Shelf Healing

I got  the chance to chat with the lovely Dr Xine Yao all about literature, the potential harm to be found in reading, and the sense of entitlement often seen when discussing and reviewing books in an ethnographic space.
Some seriously fascinating thoughts in this episode alongside great recommendations. So many great ideas and topics covered in our short thirty minutes!

Works and authors mentonined in the podcast:
Works:
Indian in the Cupboard by  Lynne Reid Banks
The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende
So Long A Letter by Mariama Bâ
The Heads of the Coloured People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
An American Marriage by Teyari Jones
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
Skim by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki

Authors:
Franz Kafka 
Audre Lorde  
Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton)  

I had a blast chatting to Hugo Award Winning author Mary Robinette Kowal all about her thoughts on bibliotherapy, the therapeutic effects of writing, and the importance of the membership non profit Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America of which Mary Robinette is President. We chatted a lot about the role of the intermediary in storytelling, both through audio with her work as a voice artist and with the visual with her work as a puppeteer. We discuss that distance between author and audience and how it affects our wellbeing. A fabulous chat with a fabulous author, voice actor, and puppeteer!

Link to Mary Robinette Kowal's website

As promised all the books and authors mentioned in this episode:
John Scalzi
Guy Gavriel Kay
Martha Wells
Jane Austen
The Sun, The Moon, & The Stars by Stephen Brust
Philip K Dick
Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Glamorous Histories series by Mary Robinette Kowal
Jane Espensen
The Midnight Bargain by CL Polk

I have a lovely catch up with one of my lovely old colleagues from Sony Mobile in Sweden, Gabriella Bergstedt. We chat about the joy of fika and what it entails. The differences between working in Sweden, Denmark, and Ireland, and how important it is to have certain types of policies and workplace attitudes to create a productive welcoming environment.

We go over Sweden's parental leave policy and what it means for parents, how well rounded the work benefits are, the wonderful ergonomics accommodations as standard, and how well structured Swedish companies are for encouraging employees back to the workplace after sick leave.

It's a great episode and one that raises some very important points about companies taking care of employees as standard.

I chat with Nigel Beale and my co host Lisa Dalton all about beautiful books this week. We take a journey into Nigel's literary critic role, his podcast interviews and how they intersect with his love of literary tourism. Nigel discusses how the very visual nature of a book can be therapeutic in and of itself and how he collects a wide variety of books and book related items, all chosen for their beauty.

Things mentioned in the podcast:

Shakespeare
Bruce Taylor
Martin Amis
 JM Coetzee
Cultural Amnesia by  Clive James
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies by Susan Elderkin and Ella Berthoud
Think and Grow Rich by Andrew Carnegie
Harry Ransom Center  in Austin, Texas
Houghton Library at Harvard
Beinecke Rare Books Library at Yale
British Library
Book of Kells at Trinity College Dublin
 
   

I get the chance to chat with Dave Player, founder of Team BRIT and KartForce, and Andy Tucker, one of Team BRIT's racing drivers all about the motosport team and the role of disability.

Team BRIT is a competitive motor racing team consisting of disabled drivers. They are a competitive racing team, not a charity, and they race against teams of able-bodied drivers on a totally level playing field — something that no other sport can offer. They aim to make racing history and take a team to the world famous Le Mans 24hr endurance race, becoming the first ever British all-disabled team to do so.

We talk about how Team BRIT has pioneered accessible driving control that suit all of their drivers and their varying levels of disability. We also chat about the role the team has played in helping many of their drivers to rediscover themselves after injuries, become better at managing their disabilities, and how many past members have gone on to achieve great things after being part of the Team BRIT family. We visit the current and past cars Team BRIT race in and have an exciting bit of news about their upcoming season.

This episode highlights Team BRIT's vision to support, inspire and motivate people facing physical and psychological challenges by demonstrating what can be achieved through motorsport.

If you'd like more information about Dave, Andy, and Team BRIT, check out:
Team BRIT's website
Team BRIT's twitter

I chat to the lovely academic librarian Megan Rosenbloom this week all about her thoughts on therapeutic reading, death positivity, researching human skin books, and how Ulysses has stayed with her and should be read as part of a community.

