Two Book Nerds Talking

Here is an interview we did at the last Ubud Writer's Festival in 2019 (remember sitting in rooms, huddled together listening to an author?) What carefree days those were. Honey sat down with an Indonesian Emerging Writer Nurillah Achmad and talked to her about her macabre short story, myths and black magic. We finally got down to editing it. We left the Bahasa Indonesian interview but explain what was being said in between. You will also be able to listen to the sad and poetic story in both Bahasa Indonesia and English. Enjoy!

In keeping with our August 2021 Book Challenge, we are re-releasing one of our favourite cli-fi reads, The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin.

Being fantasy dorks, we dig deep into NK Jemisin's award-winning fantasy series, the Broken Earth trilogy. It is epic, nuanced and delves into really personal stuff with a backdrop of the world ending. We talk about reading everything from just one author and end the podcast with an excerpt of Jemisin's fierce Hugo acceptance speech.

Our August challenge is to read a book about climate change or a book set in the tropics. We decided to give you reads set near a beach (or sea or island) and as you can see we have interpreted it rather loosely. And well, that's the challenge; to just pick up a book on your TBR or something that you've always wanted to read to fit our #TBNTBookChallenge2021. And feel free to be creative. Here are our socials if you want to hook up with us:

FB: Two Book Nerds Talking
IG: @tbntbooks
Twitter: @TbnTpod
Email: [email protected]

Music credits:
Bossa Antigua by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3454-bossa-antigua
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

We sat down for an interview with YA author Kalynn Bayron and talked about her new novel, This Poison Heart. It's got a gothic house, a secret garden, locked rooms and a girl who can control plants. 'Black Poison Ivy' is what she calls her heroine Briseis and there is plenty of blooming action when she arrives at her inheritance, a dark mansion over acres of land. Check it out.

Music credits:
Bossa Antigua by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3454-bossa-antigua
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Decline by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1300016
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

In these strange and challenging times, books like Think Again can be useful in making you embrace the things that you think are keeping you back from making change and moving on. Imposter syndrome (apparently not that bad), constructive arguing (we can all learn it and trust it), changing your mind and being able to change another's (and still do it with compassion). So many things we like to nibble into in this accessible non-fic by one of the most interesting organisational psychologists in the world today.

Music credits:
Bossa Antigua by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3454-bossa-antigua
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

We had a little online LIVE event recently with Elaine from Lit Books and Singaporean author Suffian Hakim. We wished we were doing it at the bookstore and all of us felt a little bereft about it but well- the show must go on! The Keepers of Stories is his most intimate one yet, and in our opinion, his best. It follows siblings Hakeem and Zulaika as they are taken to Changi Beach (this is the 70s) to live with The Anak Bumi- a community of people who reject modernity in order to live free.

This is part 2 of our 30 Dirty this month. We wanted to really get stuck into these brilliant novellas hence divided the show into two. This week we dive into the world of mer-people, enchanted forests, a benign alien invasion and an island where people go to grieve - to name a few. We also cover cannibalism and gothic writings under a hot sun - all the good stuff.

Credits:
Excerpts were taken from soundcloud.com

Listen to the full song of The Deep by Clipping here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EnPFsk4lOo

Music credits:
Bossa Antigua by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3454-bossa-antigua
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

We're a careening into the second half of 2021 and the July challenge is to read a book that has magical realism or a speculative fiction novella. As usual we narrowed it down and are bringing to you today Novellas that has a bit of a horror bent to it, some of it is gory, some disturbing and some makes you feel like you are going a little mad. Intrigued? Well we have two parts to this. Stay tuned for Part 2 next week!

We're doing book chasers this week and it's all on feminist retellings - and we're looking into 3 books that go into Greek mythology, Norse mythology, and a famous Ballad. These books are debuts and are so good we can only curl up in envy even as we are devouring them. We delve into feminine power, motherhood, consequences and gender among other things and peeled back why our myths punish women so much. Books we dived into are The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec, Ariadne by Jennifer Saint, and Sistersong by Lucy Holland

Excerpt credits:
Genevieve Gornichec in conversation with Jenny Lawson: https://youtu.be/unXlakWQQ2k

Interview with Jennifer Saint: Author of Debut Novel Ariadne: https://youtu.be/og1d4_Uv3WY

Folk Tale Retellings | Sistersong by Lucy Holland: https://youtu.be/SzcfMSJfhE8

Music credits:
Bossa Antigua by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3454-bossa-antigua
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Errigal by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3715-errigal
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Suonatore di Liuto by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4440-suonatore-di-liuto
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

We sat down to discuss a wonderful translation of Genzaburo Yoshino's 1930's classic How Do You Live? This is one of Diana's best reads of 2021 so far, and once you've sat back and listened to this episode, you will understand why books like this are important and have stood the test of time. The story of Copper and his inquisitive mind has been a favourite of many Japanese people growing up through the decades and we daresay it might be one of yours too!