So Many Damn Books (Christopher Hermelin)

Kathleen Donohoe drops by the Damn Library to talk about her book, Ashes of Fiery Weather, and all the historical disasters contained within, as well as her personal connections to Brooklyn. Surprise '98 National Book Award winner Charming Billy by Alice McDermott is also discussed, and parallels are unlocked, like funerals! and Bridies!

15 seconds of a song: Maria Taylor's "Irish Goodbye"

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Summer break is over and the guys return to the Damn Library to discuss graphic novels, comics, brimping, and Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky's "Sex Criminals".

15 Seconds of a Song: "Desire", Years & Years

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Christopher and Drew are joined by returning guest Alexandra Kleeman. They all drink a cocktail named after a character who moonlights in both her short story collection "Intimations" and, maybe, within Robert Coover's "Pricksongs and Descants." They discuss being a person-person, talk fiction-fiction, and why puzzle-stories are sometimes best left unrevisited. Amongst other things.

15 seconds of a song: Julien Dore - Les Limites

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Another week of the Tournament of Books, another grouping of recaps, plus predictions about the week ahead!

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Christopher and Drew drink Firewhiskey Juleps and get feisty about the new story in the Harry Potter-verse. Fan fiction, Sherlock Holmes, and second Death Stars are amongst the subjects mentioned. No one gets hurt.

15 seconds of a song: Harry and the Potters, "Save Ginny"

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Tournament of Books 2019 continues apace! We talk about the zigs and the zags of the opening round, and where we think that the zigs and zags will come next week.

Zigs and zags!

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Drew and Christopher tackle YA through the 2001 classic Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli and the 2016 Printz Award Winner, Bone Gap by Laura Ruby. Grand theories are posited, the state of YA is considered, the line between YA and regular lit is blurred. No one gets hurt and everyone's happy.

15 seconds of a song: Regina Spektor, "Us"

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Christopher and Drew bring back the One Book, One New York episode for another go, this time reading the city's choice of Jennifer Egan's Manhattan Beach. They talk its pleasures, and diving costumes, and the possibilities of New York, as well as the genre of historical fiction, and their ideal choices for next year. And of course, they recommend a lot of other things to read, as is their wont.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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• More Surprises and More Upsets in the Tournament!
• Jeff VanderMeer discusses "Annihilation" and the ToB!
• Predictions for the final!
• Featuring The Aquabats - Fight Song (still) and Laura Shigihara - Zombies On Your Lawn (from the Plants vs. Zombies OST)

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Hannah Pittard stops by the Damn Library to drink a classic cocktail bastardized by a substituted ingredient and discuss her book "Listen to Me" and Iain Reid's "I'm Thinking of Ending Things." Dread is discussed, as well as what makes for a good thriller, and Hannah explains why none of anything matters at all! Other fun revelations too!

15 seconds of a song - "Willow Weep for Me" by Muzzy Marcellino

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Christopher and Drew hang in the Damn Library and talk about the books they've liked so far this year, the books they are going to read next, and some of the books they are excited about that are soon to be in the world. The book titles come fast and furious, TBR piles climbing as high as the temperatures.

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music: Disaster Magic - Easy Life

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Christopher and Drew read a little something from the public domain, by Christopher Morley and Mark Twain, respectively, then recommend a couple of things.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) 

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Christopher and Drew prognosticate and pontificate about the Super Rooster. Drew might have a scoop. Christopher just won't read Wolf Hall. Listen, and then let us know your predictions!

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) 

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Hannah Pittard drops back into the Damn Library after writing and editing and publishing an entire new novel called Visible Empire! While drinking a cocktail featuring guava and egg white, she and the guys get way into 1962, how you need to make sure your ex knows where you got your ideas from, and how you should always kill the dog, amongst other topics. They also all discuss Ralph Ellison's classic novel Invisible Man, and how the speeches are excellent, it's devastating, but there's also nice parts. 

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music: Disaster Magic - Get Raining

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Guess who zooms in this time? It's George Saunders himself, certified MacArthur Genius, launching his new book about writing and Russian short story masters, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life. Christopher and Drew ask him about what teaching taught him about writing, how he keeps the world fresh, and what he'd like to do if he weren't a writer, along with what a master Tolstoy was. Na Zdorovie!

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) 

This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/SMDB.

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Jonathan Lee takes a dip into the Damn Library, talking his novel High Dive over a cocktail named after chlorine that surely doesn't taste like chlorine. The ensuing discussion includes fatherhood, pool water, and political awakenings - particularly those of Antonio Tabucchi's "Pereira Maintains." Or does he declare? Of course, Drew and Christopher take a break to chat about the Tournament of Books.

15 seconds of a song: Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys

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When Amelia Gray stops by the Damn Library, Christopher turns a drink blue again, and they discuss her new book, Isadora. Particularly: what it was like to write a book about a dancer during a time when she wasn't dancing. A quote about dancing is misattributed. Plus, we get into Nell Zink's fearlessness in her novel, Nicotine, about activists and squat housing.

Also: Amelia Gray starts an exquisite corpse in our iTunes reviews.

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15 seconds of a song: Lykke Li - Dance Dance Dance

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Karen Thompson Walker drops in to dream a little dream with Christopher and Drew in the dreamy Damn Library to discuss her new novel, The Dreamers. They discuss outbreak fiction, writing about college, and what-if scenarios, as well as Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, which prompts a discussion of writing about sci-fi premises through non sci-fi means. And so much more!

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music: Hotel Hiouchi

Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchiSoundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi

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Anthony Marra zooms into the Damn Library and attempts to turn the tables on interviewing, to some avail. Of course he gets into his new novel, Mercury Pictures Presents, how research fuels his writing, and how he wants to do the opposite of what he did the last time. Plus, he brings along Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, which is a great novel to revisit as Candy House is making the rounds. You know there's more than that too, you oughta tune in!

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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With Drew under quarantine (he caught the plague), the guys call on Will Chancellor to step in. He returns to the Damn Library to go deep with Christopher on Jesse Ball's latest novel, "A Cure for Suicide".

15 Seconds of a Song: Del Amitri, "Roll to Me"

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So Many Damn Books heads to the movies and sees Kenneth Branagh's (mustache's) Murder on the Orient Express, based on the Agatha Christie novel. What you want in an adaptation is discussed, as well as dream adaptations, and adaptations the guys are looking forward to seeing. But, you know, books are better.

15 seconds of a song: Beck - Broken Train

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Over a round of Dark and Particularly Stormys, Drew and Christopher have the pleasure of chatting, friendly-like, with Mark de Silva, author of Square Wave, out now from Two Dollar Radio. Jazz is discussed! So is Donna Tartt! And Misogyny! And how Bret Easton Ellis got to be the way he is! And so much more. 

15 seconds of a song: The Beach Boys, "Catch a Wave"

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Angela Flournoy, author of the Turner House, stops by the Damn Library, fresh off her Tournament of Books win in round one against Ban en Banlieue. She and the guys talk where she was when her novel published, whether or not she believes in ghosts, and how it was to write in Iowa. And of course they all discuss Tournament happenings and could-happens.

15 Seconds of a song: Kamasi Washington "Rerun"

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Spring has sprung and we're in the mood for adventure, so we asked K.M. Szpara to join us in the Damn Library for as close to an adventure as we can get these days: chatting about adventure novels! We talk about Kellan's new novel First, Become Ashes, and BDSM, and cults -- and then everybody geeks the hell out about Jurassic Park, because it's worth a re-read (or three, or seven). Isn't comfort reading nice?

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) 

countdown timer by Rainbow Timers

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Emily Temple drops into the Damn Library via webcam, and we all chat about calendars, and the dreams of being a writer as well as the dream of online book recommendation, and knowing you'll rewrite your first draft. Of course we also discuss her novel The Lightness, and how summer camps are kind of proto-cults, and how you end up putting everything into your debut, because of course there will be more. Plus, she brought us the anti-beach read Kōbō Abe's The Woman in the Dunes, and we can still taste the sand.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) 

This episode is sponsored by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the new Faraway Collection.

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In this one, the guys look to escape their lives for a bit with some epic fantasy, and they do so via a duologetic ticket to Leigh Bardugo's Grisha-verse. After they extoll the book's virtues and consider the difficulties of escapism, they jump into their Top 6 of 2016.

15 seconds of a song: Lou Rawls - "Merry Christmas Baby"

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Laura Van Den Berg stops by the Damn Library to talk about her novel Find Me and Yoko Tawada's The Naked Eye. We also find out what tv show she can't stop repeating, and discuss a lot about getting lost, both physically and in translation. Plus, she talks Tournament of Books - her favorites and who might win!

15 seconds of a song: "Charade" by Si Zentner

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After reading Ian Parker's "A Suspense Novelist’s Trail of Deceptions" piece from the New Yorker, Christopher and Drew get into unreliable narrators and what they hold (or are purported to hold). Drew talks about his love of midlist thrillers, and Christopher supposes that every narrator is an unreliable narrator. There's a fair amount of love for Robin Sloan and his love of silly URLs, too. Plus, ya know. More.

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music: Hotel Hiouchi

Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchiSoundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi

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GennaRose Nethercott drops in, no strings, for a discussion of her new novel Thistlefoot, puppetry, research, cootie catchers, and the muchness of novel writing. Plus, she brings along Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link, which starts a discussion of just how great she is, and how influential her work has become.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Charlie Jane Anders teleports into the Damn Library for a very sci-fi episode around her new novel, The City in the Middle of the Night. Anders talks tidally locked planets, the gargantuan effort it took to write her new novel, being accurate vs. writing a good story, and things to buy when you're about to go on book tour. Plus, she brought an Ursula K. Le Guin novel, Five Ways to Forgiveness, and everyone gets to talking about the seductive world of writing sci-fi, and how Le Guin is a master. Also, there's more than that!

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music: Hotel Hiouchi

Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchi

Soundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi

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Christopher and Drew discuss House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski at 20 years, Drew returning to the house and Christopher there for the first time. Plus, the pleasures of ergodic fiction, 3-D fiction, discussions of the Internet and how it fails us, and horror films and horror novels. It's spooky season, and the episode is bigger on the inside.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) 

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The one and only Kelly Link zooms into the Damn Library hypserspace to talk her spectacular new collection, White Cat, Black Dog. She gets into how the new collection got its footing in fairy tales, how she loves ghost stories but has never seen a ghost (and that’s okay), and discuss the magic of David Macaulay’s Motel of the Mysteries. She brought along Megan Giddings’ incredible The Women Could Fly, and we discuss how real its magic feels, and how books get tied to the place you read them.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Evan Hanczor, chef at Egg in Williamsburg, drops by the damn library with Tortilla Espanola and the tale of serving a meal inspired by Zora Neale Hurston's classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God. The connection of food and fiction is discussed. Drew gets worked up by Hemingway, Christopher eats food to spite characters sometimes. Evan recommends cookbooks, too.

15 seconds of a song: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - I Learned the Hard Way

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John Hodgman joins the gentlemen in the Damn Library to talk about all sorts of things, from a Borges scholar posing for a picture to reading rehab after being a professional literary agent. A blueberry-based beverage is enjoyed. We talk his new book, Vacationland, as well as his performance career, becoming a character, and lots of other things that will delight and surprise.

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music: Disaster Magic - Late to the Station

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Rosecrans Baldwin drops into the Damn Library's online zoom space to chat all about Los Angeles, the subject of his new book, Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles. We get into many of the things that make up Los Angeles, how it's different from Paris, and how the book's structure was inspired by Wittgenstein. He also brings along Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul: Memories and the City, and we all talk about melancholy before we talk about hot tubs and granola bars. Get right in, the water's fine.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) 

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Megan Abbott returns to the Damn Library for her new book Give Me Your Hand, and Christopher cooks up a color changing cocktail to celebrate. The guys get into Megan's dual jobs as novelist and tv writer, her thriller philosophy, and how writing people who are smart rather than brawny is a challenge. They also talk Lisa Halliday's Asymmetry, its relation to Phillip Roth, and some of their own desert island discs. And lots more!

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Jenny Offill, author of Weather (now out in paperback) joins the Damn Library through the internet tubes. Christopher makes a second drink for the book (after he and his wife Sarah discussed it during one of the early pandemic eps), there's talk of How Things Have Changed and the writing process, and Jenny sends us to warmer climes with her book club pick: Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea!

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) 

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Into the Damn Library Christine Grillo zooms, and what do we talk about? Her inventive, touching, hopefully not too prescient Hestia Strikes a Match, plus all that went into it, like parents and politics and fireplace decor. Plus, she brings along the archly funny and itself harrowing Good Behaviour by Molly Keane. Books, you better believe it!

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Lauren Wilkinson shows up in the Damn Library to talk about her novel American Spy, and everyone gets into the ways in which this is like a spy novel, and it isn't, and the portrayal of real life people, and how to grapple with your fears by putting them in a book. Plus, we get into the melodramatic, surprisingly-still-timely Passing, Nella Larsen's novel about being undercover in a different way, first published in 1929. We get into its ambiguous ending (it came out in 1929, so spoilers, deal with it), and speculate. Intrigue!

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music: Hotel Hiouchi

Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchi

Soundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi

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Drew and Christopher see if they can draw any comparisons between the current election and Hunter S. Thompson's other Fear and Loathing book. Not the one that he goes to Las Vegas. Gonzo journalism is discussed, but sadly, not Gonzo from the Muppets. 

Fifteen Seconds of a Song: "American Girl" - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

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Christopher and Drew sit down with a whiskey drink sweetened with the blood of maraschino cherries, and discuss Donna Tartt's marginalized sophomore novel, The Little Friend. Unjustly pushed to the side? Or lesser entry in the Tartt Canon? They also briefly discuss show spin-offs.

15 seconds of a song: Adam Green - "Friends of Mine"

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Drew won the annual Tournament of Books bet and chose Ali Smith for this year's "backlist" episode, so the guys read THE ACCIDENTAL in a nod to this fall's SuperRooster Tournament of ToB Champions. It's still pandemic times, too.

(NB: This episode was recorded in late May, just before police brutality protests went national. SMDB proudly stands with the protestors and we believe black lives matter.)

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music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Lindsay Ellis zooms on in to the Damn Library with her recently-NYT-best-selling Axiom's End! We talk ~around~ the plot of her novel, the joys of writing about 2007, who would be allowed to adapt it as a musical, and more. Plus, we talk about the second book in Orson Scott Card's Ender Saga, what to do with authors who turn out to be bad people, and how sometimes you have to write a first book before you can get to the second.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) 

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Christopher and Drew decide to catch up with things that have been adapted from books and made into movies. Alternate universe Weber adaptations are supposed upon. The future of adaptation form and delivery is discussed. They also rage against the machine by telling you which books to pre-order from the machine, and suggest some possible adaptations at the end.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) 

This episode is sponsored by the Inner Monkey podcast. Start listening at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inner-monkey/id1440076093.

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Reading Habits Literary Awards Missing Person by Patrick Modiano

Drew and Christopher's Top 5 of 2014 Lists 15 seconds of a song: DJ Deville's Auld Lang Syne Remix recorded at the Dr. Doctor studio in Brooklyn, NY.

sound engineer: Luke Wiget

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Christopher and Drew talk about the Tournament of Books this year, explain why they like it and also why lots of things have changed since they started following it, make some predictions, and also talk about beer drinking and weird superstitions. Need it be said? Ca-caw!

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) 

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For this one, we had two producers of the new McSweeney's issue into the Damn Library hyper-verse: Julie Shapiro from Radiotopia and Claire Boyle from McSweeney's. We talk all about this "box of stuff" they produced - from how it feels to curate the 64th edition of this storied literary magazine, to putting audio together, to collaboration, and more. Plus, Christopher and Drew get to talk about some of the stuff they've loved that McSweeney's has done over the years. Y'all oughta listen up and listen good.

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This week's sponsor: Right now, we’re offering listeners of this program a free 60-day trial. Go to try.scribd.com/SMDB for your free trial.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Stephanie Danler drops by the Damn Library for a second go around, this time to talk the Sweetbitter television adaptation she created, now on Starz. We discuss the Disneyland of production, why writers' rooms are great, and how she doesn't really live in Los Angeles like her house would imply. Plus we got into Lorrie Moore's Anagrams, and its satellite stories, and the forgotten voids of the 80s. Christopher and Drew also overpromise on tote bags.

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music: Disaster Magic - Get Raining

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Sarah joins me in the Damn Library she co-owns to chat about favorite reads of 2022, both books published this year and books experienced this year. Plus, the HarperCollins union is on strike! If you’d like to help out, check out this page here to donate to the strike fund, and check out more information at this link roundup.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Sarah joins Christopher in the Damn Library she co-owns to drink martinis and talk about good ideas for holiday gifting, from books to subscriptions to games to cocktail accoutrements and more.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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To celebrate the 75th episode of So Many Damn Books, Christopher and Drew bring the Damn Library to the FSG offices to talk to Robin Sloan about his novel Sourdough and Eugene Lim's Dear Cyborgs. Food vs tech, analog vs digital, specific pop culture details vs vague description, and many other divergences are all discussed. Robin Sloan makes a very important proclamation about art projects within novels. Don't miss this one.

And thanks for being here for episode 75!

15 seconds of a song: The Go! Team - The Wrath of Mikey

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• Teaser
• Audiobooks
• "Everything I Never Told You" by Celeste Ng
• Interview: Emily St. John Mandel (author of "Station Eleven")
• Recommendations

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For the first time ever, a graphic memoirist stops by the Damn Library in the form of Amy Kurzweil, author of the graphic memoir Flying Couch! She also draws New Yorker cartoons! Listen as we chat about form and tone, board games and heartbreak, and more. We also get into Riad Sattouf's Arab of the Future, and why the graphic memoir is such a great medium! We hope it DRAWS you in!

music: Disaster Magic - Pier 6

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Christopher and Drew hang out with a whiskey+tea cocktail and just give themselves over to the book chat. First: BUY YOURSELF A TOTE! The "My Other Car is a Book" tote is now available for your purchase. Then they get into vacation reading, never reading the books you mean to read, Shakespeare novelizations, professional obligations, and how many narratives one mind can hold. It's real bookish, you'll like it.

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music: Disaster Magic

(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Isaac Fitzgerald skates by the Damn Library and joins the guys to talk about his Pen & Ink series, Kathleen Alcott's "Infinite Home", and the joys of recommending books. Hilarity ensues. Also maybe some 80s metal.

Fifteen Seconds of a Song: Belle & Sebastian, "Wrapped Up in Books"

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Ling Ling Huang stops by the universe of the Zoom Damn Library the day after her book, Natural Beauty, graces shelves. She talks about writing the book in her Notes app, living the classical music life, how she surprised her parents with her book deal, getting shots in her butt for her beauty industry employer, and so much more. Plus, she brought along the Korean bestseller I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, so of course we have to talk about therapy, and how this book surprises you with its ending.

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music: Disaster Magic

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Christopher and Drew enjoy a fall-tinged cocktail and get wistful about going back to school. Christopher's mom's new library prompts a discussion of all types of books you read for school, from the chores to the books from the canon that meant something to the books we ought to call our anti-canon.

Chime in! Please tweet, instagram, email us, and tell us your own personal additions to the canon.

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music: Disaster Magic

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• Happy New Year!
• Non-Fiction
• Celebrity Memoirs
• "Not That Kind of Girl" by Lena Dunham
• Recommendations
• 15 Seconds of a Song: The Blow, "Come On Petunia" / The Guys Sing The Police

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It’s the big 1-5-0 and since it also happens to be the holiday season, we opened the phone-lines to some of our Patreon supporters to help recommend some books for their wishlists or to pick up for their loved ones! Imagine Christopher and Drew in a big ol’ telethon studio, with phones ringing off the hook and the number flashing across the bottom of the screen… except they’re in their respective homes, doing this on Zoom.

Feat. appearances by Patrons Moti, Jacob, Bonnie, Erin, Chris, Lee, Charlie, Veronika and Michael! Our thanks to them for joining and to all of our listeners.

We are glad we made 150 of these, and we are excited to make more!

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Here are the first three (of six!) mini interviews with So Many Damn Books Readers, talking favorite recent reads, current reading projects, and giving a book to a famous person, amongst many other bookish subjects.

My thanks to Michael for Portland, Daniella from London, Canada, and Noah from NYC for hanging out and chatting books. Part two goes up next week!

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Drew returns to discuss his new show, Voyage into Genre, working at a bookstore, and Christopher's mad musings on which child survivalist would win in a battle royale. Plus other things too!

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music: Disaster Magic

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This week's sponsor: Bombas. Get 20% off your purchase at bombas.com/smdb

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Angela Ledgerwood, of the podcast Lit Up drops in, physically, in person, actually inside the Damn Library, and it's a meeting of the podcast minds. Of course Christopher smokes a negroni for the both of them and tongues get wagging. Angela surprises herself to be the blockbuster loving, self-help recommending guru that she ends up being. And she also talks about a lost Richard Flanagan episode of LIT UP that indirectly led to her recommending the book. Strap in!

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music: Disaster Magic

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Katherine Faw drops into the Damn Library to talk about things like drugstore sushi, writing about women with ambition, and nail art. Then they all chat about Fleur Jaeggy's Sweet Days of Discipline and how it subverts the expectations of the normal boarding school novel. Tequila is consumed.

music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

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Instead of doing a big holiday episode and taking a break, the guys decide to celebrate by putting out some little tidbits to keep everyone company through these darkest, shortest days! First up: Stocking Stuffers from the Public Domain! Drew reads A.A. Milne's request for a standardization of Christmas gifts and Christopher dives into a mini history of Christmas tree innovations.

It's a hoot and a half.

This episode is sponsored by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the new Faraway Collection; and Betterhelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/somanydamnbooks.

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"A Christmas Carol" Postertext Giveaway (Tell your friends to listen to the show on social media and email us about it at somanydamnbooks@gmail.com to enter!) Holiday Stories Pastiches The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King Parting Recommendations Tournament of Books XI Wishlist 15 seconds of a song: Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler's "Zombie Christmas" recorded at the Dr. Doctor studio in Brooklyn, NY.

sound engineer: Luke Wiget

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Into the Damn Library Sarah and Christopher go again, to review their respective years on reading, pull out the highlights, and make plans for the year to come.

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music: Deck The Halls Chris Hayes Music Remix

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Mat Johnson launches into the Damn Library Zoom Zone to discuss his new novel, Invisible Things. We get into conspiracies, surprising yourself with your writing, teaching, writing funny, and a bunch of other stuff, including Claire North’s Notes from a Burning Age, and getting your sci-fi terms right.

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music: Disaster Magic

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Erin Somers stays up with the Damn Library to talk her new novel, Stay Up With Hugo Best. Everyone gets into phantasmagoric Late Night universe making, and then into how there's meaning in melancholy, and sometimes it's better to buckle down even when things aren't going right. And then they talk Dorothy Baker's Cassandra at the Wedding, and the melodrama, and the pianos, and the slapstick without slapstick comedy of it all. The best day of their lives!

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music: Disaster Magic

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• Guest Star: Luke Wiget
• Event Books
• "The Bone Clocks" by David Mitchell
• Recommendations
• Farewell to Luke and the DoctorDR studio

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Random House Copy Chief Benjamin Dreyer stops into the Damn Library to talk to Christopher and Drew about his new utterly correct style guide, Dreyer's English, as well as working as a copy chief, the reading life of someone dedicated to books as he is, and which editorial meetings leave him floating. Also, we discuss what his next book will be! Then we get into Shirley Jackson and The Haunting of Hill House and if anyone got scared while reading it, plus, what it's like to edit an author who isn't there to correct you. One for the books!

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Christopher and Drew are joined by Jade Chang to chat about a road trip, writing what is most challenging, and aliens. Jade likes how cozy it is in the library and the guys love how cozy "The Wangs vs. The World" is as a novel. Then the aliens, because Margaret Wappler's Neon Green is about aliens, sort of. 

15 Seconds of a Song: Ashes of American Flags - Wilco

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Carolyn Murnick joins the guys in the Damn Library to discuss her memoir, The Hot One: a memoir of friendship, sex, and murder. Along with discussing that subtitle and the cover, the trio discuss Pop Culture's helpfulness in navigating murder and courtrooms, as well as whether we had that friend that went down a path we couldn't follow. Claire Dederer's Love and Trouble: a Midlife Reckoning is also on the table which prompts the question: how do you interact with authors whose lives you know intimately before you've actually said hello?

15 seconds of a song: The Blow - True Affection

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Kevin Wilson zooms in from his mountain to discuss his thrilling new novel, Now is Not the Time to Panic, and that means going into writing teenagers, the pre-Internet world, and magic disappearing as one gets older, and how that’s okay, along with a whole lotta other stuff. Plus, he brings along Blair Braverman’s Small Game, which means survival talk and reality television. 

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music: Disaster Magic

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Bianca Bosker, author of Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste saunters into the Damn Library with gusto. She and the guys discuss books that make you want to get pregnant, Burgundy drinking songs, and getting her first hater. Plus, they delve into Joan Didion's South and West, and discuss its essential notebook-ness.

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15 seconds of a song: Jim Noir - Eanie Meany

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I’m just hanging out in the Damn Library talking about some books I just got in the mail, and the books I’m taking on vacation. Is this a good idea? Only time will tell.

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music: Disaster Magic

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Jonathan Lethem drops into the Damn Library and the guys are damn excited to have him. They talk about Lethem's new one, The Feral Detective, of course, but they also talk about his work as a whole, and how his books are in conversation with each other, along with a tangent into timeliness and how lucky he feels. Then they get into Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book, a classic unclassifiable Japanese work, began in the year 990. Translation conversation, and what a "pillow book" is, ensues. One for the ages!

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music: Disaster Magic

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The guys get caffeinated, distantly, with Mateo Askaripour to talk about his fantastic debut novel, Black Buck. They chat about telling your own story even if someone else is telling a similar one, about weaving life into art, and about how fiction is more fun than non-fiction. Plus, an out-of-print classic for Book Club that deserves to be brought back: Sam Greenlee's The Spook Who Sat by the Door. 

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music: Disaster Magic

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This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/SMDB.

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Drew and Christopher actually talk at one another in this one. The very first episode of So Many Damn Books where Christopher and Drew aren't actually in a Damn Library together. The resulting episode is probably the closest to what it's actually like to hang out with them when the microphones are off. How books are providing comfort, project reading, Stephen King, audiobooks, and culling shelves all get touched on, along with lots of other bookish subjects.

Stay safe, we love you.

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music: Disaster Magic

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Kate Racculia stops into the Damn Library and she brings lots of laughter. We all talk about how her new novel is her Indiana Jones novel, and how it's a Westing Game novel too, and maybe a couple other novels. The details of Boston and creating her own Holmes character are also up for discussion. Plus, all three talk about details of Ling Ma's Severance with reverence. And more!

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music: Hotel Hiouchi

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Christopher and Drew hang out and talk what they got up to for the holiday, open their annual presents to one another, and talk about why Goodreads is probably fine, amongst other bookish subjects.

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This episode is sponsored by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the new Faraway Collection

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Alison Watts zooms through the Damn Library hypserspace from Japan to talk the new novel she translated, The Boy and the Dog by Seishu Hase, as well as the life of a translator. Plus, we talk the prevalence of Japanese cat fiction, the ascendancy of dog fiction, canine noir, and so much more. Plus, she brings along (and does some light spoiling of) Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars, a shaggy dog of a post-apocalyptic novel. Quite a hang!

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music: Disaster Magic

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What better way to start the year than looking back at the stuff that we liked from last year? This episode, we talk about our top 8 books of the year. Like the top 8 for Myspace, only Tom isn't involved! It's a lot of nonfiction, which is crazy! Listen in, and also get in touch to tell us what your top books of the year were. We love to hear it!

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music: Hotel Hiouchi

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Drew and Christopher host HarperCollins' senior art director for a chat about book cover design, the hipness of text, trends in design, and more, plus how everyone has a Murakami phase, and some surprising things about the behind the scenes of book making. Also, they discuss The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, the idiocy of war, and who should play Švejk in a movie. 

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music: Disaster Magic

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Edan Lepucki visits the virtual Damn Library by the power of the internet to discuss her intergenerational time travel novel, Time’s Mouth. We get into all the fun stuff, like time travel mechanics, Reichian therapy, making fortresses, Santa Cruz, and how she’s seeing her career at this point. Plus, we talk about The Possibilities by Yael Goldstein-Love, a book that Edan helped name.

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music: Disaster Magic

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Marie-Helene Bertino returns to the Damn Library to discuss her latest triumph, Beautyland. Marie-Helene goes into how she creates some of the book's indelible, otherworldly moments, and why the book's writing process was charmed. Plus, she brought along The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a book that is much more powerful when you're not translating it for french class. Books are back, baby!

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music: Disaster Magic

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Kirsten Bakis makes her podcast airwave debut to discuss her brand new novel, King Nyx. And it’s a doozy. Kirsten reflects on sideways stories and how she first “met” the real life inspiration for her main character, and some reflections on how things have changed in publishing since she first debuted 27 years ago with her modern classic, Lives of the Monster Dogs. Listen up and listen good!

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GennaRose Nethercott returns to talk about her brand new story collection Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart, stealing details from her friends, telling stories from the periphery, and how each tale in the book is about yearning. Also, thanks to Sabrina Orah Marks’ Happily, we discuss all form of fairy tales, and how they can tubocharge your selling power, you just have to ask us how. Real good listenin’!

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music: Disaster Magic

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Rachel Lyon returns to talk about her new novel, Fruit of the Dead, and how it wasn’t always a Persephone myth retelling, she found that along the way. Plus, we get into the “generative fill” of reading, and I pontificate on dust mote fiction, inspired by the fetid summer heat within the pages of Tessa Hadley’s The Past. Read along!

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music: Disaster Magic

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Damn Library co-owner Sarah sits to chat about all the things that makes one pick up a book only to put it back down again. A list of reading pet peeves that touches on everything from subject matter, to stylizations, tropes, design choices, and more.

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Alexandra Tanner shares the Damn Library physical space, sitting in the chair across from me and everything. She discusses her sibling’s influence on Worry, writing for an audience of one, money, moms, and more. Plus, she brings Kathryn Scanlan’s Aug 9 - Fog for book club. Listen closely and you’ll hear books mentioned now and again.

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Christopher goes through some stuff he read and some stuff he wants to read. Got any modern pirate book recommendations?

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Fiona Warnick, author of the charming novel The Skunks, drops by to talk animals and metaphor, how her creative writing program helped her with this book, writing smooth, and more than that, because we also get into Sheila Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries, which inspires a deeper dive into the work of Heti and her influence.

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Our old pal Drew (of Voyage into Genre) is back! We talk about how the internet used to be, how Drew broke his slump, some literal tea discussion, RPG and video games, and general book chatter. The usual, served up just how you like it, in podcast form.

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Melissa Mogollon zooms in to talk her debut Oye, and all the fun she had writing it. That means we talk how her friends are like her sisters, the unusual structure that always felt like it could fail, and how she might write a sequel from the sister’s perspective. Plus, she brings along Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing, a book that was great to revisit, and is informing her on how to connect digitally as she releases her book.

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Kate Slotover, host of The Book Club Review podcast, joins me in the Damn Library all the way from London! Drinks are had, New York is discussed, along with two different worlds of New York reportage, Helene Hanff’s Letter from New York, and Joseph Mitchell’s Up in the Old Hotel. Such a joy!

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Holly Gramazio drops by via the magic of Zoom to talk her magical summer blockbuster of a book, The Husbands. She gets into its origin as a computer game, a lack of supernatural solutions, and why it used to have the moon falling apart. Plus, she brings along the surreal-but-still-relatable Zito Madu’s The Minotaur at Calle Lanza, and reveals she’s just been to Venice. Read on, compadres!

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Lev Grossman returns to the podcast after a nine year break. That’s a long time! Since he was here last, he wrote his Arthurian magnum opus, The Bright Sword, and he chats about it, along with a good name for a cocktail sword, God, Merlin, and how he likes to be in conversation with someone else’s work. Plus, he brings along Phillip K. Dick’s UBIK, a bizarre sci-fi classic that’s on the verge of fantasy itself.

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