The Avid Reader Show

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Our guest today is Reyna Grande, author of A Dream Called Home published by Atria, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, just this month. Reyna is an award winning novelist and memoirist. She has received an American Book Award and the Latino Book Award. Her novels, Across a Hundred Mountains and Dancing With Butterflies, not only have been published to critical acclaim but more importantly are read in schools across the country. The Distance Between Us, her first memoir deals with Reyna’s arduous journey to the states and the pursuit of a better life. A Dream Called Home, continues Reyna’s journey through college, family, trips to what was home, having a child, marrying and becoming the author that she now is and in writing this story gives a voice to those that would follow in her footsteps.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Our guest today is Miriam Pawel author of The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation, published by Bloomsbury this month. Miriam is the author of the award winning The Crusades of Cesar Chavez. Here, she has tackled the Brown family father and son, studying them from their roots in California and their effect over generations on the state, the sixth largest economy in the world and most populous state in the country. Governing it is more like being a President. However, here on the East coast, just as with Cesar Chavez, we know who Jerry is and can tell you a few facts about him, and perhaps, for those of us old enough, we remember Pat Brown, but that is about it. Now with this book we learn the nature and extent of their involvement with the state and its transition and evolution to the most progressive and fair-minded state in the country.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Our guest today is Miriam Pawel author of The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation, published by Bloomsbury this month. Miriam is the author of the award winning The Crusades of Cesar Chavez. Here, she has tackled the Brown family father and son, studying them from their roots in California and their effect over generations on the state, the sixth largest economy in the world and most populous state in the country. Governing it is more like being a President. However, here on the East coast, just as with Cesar Chavez, we know who Jerry is and can tell you a few facts about him, and perhaps, for those of us old enough, we remember Pat Brown, but that is about it. Now with this book we learn the nature and extent of their involvement with the state and its transition and evolution to the most progressive and fair-minded state in the country.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Our guest today is Reyna Grande, author of A Dream Called Home published by Atria, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, just this month. Reyna is an award winning novelist and memoirist. She has received an American Book Award and the Latino Book Award. Her novels, Across a Hundred Mountains and Dancing With Butterflies, not only have been published to critical acclaim but more importantly are read in schools across the country. The Distance Between Us, her first memoir deals with Reyna’s arduous journey to the states and the pursuit of a better life. A Dream Called Home, continues Reyna’s journey through college, family, trips to what was home, having a child, marrying and becoming the author that she now is and in writing this story gives a voice to those that would follow in her footsteps.

So did I get the “titles” right? So this may take awhile. I’ll start at the beginning. I love the cover. Did you get to vet some, did you pick it or did you have any say in it. Moving on to the epigraphs. Peter Sloterdijk. I love the sentiment, but he was a very controversial figure, in his time, especially with regard to his view on Eugenics. And then the next which is more obscure in meaning. (Bernard Tschumi) How do concrete (no pun) structures tame our fears? He is controversial as well, especially his New Acropolis. Plus he used sexual intercourse as a characterizing analogy for architecture. Ok. Enough with epigraphs. You know, off the point, but after reading your interview with Kathleen Berry, I read Fateless, by Imre Kertész. And he feels that Schindler’s list is Kitsch which reminds me of Sloterdijk. And his protagonist reminds me of Mr. Field. And what is this idea that people are pleased with their own compassion especially when it is noted by its recipient? So back to Mr. Field. It seems as if existentialism has been thrown out the window in modern literature. Have you bought it back? I mean as in Sartre’s Nausea, where just the proximity of a tree and its roots cause physical pain to the protagonist, Mr. Field seems overwhelmed by the material world around him. Sometimes he is scared. Sometimes indolent. Sometimes he goes out into the world and wanders, not knowing where he