Reading Envy

Yanira returns to discuss books with Jenny, where we end up talking about island literature and memoir, the perfect venn diagram of romance and witness protection, and other kinds of love. Since we recorded at the end of 2017, we talk a little about our years in reading. Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 108: Venn Diagram with Yanira Ramirez Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: Subscribe Or listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Listen via Stitcher I am starting to schedule guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ Books featured: Down these Mean Streets by Piri Thomas Augustown by Kei Miller The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmerelda Santiago Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong Other mentions:    Junot Díaz Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn The Exceptions by David Cristofano Conquistadora by Esmerelda Santiago The Turkish Lover by Esmerelda Santiago Relief Map by Rosalie Knecht Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knect The Nothing by Hanif Kureishi The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins Feel Free: Essays by Zadie Smith 46 Books by Women of Color to Read in 2018 Related episodes: Episode 070 - Words Like Weapons with Yanira Ramirez Episode 096 - Not Without Hope with Yanira Ramirez Episode 097 - Blank Spaces with Lauren Weinhold Stalk us online: Yanira is @notafraidofwords on Litsy Jenny at Goodreads Jenny on Twitter Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy

Jenny got together with a longtime online reading friend, Jon Laubinger, and host of his own podcast, Film Baby Film. We discussed the book Roadside Picnic alongside the film Stalker. You should expect spoilers for both, as this is an in-depth discussion. Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 106: Falling Asleep During Tarkovsky Films Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe Or listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Listen via Stitcher I am scheduling guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ Book/film discussed: Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, translated by Olena Bormashenko Stalker (film) directed by Andrei Tarkovsky Other mentions: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Mad Men (tv show) - picnic episode is Season 2, Episode 7 Solaris by Stanislaw Lem Solaris (film) directed by Andrei Tarkovsky Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanislaw Lem Area X trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer Annihilation (film) directed by Alex Garland The Mirror (film) directed by Andrei Tarkovsky Related Episodes: Episode 023 - The Patron Saint of the Misfit Readers with guests Marco V. Morelli and Averi Dylan Stalk us online: Jon's podcast website, Film Baby Film FBF on Instagram Jenny at Goodreads Jenny on Twitter Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy

Jenny, previous and future guests of the podcast, and a few other readers come together to share their best reads of the year. In typical Reading Envy fashion, these are not necessarily books that were published in 2017. What was your best read of the year? Feel free to share at the end of this post. Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 105: Best Reads of 2017 Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe Or listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Listen via Stitcher I am scheduling guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ Jason Roland (Episodes 14, 25, 42, 54, 73, 80, 104) Autumn by Karl Ove Knaussgard Julie Davis (3, 55, 83) Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott Jenny's top short story collections Things to do when You're Goth in the Country: and Other Stories by Chavisa Woods (88) Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (101) Reggie Kindred by Octavia Butler (also mentioned The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas) Jenny's top genre reads A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (87) The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe (91) After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones (98) Lark Benobi, author of The Book of Dog The Eternal Zero by Naoki Hyakuta Lauren (97) China in Ten Words by Yu Hua An Arrangement of Skin by Anna Journey Vulgar Remedies: Poems by Anna Journey Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild The Summer that Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel Annie Muktuk and other Stories by Norma Dunning Elizabeth of Silver’s Reviews The Baker's Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan Jenny's top readalongs East of Eden by John Steinbeck (90) The Secret History by Donna Tartt (99) Scott (most of the first 25, then 52, 58, 71, 82) Dracula by Bram Stoker Bianca Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. Jeff Koeppen (90, 93, 99) You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie Jenny's top non-fiction reads Island Home: A Landscape Memoir by Tim Winton (86) Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio by Jessica Abel (97) Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby Tracy (63, 64, 91) Penny Reid, everything she's written Karen Acosta (4, 15, 51, 66, 101) Lab Girl by Hope Jahren Born A Crime by Trevor Noah RealBooks4Ever Lincoln in The Bardo by George Saunders (particularly audio) Jenny's top audiobook reads Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn (97 by Lauren) Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman Bryan Alexander (2, 11, 30, 65, 84) Red Calvary by Isaac Babel Casey The Complete Butcher's Tales by Rikki Ducornet The Box Man by Kobe Abe The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman Amanda from BookClubSocial (87) Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman’s Awakening by Manal al-Sharif (also mentioned on 96) Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa Grace from BookClubSocial (87) The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis Lindy (95) The Ghost Orchard by Helen Humphries Jenny's top reads in poetry A Place Called No Homeland by Kai Cheng Thom Sorry for Your Troubles by Padraig O' Tuoma Readings from the Book of Exile by Padraig O' Tuoma (not featured) The Performance of Becoming Human by Daniel Borzutkzy (88) When I Grow Up I Want To Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen (97) Luke (17, 32, 44, 69 Nine Fox Gambit by Yun Ha Lee Juliane (37, 69) Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Jenny's top reads in fiction Black Wave by Michelle Tea (80 and 102) Plainsong by Kent Haruf (82) (also Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf, 103) Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (96) Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Leger (96) The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyn Elizabeth (33, 61) The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams Jenny's List of Reading Envy for 2017 (aka books I haven't g

