Your Favorite Book

This episode covers all kinds of topics, where do I even begin? My guest is the funny and insightful Leslie Gray Streeter, whose memoir BLACK WIDOW captures the messiness of grief in a perspective often ignored. We chat about the enduringness of Joan Didion, how grief is non-linear, and so much more. Our conversation then switches to poetry. I share my thoughts on the intimidating medium and how I've learned to approach it (thanks in part, but not completely, to Thomas C. Foster's HOW TO READ POETRY LIKE A PROFESSOR). Lucille Clifton's book THE BOOK OF LIGHT is a revelation, and we take our time and pick apart specific poems, their context, their language, and every nuance we can wrap our heads around. I could've talked to Leslie for hours! 

Check out Leslie's book here: https://bookshop.org/books/black-widow-a-sad-funny-journey-through-grief-for-people-who-normally-avoid-books-with-words-like-journey-in-the-title-9780316490733/9780316490719

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To read/listen to my short story: https://www.khoreomag.com/

We've got the world's saddest love story, y'all. Happy early Valentine's Day. But my guests, Marci and Ako of the Colored Pages Book club, add as much humor and levity to the conversation. Also, so much insight. We dive into the ins and outs of this amazing book, Baldwin's direct prose, the frustration of reading David, and seeing Blackness and Whiteness in a novel that did not attempt to address race (it definitely did). We also chat about our snack obsessions, amazing animated TV, and so much more.

Listen to Marci and Ako: https://www.thesecoloredpages.com/

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This week’s guest is Simon Jacobs, whose latest novel STRING FOLLOW is a haunting look at Midwest suburbia and the inherent isolation of being a teen. STRING FOLLOW tracks a sprawling cast of characters and their growing fascination with the bizarre and occult. Narrated by the collective 'we' of a controlling force, the novel takes us into the inner minds of scared, lonely teenagers seeking guidance and belonging in a fraught, isolated world. The result is truly shocking, but in a larger sense, not as surprising as we think.

Jacobs deviates from his horror/thriller genre to highlight a favorite book from his Anglophile days, THE REMAINS OF THE DAY by Kazuo Ishiguro. This 1988 classic is the simple tale of Stevens, a longstanding English butler who ties his innate self-worth to his service and performance. Slowly, Stevens's self-concept erodes as he takes a trip to the countryside and examines the course of his life, as well as the decisions and indecisions he's made through the years.

Jacobs shares his insight on everything from writing the modern teen to interpreting this book in a capitalist system to further reading recommendations. It's a lively episode and certainly worth a listen.

SPOILERS: Please skip 36:45-42:30 to avoid discussion of the ending

Find Simon's book at https://www.simon-jacobs.com/

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This is the inaugural episode of the monthly Short Story Book Club, in which listeners can read that month's short story and tune in at the end for an in-depth discussion. This month we have THE WALTZ by Dorothy Parker, in discussion with Emily Edwards (host of Fuckbois of Literature). I'm delighted to have Emily back on the show to talk all things Dorothy Parker, including her skewed feminism, that famous Winnie the Pooh review, weird connections to Seinfeld, and much more. Emily also has exciting news to share about her upcoming cozy mystery series, and she offers some reading recommendations in that genre. Seriously, you don't want to miss this episode. And if you haven't read the story? Please do, it's only four pages

Read THE WALTZ for free: https://dickatlee.com/poetry/pdfs/waltz_dorothy_parker.pdf

Books brought up: Angela Marchmont Mysteries by Clara Benson, Skelton's Guides by David Stafford

Check out Emily's show! https://www.fuckboisoflit.com/

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Well folks, we've got a big one today! We're talking about a book that needs no introduction (and yet I gave it one), Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I needed an authority for this one, so joining me is a Jane Austen Podcaster, Casey Meserve. Casey hosts Ents and Sensibility, which takes a chapter by chapter look at the world of Jane Austen and her universality. We chat about all things P&P, its adaptations, characters, as well as some hot takes. There are spoilers for this one. I mean, come on, it's Pride and Prejudice. 

