Lit with Charles

The 1930s Hollywood star Anna May Wong was a trailblazer in the Golden Age of Hollywood. While navigating the treacherous waters of racial prejudice, she carved a path to international fame, becoming the first Chinese-American bona fide Hollywood movie star.

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with author Katie Gee Salisbury, who’s written a biography of Anna May Wong called Not Your China Doll, published earlier this year to huge acclaim.

In today’s episode, Katie and I discuss, as always, the four books which have most shaped her as a writer, as well as talking about the sparkling life of Anna May Wong, and Katie’s experience writing the biography.

The Caribbean is a region with an incredible history of vibrant cultures blending into each other, which is reflected in so many elements from the food, the local traditions, the music and of course, the literature. Today’s guest hails from the nation of Trinidad and Tobago, and the region has clearly left an indelible mark on her writing, infusing it with the rhythms, flavors, and complexities that define the Caribbean experience.

Based on the new format of the show, Costa Prize winning author Ingrid Persaud will share four books that have left an indelible mark on her life and work. From literary classics to contemporary gems, these books have shaped her perspective, influencing the stories she tells and the voices she amplifies.

In this episode, we also discuss her latest novel, "The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh." Inspired by the true story of the titular Trinidadian gangster from the 1930s to the 1950s, this novel looks at the complex web of relationships surrounding him and the four women who shaped his life. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing society, this novel offers a poignant exploration of love, loss, and redemption, inviting readers to journey through the heartaches and triumphs of its unforgettable characters.

The four books that Ingrid Persaud selected were: 

A House for Mr Biswas, VS Naipaul (1961)

Reading Turgenev, William Trevor (1991)

As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner (1930)

Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison (1977)

If you’d like to get in touch, you can contact me on my Instagram account @litwithcharles and you can also check out my weekly Substack newsletter: https://litwithcharles.substack.com/

Welcome to a special episode that marks a whole year of Lit with Charles. As we wrap up a full year of podcasting, it's time to reflect on the journey we've embarked on together. From the very beginning, the goal was clear – to create a space for the curious souls eager to explore the world of literature, authors, and the intricate process of writing.

In today's episode, we take a trip down memory lane, revisiting some of the most captivating questions and answers that have lingered in my mind. This special highlight reel is divided into two parts, each focusing on a distinct facet of the literary landscape.

In the first half, we delve into "The Author's Process," unraveling the mysteries behind how authors conceive their ideas and bring them to life on the page. What sparks the creative flame? How do they navigate the intricate pathways of their minds to craft compelling narratives?

The second part of our annual highlight shifts its spotlight to "The Life of a Book". Books, beyond their narratives, are extraordinary objects with unique journeys – from creation to consumption. We explore the intricate processes involved in printing, storing, managing, and selling these literary treasures.

Before we embark on this retrospective journey, heartfelt thanks are in order. To the 51 incredible guests who graced this podcast with their wisdom and insights – thank you for sharing your stories and making each conversation enlightening.

So, without further ado, let's relive some of the best answers that unveil the authors' fascinating processes, guiding us through the intricate world of storytelling that we all cherish.

Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Let’s get more people listening – and reading!

The Chinese Cultural Revolution was launched by Chairman Mao in 1966 and lasted a whole decade until his death. It aimed to purify China of perceived bourgeois elements and reinforce hardline communist ideology. The era left a huge impact on China's socio-political landscape, but despite its seismic impact, it’s not that well understood by many Westerners.

Today, I’m speaking with Tania Branigan. Tania spent 7 years as the Guardian’s China correspondent, and is also the author of a recent non-fiction book called Red Memory, which explores stories that have emerged about the Cultural Revolution and its lingering impact on contemporary China. I read and reviewed it earlier this year, and I was absolutely blown away. 

In this episode, Tania and I go deep into her book, Red Memory, the process she went through in writing and researching the text. For those of you who don’t know all that much about the Cultural Revolution, don’t panic – Tania does an incredible job of covering the basics while also getting into the intricacies of the relevant political history. I thoroughly recommend the book for anyone looking to improve their knowledge of China, especially how this contemporary society is still haunted by many ghosts of the Cultural Revolution.

Tania mentioned Sparks, by Ian Johnson (2023), a work of non-fiction which follows “counter-historians” documenting contemporary China.

Her favourite book that I’d never heard of was The Memory Police, Yōko Ogawa (1994), a dystopian tale in which a totalitarian regime controls collective memory. Also by that author was The Housekeeper and The Professor, by Yōko Ogawa (2003), which follows an ageing mathematician whose memory is limited to 80 minutes.

