Reading Envy 235: Nature of Humanity with Paula

Paula is back for the last regular episode of the year and we talk about biography, books from the backlist, and books from countries we don't know much about.

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Reading Envy 235: Nature of Humanity

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Books discussed:

Wrestling with the Angel by Michael King
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
The Owl Service by Alan Garner
Sovietistan by Erika Fatland, translated by Kari Dickson
Chronicle in Stone by Ismaeil Kedare, translated by Arshi Pipa and David Below

Other mentions:

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
An Angel at My Table by Janet Frame
Faces in the Water by Janet Frame
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Small Island by Andrea Levy
The Swing in the Summerhouse by Jane Longton
The Border by Erika Fatland
The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Embers by Sandor Marai

Related episodes: 

Episode 045 - Worlds Collide with Ross O'Brien
Episode 119 - Bread and Butter Writing with Paula
Episode 154 - Is If If with Paula
Episode 187 - Sentient Snails and Spaceships with Paula
Episode 210 - Reading Goals 2021
Episode 231 - Psychological Terrorism with Reggie
Episode 234 - Punctuation Marks with Nadine

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Paula is @centique on 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 207: Innocent and Ruthless with Tricia Deegan

Jenny records across the sea to talk to artist and English teacher Tricia Deegan. If you hear any words that seem stretched out, blame the internet under the ocean! I did what I could in the editing but there are a few unavoidable blips. Nothing too bad, so please enjoy this new guest to the show.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 207: Innocent and Ruthless

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Books discussed:

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Farewell, Ghosts by Nadia Terranova; translated by Ann Goldstein
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
Travels with a Tangerine by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Other mentions:

Leila Slimani
Maupassant
Delpine De Vigan
The Years by Annie Ernaux
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Elena Ferrante
Grimm's Fairy Tales
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Darwin
Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier (William Blake)
The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
Native Son by Richard Wright
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Becoming by Michelle Obama
These Truths by Jill LePore
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X Kendi
Stamped! Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X Kendi and Jason Reynolds
A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
Kim JiYoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, translated by Jamie Chang
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab

Related episodes:

Episode 071 - Bad Priest, Good Priest, No Priest with Scott
Episode 098 - Just a Bunch of Stuff that Happened with Bryan Bibb

Stalk us online:

Tricia is @trishadeegan 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.

Review: Travels with a Tangerine: From Morocco to Turkey in the Footsteps of Islam's Greatest Traveler

Travels with a Tangerine: From Morocco to Turkey in the Footsteps of Islam's Greatest Traveler by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tim Mackintosh-Smith traces some of the travels of Ibn Battuta, an avid traveler of North Africa and the Middle East in the Middle Ages. The writing is dense (he loves a good turn of phrase) but I enjoyed reading it, visiting the late 1990s version of some of these places, with the underlying current of the 14th century - Tangiers, Alexandria, Aleppo, Sur, etc. Some of these locations have been forever changed in the 21st century so this was a bit of time traveling. The author talks about how the world feels like it contracts or expands depending on how easy it is to travel - Ibn Battuta did most of his travels as the Black Plague started, which reduced travel and trade worldwide. Funny how we are in a similar situation right now!

I've read books set so many of these places that this connected to many of my reads from the last year. The author has lived in Yemen for decades and I may want to read his book about that country too.

View all my reviews

Reading Envy 173: Expecting a Lot from a Book

Jenny was happy to welcome Sarah Tittle in person to chat books we have read and liked recently. Sarah's past in publishing, her own writing, and her book club experiences all come together to form the reader she is today. We found our way to a few unintentional themes of female empowerment and radicalism, with a little reader's memory lane of one Nicholson Baker.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 173: Expecting a Lot from a Book with Sarah Tittle

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Books discussed:



The Gloaming by Melanie Finn
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
Unfollow by Megan Phelps
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy


Other mentions:

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
Vox by Nicholson Baker
The Fermata by Nicholson Baker
Double Fold by Nicholson Baker
The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker
Away from You by Melanie Finn
Women's Prize for Fiction
Antigone by Sophocles
Circe by Madeleine Miller
Headscarves and Hymens by Mona Eltahawy
Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carré
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer
Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward


Stalk us online:
 
Sarah is @sarahcrosbytittle on Instagram
Sarah on Facebook
Sarah at Goodreads
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy

Reading Envy 159: Reading Doorways with Lindy

Lindy and Jenny settle in to talk about themselves as readers and what they care most about in the books they read and love. Lindy brings three books up for awards in Alberta, and Jenny brings poems and non-fiction and one novel. We also discuss a few more ideas for the 2019 Reading Envy Summer Reading Challenge>

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 159: Reading Doorways with Lindy

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Books discussed:



Insomnia Bird: Edmonton Poems by Kelly Shepherd
Brute: Poems by Emily Skaja
Welcome to the Anthropocene by Alice Major
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
Little Yellow House by Carissa Halton
When Wanderers Cease to Roam by Vivian Swift


Other mentions:

Nancy Pearl's Rule of 4
Reading Envy Summer Challenge
River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (something swampy)
Fen by Daisy Johnson (something swampy)
Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
2019 Alberta Literary Awards and City of Edmonton Book Prize
Edmonton Poetry Festival
Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
Tournament of Books Camp TOB


Related Episodes:

Episode 095 - Lose the Outside World with Lindy Pratch
Episode 107 - Reading Goals 2018 
Episode 124 - Mush Creatures with Lindy Pratch
Episode 153 - Reading Envy Summer Reading Challenge


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

Books Read June 2019: 134 - 159

Pictured: June's 5-star Reads

134. The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
135. When Wanderers Cease to Roam by Vivian Swift ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library copy, my review)
136. Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Audible audiobook; my review)
137. The Ash Family by Molly Dektar ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
138. If the Church Were Christian by Philip Gulley ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
139. Condomnauts by Yoss ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
140. Passing Strange by Ellen Klages ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (free download from Tor.com; my review)
141. Split Level by Sandra Berger ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
142. Wild Horses of the Summer Sun by Tory Bilski ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
143. Lanny by Max Porter ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
144. How to Forget by Kate Mulgrew ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
145. Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
146. Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library copy; my review)
147. Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana, translated by Mui Poopoksakul ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Hoopla eBook; my review)
148. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
149. The Bobcat by Katherine Forbes Riley ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from author; my review)
150. Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
151. Trust Exercise by Susan Choi ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library copy; my review)
152. Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
153. The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
154. The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
155. 100 Times: A Memoir of Sexism by Chavisa Woods ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
156. All City by Alex DiFrancesco ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
157. Magic for Beginners by Sarah Gailey ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
158. The Body Papers by Grace Talusan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy via Restless Books subscription; my review)
159. Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)

Total books: 26

Audio: 5
eBook: 15
Print: 6

Purchased: 5
Library: 8
Review: 13

Asia 2019: 4
Camp ToB: 2
Joint Readalong: 1
TakePrideinReading: 6
TBR Explode: 3

Reading Envy 156: Introvert Intentions with Scott

Jenny and Scott chat books they've read and liked lately, from travelogues to medical/cultural miscommunication, from introvert tales to science fiction short stories that are really more about philosophy than anything else. You'll have to excuse them as they nerd out over journaling and planners for a while (and Jenny deleted half that conversation, so you don't even know!)

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 156: Introvert Intentions with Scott

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Books discussed:



Exhalation by Ted Chiang
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come by Jessica Pan
The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll
Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap


Other mentions:

Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Game of Thrones (tv show)
Arrival (film)
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Gardner Dezois
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel
This is Paradise by Kristiana Khakauwila
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker
Ordinary People by Diana Evans
Chronicles of a Radical Hag by Lorna Landvik


Related Episodes:

Episode 004 - Home, Frightening and Banned with guest Karen Acosta
Episode 014 - Flannery O'Connor with Zombies with Jason and Scott
Episode 052 - The Man with the Eyebrows with Philip and Scott
Episode 058 - Wishing for a Sequel with Scott
Episode 071 - Bad Priest, Good Priest, No Priest with Scott
Episode 082 - Reading Envy Envy with Scott
Episode 109 - Stuxnet Pancakes with Scott Danielson

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Scott on A Good Story is Hard to Find (podcast)