is or what he is doing. How did you approach his obsessions both with Ms. Kallenbach and his little dog? And when he crouches beneath the window listening to her conversations with her putative husband, what is he really thinking? What about Mim? Her notebook which is a litany of cliches about the sea. A question you have been asked often-where did she go? Did he love her? Do you think that there are a lot of people, mostly hidden from us, I imagine, that are like Mr. Field? Chapters- the seasons. And the sub-headings. Which telegraph in a clearly poetic fashion what happens within. Peanut butter, peanut butter, peanut butter. Being John Malkovitch. What is it about Chopin and also in his playing? George Sand, imagining her carriage turned over. “And his chest sank down with sympathy with his situation”. I remember watching a 60 Minutes interview with Vladimir Horowitz by Mike Wallace and he talked about how he still remembered from his childhood the metronome ticking and still felt it as he played “now”. I remember how Touw was describing a light well and Touw said it was not a hole but a light well. And it reminded me of how much Field wanted to be filled to have the void in the center of his being. Which reminded me of the protagonist in Fateless once again who also felt, eventually that he was just a hole that needed to be filled. Don’t we all have that feeling at times? I know I do. Or is it psychologically, something that is engrained in us by nature or nurture at the very beginning. The painting above the two fat women. The fact that they are standing on sirloin steaks, third face “wonky and dislocated” What is going on in his head? The waiter when he talks about his tender the squid is and Mr. Field describes the boats sailing in and out reminded me a little (I don’t know why) of The Old Man And The Sea. And is the waiter really talking to him like that. Isn’t Mr. Field the most unreliable of narrators. Another book it remind me of was Remembrance Of Things Past. So many little things, like the madeleines. All the atoms in his body heated up but he is excited but not excited. He feels but doesn’t feel. Authors love agapanthus. Hannah gives the book its title—why? And it is in the solicitous sense. “The sky was so welled up with color-orange, yellow, blue, green-that it made me want to vomit.” How does all this compare to writing poetry. Perhaps to head all of this, How is Mr. Field going to end up? Is h(continued)

So did I get the “titles” right? So this may take awhile. I’ll start at the beginning. I love the cover. Did you get to vet some, did you pick it or did you have any say in it. Moving on to the epigraphs. Peter Sloterdijk. I love the sentiment, but he was a very controversial figure, in his time, especially with regard to his view on Eugenics. And then the next which is more obscure in meaning. (Bernard Tschumi) How do concrete (no pun) structures tame our fears? He is controversial as well, especially his New Acropolis. Plus he used sexual intercourse as a characterizing analogy for architecture. Ok. Enough with epigraphs. You know, off the point, but after reading your interview with Kathleen Berry, I read Fateless, by Imre Kertész. And he feels that Schindler’s list is Kitsch which reminds me of Sloterdijk. And his protagonist reminds me of Mr. Field. And what is this idea that people are pleased with their own compassion especially when it is noted by its recipient? So back to Mr. Field. It seems as if existentialism has been thrown out the window in modern literature. Have you bought it back? I mean as in Sartre’s Nausea, where just the proximity of a tree and its roots cause physical pain to the protagonist, Mr. Field seems overwhelmed by the material world around him. Sometimes he is scared. Sometimes indolent. Sometimes he goes out into the world and wanders, not knowing where he is or what he is doing. How did you approach his obsessions both with Ms. Kallenbach and his little dog? And when he crouches beneath the window listening to her conversations with her putative husband, what is he really thinking? What about Mim? Her notebook which is a litany of cliches about the sea. A question you have been asked often-where did she go? Did he love her? Do you think that there are a lot of people, mostly hidden from us, I imagine, that are like Mr. Field? Chapters- the seasons. And the sub-headings. Which telegraph in a clearly poetic fashion what happens within. Peanut butter, peanut butter, peanut butter. Being John Malkovitch. What is it about Chopin and also in his playing? George Sand, imagining her carriage turned over. “And his chest sank down with sympathy with his situation”. I remember watching a 60 Minutes interview with Vladimir Horowitz by Mike Wallace and he talked about how he still remembered from his childhood the metronome ticking and still felt it as he played “now”. I remember how Touw was describing a light well and Touw said it was not a hole but a light well. And it reminded me of how much Field