The Book Evangelists - Reading and Writing Will Save Us All

In This Episode The Book Evangelists discuss Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie Morning Chatter #NaNoPrep has begun. We discuss the new NaNoWriMo stuff, which Lissa already has! "These are the traditions in my house, you order it the first day it's announced, and you use it all as soon as it comes. It's like a kid on Christmas but it happens right after Labor Day every year and it's beautiful." -Lissa "Every year before NaNoWriMo starts, I pre-order the winners tshirt because notoriously I won't wear it unless I win and make 50,000 words because I'm ethical, but I'm also cheap, and I don't want to have spent the money on something I can never wear. So this causes me to succeed every year, just for the tshirt." Marian explaining "The Marian Rakestraw challenge" Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie is described at goodreads.com: What more can a mystery addict desire than a much-loathed murder victim found aboard the luxurious Orient Express with multiple stab wounds, thirteen likely suspects, an incomparably brilliant detective in Hercule Poirot, and the most ingenious crime ever conceived? This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie in detail and our discussion in the podcast is filled with minor and major spoilers. This book is famous enough to have been made into at least 3 movies and has more than 19,000 Goodreads ratings. If you are listening to the audiobook, you should know THERE IS A MAP OF THE TRAIN CAR in the print book. Also, you can easily find many online resources about the real train The Orient Express now and historically. What cheats are allowed in detective novels? • We aren't sure yet. But we enjoy discussing it. Also, spoilers. • Which elements are the clues? • What does the author gift herself? • What does the author gift the reader? To further study cozy mystery novels for comparison, Marian is rereading Dorothy L. Sayers' Whose Body? Old Book Problems "I'm from a hometown that has something called the "Italian Fest" and stabbing with knives has never been part of that culture that they celebrated...and I've never heard that Italians might stab people with knives. So I was glad that if that was going to be part of how the detectives were making their decisions that they explained the stereotypes to me." - Lissa "Everybody in this book is described by racial characteristics, or religious ones, or class ones." -Marian More Books We Discussed Lissa's knowledge of Agatha Christie mostly has come from repeatedly reading To Say Nothing of the Dog; or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump At Last by Connie Willis, and we both highly recommend it. Although you should read Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome first. Marian is looking for a good beat sheet for outlining a mystery novel. She has tried Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel by Hallie Ephron and the "Whydunit" section of Save the Cat. Coming Up Next episode: Marian is reading Packing for Mars by Mary Roach and Lissa is reading Heartland by Sarah Smarsh and A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. How can reading non-fiction make us better fiction writers? Would we ever consider writing non-fiction books ourselves? Listen in to find out! Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here? Music Credit: The music used during transitions in our podcast is adapted from: Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/58382 Ft: geoffpeters

In This Episode The Book Evangelists discuss The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders as part of reading and listening to the 5-star SF/FF audiobooks and books that we have recommended to each other recently. Lissa has been talking up this book constantly for six months and claims it is a climate change tidally-locked planet #hopepunk found family snuggling book. "If you control our sleep, then you can own our dreams... And from there, it's easy to control our entire lives." Set on a planet that has fully definitive, never-changing zones of day and night, with ensuing extreme climates of endless, frigid darkness and blinding, relentless light, humankind has somehow continued apace -- though the perils outside the built cities are rife with danger as much as the streets below. But in a world where time means only what the ruling government proclaims, and the levels of light available are artificially imposed to great consequence, lost souls and disappeared bodies are shadow-bound and savage, and as common as grains of sand. And one such pariah, sacrificed to the night, but borne up by time and a mysterious bond with an enigmatic beast, will rise to take on the entire planet--before it can crumble beneath the weight of human existence. description from the publisher This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders in detail and our discussion in the podcast is filled with minor and major spoilers, so please read the book before you listen if you are into that kind of experience. We'll be here for you when you finish! Quotes from The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/64654648-the-city-in-the-middle-of-the-night "I like that the quotes that you read -- they're all conflictual -- this is not a book where you can rally around one particular quote. One particular quote is not going to be enough for us to rally around. We're going to have to re-examine our thinking over and over and over." - Lissa Characters and Places How does the world-building work? How are these places described? January, Xiophante, Argelo, The City in the Middle of the Night Which characters do we like? Who scares us? Who is our favorite character? Who are we shipping together? Who do we worry about? Who surprised us? Sophie, Mouth, Bianca, Alyssa, Hernan, Barney, Crocodiles/Gelet Science Fiction as Self-Help This is a good self-help book for learning more about: Friendships, Love, Betrayal, Boundaries, Trust, and people using each other for good or using each other for bad. This book illustrates all of those things really, truly. "People don't hurt each other enough in traditional romance novels to have the level of depth that this book has." - Lissa's endorsement for why reading The City in the Middle of the Night is better, post-divorce, than reading her typical stack of escapist romance novels Subscribing to Their Newsletters As all good readers know, when you really like the author's book, sometimes you might check out their website, their twitter, their podcast, their agent.....because those are all source of additional book news and recommendations! Lissa's subscribed to DongWon Song's newsletter Publishing is Hard (and loves it!) Lissa starting listening to Charlie Jane Anders podcast Our Opinions are Correct at least 10 days before it won the Hugo for Best Fancast and Marian had it queued up. #earlyadopters Next episode: Marian is preparing to possibly write a cozy mystery. So, for next time, we will read an Agatha Christie novel, specifically Murder on the Orient Express. Music Credit: The music used during transitions in our podcast is adapted from: Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/58382 Ft: geoffpeters

