Lev Grossman returns to the podcast after a nine year break. That’s a long time! Since he was here last, he wrote his Arthurian magnum opus, The Bright Sword, and he chats about it, along with a good name for a cocktail sword, God, Merlin, and how he likes to be in conversation with someone else’s work. Plus, he brings along Phillip K. Dick’s UBIK, a bizarre sci-fi classic that’s on the verge of fantasy itself.

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music: Disaster Magic

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Holly Gramazio drops by via the magic of Zoom to talk her magical summer blockbuster of a book, The Husbands. She gets into its origin as a computer game, a lack of supernatural solutions, and why it used to have the moon falling apart. Plus, she brings along the surreal-but-still-relatable Zito Madu’s The Minotaur at Calle Lanza, and reveals she’s just been to Venice. Read on, compadres!

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Kate Slotover, host of The Book Club Review podcast, joins me in the Damn Library all the way from London! Drinks are had, New York is discussed, along with two different worlds of New York reportage, Helene Hanff’s Letter from New York, and Joseph Mitchell’s Up in the Old Hotel. Such a joy!

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Melissa Mogollon zooms in to talk her debut Oye, and all the fun she had writing it. That means we talk how her friends are like her sisters, the unusual structure that always felt like it could fail, and how she might write a sequel from the sister’s perspective. Plus, she brings along Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing, a book that was great to revisit, and is informing her on how to connect digitally as she releases her book.

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Our old pal Drew (of Voyage into Genre) is back! We talk about how the internet used to be, how Drew broke his slump, some literal tea discussion, RPG and video games, and general book chatter. The usual, served up just how you like it, in podcast form.

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Fiona Warnick, author of the charming novel The Skunks, drops by to talk animals and metaphor, how her creative writing program helped her with this book, writing smooth, and more than that, because we also get into Sheila Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries, which inspires a deeper dive into the work of Heti and her influence.

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

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Christopher goes through some stuff he read and some stuff he wants to read. Got any modern pirate book recommendations?

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Alexandra Tanner shares the Damn Library physical space, sitting in the chair across from me and everything. She discusses her sibling’s influence on Worry, writing for an audience of one, money, moms, and more. Plus, she brings Kathryn Scanlan’s Aug 9 - Fog for book club. Listen closely and you’ll hear books mentioned now and again.

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Damn Library co-owner Sarah sits to chat about all the things that makes one pick up a book only to put it back down again. A list of reading pet peeves that touches on everything from subject matter, to stylizations, tropes, design choices, and more.

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Rachel Lyon returns to talk about her new novel, Fruit of the Dead, and how it wasn’t always a Persephone myth retelling, she found that along the way. Plus, we get into the “generative fill” of reading, and I pontificate on dust mote fiction, inspired by the fetid summer heat within the pages of Tessa Hadley’s The Past. Read along!

contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb

for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com

music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.