Nov
28
A Long Conversation about Short Stories [Bookrageous Episode 29]
2011 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
In this extra-long and super-recommendation-filled episode, Josh, Jenn, and I welcome Adam Ross, our first author guest, to the show. It seems fitting that the winner of last year’s Book We Talked About the Most Award (henceforth referred to as the Adam Ross Award) should be our first author guest, and Adam did not disappoint. We discussed our favorite short story collections, the craft of writing short fiction, and, yes, Adam’s own collection Ladies and Gentlemen (which I loved and was just named to Kirkus’s Best of 2011 list).
Enjoy, subscribe, and don’t forget to order your copy of Zone One by Colson Whitehead from WORD Brooklyn for our first Bookrageous Book Club show, to be recorded in early December. Save 10% when you put BOOKRAGEOUS in the comments of your order.
Show notes, including all books discussed, after the jump.
What We’re Reading
Rebecca
[1:32] The Shadow World, Andrew Feinstein
[3:16] The Lifespan of a Fact, John D’Agata and Jim Finlay, February 2012
[6:53] Everybody Sees the Ants, A.S. King
Adam Ross!!!!!
[8:20] Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn, June 2012
[10:25] First Love, Ivan Turgenev
[10:33] The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
[10:50] Jim Shepard: Project X; Like You’d Understand, Anyway
[11:30] 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, Jane Smiley
[11:53] The Age of Reagan, Sean Wilentz
[16:11] Manhood for Amateurs, Michael Chabon
Josh
[16:35] Americus, MK Reed and Jonathan Hill
[20:15] Lord of the Flies, William Golding
[22:00] Adam on To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
[22:40] A Dictionary of Made-Up Languages, Stephen Rogers
Jenn
[24:40] The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell (as recommended by Rebecca and Keryn)
[26:27] Everybody Sees the Ants, A.S. King
[26:34] Shaping Things, Bruce Sterling
[28:08] Lost Everything, Brian Francis Slattery, April 2012; Liberation, Spaceman Blues
—
Intermission; Morning Fog — Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi
—
Short Stories
[35:53] Ladies and Gentlemen, Adam Ross (Best Fiction of 2011)
[39:20] Volt, Alan Heathcock
[41:10] Instant Love, Jami Attenberg; Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
[42:54] We Others, Steven Millhauser; The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
[43:53] What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, Laura Van Den Berg
[45:23] The Courage Consort, Michel Faber
[45:45] The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, Lydia Davis
[47:20] Best American Short Stories
[47:25] The World of the Short Story, Clifton Fadiman
[48:40] James Salter: Dusk and Other Stories; A Sport and a Past-Time
[50:00] Pam Houston
[50:15] Moral Disorder and Other Stories, Margaret Atwood
[50:40] The Whore’s Child, Richard Russo
[51:08] How to Breathe Underwater, Julie Orringer; St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Karen Russell
[51:50] Mr. Peanut, Adam Ross
[56:12] Collected Stories of Isaac Babel, Isaac Babel
[56:40] The Progress of Love, Alice Munro
[57:21] The Stories of John Cheever and The Journals of John Cheever
[59:00] Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Haruki Murakami; John Updike; The Rainbow, D.H. Lawrence
[59:56] Rock Springs, Richard Ford
[1:00:08] The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard
[1:02:15] Emperor of the Air, Ethan Canin
[1:02:37] Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
[1:03:23] Like You’d Understand, Anyway, Jim Shepard
[1:04:49] Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (Leaf Storm), Eyes of a Blue Dog
[1:06:20] AS Byatt: The Matisse Stories, Little Black Book of Stories
[1:07:17] Old Men at Midnight, Chaim Potok; My Name is Asher Lev, The Chosen
[1:07:52] The Great Frustration, Seth Fried (as recommended by Ali); Charles Yu
[1:08:44] In the Valley of the Kings, Terrence Holt
[1:09:38] Out of the Girls’ Room and Into the Night, Thisbe Nissen
[1:10:22] Birds of America, Lorrie Moore
[1:10:43] Flash Fiction
[1:11:25] Difficult Loves, Italo Calvino; The Night in Question, Tobias Wolff; Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers, Stanley Elkin
[1:12:10] The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
[1:12:35] A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
[1:14:00] Stories in an Almost Classical Mode, Harold Brodke
[1:14:23] Welcome to the Monkey House, Kurt Vonnegut (Who Am I This Time?)
—
Outro; My Wasted Friends — The Ike Reilly Assassination
—
Find Us!
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Find Us Online: Jenn, Josh, Rebecca, Jenn, Adam Ross
Bookrageous Book Club Pick: Zone One, Colson Whitehead
Fuzzy Typewriter Book Club
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