!

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Reading Envy 227: Strong Words

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Books discussed: 

Mrs. March by Virginia Feito
The Promise by Damon Galgut
Last Summer in the City by Gianfranco Calligarich, translated by Howard Curtis
Stranger Care: A Memoir of Loving What Isn't Ours by Sarah Sentilles
Nina Simone's Gum by Warren Ellis

Other mentions:

Strong Words Magazine
Gossip Girl (tv)
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Discussion of East of Eden on the Literary Disco podcast
Milkman by Anna Burns
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Great Beauty (film)
Meltdown Festival
Eliot Ness and the Mad Butcher by Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz 
Catch the Rabbit by Lana Bastasic, translated by the author

Related episodes: 

Episode 012 - Some Bookers and Some Madness
Episode 088 - Author Head Space with Sara Moore
Episode 090 - Reading Envy Readalong: East of Eden with Ellie and Jeff
Episode 112 - Reset Button with Eleanor Thoele
Episode 129 - Coming Back to Books with Nadine
Episode 130 - All the Jennifers with Fern Ronay
Episode 192 - Sly Milieu with Thomas

Stalk me online:


Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Strong Words is @strongwordsmag on Instagram
Strong Words on Twitter


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.

Review: Broken Horses

Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a must-listen memoir with songs between chapters and at the end. Brandi Carlile is one of my favorite singers but there is so much I didn't know, and she has experienced some incredible moments of fate or destiny or something that really make for an incredible story. I also liked the discovery of the stories behind so many of these songs and albums. The story goes all the way up through covid times.

Her connections to other musicians are life-long love stories, and people like Tanya Tucker, Elton John, and Joni Mitchell come back into her life as real people. Amazing.

Do you have a favorite song by her? I think mine is still Shadows on the Wall.

Copied from the publisher website:

Carlile recorded new stripped-down, solo renditions of more than 30 of the songs featured in the book, including her own and songs from artists who’ve inspired her, from Dolly Parton to Elton John, Leonard Cohen and more, available exclusively on the audiobook:

“I Don’t Hurt Anymore” by Hank Snow
“Coat of Many Colors” by Dolly Parton
“Ride on Out” by Brandi Carlile
“Honky Cat” by Elton John and Bernie Taupin
“Philadelphia” by Neil Young
“Happy” by Brandi Carlile
“That Year” by Brandi Carlile
“Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen
“Eye of the Needle” by Brandi Carlile
“Turpentine” by Brandi Carlile
“Wasted” by Brandi Carlile
“The Story” by Brandi Carlile
“Closer to You” by Brandi Carlile
“Caroline” by Brandi Carlile
“Josephine” by Brandi Carlile
“Sugartooth” by Brandi Carlile
“Looking Out” by Brandi Carlile
“Beginning to Feel the Years” by Brandi Carlile
“Love Songs” by Brandi Carlile
“I Will” by Brandi Carlile
“I Belong to You” by Brandi Carlile

I had a review copy of the audio from Random House Audio that I listened to through the Volumes app. The book came out April 20, 2021.

View all my reviews

Reading Envy 219: These Chickens with Carol Ann

Carol Ann and I discuss the reading adventures she discovered during quarantine, and we both bring books to talk about that we've read and liked lately, from music to paradise to lesser known presidents.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 219: These Chickens

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Books discussed: 

The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner
Brood by Jackie Polzin
Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand
The Ensemble by Aja Gabel
The Unexpected President by Scott S. Greenberger

Other mentions:

Hidden Brain podcast
Adventures by the Book
Novel Network
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
American Hookup by Lisa Wade
New York Times review of Brood
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
What Happens in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand
Troubles in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
An Inventory of Losses by Judith Schalansky, translated by Jackie Smith
Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky, translated by Christine Lo

Related episodes:

Episode 103 - Duchess Potatoes with Carol Ann Ellison
Episode 164 - Character Driven with Carol Ann
Episode 187 - Sentient Snails and Spaceships with Paula

Stalk us online:

Carol Ann at Goodreads
Carol Ann is @thebookandbeyond on Instagram 
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.

Review: The Ensemble

ETA: Apologies if you ever encounter what looks like a review without content in it. Goodreads seems to post content sporadically and I don't always remember to check.

The Ensemble by Aja Gabel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of my reading goals this year is to get through more of the books on my shelves with music as a theme. When I realized I had yet to do that and it's the 4th month of the year, I decided to start with the cheeriest cover.