The best book she has read in the last twelve months was Waiting to be Arrested at Night, by Tahir Hamut Izgil (2023), which is a Uyghur poet’s memoir of China’s genocide of the majority-Muslim population in Xinjiang Province in Northwestern China. This also reminded her of another favourite with similar undertones, The Appointment, by the Romanian author Herta Müller (1997), which follows the life of a young woman living under a communist regime.

The book she would take to a desert island is the collected short stories of Anton Chekhov. On that note, she also mentioned the fantastic book A Swim in The Pond in the Rain by George Saunders (2021), in which the author, a master short story writer, examines four classic Russian short stories, including one by Chekhov.

Finally, a book that changed her mind was Heidi Larson’s Stuck (2020), which explores vaccine rumours, and how best to deal with people who have different opinions on that subject.

There’s little more universally enticing than a story about someone setting off on a great voyage: an intrepid adventurer protagonist. This week, the book I’m discussing is just that – a journey into unknown frontiers, both geographically and linguistically.

Today I’m speaking with author and journalist Lauren Collins. Lauren, a staff writer with the New Yorker since 2008, published her incredible debut novel, When In French: Love in a Second Language, to huge acclaim in 2016. In this episode, Lauren and I get into the idea of language – the experience of being a person who lives between two languages, the evolution and porosity of language, L’Academie Francaise (the three-headed dog that guards French grammar), and some technical aspects of a few high-impact linguistic theories.

In our interview today, Lauren told me about the book Je ne suis pas Parisienne, by Alice Pfeiffer (2019) – a series of essays written by a journalist, repudiating the ‘Parisian woman’ cliché.

Her favorite book that I’ve probably never heard of is The Smile Revolution, by Colin Jones (2014), a cultural history of smiling.

Her four best books from the last 12 months are We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland, by Fintan O’Toole (2021), Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, by Saidiya Hartman (2019), Biography of X, by Catherine Lacey (2023), and South to America, by Imani Perry (2022).

Finally, the book she would take to a desert island is Lucy Sante’s The Other Paris: An illustrated journey through a city’s poor and Bohemian past (2015), a guided-tour through the Paris of a bygone era.

Our relationship with our parents and, more widely, with our ancestors’ stories are some of the most formative & influential connections in many people’s lives, both for good and bad. The impact of this relationship can be felt in so many different ways, not least of which in artistic expression. 

With me today is Violaine Huisman, a French author based in New York who recently became the Director of Cultural Affairs at the Alliance Française. She’s the author of a trilogy of novels about her and her family. The first is called The Book of Mother published in 2018 and translated into English last year, the second is called Rose désert (translated maybe as “Desert Pink”) published in 2019 but not yet translated, and the third is Les monuments de Paris (“The Monuments of Paris”) which will be published this year. 

In this episode, Violaine and I cover a wide array of topics – the structure and linearity of her novels, the existential question of ‘Frenchness’ and being a ‘French author in New York’, and of course we speak of Marcel Proust, as well as some of the other major influences in her writing. It was a real pleasure to speak with Violaine about this powerful, family-driven trilogy which I absolutely recommend.

In today’s interview, we discussed Les Essais, by Michel de Montaigne (1580), a wide-ranging collection of essays, originally written in ‘Middle French’, Saxifrage, by Catherine Cremnitz (1993) – Violaine’s mother’s own autobiography, and 10:04, by Ben Lerner (2014), a modern book of auto-fiction about a Manhattan-based author recently diagnosed with a life-threatening heart-condition.

The best book Violaine has read in the last 12 months was Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo (1862), which tells the story of Jean Valjean and the other ‘miserable’ characters of the early 1800s Paris underworld.

The book she would take to a desert island was the Bible.

Finally, a book that changed her mind was In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (first published in 1913), about its narrator’s life and childhood, and his reflections on the persistence of memory.

Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Let’s get more people listening – and reading!

Cowboys, golden dust-plains, and wide open spaces. This is the stuff of the Far West, a setting that has been visited & re-visited in literature & film, often pitting good versus evil in stark terms. And today I’m talking about one of the greatest novels of the American West: Lonesome Dove, by the Texan author Larry McMurtry, published in 1985. 

In this episode, I speak to Kate Slotover, co-founder of The Book Club Review – a book club in podcast form, which loves debate and discussion – about a work we’re both huge fans of. We’re going to really narrow in on some of our favourite moments, specifics and characters for an in depth and exciting discussion of this very special book. If you haven’t checked out her excellent podcast, the Book Club Review, then I suggest you have a listen, it’s brilliant.

Books mentioned in the episode:

• The best book Kate has read in the last 12 months was Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, by Claire Dederer (2023), a topical exploration of whether or not we can separate the art from the artist.
• We also discussed the recent Booker Prize winner, Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch (2023) – a dystopian book about the Republic of Ireland slipping into a Totalitarian regime. 

Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Let’s get more people listening – and reading!

