Episode 14: All Systems Red by Martha Wells and Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

In This Episode

The Book Evangelists discuss All Systems Red by Martha Wells and Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Morning Chatter

Staying safer at home hasn’t led us to more frequent reading or more frequent podcasting. We are glad to be podcasting together today. Marian and Lissa are looking at the popularity of the novella as a form and a length. As longtime NaNoWriMo writers, we are both familiar with what a 50,000 word story can do.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

The description of All Systems Red by Martha Wells from goodreads.com:

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

The description of Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey from goodreads.com:

In Upright Women Wanted, award-winning author Sarah Gailey reinvents the pulp Western with an explicitly antifascist, near-future story of queer identity.

Are you a coward or are you a librarian?

“That girl’s got more wrong notions than a barn owl’s got mean looks.”

Esther is a stowaway. She’s hidden herself away in the Librarian’s book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her–a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda.

The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.

This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss and compare, All Systems Red by Martha Wells and Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey and our discussion in the podcast is filled with minor spoilers, so please read the books before you listen if you are into that kind of experience. We’ll be here for you when you finish!

Discussion

Marian’s Crackpot theory about novellas includes the cover price and size, magazine publishing trends, ebook publishing trends, and the shortening of attention spans.

Other recent novellas we recommend include:

Finna by Nino Cipri
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

“I need my dismemberment to be toward social justice and community change.” – Lissa, describing why the violence in both of these books is somehow palatable to her otherwise suspense and gore averse preferences.

Novellas leave room for other characters to have their own stories told in other novellas. Or sometimes they leave room for characters who are a huge presence on the page to continue to take up space in the reader’s imagination.

Upright Women Wanted followup book idea: “Cye and Esther’s Guide to Living on the Road” with lots of chapters about fighting fascism and also recipes. Lissa wants to read this. Someone please write it.

Coming Up

Next episode: Marian and Lissa will pitch their re-write or update or adaptation proposals of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and discuss whether we would truly ever want to rewrite/adapt a public domain book into a new story.

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

Episode 13: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

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In This Episode

The Book Evangelists discuss Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Morning Chatter

We haven’t talked about books as recently as we had hoped we would. We are very glad to be talking about books with each other now. Camp NaNoWriMo is happening, and writing is hard right now.

Book News! The Hugo finalists are announced and we are very pleased to have read so many of the nominees!

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

The description of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine from goodreads.com:

No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine. Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she’ll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.

Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . . the only way to survive is to open your heart.

This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman 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

Lissa’s favorite quote from the book Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine

More Discussion

Book Marketing: Who is this book for? How much do we trust genres or cover blurbs? How does our expectation match the reality of the book? Should readers be warned about issues books? How do readers react to books when they get into the story and find that they aren’t ready for this particular book?

Writing “Unlikeable” characters

Is Eleanor relatable?
Is she realistic?
Did your feelings about her change over the course of the book?
Who does it seem like Eleanor is modeled on?
How are characters informed and inspired? How much does the reader bring to their unique interpretation?
How unreliable is Eleanor as a narrator?

“I liked the sad parts. They helped me have my feelings. That’s what books do.”
Lissa describing …. pretty much the entire book

Nobody’s ever in a finished place.
Marian describing…very smart things about the theme of this book and also real life.

Coming Up

Next episode: Marian and Lissa are looking at the popularity of the novella as a form and a length. As longtime NaNoWriMo writers, we both familiar with what a 50,000 word story can do. We will read and discuss All Systems Red by Martha Wells and Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey.

Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here?

Episode 12: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

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In This Episode

The Book Evangelists discuss The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

The Ten Thousand Doors of January – such a pretty cover!

Morning Chatter

Marian participated in the recent #revpit event about query letters/ Revise & Resub (#RevPit) is a Twitter writing community co-founded in 2017 by a group of editors. It supports authors by offering editing-focused chats and mini-events throughout the year as well as an annual contest wherein querying authors can win feedback and edits on their full manuscripts from professional editors, ensuring their works are polished and ready for agent inboxes.

We discuss techniques to try when you feel like you are in a reading slump.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow is described at goodreads.com:

In the early 1900s, a young woman embarks on a fantastical journey of self-discovery after finding a mysterious book in this captivating and lyrical debut.

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place.

Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

Lush and richly imagined, a tale of impossible journeys, unforgettable love, and the enduring power of stories awaits in Alix E. Harrow’s spellbinding debut–step inside and discover its magic.

This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow 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

“The will to be polite, to maintain civility and normalcy, is fearfully strong. I wonder sometimes how much evil is permitted to run unchecked simply because it would be rude to interrupt it.”
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

More Discussion

Book Marketing: If you have a book like this with complicated secrets that you can’t give away in the jacket copy – how do you convince other people to read it? How much do we trust cover blurbs? Do we need cover blurbs or can author twitter substitute for that in helping us find books we would love from other author’s recommendations? Where is reader twitter and how do we decide which recommendations to trust? How does “word of mouth” work?

Author: Alix E. Harrow website

Learning: How does learning work outside of academia? Is learning by doing enough? Is learning in the evaluation and reflection even when it seems intuitive?

