Some very smart SF people talking about A People’s Future of the United States. The time Virgina Woolf wore blackface. Kat Eschner wonders if it’s time to put aside the Little House books. (It’s a strong yes from me, but I was also never that into them. So.) What does the nostalgia for old-school publishing actually want to return to? (Hint: white dudes.) What does it mean when studios embargo reviews on a movie? Emily Asher-Perrin rocks, and this take on gender fluidity and Steven Universe and She-Ra is very very good. Why do so many books include the tagline…
Leave a CommentAuthor: Gin Jenny
I am no longer in my memoir phase, my friends. I just am not. When I read Educated last year and recommended it to all and sundry, I added the caveat that I am no longer in my memoir phase, except for weird-culty-religion memoirs, as those are my catnip. But then I saw the synopsis for Sounds Like Titanic, a memoir about a violinist who fake-performed in a professional ensemble for a famous composer who played a loud CD of his music on top of the fake performances the ensemble players were doing. I expected Sounds Like Titanic to feel…
Leave a CommentIt’s our very first guest of 2019! This episode, the Jennys welcome the fabulous Charlotte Geater to the podcast to chat about experimental, epistolary, and other unconventional narrative formats. Then we review Gina Apostol’s strange and wonderful new novel Insurrecto, which at least one of us already feels confident is going to be one of our best books of 2019. You can listen to the podcast using the embedded player below, or download the file directly to take with you on the go!
Here are the time signatures if you want to skip around.
1:21 – What we’re reading
5:18 – What we’re anticipating
8:37 – Nontraditional narrative formats
35:01 – Insurrecto, by Gina Apostol
50:09 – What we’re reading next time
What we talked about:
Evvie Drake Starts Over, Linda Holmes
Sylvia Townsend Warner letters
A Genius for Deception: How Cunning Helped the British Win Two World Wars, Nicholas Rankin
This Is What It Feels Like, Rebecca Barrow
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine
Josh Ritter’s new album, Fever Breaks
Three Identical Strangers (movie)
The Jolly Postman, Janet and Allan Ahlberg
A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
Confessions of the Fox, Jordy Rosenberg
Bad Kitty, Michelle Jaffe
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, by Theodora Goss
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
The Spellman Files, Lisa Lutz
The Unfortunates, B. S. Johnson
Tripticks, Ann Quin
HHhH, Laurent Binet
Ulysses, James Joyce
White Is for Witching, Helen Oyeyemi
Censoring an Iranian Love Story, Shahriar Mandanipour
Mr. Fox, Helen Oyeyemi
interview with Sofia Samatar in Big Echo
Pilgrimage, Dorothy Richardson
In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
The Lodger, Louisa Treger
S, Doug Dorst and JJ Abrams
Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov (this edition is the one I am indignant about)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick
The Marvels, Brian Selznick
Dennis Severs’ House
Insurrecto, Gina Apostol
Get at me on Twitter, email the podcast, and friend me (Gin Jenny) and Whiskey Jenny on Goodreads. If you like what we do, support us on Patreon. Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We appreciate it very very much).
Credits
Producer: Captain Hammer
Photo credit: The Illustrious Annalee
Theme song by: Jessie Barbour
Transcripts by: Sharon of Library Hungry
Transcript is available below the jump.
