Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Chandler Kling Smith author of The Sky is Yours, published this January by Hogarth.

Chandler is a graduate of Bennington and the creative writing MFA program at Columbia. She has worked in book publishing and currently lives, teaches and tutors in New York City.

The Sky is Yours is Chandler’s first novel but will not be her last.

We are in the future. We are in Empire Island, a lot like New York. It is a crumbling edifice to man’s folly. And on top of that it is beset by a pair of fire breathing dragons who languidly circle the city, belching fire at buildings and people in a somewhat (perhaps) haphazard way, especially interested in Torch town, a prison colony set inside of the city and self governed in a Machiavellian but workable manner.

Against this background, emerge our three protagonists, Duncan, Swanny and Abby who run away under the most unsettling of circumstances and settle in various parts of the heart of darkness that is Empire.

Because of the ubiquitous dragons and their flame throwing, Duncan who is (or was) a spoiled brat with a serious case of “affluenza” (he has an inhaler) becomes a fireman, and a good one, Abby a magical and lovely enchantress of sorts takes us through a maze of riddles and wonders to a crystalline point and which to say more would be a spoiler, and Abby surprises all of us with a mouthful of extra teeth, a lot more spunk than one would expect as she settles and thrives in Torch town with an unkempt and canny Sharkey, who reminds me of Danny DeVito where she doles out licorice- like skeins of soporific and vintage drugs.

The momentum of the novel is almost musical and the latter part of the book is like the pull string at the top of a velvet bag, drawing the characters and there are many finely drawn ones, beside the protagonists, tighter and tighter into to a point where we all understand (kinda sorta) where we have been and perhaps where we are going.

And on top of everything else, Chandler’s agent is Bill Clegg who is probably the best in the world.

And with that and my usual run-on sentences, welcome to the show Chandler and thanks so much for joining us today.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Chandler Kling Smith author of The Sky is Yours, published this January by Hogarth.

Chandler is a graduate of Bennington and the creative writing MFA program at Columbia. She has worked in book publishing and currently lives, teaches and tutors in New York City.

The Sky is Yours is Chandler’s first novel but will not be her last.

We are in the future. We are in Empire Island, a lot like New York. It is a crumbling edifice to man’s folly. And on top of that it is beset by a pair of fire breathing dragons who languidly circle the city, belching fire at buildings and people in a somewhat (perhaps) haphazard way, especially interested in Torch town, a prison colony set inside of the city and self governed in a Machiavellian but workable manner.

Against this background, emerge our three protagonists, Duncan, Swanny and Abby who run away under the most unsettling of circumstances and settle in various parts of the heart of darkness that is Empire.

Because of the ubiquitous dragons and their flame throwing, Duncan who is (or was) a spoiled brat with a serious case of “affluenza” (he has an inhaler) becomes a fireman, and a good one, Abby a magical and lovely enchantress of sorts takes us through a maze of riddles and wonders to a crystalline point and which to say more would be a spoiler, and Abby surprises all of us with a mouthful of extra teeth, a lot more spunk than one would expect as she settles and thrives in Torch town with an unkempt and canny Sharkey, who reminds me of Danny DeVito where she doles out licorice- like skeins of soporific and vintage drugs.

The momentum of the novel is almost musical and the latter part of the book is like the pull string at the top of a velvet bag, drawing the characters and there are many finely drawn ones, beside the protagonists, tighter and tighter into to a point where we all understand (kinda sorta) where we have been and perhaps where we are going.

And on top of everything else, Chandler’s agent is Bill Clegg who is probably the best in the world.

And with that and my usual run-on sentences, welcome to the show Chandler and thanks so much for joining us today.

