Portable Magic

This episode, Kyle and Emily take a close look at horror fiction – why we read it, how it scares us, and what our favorite horror novels are. Kyle tells us what his pick is for the scariest Stephen King book and Emily talks about the books that got her into horror in the first place.

Plus, Emily follows up on her impressions of Beautiful Darkness, Kyle's pick for A Gift For A Child You Hate from Episode 2!

Episode Breakdown:

• 0:00 – 7:00: What We're Reading
• 7:00 – 1:05:00: Horror Fiction

What Emily's Reading:

• After Birth by Elisa Albert

What Kyle's Reading:

• Wodehouse on Crime by P.G. Wodehouse

Horror Fiction that We Discuss:

Short Stories / Essays:

• "Skeleton" by Ray Bradbury, from October Country (Click on "Readable PDF")
• "Supernatural Horror in Literature" by H.P. Lovecraft
• "I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison

Novels:

• Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann
• Zone 1 by Coulson Whitehead
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
• Hell House by Richard Matheson
• The Troop by Nick Cutter
• The Shining by Stephen King
• Pet Sematary by Stephen King
• Bag of Bones by Stephen King
• The Stand by Stephen King
• NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
• Birdbox by Josh Malerman

Buying books at Powell's by using these affiliate links helps support the show!

What's your favorite horror novel? Email the show at [email protected] or tweet us @PortableMagicPC!

This episode, Kyle and Emily talk about "literary fanfiction": the sub-genre of books by established authors that inhabit the world of older works of literature. We couldn't find a good term to refer to these sorts of books, but think of works like Ahab's Wife or Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead.

Plus, they talk about the Suvudu cage match and the challenges of writing fanfiction.

Episode Breakdown:

• 0:00 – 14:00: What We're Reading
• 14:00 – 35:00: Suvudu Cage Match
• 35:00 - 1:00:00: "Literary Fanfiction"

What Emily's Reading:

• The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

What Kyle's Reading:

• Stories of Your Life And Others by Ted Chiang
• The Bullseye Interview with Nick Hornby

Other Works that We Discuss:

For all the cage-match books and characters we discussed, please refer to Suvudu's web site. And here's a link to the cage match post that Kyle wrote.

• Ahab's Wife by Sena Naslud
• The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
• Q-Squared by Peter David
• The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
• Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Buying books at Powell's by using these affiliate links helps support the show!

What's your favorite example of "literary fanfiction"? Email the show at [email protected] or tweet us @PortableMagicPC!

This episode, Kyle and Emily devote the whole show to discussing Tana French's debut novel In the Woods.

The discussion prior to 26 minutes or so is spoiler-free, so if you're interested in the book but haven't read it, feel free to listen that far. After that point, though, spoilers abound!

Episode Breakdown:

• 0:00 – 4:30: What We're Reading
• 4:30 – 26:00: In the Woods (spoiler-free)
• 26:00 - 1:05:00: In The Woods (spoilers!)

What Emily's Reading:

• Mystery book!

What Kyle's Reading:

• Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in Modern China by Evan Osnos

Other Works that We Discuss:

• In the Woods by Tana French
• The Likeness by Tana French
• Secret History by Donna Tartt

Buying books at Powell's by using these affiliate links helps support the show!

Are you a huge Tana French fan? Email the show at [email protected] or tweet us @PortableMagicPC!

Last year, Ruth Graham published an article in Slate arguing that adults should feel embarrassed to read young-adult fiction. This episode, Emily and Kyle weigh in on the debate and talk about how to balance reading what you like with finding material that challenges you.

Plus, they talk about what books they've been reading and Kyle gets much too excited about Robert Jackson Bennett's fantasy novel City of Stairs.

Episode Breakdown:

• 0:00 – 8:00: What We're Reading
• 8:00 – 45:00: The Adults-Reading-YA Debate

What Emily's Reading:

• Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

What Kyle's Reading:

• City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
• "Pocosin" by Ursula Vernon. Click here to read the short story.

Other Works that We Discuss:

• Zone One by Coulson Whitehead
• The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
• Submergence by J.M. Ledgard
• Instructions by Neil Gaiman
• His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
• The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones

Buying books at Powell's by using these affiliate links helps support the show!

Do you have thoughts on the adults-reading-YA debate? Email the show at [email protected] or tweet us @PortableMagicPC!

This episode, Emily and Kyle dive deep into the bibliography of Neil Gaiman, including his novels (especially American Gods, Neverwhere, and Anansi Boys), his children's books, and his two episodes of Doctor Who.

Plus, they talk about what books they've been reading, including a quick follow-up from their discussion Episode Three about Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach trilogy.

