Book Banter: a podliography of book review podcasts

KCRW Bookworm Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 11:17:00 +0000

Find in a library near you: You don't love me yet, by Jonathan Lethem

You Don’t Love Me Yet (Doubleday)
The pleasures of the lightweight and the free-spirited: Jonathan Lethem on the undiscovered bands; the well-attended, high-concept art events; and the fluky twenty- and thirty-somethings of Silverlake, L.A.

Read an excerpt from You Don't Love Me Yet.

Listen to this Bookworm Podcast

ABC Podcast: John Berger

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:14:00 +0000

John Berger's political way of seeing
John Berger is a novelist, storyteller, poet, screenwriter, and art critic. His 1972 BBC series and book Ways of Seeing made an enormous impact as a reaction to Kenneth Clark's series on art Civilisation. Now 80, his new book is Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and Resistance and it's a series of reflections written between 2001 and 2006, arising from contemporary political moments -- London in the aftermath of the July 7 bombings, New Orleans after its destruction by Hurricane Katrina, New York after 9/11, and the Middle Eastern troubles, from Bagdad to Gaza.

Listen to this Australian Broadcasting Corporation Podcast

"Ain't it a crime" - Words at Large looks at crime fiction

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:50:00 +0000

Words at Large features the best in books on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio One. Feature interviews with authors, discussions about themes and all kinds of other tidbits make up this weekly podcast. This program takes a look at Crime Fiction. Words at Large looks at this hot genre covering a range of books from Elmore Leonard to the recent wave of Norwegian Mysteries.

Listen to this Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Podcast

A Words at Large Q&A with Barbara Fradkin, Arthur Ellis Award winning author of the Inspector Green series.

The Book Show: Australian Broadcasting Podcast 17 Jul 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:02:00 +0000

Kevin Brockmeier's The Brief History of the Dead
American writer Kevin Brockmeier's contemporary novel The Brief History of the Dead takes place in two places: in Antartica on Earth, and in a place called The City, where people go when they die. Find in a library near you.

Desert writers' walk ... the Larapinta Trail
Travel writer Robyn Davidson says that she was transformed by her experience of trekking across the desert.

First Person - Life Class: The Education of a Biographer
As a young woman, Brenda takes a job that is to be the beginning of her long career as an academic and as a biographer. Find books by Brenda Niall near you

Listen to this Australian Broadcasting Podcast

The Beat - KOUW Podcast - 16 July 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 09:58:00 +0000

"Baseball is more than just a national pastime—for many, it’s a religion. Today on The Beat, Christopher Evans shares the doctrine of the Diamond. Also, Port Angeles poet Tess Gallagher about how the seen caresses the unseen when we reach out to loved ones who have died."

Listen to this KOUW Podcast

New York Times Book Review Podcast - 13 July 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:18:00 +0000

This week: Jennifer Senior on books about Hillary Rodham Clinton; David Margolick on “1967,” by Tom Segev; Julie Just on children’s books; and Dwight Garner, senior editor, with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, is the host.

Find in a library near you: 1967 : Israel, the war, and the year that transformed the Middle East by Tom Segev

Listen to this New York Times Book Review Podcast

The Book Show for 16 Jul 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:06:00 +0000

The poetry of JS Harry
Jan Harry, or JS Harry as she is known, has been described by Peter Porter as 'the most arresting poet working in Australia today'. Her work clearly challanges the form, because other reviewers have said that reading one Harry poem 'is no guarantee that you will make sense of the next'.
Comic book appreciation
Poet Dorothy Parker confessed to loving them, novelist John Updike was greatly influenced by them and EE Cummings said they were a 'living ideal' superior to 'mere reality'. And they were talking about comics!
Excess Baggage and Claim (review)
Excess Baggage and Claim is a literary cross-cultural pairing of the poets, Singaporese Cyril Wong and Australian Terry Jaensch. It pounds the pavement of Singapore's karaoke scene and evokes gay love and desire. Read Transcript
First Person - Life Class: The Education of a Biographer
Brenda Niall has taught Australian literature at the ANU and Monash University, and has also held visiting fellowships at a number of American universities, including Yale. Her books include biographies of Martin Boyd, the Boyd Family and Judy Cassab. She's received many awards, including the Order of Australia in 2004. Since retiring from academia she's written full time, and is a frequent reviewer for various publications, including Australian Book Review.

Listen to this Australian Broadcasting Corporation Podcast

Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:50:00 +0000

Find in a library near you: Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer

Exerpt from Boston Globe Review:

If you're unclear as to how the singer of a long-defunct punk-rock band came to merit an honor guard from his local constabulary, Chris Salewicz's large and generously comprehensive "Redemption Song" will set you straight. Strummer was born John Mellor in 1952, in Ankara, Turkey, the son of a British diplomat. With the advent of punk he reinvented himself, and from 1976 to its breakup in 1985 he fronted the Clash, so embodying the ragged, big-hearted energy of the band that its demise virtually guaranteed him a long spell in what he would refer to as "the wilderness." Journalist Salewicz (dubbed "Sandwich" by Strummer, who had a pet name for everyone) was along for the ride, a bobbing head at the first Clash shows and subsequently a lifelong friend to his troubled hero. Read Full review

Listen to this NPR Books podcast

The Clash
Strummer

Boys of 67 by Charles Jones - author interview

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 14:00:00 +0000

Find near you: Boys of '67 : from Vietnam to Iraq : the extraordinary story of a few good men by Charles Jones

Summary: This sweeping saga of the United States Marine Corps follows the careers of a group of young second lieutenants from their baptism of fire in Vietnam through the Cold War and to the current insurgency in Iraq.

Related podcast:

Pritzker Military Library interview of the author Charles Jones (aired 07/12/2007)

Listen to podcast

Charles Jones

Interview with Tim Weiner author of Legacy of Ashes

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:27:00 +0000

Legacy of ashes : the history of the Central Intelligence Agency by Tim Weiner

Summary from book jacket: "For the last sixty years, the CIA has managed to maintain a formidable reputation in spite of a terrible record. Its inability to understand the world has started wars and undermined the White House. It has spun presidents, policymakers, and the American people in order to preserve its own power. LEGACY OF ASHES is the definitive history of the CIA, from the end of World War II to the battle for Baghdad. It is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA, and a decade of interviews with hundreds of CIA officers, including every living Director of Central Intelligence. Everything in this book is on the record. There are no anonymous sources, no blind quotations."

Extract of Book Review from the Houston Chronicle published 6 July:

"From its founding after World War II the CIA sometimes considered "eliminating" those considered a threat to U.S. national security. But in 1975 it looked as if the agency itself might face elimination as news of its dirty operations and information-gathering failures began leaking out to the public.
With Gerald Ford as a caretaker president after the impeachment of Richard M. Nixon, an era of clean (or cleaner) government seemed possible. Ford jettisoned William Colby as CIA director and asked a Texan, George H.W. Bush, to assume the job." Full book review

Listen to Podcast
C-Span Book TV Interview- After Words: Tim Weiner author of "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA" interviewed by David Ignatius

Tim Weiner
Legacy of Ashes
CIA

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 12:57:00 +0000

Technorati Profile

Interview with Richard Ford discussing his new book: Lay of the Land

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:23:00 +0000

Lay of the Land by Richard Ford

"This final part of Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe trilogy occupies much the same terrain as The Sportswriter (1986) and the Pulitzer-winning Independence Day (1996) - the same peregrinations around suburban New Jersey, the same pondering of big questions disguised as small ones, the same hard-thought philosophies disguised as uplifting, small-town nostrums. But no one can complain about that." UK Guardian Review

Listen to author interview podcast

richard ford