Along the lines of An Equal Music or even Daisy Jones & The Six, The Ensemble is a very readable story of a string quartet that got together during graduate pursuit of music and how their relationships change over the years while still in the quartet. I loved that the author included specific works for each section, because obviously it's more enjoyable to listen to those pieces while reading. I felt some resonance with some of the ways musicians can be highly tuned in to one another and not be in a romantic relationship, but to people outside the group it has the same kind of vibe (I spent my undergraduate years in practice rooms by myself or accompanying others.)

Overall, the writing is straightforward but it leans on some overdone sentiments and it's too obvious when the author stops to try to say something poetic. But I would read her next book.

View all my reviews

Reading Envy 206: Black Sheep with Tina Porubsky

Jenny welcomes a new guest - Tina - and we chat about reading more books from our own shelves and great books we've read recently. Jenny also asks about Tina's knitting, a new hobby she enjoys alongside reading.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 206: Black Sheep

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Books discussed:

The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea
Silences So Deep by John Luther Adams
A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa, translated by Risa Kobayashi
Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley
Two Wings to Fly Away by Penny Mickelbury
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste

Other mentions:

#audioknitting
Rizzoli & Isles novels by Tess Gerritsen
I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee
2 Knit Lit Chicks (podcast)
Ravelry
RBG dissent sweater and Empower cowl
#yarnbombing
Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
Queen of America by Luis Alberto Urrea
PBS Reads July 2019
Urrea Facebook page
The Writer's Library edited by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
Mimi Patterson books by Penny Mickelbury
Smart Podcast, Trashy Books - Beverly Jenkins, episode 421
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions by Valeria Luiselli
New York Society Library - Maaza Mengiste
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

Related episodes:

Episode 088 - Author Head Space with Sara Moore
Episode 133 - To Understand the World with Lauren Weinhold
Episode 160 - Reading Plays with Elizabeth
Episode 161 - Women in Translation Month Recommendations with Lauren
Episode 183 - Birthing Rabbits with Jessica
Episode 189 - Surreal Superpowers with Tim
Episode 203 - Backlist with Marion

Stalk us online:

Tina at Goodreads
Tina is @godmotherx5 on Instagram and 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.

Review: Silences So Deep: Music, Solitude, Alaska

Silences So Deep: Music, Solitude, Alaska by John Luther Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've experienced one of John Luther Adams's works before - Inuksuit - which was performed by over 50 percussionists outdoors at Furman. The audience walks around inside of it, and the music interacts with the sounds naturally in the space. I remember the ending fading into birdsong, which was very cool.

Hearing from the author, about his connections to other artists (including Lou Harrison, one of my great loves) and how he has been inspired by the natural landscape of Alaska (or maybe his creative impulses aligned with Alaskan landscapes, an idea he explores near the end) - for me this was a fascinating read.

I had a copy of this from the publisher through Edelweiss; it came out September 22nd, 2020.

View all my reviews

Review: The Piano Student

The Piano Student by Lea Singer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author of this book took a few letters between esteemed pianist Vladimir Horowitz and his student, Nico Kaufmann, and turned them into a novel about their relationship in the 1930s. According to other sources like Horowitz, Horowitz adamantly denied he was gay, and this book suggests several reasons for that claim. He was living in Germany in the 1930s but saw the writing on the wall and relocated to Switzerland, and according to Singer many known homosexual musicians got married in a hurry to deny such accusations. Horowitz, referred to in the novel as Volodya, marries Wanda, who is the daughter of Toscanini. This is during one of the periods in time where Volodya stopped performing in public.

I love Horowitz and when I was studying the piano music of Chopin, Scriabin, Beethoven and Brahms in college, I listened to him frequently for tone and interpretation. He's really quite amazing and also unpredictable. The publisher of this book has actually put together two playlists of the pieces mentioned, and really how could you ever read this book without listening to the music, it's so essential to the story. (It's available in Spotify and YouTube.) From a musical interactivity standpoint, I give this book all the stars.

But I found some of the authorial decisions confusing and it made for a difficult reading experience. The entire story is told by Kaufmann as an older man to a random guy he meets in a bar, who up until that moment was going to commit suicide. I never understood why he was in the story at all. But it removes the story itself and turns it into an info dump, a narrated road trip, a slide show. The moments where Kaufmann and Horowitz are described in the room together have great energy, and the mention of confrontations with WANDA are exhilarating, but the majority of the novel is a summary of those moments. The dialogue is unmarked which gets very confusing, and I couldn't always tell if the words were coming from the two talking about the previous events or the people within those events.

