The Avid Reader Show

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Zachary Wood, author of Uncensored: My Life And Uncomfortable Conversations At The Intersection of Black And White, released just least month by Dutton. Zachary’s primary goal in this book, in addition to telling us his life story in memoir form, is to encourage uncomfortable conversations. He graduated from (just this year) Williams College where he served as President of Uncomfortable Learning, a student group that has from time to time created nation controversies for inviting provocative speakers to campus from John Derbyshire to Charles Murray. Zachary has defended this conversations and the upshot from them to the point where he offered Senate testimony this past Summer. His writings, as young as he is, have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and many others. He is an assistant editor at The Atlantic and a Robert. L. Bartley Fellow at the WSJ. Zach’s path is a convoluted one in which uncomfortable conversations have been a hallmark. Both in his family and now academically.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Zachary Wood, author of Uncensored: My Life And Uncomfortable Conversations At The Intersection of Black And White, released just least month by Dutton. Zachary’s primary goal in this book, in addition to telling us his life story in memoir form, is to encourage uncomfortable conversations. He graduated from (just this year) Williams College where he served as President of Uncomfortable Learning, a student group that has from time to time created nation controversies for inviting provocative speakers to campus from John Derbyshire to Charles Murray. Zachary has defended this conversations and the upshot from them to the point where he offered Senate testimony this past Summer. His writings, as young as he is, have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and many others. He is an assistant editor at The Atlantic and a Robert. L. Bartley Fellow at the WSJ. Zach’s path is a convoluted one in which uncomfortable conversations have been a hallmark. Both in his family and now academically.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Ceridwen Dovey, (KER EH DWIN DOUGH VEE) author of In The Garden Of The Fugitives, published, in America, in May by FSG. Ceridwen’s previous work includes her debut novel Blood Kin which has been published in fifteen countries and was selected for the National Book Foundation’s 5 under 35 honors list. She next gave us Only The Animals, a collection of short stories. She will publish Writers on Writers: her view of J.M. Coetzee (COAT_SEE) . She lives in Sydney. In The Garden of The Fugitives is an epistolary work, or at least it appears to be in many ways. It tells a story through letters about two antagonists who have been silent running for 20 years until the one who was shut out begins a tentative overture. His name is Royce. Hers is Vita. Royce is, seemingly, reaching out to discover and share their joint and dark pasts. Vita’s is both a spatial and a psychological journey, while Royce’s is center for the most part in Pompeii at an archeological dig, where he has followed his longtime unrequited love and what follows is both surprising, extremely unsettling and horribly wrong. The book in short, describes what happens when we face the consequences of telling stories about ourselves. Much like in Julian Barnes A Sense of an Ending Enough of my rambling, as I say pretty much every week and welcome Ker eh Dwin to the show.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Ceridwen Dovey, (KER EH DWIN DOUGH VEE) author of In The Garden Of The Fugitives, published, in America, in May by FSG. Ceridwen’s previous work includes her debut novel Blood Kin which has been published in fifteen countries and was selected for the National Book Foundation’s 5 under 35 honors list. She next gave us Only The Animals, a collection of short stories. She will publish Writers on Writers: her view of J.M. Coetzee (COAT_SEE) . She lives in Sydney. In The Garden of The Fugitives is an epistolary work, or at least it appears to be in many ways. It tells a story through letters about two antagonists who have been silent running for 20 years until the one who was shut out begins a tentative overture. His name is Royce. Hers is Vita. Royce is, seemingly, reaching out to discover and share their joint and dark pasts. Vita’s is both a spatial and a psychological journey, while Royce’s is center for the most part in Pompeii at an archeological dig, where he has followed his longtime unrequited love and what follows is both surprising, extremely unsettling and horribly wrong. The book in short, describes what happens when we face the consequences of telling stories about ourselves. Much like in Julian Barnes A Sense of an Ending Enough of my rambling, as I say pretty much every week and welcome Ker eh Dwin to the show.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition go The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Abdi Nor Iftin, author of Call Me American: A Memoir published just last week by Alfred Knopf. This book is the story of a miracle, a series of miracles, set against a backdrop of pain, suffering and horror. Abdi fell in love with America as a child. He learned English from Arnold Shwarzeneger and Michael Jackson, from Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. When the first waves of U.S. Marines landed, in Mogadishu to take on the cruel and lawless warlords, Abdi was one of the first to cheer the arrival of those heroes that he recognized from the movies. He was wearing American clothes, knew American dance moves and even took on American as his surname. Then, the Americans left, radical al-Shabaab took over and Western Culture was forbidden and things became deadly once again. Abdi, through a series of fortuitous and incredible coincidences and twists of fates, made his way to America. It’s much more enlightening to hear how all this happened through his voice, so welcome Abdi and thanks so much for joining us today.