Books To Jump Up and Down Over
Magic Hours by Tom Bissell: This marvelous collection of essays chronicles everything from film shoots to novelists rescued from oblivion. (The essay on the Underground Literary Alliance, with its portrait of raucous factions, unexpectedly reveals how soft today's literary world has become.) But if you peer between the cracks of these smart pieces, you may very well see how cultural lives are formed from the most unexpected life choices. And as we follow Bissell's development as a writer over the years, that goes for Bissell as well. (Bat Segundo interview with Bissell)
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway: Harkaway's latest novel greatly improves on his previous book, The Gone-Away World, which I'm already on record as praising. Angelmaker adopts genre elements without ever feeling like a genre book, and it leads me to believe that Harkaway is well on his way to a narrative grace close to China Miéville's. Yet inexplicably this very fun book, which includes an eightysomething badass named Edie Banister, a mysterious mechanical object that may destroy the world, farcical scenarios involving lawyers and the police, and some unexpectedly moving moments about fatherhood, doesn't appear to be getting much attention in American newspapers. Nothing from the snobs at The New York Times Book Review, nothing from The Washington Post. And since I can't get Harkaway on Bat Segundo, I hope this Jump Up and Down mention gets you hopping as well.
The Age of Insight by Eric Kandel: Unless you're really pressed for time, forget Jonah Lehrer. If you want to understand creativity and its relationship to neuroscience, then the bowtie-wearing Nobel laureate is your man. In addition to being a physically beautiful book (you will drool over many of the paintings), there are helpful overviews on optical illusions, science, biographical backgrounds, and many vital figures from the Vienna Secession. Kandel's enthusiasm (and his call for greater unity between the humanities and science) is contagious.
author Archive
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The Bat Segundo Show: Alan Hollinghurst
Posted on November 23, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 45 minute radio interview, we talk with Booker winning novelist Alan Hollinghurst about The Stranger's Child, how a single verb can alter a sentence, and whether literary biographies have any legitimacy. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Téa Obreht
Posted on November 14, 2011 | 2 CommentsIn this goofy and engaging one hour radio interview, Téa Obreht discusses The Tiger's Wife, mythological animals, the relationship between comedy and tragedy, and the possibility of turning into Smeagol if she wins the National Book Award. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Lawrence Weschler
Posted on November 11, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 45 minute radio interview, Lawrence Weschler discusses the many applications of the uncanny valley, Walter Murch, and political semiotics. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Diana Abu-Jaber
Posted on November 7, 2011 | No CommentsIn this one hour radio interview, we discuss food, easily offended readers, and Florida gutterpunk culture with Birds of Paradise author Diana Abu-Jaber. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Anne Enright
Posted on October 27, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 30 minute radio interview, Booker Prize winner Anne Enright discusses The Forgotten Waltz, bawdy anatomical description, faux partitive noun phrases, and whether the world might be better off if it were run by 12-year-old girls. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Susan Orlean
Posted on October 14, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 40 minute radio interview, Susan Orlean discusses Rin Tin Tin's unexpected legacy, the history of dogs, and obsessive defenders who sink their savings into battling intellectual property lawyers. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Yannick Murphy III
Posted on October 13, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 30 minute radio interview, novelist Yannick Murphy discusses The Call, veterinarian call logs, the purported memories of husbands, and how fiction can be inspired by thinking in a car. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Megan Abbott
Posted on July 20, 2011 | 2 CommentsIn this one hour radio interview, we talk with Megan Abbott about The End of Everything, crime fiction, childhood paper games, psychoanalysis, strangers having sex in motel rooms, and much more! -
The Bat Segundo Show: Emma Forrest
Posted on July 14, 2011 | 2 CommentsIn this 30 minute radio interview, Emma Forrest discusses her memoir, Your Voice in My Head and offers Terence Stamp's General Zod as an unusual personal comparison point. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Edie Meidav II
Posted on July 8, 2011 | 1 CommentIn this 45 minute radio interview, Edie Meidav discusses her new novel, Lola, California. -
The Bat Segundo: Aimee Bender II