Leave a CommentSome of you may recall Heidi Heilig from her previous duology, TIME TRAVELING PIRATES (also known as The Girl from Everywhere and The Ship Beyond Time), and she has returned with a whole new series that won my heart before I ever began it by including music and script pages and letters as well as the straightforward narrative. For a Muse of Fire is about a girl called Jetta whose family is the most renowned troupe of shadow players in Chakrana. She and her parents hope to use their art to gain passage on a boat to Aquitan, where it…
Leave a CommentI have not been diligent enough in hunting down links, friends, and that is why there has been a tragic hiatus in links round-ups. But I am back. It is Friday. This weekend, a small mystery: Will a long-anticipated package arrive despite very confusing FedEx notifications? Let’s hope so! What are you looking forward to this weekend, and do you fear it will elude you like an octopus inking you in the face as it squids away? A list of things I would actually like men to explain to me. LOLSOB TO ALL OF THIS. Charlie Jane Anders urges writers…
Leave a CommentWow, I had this post all planned out in my mind, and then at the very last moment, Tor.com came along with not one BUT TWO circus stories. I don’t know if y’all know this about me, but I hold the controversial opinion that Circus Shoes is the second-best of Noel Streatfeild’s Shoes books, yes, BETTER THAN SKATING SHOES. (This opinion is mainly controversial insofar as very few people know that Circus Shoes even exists.) I read Circus Shoes when I was nine years old, and I’ve been chasing that circus high ever since. (A complaint: If anybody has written…
Leave a CommentOkay, enough of my friends have now asked me about Blood Heir that I’ve decided it’s worth posting about. Pray for me. A few days ago, I saw an author on my TL, LL McKinney, criticizing an ARC she had read, a secondary-world fantasy YA debut called Blood Heir, by Amelie Wen Zhao. She initially identified the book as a problem based on its description including the phrase “oppression is blind to skin color”; later, she read through the book and tweeted about elements that played into racial stereotypes, such as a black character dying to further the emotional arc…
Leave a CommentIt’s one of our three favorite times of year: Seasonal book preview time! With very great difficulty, we intrepid Jennies have sallied forth into the world of publisher catalogs and selected the five-or-six best books coming out between January and April 2019. It’s a good season for books, my friends. Then we chat about the first play we’ve ever read for podcast, Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915. You can listen to the podcast using the embedded player below, or download the file directly to take with you on the go!
Here are the time signatures if you want to skip around.
1:36 – What we’re reading
3:38 – The best of what we listened to in 2018
5:53 – Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Book 5, Chapters 5-10
21:47 – Update on Fall 2018 Book Preview
23:07 – Spring 2019 Book Preview
33:22 – We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915, by Jackie Sibblies Drury
45:11 – What we’re reading next time
What we talked about:
The Vela, Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Rivers Solomon, SL Huang https://www.serialbox.com/serials/vela
The Book of M, Peng Shepherd
Live from Here with Chris Thile
“My Oh My”
Jesus Christ Superstar Live
Return of the King
Gin Jenny’s Fall 18 Books:
Washington Black, Esi Edugyan
Transcription, Kate Atkinson
Zero Sum Game, SL Huang
Hearts Unbroken, Cynthia Leitich Smith
Exit Strategy, Martha Wells
Eternity Girl, Magdalene Visaggio
Whiskey Jenny’s Fall 18 Books:
The Royal Runaway, Lindsay Emory
The Best Bad Things, Katrina Colasco
Waiting for Eden, Elliot Ackerman
Retablos, Octavio Solas
Gin Jenny’s Spring 19 Books:
The Kingdom of Copper, by SA Chakraborty
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, by David Treuer
A People’s Future of the United States, edited by Victor Lavalle and John Joseph Adams
The True Queen, Zen Cho
Gingerbread, Helen Oyeyemi
Return of the Thief, Megan Whalen Turner
Whiskey Jenny’s Spring 19 Books:
Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James
The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders
The Night Tiger, Yangsze Choo
American Spy, Lauren Wilkinson
Walking on the Ceiling, Aysegül Savas
We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915, by Jackie Sibblies Drury
Interview with Jackie Sibblies Drury
Insurrecto, Gina Apostol
Get at me on Twitter, email the podcast, and friend me (Gin Jenny) and Whiskey Jenny on Goodreads. If you like what we do, support us on Patreon. Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We appreciate it very very much).
Credits
Producer: Captain Hammer
Photo credit: The Illustrious Annalee
Theme song by: Jessie Barbour
Transcripts by: Sharon of Library Hungry
Transcript is available under the jump!
Leave a CommentHappy last Monday in January! Today I’m over at Lady Business chattering about the best YA sequels in 2018, plus a run-down of the best YA that came out this month. Hop on over and say hi!
Leave a Comment