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition go The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Abdi Nor Iftin, author of Call Me American: A Memoir published just last week by Alfred Knopf. This book is the story of a miracle, a series of miracles, set against a backdrop of pain, suffering and horror. Abdi fell in love with America as a child. He learned English from Arnold Shwarzeneger and Michael Jackson, from Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. When the first waves of U.S. Marines landed, in Mogadishu to take on the cruel and lawless warlords, Abdi was one of the first to cheer the arrival of those heroes that he recognized from the movies. He was wearing American clothes, knew American dance moves and even took on American as his surname. Then, the Americans left, radical al-Shabaab took over and Western Culture was forbidden and things became deadly once again. Abdi, through a series of fortuitous and incredible coincidences and twists of fates, made his way to America. It’s much more enlightening to hear how all this happened through his voice, so welcome Abdi and thanks so much for joining us today.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Tommy Orange author of There There published just last week by Knopf. Tommy is a recent graduate of the MFA program at The Institute of American Indian Arts. He is a 2014 Macdowell Colony Fellow and a 2016 writing by writers fellow. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. There There is an ensemble book, in some ways, reminding me of movies like Robert Altman’s Nashville where you have this large cast of characters, seemingly unrelated to the other but as the book progresses their paths begin to cross and they edge closer to each other until the reader recognizes the total connection between each and everyone of them. The most difficult thing about this process is holding each of these people in your head and then clearly see and follow the paths they take. This is what Tommy Orange has accomplished in There There. This cast of characters, an aspiring documentary filmmaker, a boy who teaches himself traditional Native American dance by watching YouTube, another morbidly obese man lost in his own challenge. Well I guess they’re all lost in their own challenges. These are just a couple of the twelve, really over twelve characters that propel this book to its final and overwhelming climax.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Tommy Orange author of There There published just last week by Knopf. Tommy is a recent graduate of the MFA program at The Institute of American Indian Arts. He is a 2014 Macdowell Colony Fellow and a 2016 writing by writers fellow. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. There There is an ensemble book, in some ways, reminding me of movies like Robert Altman’s Nashville where you have this large cast of characters, seemingly unrelated to the other but as the book progresses their paths begin to cross and they edge closer to each other until the reader recognizes the total connection between each and everyone of them. The most difficult thing about this process is holding each of these people in your head and then clearly see and follow the paths they take. This is what Tommy Orange has accomplished in There There. This cast of characters, an aspiring documentary filmmaker, a boy who teaches himself traditional Native American dance by watching YouTube, another morbidly obese man lost in his own challenge. Well I guess they’re all lost in their own challenges. These are just a couple of the twelve, really over twelve characters that propel this book to its final and overwhelming climax.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Will Mackin, author of Bring Out The Dog. His first novel published by Random House in March. Will is a 23 year veteran of the U.S. Navy and served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, GQ, NYT Magazine and Tin House and has been anthologized in The Best Short Stories of 2014. Bring Out The Dog allows us to peer through the lens of someone who was there and to also comprehend the sense of war as it veers from the autobiographical to the fictional.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Will Mackin, author of Bring Out The Dog. His first novel published by Random House in March. Will is a 23 year veteran of the U.S. Navy and served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, GQ, NYT Magazine and Tin House and has been anthologized in The Best Short Stories of 2014. Bring Out The Dog allows us to peer through the lens of someone who was there and to also comprehend the sense of war as it veers from the autobiographical to the fictional.