Reading Envy 045: Worlds Collide with Ross O'Brien

Jenny was pleased to sit down with Ross O'Brien in her morning and his evening, discussing books across the globe in the ever expanding Reading Envy Pub.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 045: Worlds Collide.

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Book selections:


Submission by Michel Houellebecq
Faces in the Water by Janet Frame
Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Pure by Timothy Mo
Slade House by David Mitchell


Other mentions:
Flow Bookshop (Hong Kong)
Anthony Burgess
V.S. Naipaul
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
Albert Camus
Once Were Warriors by Alan Duff
New Zealand rugby team (the "All Blacks") at the World Cup, doing the haka
The Bone People by Keri Hulme
The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific by Paul Theroux
The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding by Robert Hughes
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
An Insular Possesion by Timothy Mo
Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo

Related podcast episodes:
Reading Envy Episode 031: Hideous Realism with Steen and Jesse

Stalk us online:
Ross on Twitter
Ross on the Dystopian Present podcast
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter

New Books in November 2015

This was a light month for new books in, since I was busy getting books from libraries for my New Zealand November project.

I have two physical books that came in during November, both from publishers. One asked me first and one just sent it (with a nice note telling me about a reading the author is doing in my city; smart move!) - can you guess which is which?

A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe
The Shards of Heaven by Michael Livingston

A Borrowed Man is a near-future where AIs may be checked out from the library. The Shards of Heaven is an alternate history from the classic era (or more to the point, fantastical history.)
Apparently Michael Livingston is a South Carolina author, and I'd read Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe previously.

A few titles I bought on Kindle:



CyberStorm by Matthew Mather
The Gardener of Baghdad by Ahmad Ardalan
The Invasion of the Tearling (The Queen of the Tearling) by Erika Johansen

All three of these were Kindle deals, $1.99 or under, and sometimes I snag those if I think I may eventually read them. I had previously purchased the first volume in the Tearling series, so this is the second. I keep hearing about them, hopefully can try them soon!

Reading Envy 044: Of Survival and Memory

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

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner

Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: Subscribe

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.