Episode 533: Ten Minutes with Paul Park

Ten minutes with… is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they’re reading right now and what’s getting them through these difficult times.

Multiple award-nominated novelist Paul Park discusses reading the Book of Mormon in preparation for his new novel, the challenges of writing about a society with no recognition of gender (including the problem of pronouns), reading about the Dreyfuss affair, serializing a 14-part story on his Facebook page, and a possible new collection of short fiction.

Books mentioned include:

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Episode 532: Ten Minutes with S. Qiouyi Lu

Ten minutes with… is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they’re reading right now and what’s getting them through these difficult times.

Today Jonathan chats with S. Qiouyi Lu about being highly prolific during the pandemic, the pleasures of immersive reading, reading work in translation (especially in Chinese), the growth in diverse voices, how changing times impact on stories, the recently announced novella In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu, and much more.

Books mentioned include:

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Episode 531: On reading and re-reading speculative fiction

Jonathan and Gary are back with their usual laser-like focus on a single important topic–or maybe not. Starting at the recent release of the trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Dune, which has many of us looking back at Frank Herbert’s classic novel, they touch upon re-reading old favourites, books that are genuinely sui generis and whether they have a lasting influence, other books that caused us to rethink the possibilities of SFF, “classics” or classic ideas that really don’t hold up that well, and of course what they’ve been reading lately and might be thinking about for the Locus recommended reading list, which we’ll both need to start working on in next month.

Episode 530: Ten Minutes with Julie Phillips

Ten minutes with… is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they’re reading right now and what’s getting them through these difficult times.

Award-winning critic and biographer Julie Phillips talks about listening to audiobooks while biking in Amsterdam, enjoying Martha Wells’s Murderbot series, reviewing classic American books newly translated into Dutch, her own fondness for Willa Cather, and her current biographical work on women authors as mothers (including Doris Lessing) and her biography-in-progress of Ursula K. Le Guin.

Books mentioned include:

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Episode 529: Ten Minutes with Ruoxi Chen

Ten minutes with… is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they’re reading right now and what’s getting them through these difficult times.

Today Jonathan calls up Tordotcom Publishing editor Ruoxi Chen to chat about revisiting all-time favourites and how re-reading can help keep editors in touch with the readers they need to be, the therapeutic values of disaster nonfiction, dipping into audiobooks, the state of speculative fiction and why there’s a lot to be optimistic about, and a lot more.

Books mentioned include:

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…unavoidable stuff from jonathan strahan…