It's clear the author is a historian and did a lot of research; I would have like to know more about that research, including which parts of the story are factual and which are manufactured to make it a good story. Am I encountering historical characters or a novelization of a romance that someone wished for? We can't know everything for sure but what DO we really know? Are the letters mentioned transcriptions of the actual letters or imagined versions? I just don't think that calling something a novel gives the author an excuse not to more clearly delineate fact vs. fiction when it's about someone who lived until 1989. You can read a shortened version of his amazing life in his obituary in the New York Times.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss; it comes out October 6, 2020. I recommend it for anyone but especially those of you who like novels with music themes, you know who you are.

View all my reviews

Reading Envy 196: Miscommunication with Lindy

Lindy is back, just in time to share about her appointment to the Shadow Giller Jury. We talk about the Canadian book prize and its shadow, recent crafting projects, and recent reads. Jenny is focused on Persian lands in fantasy and a debut novel while Lindy has been reading Canadians from other places. If you would like to contribute to the 200th episode, please see the link in the show notes.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 196: Miscommunication

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Books discussed:



Polar Vortex by Shani Mootoo
Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust
The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya
Daughters of Smoke and Fire by Ava Horna
How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa


Other mentions:

Contribute to the 200th episode (words, not money)
Scotiabank Giller Prize
Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo
Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust
Helen Humphreys
Thomas King
Sorcery & Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Vanishing Monuments by John Elizabeth Stintzi
Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford


Related episodes:

Episode 095 - Lose the Outside World with Lindy Pratch
Episode 107 - Reading Goals 2018 
Episode 124 - Mush Creatures with Lindy Pratch
Episode 159 - Reading Doorways with Lindy
Episode 191 - Stealthy yet Sparkly with Gail Carriger (Sorcery & Cecelia)
Episode 192 - Sly Milieu with Thomas (The Subtweet)
 

Stalk us online:

Lindy Reads and Reviews (blog)
Lindy on Twitter
Lindy is @Lindy on Litsy
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Follow ShadowGiller on Twitter

Reading Envy 192: Sly Milieu with Thomas

Thomas is back! We discuss reading during a pandemic and more importantly, the books we've managed to order online during the pandemic. Jenny gets Thomas to talk about audiobooks, and we follow every tangent from E.M. Forster to epistolary novels.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 192: Sly Milieu

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Books discussed:



Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut
The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya
No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym
Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn


Other mentions:

In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut
"Every Song" by Vivek Shraya (both versions in Spotify)
Camp ToB
"Italy Before the Plague" (Thomas's blog entry)
The Mirror and the Light by Hillary Mantel
Timothy West
Simon Vance
Sinclair Lewis
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Graham Greene
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Patrick Modiano
WG Sebwald
Helen MacInnes
Charles McCarthy
Malaprop's Bookstore
Old Town Books
Blue Hill Books
Boulder Book Store
Three Lives & Company
Bear Pond Books
Nonsuch Book
Mahogany Books
Furrowed Middlebrow from Dean Street Books
Stuck in a Book
Powells
Lion Cross Point by Masatsugu Ono
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
A Room with a View (film)
Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster
The Longest Journey by E.M. Forster
Howards End by E.M. Forster
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Maurice by E.M. Forster
Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
Hotels of North America by Rick Moody
Interview between Tommy Orange and Kawai Strong Washburn
Stories of Hawaii by Jack London
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym


Related episodes:

Episode 085 - An Acquired Taste with Thomas Otto
Episode 144 - For the Fans with Thomas of Hogglestock
Episode 155 - Books About Music Recommendations Episode with Thomas
Episode 191 - Stealthy yet Sparkly with Gail Carriger


Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Thomas on Twitter
Thomas at his blog, hogglestock

Reading Envy 165: Delightful Reads with Claire Handscombe

Claire Handscombe joins Jenny to discuss recent reads, bookish podcasts, and Claire talks about what brought her to DC, her writing project, and the bookseller's life. Be sure to check out Claire's podcast, blog, and books, all linked at the end of the shownotes.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 165: Delightful Reads with Claire Handscombe

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Listen via Stitcher
Listen through Spotify


Books discussed:



Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Flights by Olga Takarczuk; Translated by Jennifer Croft
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Summerlings by Lisa Howarth
Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson


Other mentions:

Reading Glasses podcast
Book Riot "main" podcast
East City Bookshop
Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Homesick by Jennifer Croft
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Takarczuk
Piglettes by Clementine Beauvais
Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
Mina by Kim Sagwa, translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton


Related Episodes:

Episode 155 - Books About Music Recommendations Episode with Thomas


Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Claire on Twitter
BritLitPodcast on Twitter
Link to UNSCRIPTED
Link to WALK WITH US: HOW THE WEST WING CHANGED OUR LIVES 