In this episode, I highlight the top 5 five books that I read last year. It’s a great way to remember what I’ve read and what I value in my reading experiences. I dive deeper than I usually would into what makes these books especially great and what they meant to me.
Sometimes I’ll enjoy something quite linear and - gasp! - commercial whilst, at other times, I’ll prefer something quite experimental & different. In today’s list, those eclectic choices shine through meaning that there’s a bit of everything for everyone. I also throw in a couple of honorary mentions of books which weren’t necessarily my favourites, but had something special that I thought were worth a mention.

Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at ⁠⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠⁠. Let’s get more people listening – and reading!

My guest today is Nandini Das, a Professor of Early Modern Literature & Culture at Exeter College at Oxford University, and author of the book “Courting India” which is an account of England’s first ambassador to the Mughal court, Sir Thomas Roe, who was tasked with building a relationship with the emperor Jahangir in order to build English trade with India. 

It’s a fascinating book because it takes everything you thought you knew about the historic relationship between the two countries and completely turns it on its head. The English are poor and humble supplicants, whilst the Indian court is wealthy, powerful and very much in charge of directing the shape & direction of the relationship. 

In today’s episode, we talk about this first British embassy to India, how successful (or not) it really was, how it sowed the seeds for the British empire in India & beyond, and we touch upon the current relationship between the two countries, as well as hearing Nandini’s favourite books & reading recommendations.

• Her favourite book that I’ve never heard of: “Coryat’s Crudities” by Thomas Coryat (1611)
• Her favourite book of the last 12 months: “Leo Africanus Discovers Comedy: Theatre and Poetry Across the Mediterranean” by Nathalie Zemon Davis (2021)
• The book that she would take to a desert island: “The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation” by Richard Hakluyt (1589)
• The book that changed her mind: “Three Ways To Be Alien” by Sanjay Subrahmanyam (2011)

Buy her book: https://amzn.eu/d/hAMRkg7

Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at ⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠. Let’s get more people listening – and reading!

Today I had the pleasure of speaking to Lauren Easum, co-founder of the Parisian bookplate company Ex-Libris. Along with her business partner, Igor Telinge, Lauren has opened Ex-Libris Paris with the intention of bringing tradition back to life, and offering bibliophiles a way to imprint their books with their names & heritage.

In today’s episode, Lauren and I cover a wide range of topics – the history of bookplates, or ex-libris stamps as we sometimes refer to them, what makes a good bookplate, how they got the idea from a centuries-old discovery in the cellar of a Parisian townhouse, and the connection between bookplates and erotica. It was such an interesting conversation, and I learned a lot about the history of this object – from armorial origins, the exclusive purview of the social elite, to a democratised artform anyone can enjoy.

Lauren’s favourite book that I’ve never heard of was Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman, by Stefan Zweig (1932), which is a psychological portrait of the famous French queen.

The best book that she has read in the last 12 months is Bel-ami, by Guy de Maupassant (1885) – which follows a charming and ambitious man confronted with the sordidity and corruptness of belle epoque Paris.

The book she would take to a desert island is Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing, by René Daumal (1952), a surrealist ‘cult classic’ which tells the allegorical story of an expedition to an elusive mountain.

Finally, the book that changed her mind was Sophie’s World, by Norwegian writer Jostein Gaarder (1991), which follows teenage Sophie as she is introduced to the world of philosophy.

Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at ⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠. Let’s get more people listening – and reading!

Today I spoke to Blindboy Boatclub – a multi-disciplinary Irish artist and author of the recently published short story collection Topographia Hibernica, a tongue-in-cheek update to the original. Blindboy exploded onto the international scene in late 2010 with his band The Rubberbandits and segued into a weekly podcast which is a cultural phenomenon, with over 1.2 million monthly listeners. He has released three critically acclaimed short story collections and this is his latest one.

I thoroughly enjoyed Topographia Hibernica and its absurd, empathetic depictions of contemporary Irish society, flora and fauna. If you’re a fan of dynamic short stories with a hard & modern edge, this will appeal to you. Tonally, it’s gritty, subversive, and slightly surreal, and narrows in on the way we relate to animals and the natural world in modern culture. Above all, many of the stories are funny. There was something in the energy here that reminded me of early short stories by the Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. The book is a relatively easy read – not lighthearted, but still accessible – and its thematic threads of animal kingdoms interacting with elements of contemporary mythology holds the collection together in a really coherent way. 

This episode features an extremely wide-reaching conversation, dipping in and out of Irish folklore, Hiberno English, the impending collapse in global biodiversity, Hieronymus Bosch, creating art with ‘fire in your veins’, and a plethora of other fascinating topics. What shines through our conversation most apparently is the remarkable breadth of Blindboy’s knowledge, and the all-consuming way he approaches creative pursuits. Incredibly informed and interested in the world around him, he’s an artist in the truest sense of the word.

Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at @litwithcharles. Let’s get more people listening – and reading!

Books mentioned in the episode:

During the episode, Blindboy talked about the Argentinian horror short story collection, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez (2021); Dance Move, by Wendy Erskine (2022), an eclectic collection of stories set in Belfast; A Shock, by Keith Ridgeway (2021), a subversive novel exploring the absurdity of contemporary London life; The Wounded Cormorant and Other Stories by Liam O’Flaherty (1973), a compassionate portrayal of Irish nature; and Neuromancer, by William Gibson (1984), a genre-forming cyberpunk novel.

His favourite book that I’ve probably never heard of was Ossian’s Ride, by Fred Hoyle (1951), a sci-fi detective novel, where Ireland has become a technological superpower.

The best book he’s read in the last 12 months was Homesick for Another World, by Ottessa Moshfegh (2017), a collection of 14 short stories, most of which were originally published in The Paris Review. 

The book he would take to a Desert Island would be The Third Policeman, by Flann O’Brien (1967) a dark, surrealist murder mystery set in a village police force.

Finally, a book that changed his mind is The Dead, which is the final, novella-length, story from James Joyce’s collection Dubliners (1914).

Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at ⁠@litwithcharles⁠. Let’s get more people listening – and reading!

Find Blindboy:

Instagram: @blindboyboatclub

Part of what I try to do on this channel is to, in some small way, examine the history of literature. But for today’s guest, Spanish writer and Philologist Irene Vallejo, it’s the history of the book itself – from early beginnings as delicate cuneiform tablets, scrolls, and reeds on the banks of the Nile – that truly excites. Papyrus is a stunning introduction to (and explanation of!) philology, and is definitely an accessible read for any lover of books or history. In this episode, we dive into 6000 years of history – connecting ancient episodes with anachronistic references to the modern day – and zoom in on some of the most powerful stories contained within.

Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at @litwithcharles. Let’s get more people listening – and reading!

Books mentioned in the episode:

• The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco (1980) a tale of monks, murder mystery, and religious misgivings
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon (1776)
• The Tale of Tales, Giambattista Basile (1634), which the brothers Grimm credit as the first national collection of fairy tales
• One Thousand and One Nights also known as the Arabian Night, a compendium of Middle Eastern folktales from the Islamic Golden Age.
• A book Irene would recommend to give beginners a better understanding of philology is Scholars and Scribes: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature, by Nigel Wilson (1968) – an explanation of how texts have survived from Greek and Roman times, and why it was considered such an important endeavour.
• A book she’d recommend that I’ve never heard of is Pedro Páramo, by Juan Rulfo (1955), the story of a man who promises his dying mother he will find his father in a town called Comala, only to discover it’s a place where ghosts and spectres walk amongst us.
• The best book she has read in the last 12 months is The Bitch, by Pilar Quintana (2020), which is an exploration of motherhood and love, following protagonist Damaris and her fisherman husband, set against the backdrop of the Colombian jungle.
• The book she would take to a desert island is an encyclopaedia – possibly Britannica.
• The book that changed her mind was The Odyssey by Homer, because when her father read it to her as a 4-year-old, that was the very moment she thinks she became a classicist.

Find Irene:

Buy Papyrus: ⁠ ⁠https://amzn.eu/d/aW3ABoR

Instagram: ⁠@irenevallejomoreu

Famously undefinable, in many ways art is an ‘I’ll know it when I see it’ kind of thing. It’s a giant sociological concept whose tendrils snake into all our lives. In today’s episode, I speak to Farah Nayeri: journalist and author of Takedown: Art and Power in the Digital Age, a fascinating overview of some of the most difficult questions currently being asked in the contemporary art world. What should we be doing about culturally valuable works from problematic artists? Are the demographics of the industry (historically a hotbed of old, straight white men) changing fast enough? How can artists tread the line between appreciation and appropriation? In today’s wide-ranging conversation, we cover this and much, much more – along with a snapshot into Farah’s literary tastes and recommendations.

Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram @litwithcharles. Let’s get more people listening – and reading!

Books mentioned in the episode:

• Farah’s favourite book I had probably never heard of was Venice is a Fish: A Sensual Guide, by Tiziano Scarpa (2008), an intoxicating and lyrical exploration of the parts of the city traditional guidebooks won’t show you.

• The best book she has read in the last 12 months was David Smith: The Art and Life of a Transformational Sculptor, by Michael Brenson (2022), a biography of the industry titan who helped spark a love for the plastic arts in the US ‘scene’.

• The book she would take to a desert island was À la recherche du temps perdu, by Marcel Proust (1913), whose translated title is In Search of Lost Time, a Bildungsroman following the life of narrator ‘Marcel’, set in high-society France.

