05-06-14 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 161: Matt Taibbi, 'The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the one-hundred sixty-first 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.
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.
Believe me, we left pretty much all the really juicy parts out of the book, but talked about what he wrote and how he wrote it in a manner that I found to be breathtaking even as we recorded the interview. Tarnoff was kind enough to come to my house, where we sat in the living room and discussed history, the Internet of telegraphy, and especially culture.
I really enjoy reading about history, and Tarnoff writes one hell of a ripping yarn about the men that we often think of as inventing the ripping yarn. The real danger with a book centered on Twain, as this one is, is that Twain is not an unfamiliar figure. He wrote about himself extensively, and has himself been well-served by many writers.
That said, by looking at his early career and putting Twain in perspective amidst his peers and by re-creating the intense literary scene that Twain came into his own in, Tarnoff manages to give us yet another good look at Twain, tell a hell of a story at the same time.
To my mind, Tarnoff should be on the lecture circuit, perhaps with David Talbot who wrote engagingly about a very different San Francisco in 'Season of the Witch.' Clearly, Tarnoff's ability to speak about his book comes from his ability to craft the past as a world, then live in and write about that world.
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
