Do you read seasonally? Does weather affect your choices in what you want to read? This was a burning question for Nicole so we chatted about how the changing seasons may or may not affect what we read. Patti Callahan Henry joins us to talk about Christmas books.
Books Mentioned in this Meeting:
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Old Border Road by Susan Froderberg
My Family, A Symphony by Aaron Eske
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
A Perfect Love Song by Patti Callahan Henry
When Light Breaks by Patti Callahan Henry
Show Notes (SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!)
:15 Nicole introduces the show and why she’s interested in the idea of reading during different seasons
:53 Amy explains why she’s a seasonal reader
1:32 Nicole doesn’t get it
2:35 Amy tries to explain it again
4:43 Nicole talks about Harrowing Historicals and how it didn’t add to her Halloween celebration
5:29 Amy explains how she likes to read Christmas books at Christmas time
6:48 Amy laughs. Again.
7:34 Nicole introduces Patti Callahan Henry
8:30 Patti talks about her new book, A Perfect Love Song and the rush of the season
10:53 Patti talks about writing A Perfect Love Song
13:26 Patti talks about stories and how they build
16:33 Patti and Amy discover a common bond
17:00 Patti shares some Christmas stories she’s enjoyed and we chat the history of Christmas stories
25:18 Amy previews Old Border Road by Susan Froderberg
26:46 Nicole previews My Family, A Symphony by Aaron Eske
28:38 Nicole talks about reading A Discovery of Witches
31:00 Amy admits she’s weather driven
As always, we can be contacted at undergroundliterarysociety@gmail.com
Posted in: Uncategorized.
So it’s true. I love zombies. And I can’t help but notice I’m not alone in this mad crazy love. To get the scoop on just why zombies are so popular and to get a glimpse inside the minds of the creators, Nicole and I chatted with Mira Grant, author of Feed, and Jesse Petersen, author of Married with Zombies and Flip This Zombie. Enjoy!
00:00 Zombies…Yay!
00:26 Zombies Are Amy’s Favorite Monsters
01:30 Night of the Living Dead/ Amy Makes Zombie Noises
04:00 The Forest of Hands and Teeth
07:15 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the Appeal of Mash-ups
11:00 Zombies Are Not Sexy… Like Vampires
12:00 zombie Books Amy Has Read
14:50 Nicole Goes On ANd On About The Grossness of The Strain
17:45 Mira Grant tells us about Feed
18:49 What Attracted Mira to Zombie Culture
19:30 Blogging and Bloggers in Feed
22:30 Zombie Books That Have Been An Inspiration for Mira
22:40 Mira Tells Us Why Zombie Culture Is so appealing
26:22 jesse Peterson tells us About Married W/ Zombies
27:18 How Jesse Started Writing about Zombies
28:42 The Literature that Jesse into Zombies
29:40 What purpose do Zombies serve in current pop culture
33:13 Amy Makes Zombie Noises Again, and Nicole leaves them In
Books Discussed in this Podcast
Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen
Feed by Mira Grant
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters, Jane Austen
Little Women and Werewolves by Porter Grand and Louisa May Alcott
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
Play Dead by Ryan Brown
Dust by Joan Frances Turner
Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
The Strain by Chuck Hogan & Guillermo del Toro
The Zombie Combat Manual: A Guide to Fighting the Living Dead by Roger Ma
Max Brooks’ books about zombies
Movies and TV Discussed
The Night Of Living Dead
The Night of the Comet
Zombieland
Shaun of the Dead
The Walking Dead
Posted in: Uncategorized.
November had a fantastic selection of books comes out and we showcase them in the eleventh meeting of the society! Additionally, we chat with Jillian Cantor about her book, The Transformation of Things.
We also discuss:
Rescue by Anita Shreve
How Music Works by John Powell
Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry the VIII by Giles Tremlett
The Autobiography of Mark Twain
A Christmas Carol: A Pop-Up Book by Charles Dickens, Chuck Fischer
Clinton Street Baking Company Cookbook: Breakfast, Brunch, and Beyond from New York’s Favorite Neighborhood Restaurant by Neil Kleinberg, Diana H. Lahman, Michael Harlan Turkell
Don’t forget you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes!
Posted in: Uncategorized.
Thanksgiving is a significant holiday in the United States but it rarely makes an appearance in literature. Nicole and I discuss some of the appearances it does make, the history of the holiday, and the way history is taught in the United States. We are also joined by Jennifer Vanderbes to talk about her book, Strangers at the Feast which is set on Thanksgiving Day in 2007.