Episode Breakdown:

• 0:00 – 15:00: What We're Reading
• 15:00 – 1:00:00: Neil Gaiman

What Emily's Reading:

• Wild by Cheryl Strayed

What Kyle's Reading:

• Authority / Acceptance by Jeff Vandermeer
• The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
• Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America by Jon Mooallem

Neil Gaiman Works that We Discuss:

• American Gods
• Anansi Boys
• Neverwhere
• Stardust
• Odd and the Frost Giants
• Coraline
• The Graveyard Book
• The Ocean At The End of the Lane
• Instructions

Gaiman has a new short story collection, Trigger Warning, coming out soon. Plus, click here to check out "How to Talk To Girls About Parties", a short story of Gaiman's that Emily loves.

Buying books at Powell's by using these affiliate links helps support the show!

Are you a huge Neil Gaiman fan? Did we say anything that totally made your blood boil? Email the show at [email protected] or tweet us @PortableMagicPC!

This week, Emily and Kyle talk about forgotten novels – books they've stumbled across, picked up at the used bookstore, or been recommended that it seems like nobody's ever heard of.

Plus, they follow up on the books they gave as gifts this year and talk about what they're reading.

Episode Breakdown:

• 0:00 – 16:00: What We're Reading
• 16:00 – 23:00: Follow-Up: Gifts We Gave
• 23:00 – 1:00:00: Forgotten Novels

What Emily's Reading:

• Kindred by Octavia Butler
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson
• The Troop by Nick Cutter

What Kyle's Reading:

• Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

Our Forgotten Novels:

• City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers
• The Switch by Elmore Leonard
• Swallows and the Amazons by Arthur Ransome
• The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren
• The Daughter of Time by Jaqueline Tay
• A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin

Buying books at Powell's by using these affiliate links helps support the show!

Do you have any favorite forgotten novels? Got a literature topic you want Emily and Kyle to explore? Email the show at [email protected] or tweet us @PortableMagicPC!

It’s the Holiday Season, and Portable Magic has you covered! Listen to Emily and Kyle talk about the tricky act of giving books as gifts, what makes a book a great gift, and give some book recommendations for the people in your life.

Episode Breakdown:

• 0:00 – 10:00: What We're Reading
• 10:00 – 35:00: Discussion: Books as Gifts
• 35:00 – 50:00: Specific recommendations for the people in your life

What Emily's Reading:

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link and The World Before Us by Aislinn Hunter.

What Kyle's Reading:

The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss.

Other books mentioned:

• The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbauch
• Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
• In the Woods by Tana French
• The Great Night by Chris Adrian
• Kraken by China Mieville
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• Cloud Atlas, Ghostwritten, and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• McTeague by Frank Norris
• Broken Monsters by Lauren Beaukes
• The Shining Girls by Lauren Beaukes
• Macanudo by Liniers
• This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
• The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W.E. Bowman
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman
• The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life by Twyla Tharp
• City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
• Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët

Buying books at Powell's by using these affiliate links helps support the show!

Want to share the best books you've ever been given as gifts? Got a literature topic you want Emily and Kyle to explore? Email the show at [email protected] or tweet us @PortableMagicPC!

We're now on iTunes! You can find us by searching in iTunes, the Podcasts app, or by clicking here.

Or, just enter this URL in your favorite podcast player: http://portablemagic.libsyn.com/rss

In this inaugural episode of Portable Magic, Emily and Kyle talk about reading on the road, their best and worst travel reading experiences, and ponder the mystery of the airport bookstore.

They also discuss their vision for the Portable Magic podcast and talk about what they're currently reading.

Episode Breakdown:

• 0:00 – 10:00: What We're Reading
• 10:00 – 17:00: Our Vision for the Podcast
• 17:00 – 50:00: Reading while traveling

Books Mentioned

What Emily's Reading:

• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

What Kyle's Reading:

• Kalpa Imperial by Angelica Gorodischer, Translated by Ursula LeGuin. Click here to check out one of my favorite stories from the collection, "The End of a Dynasty or The Natural History of Ferrets".

Other books:

• Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk
• City of Thieves by David Benioff
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• The Terror by Dan Simmons
• Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War by Stephen Platt
• The Martian by Andy Weir
• People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In The End by Atul Gawande

Want to share your strategy for packing books for a long trip? Got a literature topic you want Emily and Kyle to explore? Email the show at [email protected] or tweet us @PortableMagicPC!

We will be in the iTunes Podcast directory soon!

In the meantime, if you want to subscribe to our podcast, please enter this URL in your favorite podcast player: http://portablemagic.libsyn.com/rss