Review: Waiting for the Punch: Words to Live by from the WTF Podcast

Waiting for the Punch: Words to Live by from the WTF Podcast by Marc Maron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to the publisher for providing access to this title through Edelweiss.

I try to read as many books as I can about podcasts, podcasting, interviewing, etc., so I was excited to see this book come up. I used to listen to the WTF Podcast, and still do occasionally when the guest is someone who really interests me. I think, at times, Marc Maron asks interesting questions, and I was curious to hear more about his thought process. That isn't really represented in this book much, although there are tidbits here and there. In the Addiction chapter, his brief intro explains why he asks about addiction if he has that in common with his guest. This is one of the reasons I stopped trying to listen to all the episodes, honestly, but I found that he has a very good reason for doing so - something about when someone connects with you on a shared experience like addiction, it somehow strips the pretense away and allows him to get deeper and more personal about other topics. As a listener not all that interested in addiction though, I would often get frustrated when he got to these moments!

So if you have heard every episode of WTF, there will not be any new content here. What he has done is cull the interviews for thematic content and organized them so they create a rough narrative in the sense that the first person might mention their father and then religion and the next quote might be about religion and move to the next topic. It takes skill to organize bits in this way, so I respect that. It made it enjoyable to read, even though some of the excerpts were revisiting stuff I'd already heard.

There is not a lot of man-behind-the-curtain stuff like I was hoping, but enjoyable just the same. There are a few people I started skipping because I found I didn't particularly care for their flavor (I do think that people have certain expectations about what will happen when they sit down in a garage with a comedian and have a hard time getting beyond masturbation jokes), but your mileage may vary.

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Review: Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nomadland takes a deep look at the growing culture of van-dwellers and other nomads that attempt to live on the road, because they can't afford to live otherwise. I thought it was a particularly poignant read after reading Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City earlier this year, since that book examines the issue of eviction among people attempting to still live in traditional ways. The people in this book have left town, leaving mortgages and rent behind, to try to make it through seasonal work all over the country. The author spent three years and got to know many of the people she writes about very well, and I think because of this is able to provide greater insight than people who treat this lifestyle as quirky or the newest hobby of snowbirds. For many of the people in this book, this is the last chance they have to make ends meet, and it is not an easy way to live. There is no safety net.

I received a copy of this book when the publisher had leftovers from ALA and I requested a copy via e-mail. I think I expected it to be more about hipsters than retirees, but was happy with the actual focus of the book.

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Review: The Heart's Invisible Furies

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was offered a copy of this from an intern working for the publisher in exchange for an honest review, which I accepted, after feeling slight regret after passing the book up from Book of the Month.

I am a super skeptic of the hype machine. Seriously, the more a book is covered by BookTube and Bookstagram and book podcasts, the less likely I feel compelled to read it. And this book suffered this fate. Not to mention that I had previously read the author, when my book club read The Absolutist, a decent but short book. So let this pass me by, felt a bit skeptical of people who wrote glowing reviews, but then decided on a whim to read along with others in Litsy.

Okay, so I was wrong about this book. It is so easy to sink into it and get wrapped up into the life of Cyril Avery from pre-birth to death. It starts with his mother, an unwed teenager, being denounced from the pulpit and being forced out of her family and town, and moves quickly into Cyril's childhood as "not a real" Avery. At times there are major jumps in time between sections, often after a memorable scene.

The book will take you through a journey. I laughed (out loud, freaking out my pets and husband), I cried, I stayed up until the next morning reading the last 300 pages in one setting. Worth the hype, worth the read.

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What was your favorite read of 2017?

It's time to compile the best of 2017! If you want your favorite book of 2017 included on Reading Envy Episode 105, please send me an email at reading envy at gmail.

Please include:
1. Your name as you'd like it included
2. Your location (optional)
3. Your favorite read from 2017. Like all Reading Envy episodes, it does not need to be published in 2017, just something you enjoyed this year.

You may also record this, in fact I prefer it so that episode is not all my voice! It should be less than 5 minutes, and saved as an MP3, and include the same info as above.

Deadline: December 15, 2017. But please do send earlier than that.

Reading Envy 101: A Different Kind of Time Travel

Jenny was so excited to be in the same city as Karen, in October, so we planned reading dates, a meat fest (not a euphemism), and time to record an episode.

Warning: There is a bit of a spoiler for Exit West on here, but nothing you haven't learned if you've read any reviews of the book.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 101: A Different Kind of Time Travel

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


Books featured:



Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002) by David Sedaris
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Nobody Cries at Bingo by Dawn Dumont

Other mentions:

National Book Awards - winners 2017 (spoiler: not Machado)
Room by Emma Donoghue
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty
Dr. Paul Koudounaris
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid
Glass Beads: Stories by Dawn Dumont
Slade House by David Mitchell
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherice Wolas

Related episodes:

Episode 004 - Home, Frightening and Banned with guest Karen Acosta
Episode 015 - The Time for Exclaiming Over Costumes with Jean and Karen
Episode 051 - Dreaming in Books with Karen
Episode 066 - When Time Stops with Karen


Stalk us online:

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

Review: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I know that Neil deGrasse Tyson has been the new poster child of capital-S Science in the last few years, but I have lived in blissful ignorance. I didn't watch Cosmos, for instance. But I like astrophysics, the parts I can grasp, and have an admiration for people who can grasp the science and math and concepts enough to push our understanding forward.

This is a short book, and I will recommend the audio read by the author. He is very passionate and exuberant about his topics, and it still came across a bit sped up (which I felt it needed.) The different chapters are sometimes previous essays, compiled into this layman's overview of astrophysics - intentionally short, concepts boiled down to the core of where our understanding started, what we know now, and what we do not know. It's clear that the one thing we really have gained understanding of is all that we do not know!

I was least thrilled by the periodical table chapter, but I get it, the elements are not unique to earth, and that can be used as evidence for some things, mostly things I'm not super interested in the debate on. But I loved his cosmic perspective and where humanity fits as much as I loved his visual description of what the galaxies looked like in the past, and his questions about the things that we can never know we don't know because they are gone.

This is the best science book I've read all year, and possibly also the only science book I will have read this year.

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Review: Gather the Daughters

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've struggled to review this title because I have mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I'm weary of the women-as-breeder trope so common in post-apocalyptic fiction. On the other hand, there are reasons this is so prevalent.

On the one hand, I find the child abuse in this, even though it is often "offstage," very disturbing. On the other hand, well. It's not unbelievable.

On the one hand, I was confused about the world building. On the other hand, the ending makes everything very clear, or at least provides reasons for it to be muddy. It is true that the daughters don't know enough about the world. That isn't a mistake, that's deliberate, both on the part of the author but also on the part of the men running the island they all live on. But would everyone feeling confused make it to the end?

I also very much like the rotating perspectives, always only the daughters.

Thanks to the publisher for providing access to this title through NetGalley. Published July 2017.


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