In This Episode: The Book Evangelists discuss Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett Morning Chatter: In which we briefly discuss the joys and potential perils of recommending books to friends or potential friends. How do you choose which books to recommend to others? What if they don't like the recommendation? What if you don't like someone else's recommendation? What are Marian's favorite books to recommend to others? What will Lissa say honestly if she doesn't like your book recommendation? The publisher description of Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett: Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic--the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience--have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine. But if they can unlock the artifact’s secrets, they will rewrite the world itself to suit their aims. Now someone in those Houses wants Sancia dead, and the artifact for themselves. And in the city of Tevanne, there’s nobody with the power to stop them. To have a chance at surviving—and at stopping the deadly transformation that’s under way—Sancia will have to marshal unlikely allies, learn to harness the artifact’s power for herself, and undergo her own transformation, one that will turn her into something she could never have imagined. This description is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett in detail and our discussion in the podcast is filled with minor and major spoilers, so please read the book before you listen if you are into that kind of experience. Characters Which characters do we like? Who scares us? Who is our favorite character? Who are we shipping together? Who do we worry about? Who do we hope appears in the second book in this trilogy? You think you know what people's motivations are, but then you find out more or it changes. Who surprised us? • Sancia Grado • Gregor Dandolo • Ofelia Dandolo • Orso • Berenice • Claudia and Giovanni • Estelle Candiano • Tomas Candiano • Clef! World Building What do we learn about the magic in this very scientific world? What do we learn about politics from a world without laws? • Themes o Unfettered capitalism o How marginalizing people causes the loss of talent o PTSD and the lasting effects of trauma This is the first book in a trilogy. Will you read book 2? Book 3? Do you think authors owe readers the ending they are hoping for? Writing and Reading Experiments WHY aren't more people talking about how great this book is? Where is the hidden corner of the Internet where people are fangirling over Foundryside and should we join those social media platforms so that we can connect with the other readers who loved this book? What are we learning from this book? How do I grow up to be that good of a writer? Could you write the middle of a book and then show the build up in flash backs to write a cape/heist novel that way? Next episode: We are reading and listening to the 5-star SF/FF audiobooks and books that we have recommended to each other recently, possibly including the climate change tidally-locked planet #hopepunk found family snuggling book The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders. Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. http://thebookevangelists.com Music Credit: The music used during transitions in our podcast is adapted from: Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/58382 Ft: geoffpeters