• The book that changed her mind was Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain, by Sathnam Sanghera (2021), which offers a fresh critique of the history of British colonialism.

• Finally, the book that pleasantly surprised her was The Human Stain, by Philip Roth (2000), the story of an ageing classics professor in a small New England town forced to retire amidst allegations of racism.

Find Farah:

Book: https://amzn.eu/d/cdIRzdf

Website: http://www.farahnayeri.com/

Instagram: @nayeri.farah

It’s the age-old question: was the book really better than the movie? For the last however many millennia, the book has been the unrivalled compendium of human knowledge. However, since the turn of the last century, there’s been a new kid on the proverbial block: the movie.

Today I got to speak to Tom Williams, a film producer based out of LA, whose 25 year film industry tenure has given us a brief window into the glitz, glamour, and (perhaps) practical realities of working in the biz. In this episode we cover a wide range of topics, and have a go at recontextualising the historic chasm between cinema and literature – not a brutal clash of deadly foes, but actually something rather symbiotic.

Find some of the books mentioned in the episode below:

• His favourite book I’ve never heard of was The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, Alvaro Mutis (1992)
• His favourite book from the last 12 months was Seven Empty Houses, Samanta Schweblin (2022)
• A book he found disappointing was The Archivist by Rex Pickett (2021)
• The book he would bring to a desert island was Foucault’s Pendulum, by Umberto Eco (1988) 
• The book that changed his mind was The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (1943)

Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at @litwithcharles. Let’s get more people listening – and reading!

At first glance, the book I’m talking about today seems like the ultimate odd-couple pairing – a insightful analysis of the condition & economic prospects of women in India, combined with the adoration of a national movie icon. However, as it turns out, these two subjects might not be so disparate after all.

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Shrayana Bhattacharya, an Indian economist about her 2021 book, Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh. The book follows Shrayana’s time spent collecting data on women’s ambiguously defined and chronically undervalued employment across India. Over time, she started to notice a thread common to many of the women and girls she spoke to: a love for a certain Bollywood superstar called Shah Rukh Khan – a love which she in fact shared. Unlike other male action movie stars in India who are big on muscle and short on emotion, Shah Rukh, with his sad, gentle eyes, slighter frame, and willingness to help his cinematic leading ladies peel carrots and wash dishes, has struck a unique chord with the country’s women.

A lack of financial freedom and bodily autonomy hangs over the lives of the women Shrayana talks to – eighty percent of Indian women need approval from a family member to go outside the home to visit a health centre (171), and three in five adolescent girls feel unsafe in public places (196), she tells us. However, what shines through this text is the off-the-charts wattage of respect and affection with which she tells their stories – allowing both the harsh realities of these women’s day-to-day lives and their playful, pragmatic crush on a good-looking movie star to exist simultaneously.

Even though the book is a rigorous and detailed sociological analysis, the writing is accessible, fun and witty. It would be a perfect read for someone who is interested in feminism, economics and politics, but who might equally be a little apprehensive about approaching the drier tomes that tend to populate non-fiction bestseller lists.

Books mentioned in the episode:

• One book about India (non-fiction): (50.10) Dreamers: How Young Indians are Changing the World, Snigdha Poonam, about the dreams of various segments of Indian youth.
• One book about India (fiction): (51.55) Ghachar Ghochar, Vivek Shanbhag (translated by Srinath Perur), a family rags to riches story set in Bangalore.
• Favourite book I’ve probably never heard of (52.33): The Higher Education of Geetika Mehendiratta, Anuradha Marwah a coming of age story about a young girl.
• Best book she’s read in the last 12 months (53:22): Sakina’s Kiss, Vivek Shanbhag (translated by Srinath Perur), (54.01) 
• Book she has found disappointing in the last 12 months (54.10): She found a whole genre disappointing – nonfiction accounts of very powerful men writing about themselves and the economy, vanity trip stories about themselves and how they became powerful
• Desert Island Book (55.24): The Odd Woman and the City, Vivian Gornick, a memoir about friendship and aging, set in New York City, published in 2015
• Book that changed her mind (56.15): Future Sex: A New Kind of Free Love, Emily Witt, a guide to modern sexuality, published in 2016

⁠⁠Find Shrayana:

Instagram: ⁠@bshrayana

Twitter: @bshrayana

Buy her book: https://amzn.eu/d/2YpWR4A

Follow me ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

In today’s episode, I speak to the writer Avery Carpenter Forrey, who wrote the fun & enjoyable debut novel “Social Engagement”. It’s a young woman’s journey to getting married that is full of obstacles & revelations. At first glance, this may seem like standard chick-lit fare but I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a darker undertone to this work that gave it an interesting shape. Aside from struggling with the aftermath of a past relationship as well as family trauma, the young woman at the heart of this novel deals with an eating disorder, and there’s a whole angle of body symbolism that gives it an unusual flavour. It is Edith Wharton in the age of TikTok, with David Cronenberg as a cameo guest star. Its' tribe of privileged Upper East Siders are well-defined and certainly more palatable than the brats of Bret Easton Ellis, and it’s no spoiler to reveal that the wedding at the heart of this novel is a total car crash – and who doesn’t love a good car crash at a wedding – given that the novel opens at the end. 

