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Books podcasts were talking about in March 2017
March 2017 literary conversations highlighted a mix of contemporary fiction, classic literature, personal memoirs, and lexicography across several podcast episodes. On The Book Review, Alexandra Alter recommended Zachary Mason's novel Void Star as an enjoyable yet unsettling read, while Pamela Paul expressed deep affection for Chris Bachelder's novel The Throwback Special. John Williams dedicated a segment of the podcast to celebrating literary anniversaries and personal shelf discoveries, noting his reread of Denis Johnson's potent short story collection Jesus' Son for its twenty-fifth anniversary, as well as picking up Eileen B. Simpson's 1980s memoir Poets in Their Youth. This memoir further led Williams back to Wilfrid Sheed's essay collection Essays in Disguise. Jennifer Schuessler added to the month's book discussions by recommending Word by Word by Kory Stamper, a work exploring the life of a Merriam-Webster lexicographer. Beyond standard book review shows, other podcasts incorporated reading recommendations into broader life advice; Theo Von suggested turning to Charles Dickens's complete works on This Past Weekend to help a caller break away from negative habits, while a guest on ChooseFI discussed traveling with and purchasing Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow as an essential personal item during a move to Ecuador.
The Book Review
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The Idiot
Discussed“why shouldn't the author of the possessed and owed to Russian literature name her debut novel after another DVI Masterpiece El if batamon will be here to talk about her new book The Idiot”
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The Novel of the Century
Discussed“David Bellis joins us now he is the author of the novel of the century the extraordinary adventure of liera David thank you for being here”
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American War
Discussed“and on top of that there's this whole new crop of dystopian fiction coming out this spring starting with American War by Omar Cod which is a debut novel and it takes place in America after a civil war”
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The Book of Joan
Discussed“another one that's coming out soon is Lydia yuk nich's novel The Book of Joan which is set in the near future again where the globe has been devastated by climate change and War”
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The Possessed
Discussed“you obviously wrote another book called the possessed adventures with Russian books and the people who read them”
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A separation
Discussed“so I'm about a third of a way through of the novel a Separation by Kitty kitamura which came out I think last month”
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Void Star
Recommended“and another April novel that I loved that again might give you nightmares but you'll probably enjoy it while you're reading it is void Star by Zachary Mason”
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The throwback special
Recommended“which is Chris belder the throwback special I love that book I love it so much”
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Ties
Discussed“Greg Kohl's will talk to starnone his translator and the novelist Juma leiri who translated his new book ties”
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Teeth
Discussed“Mary Otto will be here to talk about her new book teeth”
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The House on Via Gemito
Discussed“TI is a book about family and it is connected intimately with another book via Jito”
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In Other Words
Discussed“your own most recent book in other words was written in Italian”
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House of Beauty
Discussed“her novel is called the beauty house and it was recently acquired by Harper cullins in the UK at the London book fair”
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Jesus' son
Recommended“first on a quick note I've been rereading Dennis Johnson's Jesus's son uh a very slender but very potent collection of short stories from 1992 cuz it's celebrating its 25th anniversary”
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Poets in their youth
Recommended“in addition to that and then I've been reading just a random pick off my shelf which is a memoir from the early 80s by a woman named ien Simpson and it's called poets in their youth”
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Essays in disguise
Recommended“what that really did though was it sent me back to one of my favorite books of all time which is Wilfred she's essay collection essays in Disguise because he has a review of simpsons's book”
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Word by word
Recommended“called word by word by Cory Stamper who's a lexicographer at Miriam Webster dictionary”
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A Rage for Order
Recommended“and then on a more serious note on a more serious note I've been reading finally getting around to reading Robert worth our former colleague known around here as Bobby Worth's fantastic book or so far fantastic book published last year called The Rage for order about the Middle East”
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The making of Jane Austen
Recommended“she's written this fascinating in my opinion book called The Making of Jane Austin which really traces kind of the history of her reception”
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The Gene Machine
Discussed“Bonnie Rockman will be here to talk about her latest book the gene machine”
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The Hate U Give
Discussed“so there's a book that came out recently it's a young adult novel called the hate you give by Angie Thomas”
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All American Boys
Discussed“and I think it's also interesting you know you saw books like all-American boys which was by Jason Reynolds and Brendan key and it came out in 2015”
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Dear Martin
Discussed“and you know a lot of the of the authors that are taking up the issue um one of the debut novel whose book is coming out later this year is Nick Stone and her debut is called dear Martin”
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Exit West
Discussed“well the most interesting thing on the fiction side of the hard cover lists is um Moen hammad's new novel exit West which you've discussed on the podcast is new on the list at number five”
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Big Bad Love
Discussed“the first thing I read just randomly plucked off my shelves was a collection of short stories from 1990 by a writer named Larry Brown um called Big Bad Love and he's a very Southern writer”
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Shadowbahn
Discussed“and then a very different book the recent novel um by the experimental writer Steve Ericson called Shadow bond which we had reviewed I think a few weeks ago”
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On dreams
Discussed“so I'm reading Freud on dreams um um and not only just any it's this is my mom's old copy which I love and it's this tiny you know slim little book”