Posted on July 1, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 40 minute radio interview, Aimee Bender returns to our program to discuss The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, memorizing poetry, Edward Hopper, and positive pessimism. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Mara Hvistendahl
Posted on June 23, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 40 minute interview, Mara Hvistendahl discusses Unnatural Selection, the problems with population control, skewered sex ratios, surplus men in China, and whether or not Paul Erlich is a crackpot. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Tayari Jones II
Posted on May 24, 2011 | 3 CommentsIn this 30 minute radio interview, Tayari Jones returns to our program to discuss Silver Sparrow, plucking dialogue from ridiculous ex-boyfriends, and whether a novelist is as bad as a bigamist. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Ross Perlin
Posted on May 4, 2011 | No CommentsIn this one hour radio interview, journalist Ross Perlin discusses Intern Nation, the ongoing exploitation of young people, the decline of labor, and middle-class hypocrisy. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Ian Rankin
Posted on April 14, 2011 | No CommentsIn this one hour radio interview, Ian Rankin discusses The Complaints, eating five candy bars a day, Inspector Rebus, ebooks, and almost becoming a police suspect. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Carol Emshwiller & Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts
Posted on April 12, 2011 | No CommentsIn this one hour radio interview, legendary writer Carol Emshwiller discusses her career on her 90th birthday and Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts talks about her book, Harlem is Nowhere. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Holly Tucker
Posted on April 8, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 40 minute interview, Holly Tucker discusses her book, Blood Work, 17th century rivalry between England and France, early medicine, and animal torture. -
The Bat Segundo Show: TC Boyle IV
Posted on March 16, 2011 | 1 CommentIn this 45 minute radio alternative, novelist TC Boyle returns a fourth time to discuss When the Killing's Done and offer gleefully pessimistic pronouncements about the world. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Aminatta Forna
Posted on March 1, 2011 | 2 CommentsIn this 45 minute radio interview, author Aminatta Forna discusses The Memory of Love, Sierra Leone, getting arrested, and how injuries lead to creative inspiration. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Eduardo Porter
Posted on February 17, 2011 | 1 CommentIn this 35 minute radio interview, author Eduardo Porter discusses The Price of Everything. Is a belief in prices a religious faith? And what of the neoliberal blind spots? -
The Bat Segundo Show: Toby Ball
Posted on February 11, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 40 minute radio interview, novelist Toby Ball discusses The Vaults, Germanic influence, and is interrupted by two inquisitive children approaching the table and asking about the mikes. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Andrew O’Hagan
Posted on December 31, 2010 | No CommentsIn this 35 minute radio interview, Andrew O'Hagan discusses his latest novel, The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Paul Murray, Part Two
Posted on December 23, 2010 | 2 CommentsThe second part of our lengthy "live" radio conversation with novelist Paul Murray. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Paul Murray, Part One
Posted on December 22, 2010 | 1 CommentThis 40 minute radio interview represents the first part of a lengthy (and live!) conversation with Skippy Dies author Paul Murray. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Cynthia Ozick II
Posted on December 13, 2010 | 2 CommentsIn this special one hour radio interview, Bat Segundo visits Cynthia Ozick at her home to discuss Foreign Bodies, Henry James, the present tense, strange dreams, and Twitter. -
The Bat Segundo Show: David Rakoff II
Posted on October 28, 2010 | No CommentsIn this one hour radio interview, Half Empty author David Rakoff and Our Correspondent hide from robocalls, look up "vitiate" in the dictionary, and assign various forms of depression and optimism to each other. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Andrew Ervin
Posted on October 27, 2010 | No CommentsIn this 40 minute radio interview, Extraordinary Renditions author Andrew Ervin spends a needless amount of time discussing freedom. There are also inappropriate jokes. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Matthew Sharpe II
Posted on October 11, 2010 | No CommentsIn this 40 minute radio interview, novelist Matthew Sharpe discusses wild improvisation and what led him to hit a character in the head with a pool cue. -
The Bat Segudo Show: Allegra Goodman
Posted on September 9, 2010 | No CommentsIn this 25 minute radio interview, Allegra Goodman discusses her latest novel, The Cookbook Collector. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Dan Chaon
Posted on July 16, 2010 | No CommentsIn this 50 minute radio interview, the author of Await Your Reply and You Remind Me of Me discusses narrative momentum, online trolls, regional voice, Nabokov, and the ever-shifting nature of identity.