Jason Roland is back to chat books, and we travel from Alaska to Czechoslovakia to the spooky Oregon woods to the spookier suburbs of Ohio in our discussions. Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 104: Uppity Lives and Jelly Melons Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe Or listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Listen via Stitcher I am scheduling guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ I am also collecting best reads of 2017 for episode 105. More info here. Books featured: To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham The Sarah Book by Scott McClanahan Other mentions: Victuals: An Appalachian Journey by Ronni Lundy David Joy Jim Minnick Olio by Tyehimba Jess Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey Book Fight Podcast Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn Crapalachia: A Biography of Place by Scott McClanahan Hill William by Scott McClanahan The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam Idaho by Emily Ruskovich A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay So Much Blue by Percival Everett Related episodes: Episode 014 - Flannery O'Connor with Zombies Episode 025 - Mule and Plow Episode 042 - It Begins with Rain Episode 054 - Retired Pirates  Episode 073 - Buried Under the Beets with Jason Roland Episode 080 - The Wild Things Helped with Jason Roland Stalk us online: Jenny at Goodreads Jenny on Twitter Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy Jason on Twitter

Carol participated in the readalong discussion of The Secret History, and came back for a full episode. Jenny's mic was on the wrong setting, so if she sounds a bit like an echo-chamber, the issue is known and fixed in the next episode. Hopefully it's not too distracting! The name of the episode is the answer to the thing Jenny couldn't remember. Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 103: Duchess Potatoes Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe Or listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Listen via Stitcher I am scheduling guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ I am also collecting best reads of 2017 for episode 105. More info here. Books featured: The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn Another Place You've Never Been by Rebecca Kauffman Into the Dark by J.A. Sutherland Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving Before We Visit the Goddess by Chitra Banerjee Divakruni Other mentions: The Winds of War by Herman Wouk Novel Gobbler post on The Winds of War The Muralist by B.A. Shapiro Novel Gobbler post on The Muralist Cleaving by Julie Powell The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Seingarten Olestra Elizabeth Clett The Expanse by James S.A. Corey Horatio Hornblower Our Souls at Night (film) The Cider House Rules by John Irving The World According to Garp by John Irving The 158-Pound Marriage by John Irving Last Night at Twisted River by John Irving The Mistress of Spices (film) The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakruni The Alice Network by Kate Quinn Thornhill by Pam Smy Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn Hadriana in All My Dreams by René Despestre Related episodes: Episode 078 - Small Towns in the Second Person with EA Mann Episode 082 - Reading Envy Envy with Scott Danielson Episode 097 - Blank Spaces with Lauren Weinhold Episode 099 - Readalong: The Secret History Stalk us online: Jenny at Goodreads Jenny on Twitter Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy Carol Ann at NovelGobblers Carol Ann at Goodreads Carol Ann is @thebookandbeyond on Instagram

Sometime in this past year, I realized that another podcaster, Kendra, lived in the same city as me. Her co-host is Autumn and they host the Reading Women Podcast (more info and links below.) We decided to use the opportunity to talk about the best books we read by women this year. Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 102: Crossover with the Reading Women Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe Or listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Listen via Stitcher And check out the Reading Women Podcast: Copied from their website: "The goal of the Reading Women podcast is to bring previously anonymous women to the forefront of your TBR stack. Each month Kendra Winchester and Autumn Privett pick a theme and then discuss several books in a book club-style podcast. Subscribe today to discover amazing female authors who are giving voice to a part of the world's population that has been largely overlooked." I (Jenny) am scheduling guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ Books featured: The Mothers by Brit Bennett (Riverhead) Black Wave by Michelle Tea (Feminist Press) Human Acts by Han Kang, Translated by Deborah Smith (Hogarth) Difficult Women by Roxane Gay (Grove Atlantic) Juventud by Vanessa Blakeslee (Curbside Splendor) Himself by Jess Kidd (Atria) A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin (FSG) Eve Out of Her Ruins by Ananda Devi, translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman (Deep Vellum) This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell (Knopf) Other mentions: The Vegetarian by Han Kang The Big Green Tent by Ludmila Ulitskaya Snow by Orhan Pamuk The Impossible Fairy Tale by Han Yujoo Tilted Axis Press Hunger by Roxane Gay An Untamed State by Roxane Gay Turf by Elizabeth Crane The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill David Mitchell I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell The Idiot by Elif Batuman (Penguin Press) Decatur Book Festival Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Algonquin) Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (Algonquin) Stalk us online: Jenny at Goodreads Jenny on Twitter Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy Reading Women Podcast Kendra on Instagram,  Twitter, Goodreads, and YouTube Autumn on Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads

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 Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe Or listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Listen via Stitcher 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

