This Book Made Me

• The English Understand Wool: We Can All Do a Little Bit Better

  If you're looking for a short book that packs a wallop, we have just the one for you! In this episode, my guest Matt Davis happens upon a book at his local bookstore, and it grounds our conversation about the state of reading in our current attention economy, the perils of the publishing industry, and how we can push ourselves to break out of our reading ruts. If you're not familiar with Helen DeWitt--a real writer's writer--you're in for a treat. We're talking about her tiny but powerful novel The English Understand Wool, and its savvy and subversive protagonist.  Matt Davis is a writer and PR consultant in Manhattan where he lives with his wife Logan and four-year-old son, Freddy. He writes a daily newsletter called Matt Davis Reads the Newspaper So You Don't Have To if you'd like to hear more from him. (Protip: check out Matt's daily LinkedIn series, where he reads the news via video, too!) At the end of the episode, you can catch DJ Diego Dela Rosa's playlist, curated especially for this episode: volume 6 of This Mixtape Made Me: Subvert And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/ email: [email protected]

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• Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye: A Story of Survival

  It's Black History Month and we are celebrating!! My guest, Kat Calvin, does a deep, personal dive in to The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, and we wrestle with this question: How do we learn to survive in a hostile world, and with a generational history of violence? We talk about the world of 1960s America, who is protected and who is not, and Morrison's authorial gift, which encourages us to wrestle with how we participate in unjust systems.  Kat Calvin is the Founder and Executive Director of Spread the Vote + Project ID and the Co-Founder and CEO of the Project ID Action Fund. A lawyer, activist, and social entrepreneur, Kat is a Practitioner Fellow in Democracy at the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute for Democracy and writes weekly insights and pop culture recommendations at Hot Takes and Applesauce and hosts the Choose the Bear podcast. And, don’t forget her 2023 book: American Identity in Crisis: Notes from an Accidental Activist. You can keep up with ALL of her work at katcalvin.com.  At the end of the episode, you can catch DJ Diego Dela Rosa's playlist, curated especially for this episode: volume 5 of This Mixtape Made Me: Amplify.  And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/ email: [email protected]

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• The Story of Ferdinand: Smell the Flowers

  Can you be yourself when everyone around you wants you to be something else? My guest, author Marjetta Geerling, AKA Mara Wells, walks me through the deep wisdom of the classic children's book The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. We talk about how children's books use language and art to teach us how to be ourselves, and let others be without judging or trying to change them. In doing so, Marjetta argues, it makes us better human beings.  While this conversation was recorded in December, it's being released as the devastating Los Angeles fires are still ongoing. If you feel moved to support the people who lost their homes and jobs, here are a few of my favorite organizations that are organizing to support people, and to look towards the future of Los Angeles.  World Central Kitchen was on the ground within hours, providing hot meals to evacuees and first responders, and they continue to reach deeply into affected communities.  The Los Angeles Mutual Aid Network is maintaining a real-time list of groups and their needs as they respond to their communities.  The Altadena Seed Library is gathering native plant seeds to repopulate Eaton Canyon with the fire-resistant, California foliage.  Finally, don't forget the playlist curated for this episode by DJ/Curator Diego Dela Rosa: volume 4 of This Mixtape Made Me: Tender.  And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/ email: [email protected]

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• Ghosts of Books Past and Future (AKA 2024 Wrap-up and Look Ahead)

  What did we read in 2024, and what are we reading next? In this end-of-year episode, I invite 5 former TBMM guests to reflect on their reading past and future. We've got book recommendations, a list of our best reading experiences, and what we're doing to read more and better in the new year. Join me, Sadie Forkner, Dice Moreno, Pat Harrigan, Mary Trunk, and Lisa Metzgar to reflect and to look ahead.  Also on this episode: DJ/Curator Diego Dela Rosa has a special super-sized vol 3 of This Mixtape Made Me, featuring their favorite projects and artists of 2024. It's called Reflect, and you can find it on Spotify.  And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/ email: [email protected]    

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• Love in the Time of Cholera: Life Will Never Be the Same

  It's a book about love! But is it, really? In this episode, acclaimed fantasy author Robert V.S. Redick explains how Gabriel García Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera exploded his previous ideas about what writing can and should do.  Author Robert V.S. Redick's most recent epic fantasy, Sidewinders, has been called “a brilliant fever dream of a novel that is bound to impress” by Grimdark Magazine and “a breathtaking work” by two-time World Fantasy Award winner C.S.E. Cooney. His previous novel, Master Assassins, was a finalist for the 2018 Booknest Award for Best Novel. His first novel, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, was a finalist for the Locust Award and the SFX Novel Award. His short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld and various anthologies, most recently Dreams For a Broken World, edited by Julie C. Day.  Robert has taught fiction writing in the University of Maine (Stonecoast) and University of Nevada MFA Programs, at Hampshire College, and with the Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop. He is currently finishing the sequel to Sidewinders. Robert is also an international development and environmental justice consultant who has lived and worked in Indonesia, Colombia, Argentina, and other countries. He now lives with his compañera, Dr. Kiran Asher, in Western Massachusetts. You can learn more about his fantasy novels at robertvsredick.com Also on this episode: DJ/Curator Diego Dela Rosa has created vol 2 of This Mixtape Made Me, inspired by the Márquez novel. It's titled Yearn, and you can find it at the halfway point of the episode.  And, as always, you can follow the latest about the pod: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisbookmademe/ email: [email protected]

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