In this episode, Avery & I talk about her work and how it came to be, and we meander down her literary path to uncover her literary influences in her journey to becoming a writer. 

Books mentioned in the episode:

• The book that changed her mind: Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
• The genre that she is drawn to: Carmen Maria Machado, author of the short story collection “Her Body & Other Parties” (2017) and her memoir “In The Dream House” (2019)
• Favourite book I’ve never heard of: “Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance” by Alison Espach
• Favourite book of the last 12 months: “The Rachel Incident”, by Caroline O’Donoghue
• The book that she found over-rated: “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus
• The book she’s embarrassed not to have read: “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy 

• The book she would take to a desert island: “You Think It, I’ll Say It”, a short story collection by Curtis Sittenfeld . This is the book she was reading as she gave birth so it’s got to be entertaining. She also recommends the book “Prep” and “American Wife”, a fictionalized portrait of Laura Bush, and “Rodham” an alternative history where Hilary Clinton never meets Bill Clinton.

Instagram: @averycarpenterforrey

Buy her book: https://amzn.eu/d/6lBZlkh

Follow me ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

There are classic books from a few centuries ago, and then there are classic classic books from distant and remote regions covering events that are long-lost to the sands of time. Today’s episode is about this kind of book: the Icelandic sagas written in the 1300s and covering events from the start of the second millennium.

The saga I read for this week’s episode is called Njal’s Saga and it is written anonymously, as many of the texts at the time were, probably through a long oral tradition and it is a fictionalized history of the start of what was called the Icelandic Commonwealth, which was a pretty unique society, largely agrarian, with no king or aristocracy and a system of laws and norms that maintained some form of stability. 

However, that stability would soon come under grave threat with a series of spiralling feud, mostly based on stupid slurs leading to bloody murders, that would eventually lead to the collapse of the Icelandic Commonwealth.

My guest today is Dr. Matthew Roby, who’s an assistant professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Nova Scotia, Canada, and he’s a leading academic on the sagas and medieval literature in general. Today, he takes us through what exactly are the Icelandic sagas, why and how they were written, what influenced them and what did they influence (e.g The Lord of the Rings) and all sort of other fascinating tidbits on this long-lost form of story-telling. 

Books mentioned in the episode:

• “Old-Norse Icelandic Literature: A Short Introduction” by Heather O’Donoghue (2004)
• “Gisla Saga” is the saga he recommends, which has noble heroes, and it centres on concepts of family, friendship and ties and it is relatively accessible.
• Favorite book that I’ve never heard of: “Letters from Iceland” by the poet WH Auden & Louis MacNeice (1937), which is a series of vignettes of life in Iceland at the time.
• The book that he loves but can’t recommend to friends: The family sagas which are a sub-genre of the sagas focused on the historical aspects of Iceland. 
• The best book that he’s read in the last 12 months: “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” by Thomas Hardy (1891), a classic novel about the tragic treatment of a woman in 19th century British society.
• The book that he finds over-rated: “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens (1861) in which he found the morals too contrived and overt.
• The book that he would take to a desert island: “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy by JRR Tolkien (1954)
• The book that changed his mind: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by TS Eliot (1915), his first published poem, which made him want to pursue literature. He also mentioned the children’s book “We Sang You Home” by the Canadian indigenous author Richard Van Camp, published in 2016.

Follow me ⁠⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

One of the best propulsive forces in literature, the force that keeps me turning pages as I read a novel is the question “Where on earth is this going?”

And that question kept coming back to me as I read a very exciting debut novel called “How To Be A French Girl” by Rose Cleary, a young British writer. In the book, a twentysomething young girl who’s given up on a promising art education to work a boring temp job in London in order to survive starts to develop an unhealthy obsession in an elegant French colleague called Gustave (you’ll hear that name a few times in the interview) . Inspired by tropes driven by our technological world, she tried to transform herself into the titular & idealized French Girl.

Her romantic pursuit & evolution twists & turns in ways that are increasingly uncomfortable but potentially, maybe justified? Overall, this novel felt to me like the secret love child of Bridget Jones and Fatal Attraction, with a touch of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 

Anyway, this is a fun book, it went places that were genuinely surprising and uncomfortable and I recommend it. In this episode, Rose Cleary and I go through some of the themes featured in the book like power, identity, technology, art, class and all the other themes that populate this great novel. 