Also! Stay tuned for the very end because I announce the guest that will be joining us for the first Short Story Book Club episode! As a reminder, we're reading The Waltz by Dorothy Parker. It's like three pages, come join us!

Casey's podcast: https://entsandsensibility.com/

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Welcome to a new year and a new season of Your Favorite Book! Our inaugural guest this season is Jami Attenberg, most well known for her fiction (All This Could Be Yours, The Middlesteins, and others) but she's here to talk about her memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home. Jami shares her insights on book events, travel in the midst of COVID, setting boundaries with social media, and so much more. We also chat about a collection of short stories for the first time on this show, in this case the collected works of Grace Paley. We discuss her unique voice and eschewing of formal conventions, along with avoiding sentiment and cliche in writing domesticity. It's a great episode and definitely avoids spoilers, hope you all enjoy!

Jami's virtual event at Women and Children First: https://www.womenandchildrenfirst.com/event/virtual-conversation-jami-attenberg-ada-lim%C3%B3n

Buy Jami's Book: https://bookshop.org/books/i-came-all-this-way-to-meet-you-writing-myself-home-9798200851348/9780063039797

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It's a week late but here we are! My favorite books of 2021, ranked and reviewed (spoiler free of course). Some of these I've referenced on the podcast, some have entire episodes dedicated to them, and some are completely new. I also include some 2022 updates for the podcast, so please pay attention for those announcements. Books were probably the best part of last year, so why not celebrate them?

Short Story for January: https://dickatlee.com/poetry/pdfs/waltz_dorothy_parker.pdf

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In honor of 2021 coming to a close and the holiday season stressing us all out, Julie Strauss and I decided to meet again and chat about all things book podcasting. Julie is the host of Best Book Ever, a podcast with a very similar premise to mine but a totally different listening experience. Honestly, if you love my show, you'll probably love hers too! Julie and I chat about our favorite episodes, dream guests, woes and pitfalls, and our favorites in other media. I could talk to Julie for hours and I think it shows! 

Listen to Julie's podcast at https://juliewroteabook.com/

Follow Julie on instagram @bestbookeverpodcast

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This week's episode is here to give you a new twist on familiar classics. We take on the Alice books, those weird little Victorian novels that Disney and Tim Burton usurped as their own, with a particularly knowledgeable guest. Dr. Mark M. Hennelly is a retired California State University professor specializing in Romantic, Victorian, Gothic, and Fantasy literature, along numerous other topics. Dr. Hennelly continues to write and has written extensively on the Alice books in recent years. We discuss whether children's literature truly exists, how to make material new year after year, what the Jabberwocky even means, and whether Turkish Delight is worth eating (spoiler, it's not). This is one of those episodes where I let my guest take the lead and I'm just here for the ride. Hope you come along with us!

Books discussed: Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein, Phantastes by George MacDonald, A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay

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Oh boy, we're tackling a BIG one this week! This week’s guest is Mina Seçkin, whose novel THE FOUR HUMORS is a meandering and thoughtful exploration of family secrecy and cultural identity. Our main character, Sibel, is a college student visiting family in Turkey along with her white American boyfriend, and the pressures of adulthood and losing her father culminate in inexplicable headaches. Sibel becomes fascinated with the theory of the four bodily humors and ancient medicine, and slowly finds her way through not only this ancient field, but the covered-up ancient secrets of her own family. The book is compelling; equal parts coming of age and family saga, with the added texture of an at-times abrasive protagonist.

Seçkin calls Arundhati Roy's THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS one of her all time favorite books, and together she and I discuss the remarkable prose of this novel, its Faulkner-esque experiments with time, and the deep understanding of childhood trauma. There is also the matter of explaining one's cultural background without overexplaining, defining an audience for your work, picking the ideal writing snacks, and so much more discussed in this episode. There are also many, many other book recommendations, in case your list needs growing.

Books discussed: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian, The Vietri Project by Nicola DeRobertis-Theye, Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang, Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier

Follow Mina on twitter @minaseckin and on instagram @littlebutta

Follow the podcast on instagram and twitter @yfbpodcast