06-23-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update:Time to Read Episode 103: Annalee Newitz 'Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction'
Here's the one hundred and third 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.
06-21-13:Higher Mysteries, a Panel with Laurie R. King, Sharan Newman, Julia Spencer-Fleming and Zoe Ferraris
"You're all here for Tax Law 101, right?"
—Laurie R. King
For all the seriousness of her premise, Laurie R. King set a light tone for her panel discussion about "Higher Mysteries" with Sharan Newman, Julia Spencer-Fleming and Zoe Ferraris. King is a natural ring-leader, and must have been a rather mischievous student when she was studying theology in college. She makes a great host for three other very smart writers.
I captured the whole one-hour plus conversation, which offers a lot of fun, insight, and most importantly, many reasons to read. It's hard to listen to such a great talk and not head directly to the library or bookstore to pick up the subjects of conversation. Here's a link to the MP3 audio file of "Higher Mysteries."
06-21-13: A 2013 Interview with Zoe Ferraris
Click image for audio link.
"I wanted to create a man based on people I knew when I was there..."
—Zoe Ferraris
The quality of Zoe Ferraris' fiction is evidenced by virtue of the fact that her stories manages to be as interesting as her own story. She's written three novels set in Saudi Arabia, featuring Katya Hijazi and Nayir Sharqi; her fist, the award winning 'Finding Nouf,' the bestselling follow up, 'City of Veils' and her latest, 'Kingdom of Strangers.' The setting is key, as it allows her to share with American audiences her knowledge of Saudi Arabia, where she lived as a bride who stayed home and indoors all day long.
I spoke with Ferraris just before Laurie King's "Higher Mysteries" panel at the Santa Cruz Library. Ferraris shared with me her personal story and just how much it informed and inspired her first three novels. Like many writers, her first novel was intended to be a standalone, but upon finishing it she found that the characters had a lot more to talk about than she'd covered in the first book.
In the books, the Islamic religion plays a key role as it governs pretty much every aspect of her characters' lives, dictating even the style of crime. Ferraris is careful to keep her approach extremely balanced to give her readers a chance to see a much more normal lifestyle than we expect; but still a life governed by a very severe religion. It's a paradox she presents with great skill.
06-20-13: Podcast Extra : A 2013 Interview with Julia Spencer-Fleming
Click image for audio link.
"What I find fascinating is the repairative nature of solving the crime..."
—Julia Spencer-Fleming
I remember back when Julia Spencer-Fleming's 'In the Bleak Midwinter' came out, and it was, at the time, seen as a "cozy," one of those safe-for-grandmothers mysteries that entertain without threatening to overwhelm. When I sat down to talk with the author recently, I realized how misleading that impression was. Julia Spencer-Fleming is her own best recommendation; she's so smart and entertaining in conversation that one can't help but want to read her books.
The eighth novel in the series, 'Through the Evil Days' is due in November, and as we talked about the presence of religion in her series — her protagonist is, after all, an Episcopalian priest — we talked about her taste as a writer has evolved. The latest novel, she told me, will be a stripped down thriller. This is not what you expect from the world of cozys.
Spencer-Fleming started our conversation with a very perceptive comment. She is, she told me, interested in the restorative nature of crime solving. Given that crime wrecks a community in a number of ways, the solution to that crime is a means of bring the community back together. The appeal of the mystery genre as an affirmation of law and order is well-known. But to me, the insight that there was a healing aspect was indicative of just how smart this writer is.
Julia Spencer-Fleming is also quite frank about the role that religion does and does not playin her novels. She's very careful not to take things to the point of making her work so-called Christian literature, even if the characters are quite, well Episcopalian. Rev. Clare Fergusson's counterpart, Russ Van Alstyne is thoroughly agnostic, trending towards atheist. Spencer-Fleming is working on a bit of a balancing act in these books, and carrying it off quite nicely.
06-19-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update:Time to Read Episode 102: Higher Mysteries with Laurie R. King, Sharan Newman, Julia Spencer-Fleming and Zoe Ferraris
Here's the one-hundred and second 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.
"...Jews and Christians did mingle a lot, but there was still the tension..."
—Sharan Newman
Sharan Newman admits to barely living in this century. Since she was a student at the age of 19, she has been studying medieval lives and literature and she's never looked back. It's as easy for her to transport herself to 12th-century France as it is for her to walk the streets of 21st century America. And her territory is a very particular slice of life, at least in her fiction.
Newman's Catherine LeVendeur mysteries begin when Catherine is a young scholar at the Convent of Paraclete, under the tutelage of Hélöïse d'Argenteuil, famous for her lover's correspondence with Peter Abélard. In the course of ten novels and one short story collection, LeVendeur handles murderers, witches, heretics and Knights of the Templar. Newman carves a bloody path through history.