In This Episode: The Book Evangelists discuss Dodger by Terry Pratchett Morning Chatter: In which we briefly discuss the disruptions of tornado warnings and completely fail to warn the listener that Lissa has banana bread baking in her oven. Dodger by Terry Pratchett at Goodreads: A storm. Rain-lashed city streets. A flash of lightning. A scruffy lad sees a girl leap desperately from a horse-drawn carriage in a vain attempt to escape her captors. Can the lad stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not, because he's...Dodger. Seventeen-year-old Dodger may be a street urchin, but he gleans a living from London's sewers, and he knows a jewel when he sees one. He's not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl--not even if her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England. From Dodger's encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery. Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett combines high comedy with deep wisdom in this tale of an unexpected coming-of-age and one remarkable boy's rise in a complex and fascinating world. description from the publisher This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss Dodger by Terry Pratchett and our discussion is filled with minor spoilers, so please read the book before you listen if you are into that kind of experience. We'll be here for you when you finish! • How do you decide to write about real historical people? Or to reuse other writer's fictional characters? • Why was Marian so excited to see Joseph Bazalgette show up as a character in this story? • As a reader, how do you decide whether to still read or like a book if you disagree with the author's twitter or media reports about their life? • How much does an editor affect the author's work? • What kind of legacy of notes and unfinished manuscripts will you leave behind at the end of your long and prosperous writer's life? How do those additional materials affect reader experience? • What now-long-dead authors would you follow on twitter if you could, to see their day to day thoughts? • How do book recommendations from authors work and why? • And for all of these things - how do we do these things better as writers for our own potential readers? Writing and Reading Experiments: Marian recommends: MasterClass, starting with Neil Gaiman Teaches The Art of Storytelling and has branched out to the Dan Brown and Billy Collins writing classes Lissa panics about the question "What are you Reading?" and will be reading Out Stealing Horses for a book club she leads. She admits she keeps going back to re-read The City in the Middle of the Night instead of reading new books because it is a book "about snuggling" and "about how you figure yourself out." Marian recommends All Systems Red by Martha Wells which has a self-aware murder robot. Next episode: We are reading and listening to the 5-star SF/FF audiobooks and books that we have recommended to each other recently, possibly including The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders and Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett.

In This Episode:The Book Evangelists discuss Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey Morning Chatter: In which we briefly discuss helping our children 3D print their homework. "I have persistence, which is like skills, by the time you finish." -Lissa And we explain how we failed to write our Camp NaNoWriMo projects. "April is the cruelest month." - Marian "Reading is awesome, you should just read." - Lissa "Well, there's always November, you can just recycle your idea then." - Marian Writing and Reading Experiments We both like to use writers challenges and hashtags on Instagram to reflect on and plan our writing projects. https://www.instagram.com/lissastaley/ https://www.instagram.com/marianrakestraw/ Lissa recommends: If you get really obsessed with a book you can go to twitter and find other people who are obsessed with the book. And then the author sees and joins in. Being a reader on twitter is the coolest. From @lissastaley she follows @charliejane and @scalzi and sometimes experiments with other writer's twitter feeds. Marian's brave experiment was joining #revpit on Twitter @marianrakestraw and actively interacting with other writers. She reports back on her survey of writer use of social media. Sometimes we leave the comfort of our reading and writing homes to interact with other writers. Marian attended a literature festival for teenagers, run by teenagers, called LitUp Festival and met multiple amazing authors including Gayle Forman and Jacqueline Woodson. Marian recommends: MasterClass, starting with Neil Gaiman Teaches The Art of Storytelling We reflect on signed copies of books, which books we keep, and sending books out into the world Around the 37 minute mark, we finally discuss Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey at Goodreads. Ivy Gamble has never wanted to be magic. She is perfectly happy with her life—she has an almost-sustainable career as a private investigator, and an empty apartment, and a slight drinking problem. It's a great life and she doesn't wish she was like her estranged sister, the magically gifted professor Tabitha. But when Ivy is hired to investigate the gruesome murder of a faculty member at Tabitha’s private academy, the stalwart detective starts to lose herself in the case, the life she could have had, and the answer to the mystery that seems just out of her reach. (description from the publisher) Our discussion doesn't give away the ending but is filled with minor spoilers, so please read the book before you listen if you are into that kind of experience. We'll be here for you when you finish! "It might take a little while to get there, but I'll tell you everything and I'll tell you the truth." the quote from Magic for Liars on tor.com twitter that pulled Lissa in so hard to reading this book. How Lissa chooses books: Unreliable narrator! It's mainstream fantasy! This will be interesting to read with Marian! "On the whole I was impressed, and we know I am not often impressed." Marian We really like this book. As readers. And as writers. We were both delightfully surprised. We talk about the parts we like. We have fun discussing how really original books might reach readers in traditional publishing. Marian: Where would I shelve this in the store? Fantasy? Hard boiled detective? It's very original. It's not like a book that I have read before. Intriguing us for possible future reads: River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (Also collected as American Hippo) Next episode: We are listening to the audiobook of Dodger by Terry Pratchett Find more at https://thebookevangelists.com/ Music Credit: The music used during transitions in our podcast is adapted from: Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/58382 Ft: geoffpeters