Books we talk about in the podcast:
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting
Chester I Love You by Blaine M. Yorgason and Brenton G. Yorgason
Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovich
Lies My Teacher Told: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
And of course Jennifer Vanderbes’s Strangers at the Feast.
Posted in: Uncategorized.
Having lived in Japan myself, I’m always interested in how people cope with the experience of this country. Additionally some fantastic literature comes from Japan. We discuss the appeal of this country for both readers and writers with special guests Malena Watrous and Wendy Tokunaga. Is the food? The clothes? The fashion? Listen and find out.
Books We Discuss:
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Sano Ichiro books by Laura Joh Rowland
Silence by Shusaku Endo
Love in Translation by Wendy Tokunaga
If You Follow Me by Malena Watrous
Posted in: Uncategorized.
The mother daughter relationship is one of the most compelling and explored topics in literature. Whether the mother or the daughter is adored, reviled, absent, whether the bonds are strong or fraught with tension, the ramifications on a life are often inescapable.
In this meeting of the Underground, Amy and I share some of the most memorable mother daughter relationships that we have encountered. We then talk to Susan Gregg Gilmore (
The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove) and Margaret Dilloway (
How To Be An American Housewife) about the mother daughter relationships that they have explored in their novels and the mother daughter pairs who have inspired them.
Books Discussed In This Podcast
16.00 - Susan Gregg Gilmore, The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove
27.00 – Margaret Dilloway, How To Be An American Housewife
Posted in: Meetings.
A New York Times Article on self-publishing published in 2009 indicates that 480,000 titles were published or distributed in 2008. That is a staggering 40,000 books per month, and I imagine that the numbers have only gone up. The list of books that Amy and I put together is in no way exhaustive or exhausted (as I say in the podcast), but they are a few of the books that we were excited to see published in and around the month of October.
Before we got to the main unveiling of te books on our October lists, we chatted about seasonal reading and shared some of our current reads.
The Strain, by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan
Doors Open, by Ian Rankin
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
And then…on to the main event.
October Book Showcase
The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner
The Good Sister, by Drusilla Campbell
Blindness of the Heart, Julia Franck
Rebel Yell, by Alice Randall
Bright Young Things, byAnna Godberson
George Eliot In Love, by Brenda Maddox
The Unidentified, by Rae Mariz
The Countess, by Rebecca Johns
The Charlatan’s Boy, by Jonathan Rogers
The World Is Bigger Now, by Euna Lee & Lisa Dickey
World and Town, by Gish Jen
Great House, by Nicole Krauss
Posted in: Meetings.
There’s nothing spookier this time of year than things that go bump in the night…or ghosts. We checked in with Karen Bence and Deborah Noyes about the popularity of ghosts and whether or not they believe. What they have to share may frighten you! Listen if you dare…..
Books discussed in this podcast:
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
The House on Hackman’s Hill by Joan Lowery Nixon
Spook by Mary Roach
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by Deborah Blum
And of course the books by Underground Lit Society Members:
Captivity by Deborah Noyes
Midnight Revelations by Karen Bence
Posted in: Uncategorized.
The popularity of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy has us wondering what the appeal is of these mysteries set in different locations and how can we get our hands on more. We took these questions to Jen Forbus of Jen’s Book Thoughts and Swedish author Ake Edwardson. Their insights on just why the crime genre is a great one has us eager to read even more.
Authors discussed in this meeting include:
R.J. Ellory
Ken Bruen
Reed Farrel Coleman
Simon Lewis
Craig Johnson
Timothy Hallinan
James Thompson
Arianna Franklin
Zoe Ferraris
And of course, The Shadow Woman by Ake Edwardson.
Posted in: Meetings.
The classics are known and loved by many but do they tell the whole story? Why do these stories continue to live on in our minds years later? We discuss the popular trend of reimagining classic works and take the chat to authors Karen Essex and Anne Fortier.
Books Discussed in the podcast:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Frankenstein’s Monster by Susan Heyboer O’Keefe
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Jane by April Lindner
The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Queen of Secrets by Jenny Meyerhoff
Dracula in Love by Karen Essex
Juliet by Anne Fortier
Dracula My Love by Syrie James
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare
The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall
Penelope’s Daughter by Laurel Corona
Homer’s Odyssey
Posted in: Uncategorized.