To my great amazement, this is the 100th episode of the Reading Envy Podcast! It has been such a journey to host and produce this podcast. I invited other readers to weigh in on the best ten books they read in the last ten years - just like a normal Reading Envy episode, they do not need to have been published in the last ten years. Some readers have connections to the podcast, others are people on my guest wishlist that I haven't been able to convince to be on the show. Some lists are recorded by the contributors while I have recorded lists submitted by others. I made my own list, and also include a list of the top ten things you might not know about Reading Envy. All in all, the lists add up to 100.  All books are mentioned below, as well as links to previous episodes by guests (if appropriate) and their various online presences. Thank you for listening, and thank you for making Reading Envy what it is. And if you are feeling left out, I will be asking for contributions for the best books of the year episode very soon. Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 100: 100 Reasons Why. Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe Or listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Listen via Stitcher If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ Reader 1: Jason Roland appears on Reading Envy about twice a year, and I continue to be influenced by his deep knowledge of southern writers. The Graybar Hotel by Curtis Dawkins My Struggle by Karl Ove Knaussgard Barbarian Days by William Finnegan This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz All the Living by C.E. Morgan Serena by Ron Rash Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff The Road by Cormac McCarthy I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down by William Gay Related Episodes: 014, 025, 042, 054, 073, 080 Reader 2: Claire Tristram, known as poingu in Goodreads. Claire and I co-moderate the Newest Literary Fiction Group in Goodreads, and I have long admired her ability to read deeply and thoughtfully. The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas Of a Fire on the Moon by Norman Mailer Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson Oreo by Fran Ross Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy by Paulina Chiziane Reader 3: Sara Moore is a newer reading friend in Litsy with similar tastes to my own! The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt Hard Times by Charles Dickens Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Bunt The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie Related Episode: 088 *** At this point, I talk about the ten things you might not know about Reading Envy, but you have to listen to the episode to find them out. *** Reader 4: Scott Danielson, co-founder and original co-host of the Reading Envy Podcast! Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara Pavane by Keith Roberts Frankenstein by Mary Shelley The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell Bleak House by Charles Dickens Brother Astronomer by Br. Guy Consolmagno Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould The Odyssey by Homer Beowulf Related Episodes: 001-026, off and on, plus 052, 058, 071, 082 Reader 5: Robyn Andrews is a colleague I've been trying to get onto the podcast since I started. In lieu of that ever happening, at least I get to talk to her about books in person. And she agreed to share her list of ten books. Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles Room by Emma Donaghue Under the Dome by Stephen King Wolf Hall by Hi

Our first readalong was so much fun that we had another one just a few months later. This time the vote was between four books by women, and this one swept the vote with almost 43% (see the chart below.) The book must have been in the air, because Book of the Month randomly offered it as an add-on (not a paid advertisement) and it felt like a bunch of people were reading it even before the readalong started. The book is 25 years old and still holds up, and we had a lot to talk about. I was joined by Carol Ann, Jeff, Ellie, Vinny (in text), and Sue near the end. What a great group with which to talk about this mighty tome! Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 099: Readalong of The Secret History. Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe Or listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Listen via Stitcher If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ Look at all the posts from the readalong in social media! The Secret History by Donna Tartt Books discussed, other than The Secret History: The Little Friend by Donna Tartt The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt Thanks to everyone who read along! Feel free to take the survey about the readalong if you have feedback or want to nominate a book for next time. Related episodes: Episode 081 - Reading Envy Readalong Episode 090 - Reading Envy Readalong: East of Eden with Ellie and Jeff  Stalk us online: Jenny at Goodreads Jenny on Twitter Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy Ellie is @elliedottie on Litsy Jeff at Goodreads Jeff on Twitter Jeff is @jeffkoeppen on Litsy Carol Ann is @thebookandbeyond on Instagram Vinny is @billypar on Litsy

Jenny sits down to talk to Dr. Bryan Bibb, an associate professor of religion at the university where she works. We talk about horror and religion, mythology and ... baseball? Well. Jenny likes to have guests who read in genres not frequently featured on Reading Envy. Warning: this episode is a bit longer than the average episode, and there may be triggers for sexual abuse and spiders. Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 098: Just a Bunch of Stuff that Happened Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe Or listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Listen via Stitcher I am starting to schedule guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ Books featured: It by Stephen King After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Judges (the book of, from The Bible) Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman Other mentions: After Class Podcast American Gods (tv series) Insomnia by Stephen King The Dark Tower series by Stephen King The Stand by Stephen King On Writing by Stephen King Stranger Things (tv series) Ready Player One by Ernst Cline Master of None (tv series) Roots by Alex Haley Charles Leerhsen Dead Ball Era Detroit Tigers Cobb (film) Cobb by Al Stump Ken Burns' Baseball (documentary series) Field of Dreams (film) Texts of Terror by Phyllis Trible A Universal History of the Destruction of Books by Fernando Baez The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity by Eva Mroczek The Nomadic Text by Brennan Breed Mythology by Edith Hamilton Armada by Ernst Cline Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby by Candida R. Moss and Joel S. Baden Museum of the Bible Everything's Eventual by Stephen King Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado Springtime: A Ghost Story by Michelle de Kretser Stalk us online: Bryan at the After Class Podcast Jenny at Goodreads Jenny on Twitter Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy