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.
interview Archive
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The Bat Segundo Show: Charles Yu
Posted on December 5, 2011 | 3 CommentsIn this 45 minute radio interview, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe author Charles Yu discusses schlubbiness, being inspired by gobbledygook, Richard Feynman, and hypothetical AI. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Wayne Koestenbaum
Posted on December 5, 2011 | 2 CommentsIn this one hour interview, poet and social critic Wayne Koestenbaum discusses humiliation in its many forms, the use of triangles to uphold book concepts, Edith Massey, and whether striking out language is a muscular statement. -
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: Weird Al Yankovic
Posted on November 2, 2011 | 3 CommentsIn this goofy and info-heavy 45 minute radio interview, the legendary Weird Al Yankovic discusses everything from Freytag's triangle to tort reform to radio censorship. -
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: Roger Corman
Posted on October 25, 2011 | No CommentsIn this lively 30 minute radio interview, we talk with legendary filmmaker Roger Corman about cost-cutting measures, Occupy Wall Street, whether socially conscious movies can be profitable, and the pros and cons of exploitation filmmaking. -
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: Nick Broomfield
Posted on September 30, 2011 | No CommentsIn this vivacious 35 minute radio interview, filmmaker Nick Broomfield discusses Sarah Palin: You Betcha, the amateurist aesthetic, moral paralysis, paying documentary subjects, Lily Tomlin, and conservative politicians with big hair. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Sheila McClear
Posted on September 29, 2011 | No CommentsIn this one hour radio interview, Sheila McClear -- author of The Last of the Live Nude Girls -- describes the economic and psychological consequences of working a peep show. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Alexander Maksik
Posted on September 14, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 30 minute radio interview, novelist Alexander Maksik discusses You Deserve Nothing, his relationship with cities, and how to invent characters who live with a directionless viewpoint. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Alex Shakar
Posted on September 6, 2011 | 1 CommentCan a novelist be prescient about his own health? Does a novelist need to learn how to breathe to finish a book? In this 45 minute radio interview, Luminarium author Alex Shakar discusses these questions and more. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Lauren Beukes
Posted on September 1, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 30 minute radio interview, we talk with Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Lauren Beukes about Zoo City, whether or not she rolls on the ground when thinking about a fight scene, and being the "head writer" of your own novel. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Dana Spiotta II
Posted on August 24, 2011 | 2 CommentsIn this 45 minute conversation conducted before a packed audience, Dana Spiotta discusses Stone Arabia, multiple lives, and how art and specific life choices can protect and define identity. -
The Bat Segundo Show: John Banville & Benjamin Black
Posted on August 15, 2011 | 2 CommentsIn this 45 minute radio interview, John Banville discusses the uselessness of book reviewers, not seeing human beings as the center of the universe, and writing as Banville and Benjamin Black. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Jesús Ángel García
Posted on August 2, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 50 minute radio interview, Jesus Angel Garcia discusses his novel badbadbad, sexual and religious possibilities, and how OKCupid can be used as a bona-fide research site. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Miranda July
Posted on July 26, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 20 minute radio interview, Miranda July discusses her latest movie, The Future, screaming out windows in real life, and outside forces that compel artists. -
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 Show: James Marsh
Posted on July 5, 2011 | No CommentsIn this 20 minute radio interview, Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker James Marsh discusses Project Nim, chimpanzees and language, and explains why he's so damn prickly. -
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: Janet Reitman
Posted on June 27, 2011 | 4 CommentsIn this one hour radio interview, journalist Janet Reitman discusses Inside Scientology, her comprehensive five-year investigation into the Church of Scientology. -
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. -
A Conversation with Susan Freinkel
Posted on June 9, 2011 | 2 CommentsIn this comprehensive 8,000 word interview, journalist Susan Freinkel discusses Plastic: A Toxic Love Story and the unseen and unconsidered impact of plastic upon our environment. -
The Bat Segundo Show: James Gleick
Posted on June 7, 2011 | 1 CommentIn this 40 minute radio interview, James Gleick discusses The Information, Claude Shannon, entropy, game theory, and the history of information. -
The Bat Segundo Show: Adam Hochschild
Posted on June 1, 2011 | 1 CommentIn this whirlwind 40 minute radio interview, historian Adam Hochschild discusses To End All Wars, World War I, pacifism, and relativistic courage.