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is John Bacon author of The Great Halifax explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism, published in November by William Morrow. Mr. Bacon has worked for the past two decades as a writer, public speaker and a college instructor. He has written for NYT and Time magazine. His previous works, primarily dealing in sports, include: Three and Out Fourth and Long End zone The great Halifax Explosion is something that not many of us have heard about although it was the largest conflagration caused by a weapon of mass destruction aside from the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including that hallmark of a mushroom cloud and a shock wave. After having left NY on December 1, 1917, the munitions ship Mont-Blanc, full of three thousand tons of TNT and other even more volatile explosives, made its perilous way from New York up the dangerous waters of the Atlantic Coast, always on the lookout for the accurate and almost ubiquitous German U-boats. Although it escaped storms and U-boats, it did not escape incompetence and enormous risk and, as it approached the port city of Halifax, it exploded with the force of 2.9 Kilotons of TNT-the most powerful explosion ever seen or heard by human beings whose lives were destroyed or ruined, other than, as I remarked, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The ship itself was vaporized in 1/15th of a second. A shockwave leveled the city. But it was what happened afterward that is so astounding. So let’s talk to John about this incredible story.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Andy Weir, author of The Martian and most recently Artemis published by Crown just a month or so ago.

Artemis is a story of the moon. Once again, as in The Martian Andy couples both hard science and a character driven plot, but this time it is coupled with a story of intrigue, murder and mystery.
As many of you know, Andy’s success story stems from his self published The Martian, picked up by Crown in 2014 and then made into the blockbuster movie starring Matt Damon in less time than you can say Jack Robinson and Artemis seems destined for the same fate. Its story is almost a template for a screenplay and the novel is almost cinematic in its approach.

Jazz Bashar is a petty criminal who is a smuggler of questionable goods to the populus of the Moon’s sole city, Artemis. From there we are led on a trail of murder and sabotage culminating in an ending that leaves us expecting more from a next book.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Andy Weir, author of The Martian and most recently Artemis published by Crown just a month or so ago.

Artemis is a story of the moon. Once again, as in The Martian Andy couples both hard science and a character driven plot, but this time it is coupled with a story of intrigue, murder and mystery.
As many of you know, Andy’s success story stems from his self published The Martian, picked up by Crown in 2014 and then made into the blockbuster movie starring Matt Damon in less time than you can say Jack Robinson and Artemis seems destined for the same fate. Its story is almost a template for a screenplay and the novel is almost cinematic in its approach.

Jazz Bashar is a petty criminal who is a smuggler of questionable goods to the populus of the Moon’s sole city, Artemis. From there we are led on a trail of murder and sabotage culminating in an ending that leaves us expecting more from a next book.

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is John Bacon author of The Great Halifax explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism, published in November by William Morrow.

Mr. Bacon has worked for the past two decades as a writer, public speaker and a college instructor.
He has written for NYT and Time magazine.

His previous works, primarily dealing in sports, include:

Three and Out
Fourth and Long
End zone

The great Halifax Explosion is something that not many of us have heard about although it was the largest conflagration caused by a weapon of mass destruction aside from the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including that hallmark of a mushroom cloud and a shock wave.

After having left NY on December 1, 1917, the munitions ship Mont-Blanc, full of three thousand tons of TNT and other even more volatile explosives, made its perilous way from New York up the dangerous waters of the Atlantic Coast, always on the lookout for the accurate and almost ubiquitous German U-boats.

Although it escaped storms and U-boats, it did not escape incompetence and enormous risk and, as it approached the port city of Halifax, it exploded with the force of 2.9 Kilotons of TNT-the most powerful explosion ever seen or heard by human beings whose lives were destroyed or ruined, other than, as I remarked, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The ship itself was vaporized in 1/15th of a second. A shockwave leveled the city.

But it was what happened afterward that is so astounding. So let’s talk to John about this incredible story.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv, published in November by Random House.

Elizabeth was a registered nurse for over ten years before publishing her first novel, Durable Goods. She has since written maybe 25 books (neither of us can probably remember the exact count!) She’s been translated into almost 30 languages, has long been on Bestseller lists. She has won numerous awards and has also published a lot of non-fiction work.

Arthur Truluv is a widower, a widower who is still very much in love with his wife. In fact her sees her every day, at the cemetery where he brings a folding chair and lunch and sits and talks. Not only that--he visits graves surrounding his wife’s and talks to their occupants as well. He imagines their lives and in an almost magical way, his description of their day-to-day activities and personalities ring as true as any other part of this novel.

