07-07-12 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 53: Glen Duncan, 'Tallula Rising'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the fifty-third episode of my new 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. And yes, I know this means I have one more to go this week — and here it is!
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.
S. G. Browne and Lev Grossman Moderated by Terry Bisson
Attentive readers may wonder if I myself was not an aspect of the fantastic, if you look at the dates carefully. But it was my portable recorder, not my own self who was at SF in SF on June 16, 2012. While I talked with Kim Stanley Robinson about his novel '2312', Terry Bisson moderated a discussion between S. G. Browne ('Lucky Bastard') and Lev Grossman ('The Magicians,' 'The Magician King').
07-03-12 UPDATE #2:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 52: Anthony Swofford, 'Hotels, Hospitals and Jails'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the fifty-second episode of my new 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. And yes, I know this means I have one more ready to go this week!
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.
07-03-12 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 51: Daniel H. Wilson, 'Amped'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the fifty-first episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. 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 fifty-first episode is a look at Daniel H. Wilson, 'Amped.'
"I was going to do the opposite of what my father had done."
—Anthony Swofford
Anthony Swofford's 'Hotels, Hospitals and Jails' hits more than a few nerves. For any man of a certain age (I suppose) it will do that, or at least so it seemed to me. I did not expect our conversation to be easy, because it's not an "easy" book. It's gripping and intense to read, and a great look at fathers and sons as the centuries turn. But it gets under your skin.
On the other hand, for all the angst, and there's a lion's share of it in this book, there is also a great deal of writerly skill. But — and here's the catch — it is not "on exhibition," as I almost just wrote. (I believe that M$ Word somehow preserves all the keystrokes you type even if you backspace over them, and this would make my hesitation evident.) Swofford's skill is completely camouflaged by the intensity of the subject he is writing about and the raw emotions he evokes and describes. It was really only when I was sitting with him in the studio at KQED that I twigged to the Iowa Writing Workshop guy.
And that's the pleasure of this interview; to hear Swofford talk frankly not just about his emotions and his life, but also about recreating those emotions and events in prose. Don’t think for a minute that anyone can do this. That's the not the case; the most skilled writers are those who make you forget that you are reading.
Swofford is equally adept at talking about his book and the events in his rather mythic and iconic life. I found myself asking questions that made me uncomfortable. Swofford was frank in his responses, and the result is something rather different than my usual conversation. You can hear it by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
05-13-13: Commentary : Mary Roach ... "Gulp." : Open Up and Say "Awe"
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Mary Robinette Kowal Reads "Evil Robot Monkey" at SF in SF on April 20, 2013 : "...not that there's anything remotely Regency about evil robot monkeys..."
05-06-13: Commentary : Glennon Doyle Melton Suggests 'Carry On, Warrior' : Fighting for Life in the Too Much Information Age
05-04-13: Commentary : Reasons Not to Leave the House, Reality Check : The Truth Hurts Edition: 'Down the Up Escalator' by Barbara Garson, 'The Wolf and the Watchman' by Scott C. Johnson,'The Book of Woe' by Gary Greenberg, 'Confessions of a Sociopath' by M. E. Thomas
05-01-13: Commentary : Mario Guslandi Reviews An Emporium of Automata by DP Watt : "...from the bizarre to the grotesque, from the baroque to the uncanny..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : : Rick Klaw Reads at SF in SF on April 20, 2013 : "...those are the kind of people that don't get work anymore..."
04-29-13: Commentary : Ben Katchor Catalogues 'Hand Drying in America' : Subversive Cities of the Heart
04-27-13: Commentary : Mark Morris Introduces 'Toady' : A New World of Horror
Agony Column Podcast News Report : : Thomas Frank from The Easy Chair and Harper's Magazine: TV's DC Fantasies : "... basically, everyone is corrupt ..."
04-22-13: Commentary : Danielle Trussoni Maps 'Angelopolis' : The Afterlife of Angels
04-17-13: Commentary : How Not to Leave the House : Reach for the Recycling
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Matt Richtel, Sophie Littlefield and Terry Bisson at SF in SF on February 9, 2013 : "You cannot do this all day long." Sophie Littlefield
04-16-13: Commentary : Stephen Kessler 'Scratch Pegasus' : Lens of Language
04-08-13: Commentary : Ruth Ozeki Clocks 'A Tale for the Time Being' : Reading is the Future
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2013 Interview with Ruth Ozeki : "...through the act of writing, she would somehow conjure the reader into being..."