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Read. Today our guys it Curtis Sittenfeld, author of You Think It, I’ll Say It: Stories published in April by Random House. Curtis is the bestselling author of five novels. Those books have been selected by the NYT, Time, EW and People for many Ten Best lists, optioned for TV and film and translated into 30 languages. Her short stories have appeared in the WP, Esquire and her non-fiction has appeared in the NYT, Time, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and Slate. In this first collection Curtis writes stories about Donald Trump (I wake up every morning and my first thought is “Donald J. Trump is President of The United States of America!!!) and a package of other short stories that deal with women in right now America, all navigating this present and complicated culture with its norms and weirdness and allows these protagonists to deal with friendship, deceit, family, politics (as I mentioned) and of course social media. Their stories are sad, poignant, funny, triumphant at times and tragic at others. In all, the great thing about these stories is that we feel, after reading each, that we have dealt with a real person and a real story.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Fran Leadon, author of Broadway: A History of New York City in 13 Miles published in April by Norton. Mr. Leadon is an Associate Professor at City College and worked with Norval White and Eliott Willensky in publishing the AIA Guide to New York City, Fifth Edition (Oxford University Press, 2010) And he is from my home town of Gainesville Florida. Broadway is not just a street or an Avenue or a Boulevard. It is Broadway with a capital everything. The great White Way, Times Square, Union Square, The Woolworth Building, the Flatiron, the Ansonia. It is a street that defines a city. And what Mr. Leadon has done here is to encapsulate that street in its thirteen miles into the history of a place, a place that everyone in America and most people around the globe can identify with. Through copious research and a map of each mile to keep you centered, the book transports you in time and place and gives you an intimate picture of times forgotten and remembered, buildings that burnt down and were replaced and buildings that weren’t. After you read this book you will have a new understanding of this great city, a city that in good portion defines America.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Fran Leadon, author of Broadway: A History of New York City in 13 Miles published in April by Norton. Mr. Leadon is an Associate Professor at City College and worked with Norval White and Eliott Willensky in publishing the AIA Guide to New York City, Fifth Edition (Oxford University Press, 2010) And he is from my home town of Gainesville Florida. Broadway is not just a street or an Avenue or a Boulevard. It is Broadway with a capital everything. The great White Way, Times Square, Union Square, The Woolworth Building, the Flatiron, the Ansonia. It is a street that defines a city. And what Mr. Leadon has done here is to encapsulate that street in its thirteen miles into the history of a place, a place that everyone in America and most people around the globe can identify with. Through copious research and a map of each mile to keep you centered, the book transports you in time and place and gives you an intimate picture of times forgotten and remembered, buildings that burnt down and were replaced and buildings that weren’t. After you read this book you will have a new understanding of this great city, a city that in good portion defines America.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Fran Leadon, author of Broadway: A History of New York City in 13 Miles published in April by Norton. Mr. Leadon is an Associate Professor at City College and worked with Norval White and Eliott Willensky in publishing the AIA Guide to New York City, Fifth Edition (Oxford University Press, 2010) And he is from my home town of Gainesville Florida. Broadway is not just a street or an Avenue or a Boulevard. It is Broadway with a capital everything. The great White Way, Times Square, Union Square, The Woolworth Building, the Flatiron, the Ansonia. It is a street that defines a city. And what Mr. Leadon has done here is to encapsulate that street in its thirteen miles into the history of a place, a place that everyone in America and most people around the globe can identify with. Through copious research and a map of each mile to keep you centered, the book transports you in time and place and gives you an intimate picture of times forgotten and remembered, buildings that burnt down and were replaced and buildings that weren’t. After you read this book you will have a new understanding of this great city, a city that in good portion defines America.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Fran Leadon, author of Broadway: A History of New York City in 13 Miles published in April by Norton. Mr. Leadon is an Associate Professor at City College and worked with Norval White and Eliott Willensky in publishing the AIA Guide to New York City, Fifth Edition (Oxford University Press, 2010) And he is from my home town of Gainesville Florida. Broadway is not just a street or an Avenue or a Boulevard. It is Broadway with a capital everything. The great White Way, Times Square, Union Square, The Woolworth Building, the Flatiron, the Ansonia. It is a street that defines a city. And what Mr. Leadon has done here is to encapsulate that street in its thirteen miles into the history of a place, a place that everyone in America and most people around the globe can identify with. Through copious research and a map of each mile to keep you centered, the book transports you in time and place and gives you an intimate picture of times forgotten and remembered, buildings that burnt down and were replaced and buildings that weren’t. After you read this book you will have a new understanding of this great city, a city that in good portion defines America.