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The destiny of the republic
Discussed“I still reading Candace mallard's uh the destiny of the Republic about um President Garfield a very short-lived presidency”
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Beyond Black
Recommended“um I also liked her novel Beyond black which is a much more contemporary novel about a psychic who's kind of hered by a pel of ghosts”
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EXIT WEST
Discussed“in author M Hamed's latest book Exit West a couple escapes the chaos of their Homeland only to join the ranks of refugees”
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Divided we stand
Discussed“Jillian Thomas dives into the complicated history of the women's rights and family values movements in a review of the new book Divided We Stand”
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The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Discussed“my other novels each have had a a kind of a frame a formal structure a conversation in a bizaar in the case of Lon fundamentalist”
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The son
Discussed“the one that I'm looking forward to that's starting in early April is an adaptation of Philip Meyer's epic Western the sun which is premiering on AMC”
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Big Little Lies
Discussed“and already on TV for people that want to get started watching is lean Mor Ari's 2014 novel big little lies is now a series on HBO”
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The Patrick Melrose novels
Discussed“and that is an adaptation of Edward St obin's Patrick Melos novels which are incred oh my God that's going to be dark”
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Patrimony
Discussed“I'm sort of sputtering through this Philip Roth KCK and I'm reading his 1991 Memoir patrony which is the story of his 86-year-old father's declining Health”
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Conundrum
Recommended“and I reread a book that I think I bet Pamela has read maybe you guys have read to Jan Morris's conundrum”
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Running
Recommended“one is Cara Hoffman's novel running which is this very atmospheric kind of steamy novel of underground Athens in the 1980s”
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The Night Ocean
Recommended“the other two novels that I that I really got a kick out of in recent days for work where Paul lefar is the night ocean which is kind of a a puzzle or Rubik's cube of a novel”
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Ill will
Recommended“and then the last book that I fell into is a book that just grabbed me for plot reasons regular listeners will know that I'm susceptible to Thrillers and and this qualifies although it's very much a literary Thriller is Dan Sha's new book ill will”
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The Nature Fix
Discussed“Florence Williams will be here to discuss her new book The Nature fix why nature makes us happier healthier and more creative”
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Fever Dream
Discussed“okay so the three books are fever Dream by samanta schweblin Savage theories by paa olarak”
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Savage theories
Discussed“okay so the three books are fever Dream by samanta schweblin Savage theories by paa olarak”
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Things We Lost in the Fire
Discussed“and then Things We Lost in the fire uh a collection of stories by Mariana Enriquez”
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You Can't Spell America Without Me
Discussed“penguin press announced this week that Kurt Anderson and Alec Baldwin are teaming up to write a satire titled you can't spell America without me the really tremendous Inside Story of my fantastic first year as president Donald J Trump”
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Sabbath's Theater
Discussed“and then I have probably about 20 pages left in um Sabbath theater by Philip Roth which I should just emphasize again”
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The world is what it is
Discussed“and I finally read this book that I've been meaning to read it's Patrick French's 2008 biography of vs neaul The World is what it is”
Freakonomics Radio
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The New Encyclopedia Britannica Micropedia Vol
Discussed“And tonight, we are using encyclopedias. So what we've got here is a 12-volume Encyclopedia Britannica Micropedia. We are going to give each of you now your encyclopedia, and you will each have a couple of minutes to come up with something from that book that we don't know, that's worth knowing, and that's true,”
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
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Charles Dickens' Complete Works
Recommended“or some Chucky Dickens you know get back to your roots”
ChooseFI
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Learning from the Student's Perspective
Recommended“so I think I purchased the book um Thinking Fast and Slow by he's a psychologist named Daniel Condon I think or can that I can't pronounce it it was really I brought that book with me I had to like that was one of the toughest decisions I had coming to Ecuador”
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Cashing in on the American Dream
Discussed“And then I also came across a book Paul tear horse cashing in on the American dream how to retire at 35 and the guy's a an accountant the CPA and he retired at 35 and explained how he did it”
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Common sense on mutual funds
Discussed“I came across bogle's um uh what was it on mutual funds and that's where I understood the importance of low-cost investing and also passive investing”
The Joe Rogan Experience
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When Helping Hurts
Recommended“or how there's a also a great book out called when helping hurts and it talks about hey Charity is awesome in and when it's absolutely needed”
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The Iceman
Discussed“this one was by Anthony Bruno called the ican”
The Rubin Report
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Overblown
Recommended“great political scientist John Mueller has a book called overblown going over all of it so one thing we can do is just look look at word called near misses”
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Empire and revolution
Discussed“I wrote a book called Empire and Revolution which the left used right so leftist communist Marxist I mean so yeah”
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Hadith
Discussed“and of course the radicals the ones who believe in the very very strong violent uh sections of the Quran and Hadith and uh Sharia law which is horrifying obviously”
Conversations with Tyler
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Brown Face, Big Master
Discussed“if I think of your mother uh Joyce Gladwell I've been reading her book it was published in 1969 you even make a cameo appearance on page 178 it's called brownface Big Master it's a memoir and it's full of great stories”
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Contempt and pity
Discussed“I was just both read the Great Book on this is darl Scott's uh contempt and pity um who's a he's a a very good black historian at Howard”
