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09-28-14 UPDATE: Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 175: Rebecca Alexander, 'Not Fade Away: A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found'

Click image for audio link.
Here's the one-hundred seventy-fifth episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the two-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to stay ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning. This week, I seem to be on top opf the game, but who knows what the hell might happen. I am hoping to stay back up and stumbling.

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 one-hundred seventy-fifth episode is a look at Rebecca Alexander and 'Not Fade Away: A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found.'

Here's a link to the MP3 audio file of Time to Read, Episode 175: Rebecca Alexander, 'Not Fade Away: A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found'




09-23-14: A 2014 Interview with Lauren Beukes

Lauren Beukes with helper, K.
Click image for audio link.

"...fiction allows you to step into someone's head..."
—Lauren Beukes

Lauren Beukes arrived in town not to promote her new book, but to visit with family friends. She very kindly agreed to speak with me about 'Broken Monsters' and 'The Shining Girls' at KQED, and arrived with a helper. It's clear that she's working in advance with the mother-daughter relationships in her fiction.

I enjoyed the heck out of both her books I've read (and have the other two in queue for a rainy day). We started out talking about cities first, since she lives in Capetown, where she presumably spends some time with fellow Capetown writer Sarah Lotz. But Beukes most recent novels are set in Chicago and Detroit respectively. She'd lived in Chicago, which made the writing of 'The Shining Girls' less challenging. But Detroit was new territory, which meant travel and adventure as one can only find in Detroit.

We talked a bit about the Internet in recent fiction. Some writers are writing recent historical novels (essentially, pre-search engine and pre-cell phone) because it makes plotting a bit simpler. And that, to a degree was true about 'The Shining Girls.' But it's not the case in "Broken Monsters,' which embraces the Internet and uses it for a variety of plot points.

Oddly enough, some have suggested that 'Broken Monsters' is "anti-Internet." I must admit, I don't get that at all. Beukes merely admits that the Internet exists and that we use in the way that we use it. It is neither good nor evil; its simply human.

Beukes was quite emphatic on the subject of Harper Curtis from 'The Shining Girls.' She was quite deliberately trying to subvert the image of the Hannibal Lecter type of serial killer. She summarizes her views with a distinct elegance late in the interview. Readers will be as riveted by her conversation as they are by her novels and can hear her by following this link to the MP3 audio file.



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

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

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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

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