This Book Made Me

It's Black History Month and we are celebrating!! My guest, Kat Calvin, does a deep, personal dive in to The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, and we wrestle with this question: How do we learn to survive in a hostile world, and with a generational history of violence? We talk about the world of 1960s America, who is protected and who is not, and Morrison's authorial gift, which encourages us to wrestle with how we participate in unjust systems.

Kat Calvin is the Founder and Executive Director of Spread the Vote + Project ID and the Co-Founder and CEO of the Project ID Action Fund. A lawyer, activist, and social entrepreneur, Kat is a Practitioner Fellow in Democracy at the University of Virginia's Karsh Institute for Democracy and writes weekly insights and pop culture recommendations at Hot Takes and Applesauce and hosts the Choose the Bear podcast. And, don't forget her 2023 book: American Identity in Crisis: Notes from an Accidental Activist. You can keep up with ALL of her work at katcalvin.com.

At the end of the episode, you can catch DJ Diego Dela Rosa's playlist, curated especially for this episode: volume 5 of This Mixtape Made Me: Amplify.

And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]

Can you be yourself when everyone around you wants you to be something else? My guest, author Marjetta Geerling, AKA Mara Wells, walks me through the deep wisdom of the classic children's book The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. We talk about how children's books use language and art to teach us how to be ourselves, and let others be without judging or trying to change them. In doing so, Marjetta argues, it makes us better human beings.

While this conversation was recorded in December, it's being released as the devastating Los Angeles fires are still ongoing. If you feel moved to support the people who lost their homes and jobs, here are a few of my favorite organizations that are organizing to support people, and to look towards the future of Los Angeles.

World Central Kitchen was on the ground within hours, providing hot meals to evacuees and first responders, and they continue to reach deeply into affected communities.

The Los Angeles Mutual Aid Network is maintaining a real-time list of groups and their needs as they respond to their communities.

The Altadena Seed Library is gathering native plant seeds to repopulate Eaton Canyon with the fire-resistant, California foliage.

Finally, don't forget the playlist curated for this episode by DJ/Curator Diego Dela Rosa: volume 4 of This Mixtape Made Me: Tender.

And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]

What did we read in 2024, and what are we reading next? In this end-of-year episode, I invite 5 former TBMM guests to reflect on their reading past and future. We've got book recommendations, a list of our best reading experiences, and what we're doing to read more and better in the new year. Join me, Sadie Forkner, Dice Moreno, Pat Harrigan, Mary Trunk, and Lisa Metzgar to reflect and to look ahead.

Also on this episode: DJ/Curator Diego Dela Rosa has a special super-sized vol 3 of This Mixtape Made Me, featuring their favorite projects and artists of 2024. It's called Reflect, and you can find it on Spotify.

And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]

It's a book about love! But is it, really? In this episode, acclaimed fantasy author Robert V.S. Redick explains how Gabriel García Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera exploded his previous ideas about what writing can and should do.

Author Robert V.S. Redick's most recent epic fantasy, Sidewinders, has been called "a brilliant fever dream of a novel that is bound to impress" by Grimdark Magazine and "a breathtaking work" by two-time World Fantasy Award winner C.S.E. Cooney. His previous novel, Master Assassins, was a finalist for the 2018 Booknest Award for Best Novel. His first novel, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, was a finalist for the Locust Award and the SFX Novel Award. His short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld and various anthologies, most recently Dreams For a Broken World, edited by Julie C. Day.

Robert has taught fiction writing in the University of Maine (Stonecoast) and University of Nevada MFA Programs, at Hampshire College, and with the Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop. He is currently finishing the sequel to Sidewinders. Robert is also an international development and environmental justice consultant who has lived and worked in Indonesia, Colombia, Argentina, and other countries. He now lives with his compañera, Dr. Kiran Asher, in Western Massachusetts. You can learn more about his fantasy novels at robertvsredick.com

Also on this episode: DJ/Curator Diego Dela Rosa has created vol 2 of This Mixtape Made Me, inspired by the Márquez novel. It's titled Yearn, and you can find it at the halfway point of the episode.

And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]

Sometimes, a book meets you at exactly the right moment in your life. My guest this week, Russ Finkelstein, tells us how John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire found him, and surfaced some foundational truths: that life, and people, are messy; that we can find ways to persevere in the face of great tragedy; and that books can make us better humans along the way.

Russ Finkelstein is a social entrepreneur, advisor, and coach. He writes a weekly column for The Washington Post that documents people's unexpected career pathways, because "one of the great challenges we have in the world is that we think there's one way life's supposed to be." You can also follow HIS career path and multitudinous projects at his LinkedIn page.

Also on this episode: it's the podcast's very first playlist!! Courtesy of DJ/Curator Diego Dela Rosa, you can find a 10-song playlist expanding on the themes of The Hotel New Hampshire. Run, don't walk: here's episode #1 of This Mixtape Made Me: Hope/Grieve. Give it a listen!

And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]

Can a book help us have more meaningful conversations? Can we learn how to hear each other better, even, or especially, when we don't see eye to eye? What could we need more, as we enter election season?! My guest—Learning and Development leader Brandon Roberson of Riot Games—explains how the strategies in the best-selling Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes Are High, have helped him build better relationships in his work and personal life.

You can find out more about Brandon on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonroberson/

And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]

What can literature--especially dystopian, young adult literature--teach us? My guest—artist, LGBTQIA+ mentor/activist, and makeover maven Dice Moreno—takes us through Lois Lowry's best-selling novel The Giver, and talks about its sneakily complex and moving themes of memory, community, and love. As we dig in, we can't help but discuss why these ideas are so dangerous, and how book bans are on the rise. If this issue resonates with you, Pen America has a terrific report detailing which books are most threatened, and in what places:

Banned in the USA: https://pen.org/report/banned-in-the-usa-state-laws-supercharge-book-suppression-in-schools/?utm_source=google_cpc&utm_medium=ad_grant&utm_campaign=awareness&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5ea1BhC6ARIsAEOG5py9WkRy2rN0y9K2DKnXtZpo0cjgQ9KCgbA_Or5Hkyvo3-3EKWQnkgMaAj1-EALw_wcB

You can find more about Dice here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dice_circles/

Website: https://geofox.studio/

And, as always, you can follow the pod:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/

email: [email protected]

Looking for a master class on Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's canonical graphic novel? You've come to the right place. This snack-sized, quick and dirty epsiode is part two of an earlier interview with Pat Harrigan, writer and Dr. Who podcaster extraordinaire. Here, we do a deep dive into the plot and artistry of the novel itself, and how it made Pat want to write like Moore. If you need a refresher on Pat's life as a reader/writer, and his take on comic books and superhero stories, back up to Episode 4.

Welcome to Season Two! You know the magical feeling when something you do is easy and fantastic? Or, maybe you know the feeling of doing something that everyone says you're good at, but it makes you exhausted? Dr. Robin L. Owens visits to discuss the difference between excellence and genius, and how to know when your life could be more your own. The book that makes her think hard about life purpose is Gay Hendrick's The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level.

It's a return to full nerdgasm here on TBMM! My guest is Pat Harrigan, a writer, podcaster, and reader extraordinaire. We talk at length about Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel Watchmen. Along the way, we discuss how narrative form works, the stakes of contemporary comic books/superhero culture, and there's a special audio appearance by a can of Guiness.

I hope you'll follow the show so that the next episode drops right into your feed.

You can contact me with feedback and suggestions at [email protected], and follow our Instagram page for updates, shelfies, and additional content.

Many thanks for the music by Twisterium from Pixabay