Your Favorite Book

In what's perhaps the most important book yet on the podcast, Poonam Mathur and I talk about THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X. Impact, construction, insight, appeal, there's so much to cover here. As South Asians, Poonam and I talk about the importance of engaging with stories that are not our own, and the importance of understanding political power structures in America and confronting antiblackness in our communities. If you haven't read this book, you should. We aim to tell you why.

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Today we’re joined by Nancy Johnson, author of the debut novel THE KINDEST LIE. This novel centers Ruth Tuttle, an Ivy league-educated Black engineer, who returns to small town Indiana in search of the baby she left behind, and to uncover the secrets surrounding this painful choice. Set in the early days of the Obama administration, THE KINDEST LIE explores division and the effects of the 2008 recession in a “post-racial society”. The novel is warm, insightful, and explores very real characters with a great deal of nuance.

Nancy speaks to her experiences as a young Black girl, never quite finding literature that reflected her reality. This brought her to Toni Morrison as an adult, specifically Morrison’s debut novel THE BLUEST EYE. This classic features Pecola Breedlove, a young Black girl that observes the poor way she’s treated in a world that prizes beauty and whiteness, and the resulting feelings become a yearning for blue eyes. With exquisite prose, a fascinating framing device, and multidimensional characters, Morrison’s debut established her as one of America’s preeminent writers. In this episode Johnson shares her wisdom on many other topics, such as sharing a birthday with your literary idol, a complicated experience of the 2008 election, how white writers should approach writing characters of color, and so much more. 

All episodes are spoiler free!

Nancy's Website: nancyjohnson.net

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Joining us this week is Dantiel Moniz, author of the debut short story collection MILK BLOOD HEAT. This collection touches on the intimacies and darker impulses in all of us, traversing topics such as womanhood, infidelity, loss, survival, and how the undercurrents of identity impact every decision we make. 

Moniz cites WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch as an all-time favorite book, a cornerstone of her formative years and forever influencing her approach to her own writing. This novel, originally published in 1999, follows Astrid Magnussen, the teen daughter of famed poet Ingrid Magnussen. When Ingrid is convicted of murder, Astrid moves from foster home to foster home across the city of Los Angeles, and must overcome horrific tragedy to discover who she really is. We discuss the prose, characters, themes, and impact of WHITE OLEANDER, all while avoiding spoilers along the way. Moniz also shares insight on numerous other topics, such as what popular culture gets wrong about Florida, her takeaways from her MFA, and so much more. This is a fun, laid-back conversation that we hope you enjoy.

Dantiel's Website: https://www.dantielwmoniz.com/

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In honor of Valentine's Day right around the corner, I wanted to give you all a romance for the ages. JULIET by Anne Fortier is a sprawling historical romance that'll appeal to all the Shakespeare nerds out there...and maybe the Dan Brown nerds too? The book is a new interpretation of Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET, hearkening back to the original Italian duo and weaving in the modern legacy of these star-crossed lovers. Rena Patel, a first year law student who is hard at work on her debut novel, talks to me about her discovery of this book, her love for Greek mythology, the fun of a self-insert main character, representing cultures that are not your own with respect, and so much more. 

All reviews are spoiler-free!

Follow Rena Patel on instagram and twitter @renapatelwrites

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Episode 2 of our monthly series. I bring you The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington, and One of Ours by Willa Cather. Observations, reviews, jokes, and critiques. Join me on this crazy journey!

I attempt to tackle every book that has ever won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, starting in 1918 and all the way to the present day. I attempt to provide spoiler-free reviews and reflections of each of these books in chronological order, and ultimately try to decide how to classify each book. Hidden gem? Forgotten stinker? Overrated book? Deserving classic? This is meant to be a loose, fun discussion, as I have no academic qualifications other than a love for reading. Enjoy!

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This week we're diving far, far outside my comfort zone with some French existentialism. I never knew Simone de Beauvoir wrote novels, and according to Susan Rubin, they're some of the most insightful novels ever written. ALL MEN ARE MORTAL is a tragic love story unlike any other, rich with history and leaves you unsettled at the end. It's also dense, wordy, and has its own flaws. We unpack all of it here! Along the way, Susan and I also talk about her debut novel THE ROAD NOT TAKEN, her journey from playwriting to documentary filmmaking to authorship, and the lessons she's learned along the way. I learned a lot, and you probably will too.

Buy Susan's Book: https://www.skylightbooks.com/book/9781941861684

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This week we're taking it back to one of those assigned reading classics, The Great Gatsby. Author David Stuart MacLean talks about how he incorporated aspects of this novel into his work, How I Learned to Hate in Ohio, and took it all in a new direction. Add in xenophobia, rural Ohio in the 1980s, a teenage boy, and the Challenger disaster, and you've got yourself one crazy book. Along the way we talk about reckoning with the sins of your childhood, the soullessness of high school, writing during a pandemic, and what we miss when we learn about The Great Gatsby. Celebrate this novel entering the public domain by listening to the episode! (There are mild spoilers for Gatsby but not for David's book)

TW: homophobic slurs, hate crime

Buy David's book and support local indies: https://bookshop.org/books/how-i-learned-to-hate-in-ohio/9781419747199

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Once again we journey into the strange world of self-help books! In this book, Adam 'Smiley' Poswolsky takes on the idea of the corporate ladder and how out of date it really is for today's workers. Isha, a grad student in Media Advocacy, says this book found her in the right place at the right time. Along the way, we chat about grad school, white saviorism, career paths in the South Asian community, and so much more. 

Find Isha on instagram @ishamodiii

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Joan Thomas, winner of the Governor's General Award for Fiction and numerous other accolades, spoke with me about her most recent work FIVE WIVES. This is a fascinating fictionalized account of Operation Auca, a historical event in Ecuador involving Indigenous people and evangelical missionaries. We also talk about Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer prize winning work A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD. Along the way we also chat about Own Voices literature, the lasting impact of evangelism, and what constitutes historical fiction. It's an illuminating conversation you don't want to miss!

Joan's website: joanthomas.ca

Buy FIVE WIVES: https://www.amazon.com/Five-Wives-Novel-Joan-Thomas/dp/1443458546

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Our first interview episode of 2021! Jennifer and I talk about the detailed and reflective memoir THE TENDER BAR by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist J.R. Moehringer. What happens when a boy is raised by a single mother and a bar full of rowdy characters in Long Island? Moehringer takes us on a journey through his childhood, adolescence, and post-college life in the midst of all this. Along the way, Jennifer and I also talk about representation in middle grade fiction, drinking culture, and our love for Fleetwood Mac. If you haven't heard of this memoir, don't worry, neither had I! It was an interesting read and we had a great time diving in.

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Find Jennifer at www.jenniferlockewrites.com, follow her on instagram @jenniferlockewrites