Tell Me What You’re Reading - Season Two Wrap Up
Season Two of our “Tell Me What You’re Reading” podcast has just wrapped up. Thanks to all my Season Two guests and to all who listened in to one or more of our podcasts. Lots of fun discussions. More to come. Listen to all “Tell Me What You’re Reading” episodes on Spotify, Anchor or wherever else you get your podcasts https://anchor.fm/howard
Ep. #11 Dylan Marron: Educated, by Tara Westover + Dylan’s “softness as strength”, etc. Dylan started us off last March discussing Tara Westover‘s Educated and Dylan’s forthcoming book, Snowflake, as well as online and offline personalities and his own podcast, Conversations with People Who Hate Me.
Ep. #12 Alexis Coe on history, research and writing and the tale of Alice + Freda Forever Historian Alexis Coe followed in April with a discussion of Alice and Freda forever, a true story of same-sex love and murder in Memphis Tennessee in 1892. Alexis also discussed, her research and writing process and gave us a sneak preview of her about to be published book, You Never Forget Your First, A Biography of George Washington.
Ep. #13 Keith Grossman: Bad Blood, American Kingpin and Red Notice - “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!” Also in April, I spoke with Keith Grossman, at the time Chief Revenue Officer of Bloomberg and now President of Time. We discussed three astonishing and true tales, Bad Blood, American Kingpin and Red Notice. Keith is a prolific reader (employing micro reading techniques) and a storyteller himself.
Ep. #14 Nick Lyons: Fly fishing and other lit.; flys, tiers; joy, intensity and solitude of fishing. In May, I had the real pleasure of talking with Nick Lyons, legendary fly fishing author and publisher and truly a sporting legend of the Catskills. We discussed fly fishing books, and fly fishing, but other books and poetry as well. A real joy. Thanks Beth Waterman of the Phoenicia Library for the introduction to Nick.
Ep. #15 Sophie McManus: The Art of Time in Fiction I then spoke with and learned a lot from novelist Sophie McManus (The Unfortunates) in our discussion about Joan Silber‘s book, The Art of Time in Fiction.
Ep . #16 Kate McGloughlin - Requiem for Ashokan - The Story Told in Landscape I returned to the Catskills theme in June, talking with Kate McGloughlin, landscape artist, printmaker and storyteller, about her book, Requiem for Ashokan, The Story Told in Landscape. Kate talked movingly about her family‘s history in the Catskills and how it was impacted by the building of the Ashokan reservoir.
Ep. #17 Josh Raff discusses four sets of "paired" books, and more.I spoke with budding author and friend Josh Raff about several sets of books that are “twinned” or “paired”, and Josh was good enough to give me the stunning Albert Woodfox autobiography, Solitude (overr 40 years in soliturde confinement), at the end of our discussion.
Ep. #18 Pride Month/ Stonewall 50: The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai In connection with Pride Month in June, I had the pleasure of speaking with two of my colleagues at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Alvin Lee and Amy Pasacreta. We discussed Rebecca Makkai’s moving novel The Great Believers, about the AIDS crisis in Chicago in the 1980s.
Ep. #19 Visiting Days, by Gretchen Primack The book that Josh gave me, Solitude, was nicely twinned with the in persona poems written by Gretchen Primack in her book Visiting Days. In July, Gretchen and I discussed her poems, her work in maximum security prisons and Woodfox’s Solitude.
Ep. # 20 The Call Me Ishmael Project; Steph Kent and Logan Smalley I wrapped up Season Two with a terrific conversation with Steph Kent and Logan Smalley, founders of the Call Me Ishmael project. We discussed lots of books but mostly discussed their wonderful project, which gives them insight into the reading interests of the thousands of readers who have called into Ishmael‘s phone number (774-325-0503) to leave a voicemail message about the books they love and the stories they have lived