Theme: This book has a clear one, but it doesn’t beat us over the head with it.

Re-Reading: Lissa says yes. Because reasons that would be spoilers. And spoilers are in the podcast, not here.

Coming Up

Next episode: Marian and Lissa are trying Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman which comes highly recommended from a podcast listener! (Thank you!)

Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here?

Episode 11: Best Books of 2019 and Reading Reflections

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In This Episode

The Book Evangelists discuss their Best Books of 2019 and reflect on their reading habits.

Best Books of 2019 – Marian

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson – non-fiction “I just love this book!”
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Additional mentions:

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Fire and Heist by Sarah Beth Durst
Fawkes by Nadine Brandes
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Best Books of 2019 – Lissa

What We Talk About When We Talk About Books by Leah Price
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
This is How We Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Things Lissa read in 2019 that she wouldn’t normally have tried:

Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues by Molly Harper
Picnic by William Inge
Dune by Frank Herbert
Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi (the first 80% of it)

Marian: I’m very surprised to see that of my five favorite books of 2019, three of them are science fiction books.

Lissa: I know, right?!? What is happening to us?

Best Books of 2019 that I didn’t get around to reading. Yet. (Lissa’s list at work)

Lissa’s Instagram feed is her inefficient yet meaningful place to track the best books she read last year….

These books are coming out in 2020! We are excited!

Keep Moving by Maggie Smith
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
The Last Emperox by John Scalzi
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
All Systems Red by Martha Wells

2020 Reading Resolutions

Lissa’s resolution: Buy and Read More Print Books and Read Them Intentionally (Not in my Bed!) and Write in the Margins.

Marian’s resolution: Read More and Better Poetry. Join a Book Group.

Marian’s resolution FOR LISSA: You should read the Murderbot novellas. And listen to Lockwood and Co.

Lissa’s resolution FOR MARIAN: Reflect on what you read more. The learning is in the reflection. And I think you should try a John Scalzi novel. You can pick which one.

Cover blurbs are the print version of author twitter.
Lissa

Coming Up

Next episode: The Book Evangelists will discuss The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here?

Episode 10: NaNoWriMo 2019 Wrap Up and CozyPunk Reads

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In This Episode

The Book Evangelists discuss their NaNoWriMo 2019 experiences along with the books This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

NaNoWriMo 2019 Wrap Up

#NaNoWriMo2019 has concluded and it is now December. And here we are.

Doing is good, but the learning is in the reflection.

How did it go?
Did you write what you said you were going to write?
What did you learn? How was this year unique?

Plansting means I think I am writing one thing and then it turns into something else partway through the month. – Lissa

Marian wrote the first 50,000 words of a British historical mystery novel with Egyptology and various levels of success in the advanced plotting. Lissa wrote 51,000 words of a story that started out writing about a woman who creates “Book Club for One” and then another reader joins, 15 years later. And then I added the “Narrator” of both of their stories, as a social worker type of influence in their stories/lives, manipulating them from outside, and then their Narrator got harried with additional workload and sent an ancient copper dragon straight from the D&D 5e Monster Manual to Topeka and the story got….a little bit different and a little bit better. And in the end, most of my novel was about how being in a book club is very very good and also how we all deserve agency in our own lives and our own stories.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is described at goodreads.com:

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.
And thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more.
Except discovery of their bond would be death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That’s how war works. Right?
goodreads.com

This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone 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 and Discussion

“ There’s a kind of time travel in letters, isn’t there? I imagine you laughing at my small joke; I imagine you groaning; I imagine you throwing my words away. Do I have you still? Do I address empty air and the flies that will eat this carcass? You could leave me for five years, you could return never—and I have to write the rest of this not knowing.”
― from This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Marian perfectly captured why it was so hard for Lissa to talk about why she loves This is How You Lose the Time War when she shared the idea of “Meals and Snacks” from the Malcolm Gladwell MasterClass. People don’t talk about things (movies, books etc) the same way they think about them. In conversation we cling to the little “snack” moments that are easy to transmit to others, but that is different than the bits that we mull and savor over a longer period of time. As writers, we include both snacks and meals so that consumers can use what we write on multiple levels. Lissa wants to annotate a copy of the book with her friends so we can all share the jokes, but also mull over and savor the book on her own, for a long time.

When Lissa hear about this concept of Machinebrain and Gardenbrain from Brad Rourk last week, she thought — it’s Red! and Blue! And she was very glad to be at a training to learn how to be better at Forestbrain.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers is described at goodreads.com:

Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe—in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.
Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.
Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.
from goodreads.com

We agree that this book gives us SO MANY well developed characters:

Ashby – captain
Sissix – pilot
Kizzy – tech
Jenks – tech
Lovey – AI
Dr Chef – doctor and chef
Rosemary – clerk
Corbin – algaeist
Ohan – navigator
Pei – Ashby’s secret partner

“She was exactly where she was supposed to be.”
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

What spinoff projects did we propose during this podcast?

The cookbook/craft book based on The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Marian will work on the recipe for smokey buns and Lissa will knit a hat for fix bots. Maybe.
This book is the first in a series! We have more stories to read!

