From Pride and Prejudice to Detransition, Baby, the romcom can be an enduring source of great pleasure, fun and comfort. This month we’re thrilled to welcome the American writer Curtis Sittenfeld to talk about her latest novel Romantic Comedy, a smart and funny story about how love can upend all kinds of preconceptions and expectations. It also gave us the perfect opportunity to think about the possibilities of the genre more generally, and whether it can ever escape the imprint of the patriarchal and heteronormative structures that underpin so many classic love stories. 

Recommendations on the theme, Romantic Comedy:
Octavia: A Room With A View by E.M. Forster
Carrie: Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny

General Recommendations:
Octavia: August Blue by Deborah Levy
Curtis: Everything's Fine by Cecilia Rabess
Carrie: Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton 

Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/june-2023-romantic-comedy-with-curtis-sittenfeld   

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction

Email us: litfriction@gmail.com

Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

Literary Friction - Romantic Comedy with Curtis Sittenfeld

A monthly conversation about books and ideas on NTS Radio hosted by friends Carrie Plitt, a literary agent, and Octavia Bright, a writer and academic. Each show features an author interview, book recommendations, lively discussion and a little music too, all built around a related theme - anything from the novella to race to masculinity. Listen live on NTS Radio www.nts.live

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It's time for our usual Year in Review show, but seeing as this is also our last EVER episode (sob!), we're shaking things up a little to bring you a bit of a decade in review as well, so we can look back over our highlights from ten wonderful years of Literary Friction. 

This show is stuffed full of recommendations, including our favourite reads from this year and books we're looking forward to reading in 2024, but also the books we're happiest to have found through the show. So, if you need inspiration for what to get your friends and loved ones this holiday season then listen closely! You can find a list of all the books mentioned at the link below. 

Thank you to everyone who has helped us make the show over the years, to all the brilliant authors who have chatted with us, and most of all, thank you all so much for listening.

Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/december-2023-year-and-decade-in-review 

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction

Email us: litfriction@gmail.com

Literary Friction - Year (and Decade) in Review 2023

What does it mean, to pursue a life of your own? And what is art and literature's role in figuring out what that might look like? This month we're delighted to be talking to writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo, whose latest book Radical: A Life of My Own is both a personal lexicon and a memoir, which thinks deeply about what it would mean to truly forge a life of one’s own. 

As we announced on our last minisode, we’re wrapping up Literary Friction at the end of this year, so this is our last author interview. Xiaolu is a really fitting last guest, because of how she thinks about things like language, translation, freedom and radicality through literature, which are many of the themes we’ve returned to again and again over the last decade of shows. Don’t worry though - this isn’t our final episode! We’ll be bringing you a bumper edition of our year in review in a couple of weeks’ time.

Recommendations on the theme, A Life of One's Own:
Octavia: The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
Carrie: The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright

General Recommendations:
Octavia: Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon
Xiaolu: Art Monsters by Lauren Elkin, and Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell
Carrie: Trust by Hernan Diaz

Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/december-2023-a-life-of-one-s-own-with-xiaolu-guo  

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction

Email us: litfriction@gmail.com

Literary Friction - A Life of One's Own with Xialou Guo

Our theme this month was suggested by our patron Maral, who asked us to do an episode about our friendship, because she’s interested in how our (very!) different personalities align. We thought it might be a little self-indulgent to spend a whole episode talking about us specifically, so we’re also going to return to the theme of friendship more broadly, and talk about some of our favourite books about friends.

We also make a pretty big announcement on this episode: after ten wonderful years of Literary Friction, our Year in Review show this December will be our last. It feels like the natural end, for reasons we get into, but we are really going to miss you all! And don't worry, there's also a final full show coming between now and our final goodbye.

Minisode Forty-Five: Friendship

How do the people and things we desire shape our identities? And how do you render the physical intensity of desire on the page? Author K Patrick joins us in thinking about desire this month - we spoke to K about their debut novel Mrs. S, which tells the story of a young Australian who arrives at an elite English all-girls boarding school for a job and ends up having a life-changing affair with the headmaster's wife. It's a sensual portrait of queer desire, and the transformative power of lust and longing, which is why we wanted to revisit the theme of desire in this show. So, listen in for all the usual recommendations, our favourite writing about desire, and why desire is crucial to the act of reading itself. 


Recommendations on the theme, Desire:
Octavia: A Lover's Discourse by Roland Barthes
Carrie: Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux 


General Recommendations:
Octavia: Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
K: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Carrie: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray 


Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/november-2023-desire-with-k-patrick 

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction

Email us: litfriction@gmail.com

Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

Literary Friction - Desire with K Patrick

Last year we made a minisode about mothers, and one about fathers, both of which began an ongoing conversation about parenthood and literature that we wanted to pick up this month. Is fiction a good form for exploring the experience of parenthood? And beyond the ubiquitous parenting manuals, what does non-fiction about parenthood have to offer? Adulthood lasts far longer than childhood, so what about books that look at parent-child relationships in later life? Tune in for this and more, plus all the usual recommendations.

Literary Friction - Romantic Comedy with Curtis Sittenfeld

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