Reading Envy 155: Music Reading Recommendations with Thomas

Thomas and Jenny huddle up in the music nerd corner of the pub, trading recommendations for books that include music in all the best ways. We start out with a few non-fiction titles then move into novels. You'll also hear about an epic list of books including music, and a few books that didn't do as well as would have liked.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 155: Music Reading Recommendations

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Listen via Stitcher
Listen through Spotify


Books discussed:

The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart
The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain
The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Chimes by Anna Smaill
Chamber Music by Doris Grumbach
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
Us Conductors by Sean Matthews
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
The Baritone wore Chiffon by Mark Schweizer
The Student Conductor by Robert Ford
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty
Orfeo by Richard Powers
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Pastoral by Andre Alexis
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
White Tears by Hari Kunzru

Books Jenny meant to mention:
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper
The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe


Other mentions:
Bibliography of musical fiction
A Late Quartet (film)
On Chesil Beach (film)
On Chesil Beach (soundtrack) 
The Ensemble by Aja Gabel
Compass by Mathias Enard
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby


Related Episodes:

Episode 012 - Some Bookers and Some Madness (Orfeo)
Episode 025 - Mule and Plow with guest Jason Roland (Us Conductors)
Episode 044 - Of Survival and Memory with Luke Burrage (The Chimes)
Episode 072 - Books Are My Bag with Sarah K (Do Not Say We Have Nothing)
Episode 085 - An Acquired Taste with Thomas Otto
Episode 086 - The Queen of Bailing with Shawn Mooney (The Gustav Sonata)
Episode 110 - The Accidental Love Episode with Casey Stepaniuk (White Tears)
Episode 144 - For the Fans with Thomas of Hogglestock


Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Thomas on Twitter
Thomas at his blog, hogglestock

Reading Envy 145: Things Get Dark

Bianca joins Jenny for a late-night chat about books, and we follow all tangents to the end. We cover cults, manga and comics, and middle-grade reads. Bianca talks about her monthly themed reads in 2018 and how that has inspired her focused reading in 2019. Jenny begs your forgiveness for a few coughing spells; allergies have hit early in the south. (She edited everything out that she could.)

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 145: Things Get Dark

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Books discussed:



Breaking Free by Rachel Jeffs
Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty
Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn
My Brother's Husband Vol. 1 by Gengoroh Tagame
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein

Other mentions:

I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole
Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole
Big Love (tv show)
Serafina and the Black Cloak book trailer
Biltmore Estate
Willa of the Wood by Robert Beatty
Over the Rainbow Booklist final bibliographies for 2018
Heavy Vinyl (comic series)
Backstagers (comic series)
Boom Studios
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Phoenix ComiCon (formerly known as)
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

Related Episodes:

Episode 051 - Dreaming in Books with Karen
Episode 127 - The Sadness Between Books with Bianca Escalante

Stalk us online:
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Bianca is @bianca on Litsy

Reading Envy 091: Watching Our Stories

Jenny talks Tracy into returning to the Reading Envy Pub, and to share what she is reading for the summer. We discuss HEA endings and why everything happy happens in Cornwall. There are a lot of ocean and beach reads on this list, plus a handful of others from Jenny's darker reading.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 091: Watching Our Stories.

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner
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Or listen through TuneIn
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Listen via Stitcher

I am starting to schedule guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ


Books featured:



The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe
Just This Once by Rosalind James (Escape to New Zealand Series #1)
Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
Crazy Little Thing by Tracy Brogan (Bell Harbor Series #1)
Ill Will by Dan Chaon
Escape for the Summer by Ruth Saberton (Escape Series #1)


Other mentions:

Sword and Laser Hum and Shiver discussion
Joanna’s shelf
Shall We Gather by Alex Bledsoe
The Two Weddings of Bronwyn Hyatt by Alex Bledsoe
Mandie books by Lois Gladys Leppard
Foxfire series
Haka by the NZ All Blacks
Man Booker Prize
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Marina Adair
Tournament of Books summer reading
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Love Between the Covers (film)
The Cafe by the Sea by Jenny Colgan
Summer at the Little Wedding Shop by Jane Linfoot
Christmas at the Little Wedding Shop by Jane Linfoot
The Summer Girls by Mary Alice Monroe
Harry Potter audiobooks narrated by Stephen Fry
Fran Rizer
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum
Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa

Related Episodes:

Episode 063 - Desolation Road (book speed dating and books on grief)
Episode 064 - Reading Down the Rabbit Hole with guest Tracy Landrith
Episode 085 - An Acquired Taste with Thomas Otto
Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Tracy is maintaining stealth status