• Favourite book that I’ve never heard of: Siblings, by Magnus Florin (2021)
• Best book she’s read in the last 12 months: “Near Distance”, by Hannah Stoltenberg
• The book that she would take to a desert island: “Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace (1996)
• The book that changed her mind: “Super-Sad True Love Story”, by Gary Shteyngart (2010)

Find Rose:

Website: https://rosecleary.com/

Instagram: @rclearyrcleary

Buy her book: https://amzn.eu/d/fij3FI8

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Sometimes a single act can resonate across the ages, its impact felt through generations, both politically and personally. In 1914, the feminist suffragette Mary Richardson slashed a painting called “The Rokeby Venus” by Diego Velasquez in the National Gallery in London, to raise awareness for the feminist cause.

This event is the central trauma driving the great novel “Asunder”, written by my guest today, the Mexican & American novelist Chloe Aridjis and published 10 years ago. Her main protagonist, Marie, is a museum guard at the National Gallery, for whom the slashing has a very personal aspect, as her great-grandfather was the guard on duty at the time of the attack in 1914, who failed to stop the attack. 

This is a subtle and contemplative novel that asks questions around the small crack and large tears around our lives. In today’s episode, we talk about Chloe’s writing process and methods, the direction of her novel, the central event of the 1914 slashing and how it compares to today’s actions. As usual, I also ask Chloe about her inspirations and recommendations in terms of books she’s read and enjoyed. 

• Her favourite book that I’ve never heard of: “The Haunted Screen”, by Lotte Eisner
• Her favourite book of the last 12 months: “The Blue Fox”, by Sjon
• The book she would take to a desert island: The short stories of Franz Kafka
• The book that changed her mind: The works of Thomas Bernhard
• 
  

Buy Asunder: https://amzn.eu/d/0PBQJy2

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The impact of war on art - specifically on literature - is a subject that I find pretty fascinating. The First World War is maybe one of the first conflicts to incubate some brilliant writers. Some of the most prominent literary figures of the First World War were two British war poets called Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. I didn’t know much about their story until I read an excellent book called “Soldiers Don’t Go Mad” by Charles Glass which was published this year. 

In this book, the journalist Charles Glass who was the Middle East correspondent for ABC for ten years and the author of numerous books on war, describes the story of these two poets specifically in terms of their mental health, and the treatment they received for what was then called “shell shock”, which today we might call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These two great poets were treated together at a mental hospital called Craiglockhart at Edinburgh.

Both those poets came to Craiglockhart using different paths but connected in that institution and the book does an incredible job of describing the interplay of mental health, war and the creation of art. Siegfried Sassoon was an established poet and a war hero, whereas Wilfred Owen was just getting started but their stay together at this mental hospital would affect them both, personally and artistically. 

Siegfried Sassoon lived well into his eighties but Wilfred Owen was tragically killed on November 4th 1918, only a week before the war ended on November 11th. 

In this interview, Charles Glass & I discuss his book and specifically the themes of war, mental health and how they impact the creation of art.

Books mentioned in this episode:

• Early in the interview, he mentions Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy which is a series of three novels about the First World War published in the early 1990s.
• His favourite book that I’ve never heard of: “Parade’s End” by the British writer Ford Maddox Ford, a tetralogy of novels (that’s 4 novels) set before, during and after WWI, published in the mid-1920s.
• The best book that he’s read in the last 12 months: “Women of Troy”, by Pat Barker (2021), which is a retelling of the Iliad from the point of view of Trojan women. 
• The book that changed his mind: “American Power and the New Mandarins” by Noam Chomsky which changed his views about American imperial adventures.

Find Charles Glass:

Website: https://www.charlesglass.net/

Books: https://www.charlesglass.net/books/

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We live in a changing world with geopolitical forces and academic ideas that are challenging our democratic norms. Extreme politics, both on the right and the left, are very much on the rise in many different countries.

Both of these extreme forms of politics are undermining our classic democratic norms of universalism, principles that originated with and were enshrined by the American and French Revolutions. 

Today’s guest is Yascha Mounk, a German-American political scientist who teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is the author of numerous books and articles defending the liberal and universal values of free democratic societies, but today we’re going to focus on just two of his books. 

The first of these two books is called “The Great Experiment” which was published last year. In that book, he writes that our modern multi-cultural societies in the West are under tremendous pressure to integrate these diverse populations in ways that ensure prosperity for all, and most importantly that manage to maintain our democratic norms.

This year, he’s back with a new book that focuses specifically on one of those traps, the book is called “The Identity Trap” and in it, he examines the meteoric rise of an ideology which he calls the identity synthesis, in the last couple of decades, especially in the United States from obscure academic environments to the mainstream.

