06-08-14 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 165: Colson Whitehead, PhD, 'The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky and Death'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the one-hundred sixty-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.
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.
"I burned that copy and started fresh."
—Kaui Hart Hemmings
It's hard not to laugh at most of what's around you if you have just finished reading 'The Possibilties' by Kaui Hart Hemmings. Sarah St. John's voice will sharpen your ability to identify the many idiocies that surround you, and may inspire a more astringent response than usual.
Hemmings is every bit as sharp as her character, but much more generous, at least to aging radio hosts who have hijacked a bit of her visit to San Francisco. I set up the interview on something of a lark. The day I got the book in hardcover, I emailed the author, and suggested that the next time she happened to be in the Bay Area, she should let me know so we could talk about the book. She told me she'd be here next week, and I had the distinct delight of having a very good reason to put down anything else I was doing (like re-finishing the back deck or getting the car fixed), and spending a perfectly delightful bit of reading time with Sarah S. John.
Off-tape, I asked Hemmings about a movie based on this book, which to me seems dead-certain, given that the movie based on 'The Descendants' was an award-winning hit. (It was an excellent adaptation.) She told me that there had been some interest, but that her first novel had been in movie limbo for quite some time, and this one was only just getting entrée into said limbo. Once again, the many advantages of book over movies are made clear. Committees do not create books after a withering and often badly thought out decision process. That artists-in-their-garrets image offers a real advantage.
[Let me hastily add that most books are the result of more than the authors' efforts, and that editors, publishers and publicists make a huge difference in getting a book to the public. But the core initial creative process tends to be fairly solitary. Hell, I know I could use an editor, a second set of eyes for this enterprise. Cast not stones, etc.]
Hemmings and I sat down to talk and immediately began to have more fun than one should usually attempt an author interview. But it didn't get in the way of a substantive talk that ran the clock down faster than I expected. We spoke for nearly an hour and then it was time for The Lightning Round.
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
