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01-31-13 UPDATE: Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 83: Ian Rankin, 'Standing in Another Man's Grave'

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Here's the eighty-third episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the one-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to get ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning.

The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know.

My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.

The eighty-third episode is a look at Ian Rankin and 'Standing in Another Man's Grave.'

Here's a link to the MP3 audio file of Time to Read, Episode 83: Ian Rankin, 'Standing in Another Man's Grave.'




01-30-13: Laura J. Mixon Reads from 'Child Left Behind' at SF in SF on January 19, 2013
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"...out of fear, that I would end up..."

—Laura J. Mixon, 'Child Left Behind'

At the last SF in SF, on January 19, 2013, Laura J. Mixon sat down at the microphone, and, in a relatively restrained voice, proceeded to kick every butt in the room to Mars and back. In an intense reading, Mixon quietly made the case for the incredible power of the science fiction genre to grab our minds and our hearts with equal power.

Mixon's latest novel, written as M. J. Locke, is 'Up Against It,' and having heard her reading, I'd put it and pretty much everything she had a hand in at the top of my to-buy list. The kind of writing you hear in this recording does not happen by accident. This is clearly the combination of innate talent and canny knowledge. Mixon knows the science fiction genre, and plays it well. But she also knows the human heart and plays that as well.

I'm going to day as little as possible about this work, as I think it is best experienced cold. What I can say is that Mixon has drafted a very plausible day-after-tomorrow science-fiction backdrop involving human colonization of Mars. She paints a very compelling and believable picture of the hows and the whys of our journey to the red planet. She also does this with a great simplicity. We get just the right level of detail to make every technological innovation seem utterly natural. You almost wonder why this has not yet happened.

Of course all the clever and clear technology is not worth a hoot unless you have both a story, that is, a plot, and characters to involve the reader. Telling the story in the first person, Mixon captures us immediately, by virtue of having created a character who is fairly distrustful and smart, but not an egg-headed explainer.

Then she plays her trump card, an emotional story arc that blends perfectly with the extrapolated future. What we learn sets up a gripping plot and a rather intense emotional reading experience. Mixon is currently working on the novel, and hopes to be finished in the next couple of years.

If you've not read Laura J. Mixon before you hear this recording, it's my take that you will after you follow this link to the MP3 audio file.




01-28-13: A 2013 Interview with Tracy Kidder

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"I always have a reader in mind, and that's Dick Todd."

— Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder has exactly the kind of energy you read about in the pages of 'Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction.' He's restless, intense and focused, cognizant of details you've not ever considered, but able to express their import to you in a manner that is engaging and easy.

I met with Tracy Kidder at KUSP, and we strolled directly from the lobby to the studio to discuss the book he co-wrote with his longtime editor, Richard Todd. For a man who has sliced and diced our society and our world with words for forty years, Kidder is incredibly easygoing and low-key. In retrospect, this approach has to be a big part of his success as a reporter and writer. But in the moment, as an interviewee, he's simply a nice guy who can put words to matters that most of us have a hard time even thinking about, let alone expressing.

It's rather daunting, to be honest, to interview the author of 'Soul of a New Machine.' Some thirty years ago, I was working for a company called Quotron Systems; if you ever saw the movie Wall Street, you saw Quotron terminals on the desks of the traders. Quotron was an early pioneer for getting its employees on the Internet and, like 'Soul of a New Machine,' an early example of what the 21st century workplace would prove to be. But I should not have been surprised that the man who first accurately described the culture of the electronic workplace would himself seem like a product of that workplace — easygoing and understated.

Even though he did not write about it in the book, I did ask Kidder about the impact of computers on the process of writing. His answer was really quite interesting and in fact tied directly to an aspect of his own writing. Kidder writes fast, he tells us; and he mentioned it more than once during our conversation. He'll bang through a first draft, but then — and this is important — he'll revise it, often beyond recognition, at least ten times. His take on how computers slot into this process offers an interesting, nuanced look at the impact that technology does and does not have.

Tracy Kidder and I spoke quite easily for an hour and we could have spoken for much longer. But I did not want to simply go through a laundry list of the subjects he discusses in the book. I was actually more interested in how he created this book, which offers not lessons so much as perspectives that will entertain and inform writers of fiction and nonfiction as well as readers who simply want to read what the title of his book offers: 'Good Prose.'

Readers can hear our conversation by following this link to the MP3 audio file.



New to the Agony Column

09-18-15: Commentary : William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass' : An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."

09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 213: Susan Casey : Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins

08-24-15: Commentary : Felicia Day Knows 'You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)' : Transformative Technology

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Felicia Day : "I think you have to be attention curators for audience in every way."

08-22-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 212: Felicia Day : You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)

08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]

Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]

08-10-15:Agony Column Podcast News Report : In Memory of Alan Cheuse : Thank you Alan, and Your Family, for Everything

07-11-15: Commentary : Robert Repino Morphs 'Mort(e)' : Housecat to Harbinger of the Apocalypse

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Robert Repino : "...an even bigger threat. which is us, the humans..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 208: Robert Repino : Mort(e)

07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 208: Michael Gazzaniga : Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience

06-26-15: Commentary : Neal Stephenson Crafts an Eden for 'Seveneves' : Blow It Up and Start All Over Again

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Neal Stephenson : "...and know that you're never going to se a tree again..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 207: Neal Stephenson : Seveneves

06-03-15: Commentary : Dan Simmons Opens 'The Fifth Heart' : Having it Every Way

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Dan Simmons : "...yes, they really did bring those bombs..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 206: Dan Simmons : The Fifth Heart

05-23-15: Commentary : John Waters Gets 'Carsick' : Going His Way

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with John Waters : "...you change how you would be in real life...”

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 205: John Waters : Carsick

05-09-15: Commentary : Jeffrey A. Lieberman, MD and 'Shrinks' : A Most Fashionable Take on the Human Mind

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Jeffrey A. Lieberman, MD : "..its influence to be as hegemonic as it was..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 204: Jeffrey A. Lieberman, MD : Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry

04-29-15: Commentary : Barney Frank is 'Frank' : Interpersonally Ours

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Barney Frank : "...while you're trying to change it, don't ignore it..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 203: Barney Frank : Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage

04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 202: Kazuo Ishiguro : The Buried Giant

04-17-15: Commentary : Erik Larson Follows a 'Dead Wake' : Countdown to Destiny

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Erik Larson : "...said to have been found in the arms of a dead German sailor..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 201: Erik Larson : Dead Wake

04-15-15: Commentary : Peter Bell Reflects 'A Certain Slant of Light' : Strange Stories of Modern Scholars

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2014 Interview with Peter Bell : "...I looked up some of the old books..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 200: Peter Bell : Strange Epiphanies and A Certain Slant of Light

03-14-15: Commentary : Marc Goodman Foresees 'Future Crimes' : Exponential Potential

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It

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