There is so much in this episode, brilliant ideas about librarianship along with a hidden gem of an archive open to the public. Megan's constant journey to read all the books that she can, and how being a medical librarian affected her way of looking at books. There is book history and book anecdotes galore in this glorious extra long episode!

I would also thoroughly recommed Megan's fantastic book Dark Archives.
Megan's photo for this episode by Polly Antonia Barrowman.

Authors, works, and places mentioned:
Authors
Ernest Becker

Works
Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom
A Cat's Tale: A Journey Through Feline History by Baba the Cat and Paul Koudounaris
The Dreamsongs by John Berryman
Ulysses by James Joyce

Places
The Rosenbach - museum in Philadelphia
The Huntingdon Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens - in LA

A fascinating episode with the bookseller James Daunt. We talk all about bookshops, libraries, the therapeutic nature of books for both humans and other books on the shelf. James tells us about why libraries and bookshops are essential and the changing nature of books when you re-read them.

Works mentioned:
Moomins by Tove Jansson
Harry Potter  by J.K. Rowling
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Fyoder Dostoevsky
The Little Grey Men by Denys Watkins-Pitchford "BB"
Grief Is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Claudia Rubenstein Director of Jewish Book Week Literary Festival chats therapuetic reading & what to expect from this year's online festival.

Cynthia Ozick
Jean Plaidy
Isaiah Berlin
Delphine Horvilleur
Jay Rayner
Hermione Lee
Nicole Krauss
Howard Jacobson
Edmund de Waal
Simon Schama
Simon Sebag Montefiori
The Magician of Lublin Isaac Bashevis Singer
A Little History of the World E. H. Gombrich
An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood Neal Garber
The Lion in Winter
Jews Don't Count David Baddiel
A Place of Greater Safety Hilary Mantel

Panels:
Karl Marx: Philosophy and Revolution Shlomo Avineri, chair: John Gray
Why Do Jews Love The Godfather? Harlan Lebo and Rich Cohen
Modern Jewish Literature Howard Jacobson, Dara Horn, and Adam Kirsch
You Talkin' To Me E J White
The Language of Thieves Martin Puchner
Signatures David Pryce-Jones
How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division Elif Shafak
Burning the Books Richard Ovenden
Mending the Mind Oliver Kamm
The Lives of Lucian Freud William Feaver
The House of Fragile Things James McAuley
Survivors Rob Rinder and Rebecca Clifford
The Pandemic, the NHS and Me: Michael Rosen and Rachel Clarke

This is a special bonus Shelf Healing episode to celebrate the unconference and launch of a new book of essays about the historical romance novelist Georgette Heyer.  I chat with carriage historian Amy Bracey of The Carriage Foundation, and carriage commentator and auctioneer Sarah Dance of The Carriage Commentator all about Regency Era carriages. You won't find two people more knowledgeable about carriages.

We talk high flyers, coaches, gigs, and the way that carriages were an extension of your personal and household fashion. The expense of carriages, the cost of the Grand Tour, and a couple of very Georgette Heyer stories from the early 1800s.

If you want to know how much a coach would have cost you, what your carriage said about you, or what colours you could use on your carriage this is the episode for you.

Some handy links from the episode:
The Carriage Foundation
The Carriage Commentator
Thimbleby & Shorland Auctioneers
Amy Bracey's book The A-Z of Carriages  with a forward by HRH Prince Michael of Kent
(or contact Amy via email for your copy)

This week I chat with Dr Samantha Rayner, Vice Dean of Wellbeing and Director of Publishing at UCL. We talk about how books affect our wellbeing and how we reach for different books for different reasons. We dive through historical fiction and make a quick stop in the world of mediaeval literature.

Sam has edited a new book on Georgette Heyer which you can find here

Authors and works mentioned in the episode:
Authors:
Georgette Heyer
Robin Hobb
J.R.R. Tolkien
Dorothy Dunnett
Margaret Campbell Barnes
Anya Seaton
Chaucer

Works:
Wilding by Isabella Tree
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Selected Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Katherine by Anya Seton
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Abelard and Heloise by  Peter Waddell
Love Without End: A Story of Heloise and Abelard by Melvyn Bragg
La Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Pearl