Coming Up

Next episode: The Book Evangelists will discussing 2019 in reading and our plans, hopes, and dreams for 2020.

Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here?

Episode 9: NaNoWriMo Prep

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In This Episode

The Book Evangelists discuss National Novel Writing Month — NaNoWriMo and why YOU should write a novel this November.

Morning Chatter

Note: In the last episode we promised we were going to discuss nonfiction. Clearly, that has changed. This is what happens when you let two NaNoWriMo fanatics have a podcast. Because we are well into #NaNoPrep.

National Novel Writing Month

To participate, you write 50,000 words of fiction in the 30 days of November. Sign up at nanowrimo.org.

Lissa and Marian both think NaNoWriMo is the best thing ever.

Lissa has been writing November novels every year since 2003.

Marian has won every year since 2012.

Tips and Techniques for Winning NaNoWriMo

“Let me give you the tricks I know of, in hopes that you give me the tricks you know of, in hopes that we both can trick ourselves into writing novels.” – Lissa
“I think the big thing is just never never never never quit.” – Marian
“Put your butt in your chair. Try to have a big word count day.” – Marian

Coming Up

Next episode: We will discuss The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers and This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone and

Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here?

Episode 8: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

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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”

Lissa has been comfort reading including a witty new Eloisa James regencies and The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie is described at goodreads.com:

Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside.

Isolated and with a killer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot must identify the murderer – in case he or she decides to strike again.

And alternate description of the book at goodreads.com said simply:

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, 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

“I like to see an angry Englishman,” said Poirot. “They are very amusing. The more emotional they feel the less command they have of language.”
― Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express

Bonus Content for This Book

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? and Lissa commits to try listening to the audiobook based on a 20 year old promise to her roommate from library grad school (Hi, Patrick!).

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.

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis has a time-travel historian character we both love, although only Lissa has named a child after the main character.

“Snapshot of your Character” handout that Lissa made for NaNoWrimo a few years ago to help keep track of what a character knows at a moment in time.

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!

You heard it hear first: Lounging around and reading a lot of books is a great way to prepare for NaNoWrimo.

Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here?

Episode 7: The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders Show Notes

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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.

Morning Chatter

We did all of our chattering before we started the podcast so let us tell you directly here in the Show Notes that school has started for our various children and that Lissa appreciates SO MUCH that Marian is just a little bit ahead on all of the parenting challenges and can share her wisdom and experience.

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders at Goodreads

“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!

This is the quote Lissa used to celebrate her new job title “Community Connections Librarian”

Quotes

“I need to learn to belong to other people the way everyone else seems to, with one hand in the wind.” – from The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

“Every community has a need that is cannot meet in itself. The more they say they do not need us, the harder we must try to become what they need most.” – from The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

“A big thing in the Citizens was, we were all responsible for each other … Sometimes that meant that anybody who wasn’t us could eat shit. But we tried to be generous, and the interdependence was part of the teachings.” – from The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

“You might mistake understanding for forgiveness, but if you did, then the unforgiven wrong would catch you off guard, like a cramp, just as you reached for generosity.” – from The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

“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

Here’s the succinct wording Lissa couldn’t remember during the quotes discussion: “Nothing About Us Without Us!” is a slogan used to communicate the idea that no policy should be decided by any representative without the full and direct participation of members of the groups affected by that policy.

Characters and Places

Places

How does the world-building work? How are these places described?

January
Xiophante
Argelo
The City in the Middle of the Night

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 surprised us?

Sophie
Mouth
Bianca
Alyssa
Hernan
Barney
Crocodiles/Gelet

Oh, Bianca….we could talk about her all day.

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

This was Lissa’s favorite quote on her first read-through. Because this is a self-help book about boundaries.

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

Coming Up

In this episode, we also referenced A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and The Death of the Moth by Annie Dillard.

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 and discuss what we can get from this book that will help Marian write a better novel in November.

Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here?

Episode 6: Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett Show Notes

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Download Episode 6

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 right book exactly, at exactly the right time.” Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

When Marian asked Lissa how she gets great book recommendations….

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett at Goodreads

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.
description from the publisher

This blog post 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. We’ll be here for you when you finish!

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
- Unfettered capitalism
- How marginalizing people causes the loss of talent
- 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?

“Every innovation—technological, sociological, or otherwise—begins as a crusade, organizes itself into a practical business, and then, over time, degrades into common exploitation. This is simply the life cycle of how human ingenuity manifests in the material world. What goes forgotten, though, is that those who partake in this system undergo a similar transformation: people begin as comrades and fellow citizens, then become labor resources and assets, and then, as their utility shifts or degrades, transmute into liabilities, and thus must be appropriately managed.”
Robert Jackson Bennett, Foundryside

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? Would Lissa alter her body or her reality to create an electronic book reading communication tool to connect to others who are enjoying the same book at the same time? Can Lissa invent this? And will you still subscribe to our podcast if this invention becomes wildly successful and we buy an island to read on?

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?

Camp NaNoWriMo for July – listen in to hear how creatively we both failed!

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. What else would you like to see here?

Episode 5: Dodger by Terry Pratchett Show Notes

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Download Episode 5

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

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.

Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here?