05-12-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 97: Mary Roach, 'Gulp'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the ninety-seventh episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the one-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to stay ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
The ninety-seventh episode is a look at Mary Roach and 'Gulp..'
05-08-13:Mary Robinette Kowal Reads "Evil Robot Monkey" at SF in SF on April 20, 2013
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"...not that there's anything remotely Regency about evil robot monkeys..."
—Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal is best known for her "Regency, With Magic" novels; 'Shades of Milk and Honey,' 'Glamour in the Glass,' and her latest, 'Without a Summer.' They're rather spectacularly successful incarnations of exactly what Kowal intends; novels in the style and set in the time of Jane Austen, with the addition of magic.
This is a very tough style to pull off, but Kowal does it so well that she even reads with an excellent British accent for events. But it's not just the accent; all the aspects of the novels live up to her aspirations. They're amazingly fun and equally intelligent.
They are, in fact, so successful, that it is easy to forget just how a smart writer like Kowal can transcend that style and write something completely different. But here is the proof, a 962-word Hugo nominated story, "Evil Robot Monkey," that she read at the last SF in SF.
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Kowal read quite a bit from her other work at this event, but this story is so perfect all by itself, that I decided to present it here by itself. You can hear her, and some introduction, by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
05-06-13:A 2013 Interview with Glennon Doyle Melton
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"Ironically, confession is a little bit addictive."
— Glennon Doyle Melton
When I sit down to talk with Glennon Doyle Melton about her book 'Carry On, Warrior,' I feel just a bit out of place. I'm not quite in the expected audience for Momastery, her blog, but books are a different matter. And 'Carry On, Warrior' is wise, well-written and fun to read. That puts me right where I am, talking to the author about how and why the book came to be.
Glennon is hot off The Today Show when we sit down to speak, already well beyond the confines of my literary domain. As far as that goes, she always was, what with a blog post that went viral (my closest brushes with viral tend to involve viruses you need a microscope to see), and her dedicated followers that hang on her every word. (My readers tend to hang on the words of the writers I interview, and I try very hard to stay out of their way.)
But Glennon Doyle Melton has written an excellent book, one I can hold in my hands, and indeed, did hold in my hands as I read it and filled it up with stickies. So once we get the studio set up in her hotel room — her associate is there to keep us on time — conversation unfolds at a rather startling pace and I have to run my tiny brain just as fast as I can to stay in place.
The big fun part of this is that Glennon managed to be as spontaneous in person to the xhundredth interviewer to ask her about her blog as she is in her blog for her umpty-ump readers. She's a great speaker, quite straightforward and without any hesitation. The girl you meet in the blog, the girl you meet on the pages, is the girl you meet in person. We talked about as much as we could until the clock ran out. You can hear just how much ground we covered (a lot!) in 51 minutes by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
09-18-15: Commentary : William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass' : An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."
09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