wanted to be filled to have the void in the center of his being. Which reminded me of the protagonist in Fateless once again who also felt, eventually that he was just a hole that needed to be filled. Don’t we all have that feeling at times? I know I do. Or is it psychologically, something that is engrained in us by nature or nurture at the very beginning. The painting above the two fat women. The fact that they are standing on sirloin steaks, third face “wonky and dislocated” What is going on in his head? The waiter when he talks about his tender the squid is and Mr. Field describes the boats sailing in and out reminded me a little (I don’t know why) of The Old Man And The Sea. And is the waiter really talking to him like that. Isn’t Mr. Field the most unreliable of narrators. Another book it remind me of was Remembrance Of Things Past. So many little things, like the madeleines. All the atoms in his body heated up but he is excited but not excited. He feels but doesn’t feel. Authors love agapanthus. Hannah gives the book its title—why? And it is in the solicitous sense. “The sky was so welled up with color-orange, yellow, blue, green-that it made me want to vomit.” How does all this compare to writing poetry. Perhaps to head all of this, How is Mr. Field going to end up? Is h(continued)

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Ben Marcus, author of Notes From The Fog, his collection of short stories published August 27th by Knopf. When last we heard from Ben we were talking about his novel The Flame Alphabet, a book that in some ways, in my opinion, shares many of the characteristics as do some of these stories. As you may recall, Ben is the author of several books. As I mentioned The Flame Alphabet, The Age of Wire and String, Leaving The Sea and Notable American Women. His writing has appeared in Harpers, The New Yorker, the NYT and many other prestigious publications. He is the editor of New American Stories. He’a won three Pushcart Prizes. He’s a Guggenheim Fellow and has been a member of the Faculty of Columbia since 2000. Ok, that’s enough I guess. Notes from the Fog is a collection of stories about lots of people, all interesting and most of them sad or lost. A little boy who isn’t what he is supposed to be. And parents who are sad and angry that he turns into a child that they never expected . A man whose life is completely and utterly ruined by a corporate experiment grow horribly wrong. A lot of money involved. In fact a lot of money involved in many of the stories. A husband and wife architectural team whose marriage is not what it should be and whose designs reflect that to a certain extent. And also from where the title of this collection arises. A mother who then becomes the mother of her sister’s orphaned boys and in the meantime establishes an unusual relationship with those boys’ parents, revolving around a series of 200 dollar payments. A pill that will make you happy or not, but that just won’t stay down. And many others with equally troubling, sometimes distressing premises that lead to a feeling that you’ve just read something that might change your life or then again might not.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Ben Marcus, author of Notes From The Fog, his collection of short stories published August 27th by Knopf. When last we heard from Ben we were talking about his novel The Flame Alphabet, a book that in some ways, in my opinion, shares many of the characteristics as do some of these stories. As you may recall, Ben is the author of several books. As I mentioned The Flame Alphabet, The Age of Wire and String, Leaving The Sea and Notable American Women. His writing has appeared in Harpers, The New Yorker, the NYT and many other prestigious publications. He is the editor of New American Stories. He’a won three Pushcart Prizes. He’s a Guggenheim Fellow and has been a member of the Faculty of Columbia since 2000. Ok, that’s enough I guess. Notes from the Fog is a collection of stories about lots of people, all interesting and most of them sad or lost. A little boy who isn’t what he is supposed to be. And parents who are sad and angry that he turns into a child that they never expected . A man whose life is completely and utterly ruined by a corporate experiment grow horribly wrong. A lot of money involved. In fact a lot of money involved in many of the stories. A husband and wife architectural team whose marriage is not what it should be and whose designs reflect that to a certain extent. And also from where the title of this collection arises. A mother who then becomes the mother of her sister’s orphaned boys and in the meantime establishes an unusual relationship with those boys’ parents, revolving around a series of 200 dollar payments. A pill that will make you happy or not, but that just won’t stay down. And many others with equally troubling, sometimes distressing premises that lead to a feeling that you’ve just read something that might change your life or then again might not.

Dr. Scott is the Emeritus Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth Science at Royal Holloway University in London. He has been a professor at Yale, a Fellow at Berkeley. He holds numerous degrees from the University of London. He is the author or editor of 10 academic books. His research on coal and the geological history of fire has been recognized the word over. The History Of Fire relies on growing evidence for fire in our past record. We have a history of fire that has been with us over the past 400,000,000 years. Amazingly, this history allows us to extract information about our past climate, environment and vegetation from fossil charcoal. Dr. Scott tackles, with accessibility to the reader, the impact of wild-fire and its origin and the ways we can tackle it if necessary, because he also posits that wildfires in many cases are actually good for the planet and for us.

Dr. Scott is the Emeritus Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth Science at Royal Holloway University in London. He has been a professor at Yale, a Fellow at Berkeley. He holds numerous degrees from the University of London. He is the author or editor of 10 academic books. His research on coal and the geological history of fire has been recognized the word over. The History Of Fire relies on growing evidence for fire in our past record. We have a history of fire that has been with us over the past 400,000,000 years. Amazingly, this history allows us to extract information about our past climate, environment and vegetation from fossil charcoal. Dr. Scott tackles, with accessibility to the reader, the impact of wild-fire and its origin and the ways we can tackle it if necessary, because he also posits that wildfires in many cases are actually good for the planet and for us.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Beth Macy author of Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, And The Drug Company That Addicted America. published this month by Little, Brown and Company. Beth is a journalist who writes about outsiders and underdogs. Her writing has won more than a dozen national journalism awards, including a Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard and the 2013 J. Anthony Lukas Word-in-Progress award for "Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local -- and Helped Save an American Town”. She is also the author of another fascinating book, Truvine. Dopesick is the story of one drug, oxycodone and how it has, and is, destroying a good part of America. And how one company managed to make this happen. Oxycodone is a powerful drug, administered for pain but abused by thousands, if not millions. It is also truly a gateway drug, leading to the abuse of other high-powered pharmaceuticals, heroin and now drugs like fentanyl. As it works its way along the I-81 corridor and now further and further out, it destroys lives, families, homes, marriages and takes lives indiscriminately. Greed, fed by unemployment and despair, combined to create a cocktail that takes down entire families, especially those who are already under stress from the loss of jobs, funds and hope. It is a juggernaut whose spread may not be yet controlled with the tools at hand. Beth chronicles the rise of this drug, its dissemination, the heroes that have tried to curtail its use and production and those who have fallen prey to its deadly lure.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Beth Macy author of Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, And The Drug Company That Addicted America. published this month by Little, Brown and Company. Beth is a journalist who writes about outsiders and underdogs. Her writing has won more than a dozen national journalism awards, including a Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard and the 2013 J. Anthony Lukas Word-in-Progress award for "Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local -- and Helped Save an American Town”. She is also the author of another fascinating book, Truvine. Dopesick is the story of one drug, oxycodone and how it has, and is, destroying a good part of America. And how one company managed to make this happen. Oxycodone is a powerful drug, administered for pain but abused by thousands, if not millions. It is also truly a gateway drug, leading to the abuse of other high-powered pharmaceuticals, heroin and now drugs like fentanyl. As it works its way along the I-81 corridor and now further and further out, it destroys lives, families, homes, marriages and takes lives indiscriminately. Greed, fed by unemployment and despair, combined to create a cocktail that takes down entire families, especially those who are already under stress from the loss of jobs, funds and hope. It is a juggernaut whose spread may not be yet controlled with the tools at hand. Beth chronicles the rise of this drug, its dissemination, the heroes that have tried to curtail its use and production and those who have fallen prey to its deadly lure.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers, published in June by Viking. Rebecca’s books have been translated into many languages and her short fiction has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories in 2011, 2010, 2009, and 2008. Which is actually quite a big deal. He first novel was The Borrower, an Indie Next pick, her second novel was The Hundred-Year House and I remember the great review of it in the NYT. Her short story collection Music for Wartime was published in 2015. The Great Believers is a book that intertwines two stories. One that took place in the mid 80s and the other in 2015. The first is about AIDS, the second is about the loss of a child, redemption and the forces of memory and love that shape our lives, our entire lives no matter how long ago the love or memory was. There are a lot of characters but they are easily recognizable throughout and we have an acquaintance or friendship with them by stories’ end. Yale Tishman is about to achieve an unexpected and really cool goal but as it approaches, his life and the lives of so many others are devastated by the AIDS crisis in Chicago in the mid-eighties. Yale’s partner Charlie, his friend Nico and many others of the boystown group succumb to the disease or its effects (both in terms of the illness and the way it changes the lives of so many). Fiona, in 1985 is kind of the den mother in many ways to these boys, these young men. And that obligation creates a great responsibility for her, one that figures in the rest of her life as well as in her daughter’s— Claire. As we swing forward and back in time we mourn those who have been lost and hope for the ones who remain, especially when they try their hardest to amend or atone for what may have been mistakes or abandonment.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Meghan MacLean Weir, author of The Book of Essie published just last month by Knopf. Meghan’s memoir Between Expectations: Lessons From A Pediatric Residency chronicles her years in training at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital. She still works as a physician and continues to write as well. The Book Of Essie is her first novel. Essie is a teenager whose entire life has been documented daily by cameras which record most of her life. Her Father and Mother as well as her five siblings are the stars of a reality show, not unlike the reality shows that are pervasive on our televisions today. Six For Hicks documents the lives of a seemingly, shiny wholesome family, centered around the Father’s gigantic ministry and his flock and the corollary activities of her ruthless and calculating Mother. But all of a sudden, a complication. Essie is pregnant, and by whom? The production team suggests an abortion, which would otherwise be anathema to the ministry and all it stands for, or a pregnancy hidden away and then the baby disposed of to another family. Both options are risky. They could be found out. So marriage is the option they choose. Essie who has a plan in mind, choose Roarke Richards, a senior at her high school, a boy who wants out of his situation as much as Essie does. Once the wedding is planned, Essie enlists reporter Liberty Bell, who has her own issues. Then the fun really begins. Told in the first person in alternating paragraphs by the three protagonists, we follow along breathless as we weave through this mixture of the Duggars, The Truman Show and The Hunger Games. It’s a great adventure and a kind of morality play given the political and social situation in which we find ourselves in today’s America.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Meghan MacLean Weir, author of The Book of Essie published just last month by Knopf. Meghan’s memoir Between Expectations: Lessons From A Pediatric Residency chronicles her years in training at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital. She still works as a physician and continues to write as well. The Book Of Essie is her first novel. Essie is a teenager whose entire life has been documented daily by cameras which record most of her life. Her Father and Mother as well as her five siblings are the stars of a reality show, not unlike the reality shows that are pervasive on our televisions today. Six For Hicks documents the lives of a seemingly, shiny wholesome family, centered around the Father’s gigantic ministry and his flock and the corollary activities of her ruthless and calculating Mother. But all of a sudden, a complication. Essie is pregnant, and by whom? The production team suggests an abortion, which would otherwise be anathema to the ministry and all it stands for, or a pregnancy hidden away and then the baby disposed of to another family. Both options are risky. They could be found out. So marriage is the option they choose. Essie who has a plan in mind, choose Roarke Richards, a senior at her high school, a boy who wants out of his situation as much as Essie does. Once the wedding is planned, Essie enlists reporter Liberty Bell, who has her own issues. Then the fun really begins. Told in the first person in alternating paragraphs by the three protagonists, we follow along breathless as we weave through this mixture of the Duggars, The Truman Show and The Hunger Games. It’s a great adventure and a kind of morality play given the political and social situation in which we find ourselves in today’s America.