But mystery and murder is not the only thing on her mind as she writes the books, and her setting offers her ample chance to explore the relationships between Jews and Christians in this medieval setting in some detail and with much nuance. There's a lot of world building going on in these books, woven with authentic characterizations and settings down to the details of 12th century toilet paper.
Clearly, Newman was a perfect fit for King's Higher Mysteries panel; her crime-solving protagonist is a nun, and her setting id rife with religious intrigue and tension. The mysteries that are being solved — and presented — concern more than just the death of one mere mortal.
Newman also writes non-fiction, and her most recent work of non-fiction is right in my scopes, 'The Real History of the End of the World.' We talked about her research for this book, which sent her to meet some very Fortean character types.
06-18-13: Podcast Extra: Laurie R. King Explores Higher Mysteries
Click image for audio link.
"In crime, we're dealing with passions."
— Laurie R. King
Laurie R. King never rests, and she never stops pushing the boundaries of literature. Her own works of fiction generally fit quite neatly into the mystery genre, but even in those works of genre fiction, she likes to discuss ideas that shift the question behind mystery from "Who done it?" to "What's it all about?" Better still King likes to bring these ideas to the public in the form of panel discussions, which she organizes with the Santa Cruz Public Library.
Her latest exploration, a panel that ran last month, took mystery to transcendence. In "Higher Mysteries," King brought along three distinguished writers to discuss religious themes in mystery fiction; Sharan Newman, author of the Catherine LeVendeur mysteries, Julia Spencer-Fleming, author of the Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne mysteries, and Zoe Ferraris, author of the Katya Hijazi and Nayir Sharqi novels. In each of these series, religion plays a major role.
It is, of course, definitely a higher mystery as to why I am lucky enough to know King, but we'll let that one remain in the mist and simply be grateful that King contacted me and allowed me to interview each of the panel participants individually about their work, and then to record the panel session at the library.
I'm beginning the series with my interview with Laurie R. King, a conversation about the theological inclinations of Mary Russell, the passions of crime fiction and King's new novel, 'The Bones of Paris,' a sequel to 'Touchstone' that gives King her third series of novels. King and I also talked about some of her other (thus far) standalone novels and her plans for them. You'll hear a reading from 'The Monstrous Regiment of Women' to being the interview, and farther in, a very intriguing piece from 'The Bones of Paris.'
One of the reasons that King remains so high on my list of writers is that she's really willing to overstep the bonds of publishing propriety, and to nudge her publishers towards what gives readers the most reading and re-reading pleasure. You can hear our conversation by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
06-17-13:A 2013 Interview with Michael Pollan
Click image for audio link.
"The culture of barbecue is highly Balkanized."
—Michael Pollan
Even before you open the gate to get into the garden, you can smell the rosemary. It's important on a variety of levels. Rosemary is fragrant and used in so many familiar meals that it can't help but bring back memories. But it is also very easy to grow. It's a pragmatic herb to plant. That combination — the poignant and the pragmatic — gives you a good idea of what you're in for when you read Michael Pollan's 'Cooked.'
Beyond the rosemary, there were many more herbs, and edibles, though the only one that struck me was the huge dino kale — plant? — bush? I use it all the time; it's a great leafy green. It made me think I ought to get planting. There was the fire pit; a few ashes remained.
And again, we get a parallel to Pollan's book. I'd read quite a few reactions to book, and to me, more than a few seemed to miss the reading point. You can easily get hung up on some of the material Pollan covers, and in his own personal story of coming to the kitchen. He wrestles himself there. As a writer and journalist, he keeps on looking for more stories, and most of them seem to lead to someone's kitchen — and eventually, his.
Pollan and the fire pit.
We sat down to talk in a book-lined office with San Francisco Bay in the background. I was interested in pursuing not the mildly controversial explorations, or even his move to the kitchen, so much as in his sense of the stories he was telling.
To me, 'Cooked' was a peculiar type of journalism. It was not a memoir, but investigative journalism of the journalist himself. 'Cooked' is a lush, super-detailed portrait, so deeply descriptive that it comes round the other side to almost seem prescriptive.
After all, who would not want to be there for the pig-roasting, the braising, the bread-making, cheese-making, fermentation and brewing? Pollan takes us deep into the heart of the human history of food preparation, and in the process, makes our own kitchens look quite enticing. I will add that it helps to clean up, totally, immediately after you cook. When next you are hungry, the shiny cleanliness will draw you back in.
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]
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..."
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 : 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