One day Arthur spies Maddy, an intelligent and lovely young teen, who is spurned by her classmates, ignored (for the most part) by her father who is also widowed. Maddy’s mother died when she was just an infant.

The third main character in this novel is Lucille, who is about Arthur’s age but is more gossipy, ascerbic and certainly more nosy.

This triad forms an unlikely but very likable group and they forge a friendship, seamlessly and bonding.
How Elizabeth does all this is both touching and natural, without being at all cloyingly sweet or manipulative of the reader.
We fall for the characters and remember their names, even the minor ones including Gordon, Arthur’s cat. In all, this is a book that takes you out of this very disruptive daily world and brings you to a place where love, lost and then reborn, allows you to take a fresher look at the world in a much less cynical way (if you tend to be cynical, as I do).

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv, published in November by Random House.

Elizabeth was a registered nurse for over ten years before publishing her first novel, Durable Goods. She has since written maybe 25 books (neither of us can probably remember the exact count!) She’s been translated into almost 30 languages, has long been on Bestseller lists. She has won numerous awards and has also published a lot of non-fiction work.

Arthur Truluv is a widower, a widower who is still very much in love with his wife. In fact her sees her every day, at the cemetery where he brings a folding chair and lunch and sits and talks. Not only that--he visits graves surrounding his wife’s and talks to their occupants as well. He imagines their lives and in an almost magical way, his description of their day-to-day activities and personalities ring as true as any other part of this novel.

One day Arthur spies Maddy, an intelligent and lovely young teen, who is spurned by her classmates, ignored (for the most part) by her father who is also widowed. Maddy’s mother died when she was just an infant.

The third main character in this novel is Lucille, who is about Arthur’s age but is more gossipy, ascerbic and certainly more nosy.

This triad forms an unlikely but very likable group and they forge a friendship, seamlessly and bonding.
How Elizabeth does all this is both touching and natural, without being at all cloyingly sweet or manipulative of the reader.
We fall for the characters and remember their names, even the minor ones including Gordon, Arthur’s cat. In all, this is a book that takes you out of this very disruptive daily world and brings you to a place where love, lost and then reborn, allows you to take a fresher look at the world in a much less cynical way (if you tend to be cynical, as I do).

Good Afternoon and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Richard Thomas, author of Why Bob Dylan Matters, published by Dey Street Books in November of this year. Dr. Thomas is a professor of the classics at Harvard. He is also, curiously, a preeminent Dylan scholar who has published extensively about him and the literary tradition that surrounds him and in most cases predates him. He teaches a seminar at Harvard titled “Bob Dylan”.

Bob Dylan has been a part of my life since I was 12 years old and first heard Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.

That’s over half a century ago. I have followed somewhat faithfully Dylan’s career since, most closed tied to his earlier work up to and including The Rolling Thunder Revue which I saw at Florida Field in 1970 something, along with Kinky Friedman Mick Ronson and Joan Baez, who at the end of the concert rather archly announced “There will be no encore!” I thought that was mean and unnecessary, but be that as it may.

Dr. Thomas’s book explores Dylan’s past extensively as well as the massive oeuvre of his work and how cleverly and stealthily Dylan has borrow from the truly classical works of Virgil, Catullus (ca toll us), Rimbaud and many others.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Michael Meyer author of The Road to Sleeping Dragon: Learning China From The Ground Up, published in October by Bloomsbury. The book is the third in a trilogy of works by Mr. Meyer. The first two being The Last Days of Old Beijing and the second, In Manchuria. Michael’s writing has also appeared in the NYT, Time, The Financial Times, The WSJ and many other periodicals and publications. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer to China. He is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and many other honors and awards.

The Road To Sleeping Dragon: Learning China From The Ground Up is a story of a young man who by sheer chance gets thrown into a country that is bigger than ours with more ethnicities and cultures and dialects than our county---by a lot. The book follows Michael’s journey, sometimes perilous, sometimes humorous but always gripping as he begins to assimilate the language and manners of his new country and he has continued to do so now for over 20 years. Most of the book was in reality “new” to me, and as Michael has said, you know you need to write a book when the book you want to read doesn’t exist. So with that welcome Michael and thanks for joining us today.