In this episode, we talk about what needs to happen to ensure the success of multicultural democracies, we talk about the origins of the identity synthesis and its development, and how different countries have different models to meet these challenges head-on. I hope you enjoy this episode.

Books mentioned in the episode:

• The best book I’ve never heard of: Darkness at Noon, by Arthur Koestler (1940)
• The book that he loves but just can’t recommend to others: The Half-Girlfriend by Chetan Bhagat (2014)
• The best book that he read in the last 12 months: Essays by George Orwell
• The book that he found disappointing in the last 12 months: Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021)
• The book that he would take to a desert island: The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1958)
• The book that changed his mind: The Happiness Curve, by Jonathan Rauch (2018)

Find Yascha:

Website: https://www.yaschamounk.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yaschamounk/

Pre-order his new book: https://amzn.eu/d/gePpkZ8

Follow me ⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

Today’s episode follows an interesting literary path. The first stop in that path is a book written in 1974 by Robert Caro, called The Power Broker. It’s one of the most brilliant biographies of all time. If you’re looking for a magnificently researched, and totally gripping book on the life of one of the most influential men of the 20th century, then this the one. It’s the story of Robert Moses. 

That name may not mean much to a lot of people but in short, he’s basically the man who built New York City from the 1930s to the 1960s. Through a finely tuned network of money and power that he put together, he was able to decide, pretty much single-handedly, what was built in New York: roads, parks, bridges, buildings.
Robert Moses’ ideas started spinning out of control and he developed visions of massive highways ploughing through New York and to do that, he was going to tear down vast neighbourhoods of the city. 

The person who ignited the opposition to Robert Moses was a journalist and urban activist called Jane Jacobs. In 1961, she wrote a book called “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” in which she outlined a very different path for urban planning, one that was more focused on organic human interaction, based on historic urban traditions, as opposed to abstract planning based on data.

I was curious to know how she and her book were perceived today in the urban planning community and how this book had aged. I was very lucky to connect with today’s guest, Chuck Marohn who is the founder of Strong Towns, a movement based in Minnesota, dedicated to helping cities and towns in the United States achieve financial resiliency through civic engagement, and seeks to improve communities through urban planning concepts such as walkability, mixed-use zoning, and infill development. Strong Towns manages a blog and a podcast of the same name, hosted by Chuck.

In today’s episode, we discuss the influence of Jane Jacobs’ book, the context that surrounded its publication and how the urban planning debate has evolved over time and what’s at stake for cities today.

• The most brilliant book: Economy of Cities by Jane Jacobs (1969)
• His favorite book I’ve never heard of: The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas (1974)
• The best book he’s read in the last 12 months: “The One: How an Ancient Idea Holds the Future of Physics” by Henrich Päs (2023)
• The book he found disappointing in the last 12 months: “Doughnut Economics” by Kate Raworth (2017)
• The book that he would take to a desert island: The Bible
• The book that changed his mind: “What the Dog Saw”, by Malcolm Gladwell (2009)

Links:

Chuck's Book: https://amzn.eu/d/4tpGm1I

Strong Towns Website: https://www.strongtowns.org/contributors-journal/charles-marohn

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If ever there was a need for a single definition of the novel’s function, it may well be to establish an architecture around characters that leads them directly to unique moral quandaries. These shorts of choices are ultimately what drives some of the greatest novels. 

And what better framework than war to create situations that lead characters towards real perplexity? After all, it consists of two sides fighting for what both believe to be right, with outcomes involving ruin, destruction and death. 

Now throw in the fact that the novel may or may not be based on true events, perhaps embellished by the novelist’s pen but ultimately rooted in history, and you find that the membrane between fact and fiction becomes very porous indeed.

My guest today is the novelist James MacManus who is a former journalist, a correspondent for the Guardian in Africa and the Middle East. Currently, he’s also the Managing Director of The TLS (The Times Literary Supplement), an august weekly literary review.

During his time in Africa, he covered the Zimbabwe War for Independence, and his sixth novel “Love in a Lost Land”, is based on these experiences in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, at a time of guerrilla warfare. It’s a very authentic read which looks at both sides of the conflict and features a love story that bridges those factions. The setting brings to life the work of a journalist in a perilous environment and the plot created moral quandaries that were reminiscent, to me, of Graham Greene novels.

A list of books mentioned in the interview:

• Favourite Book That I’ve Never Heard Of: “Love Lessons” by Joan Wyndham
• Best Book That James Read in the Last 12 Months: “A Moveable Feast” by Ernest Hemingway
• The Book That He Finds Over-Rated: The works of William Faulkner
• The Book That He Would Take To A Desert Island: “The Rattle Bag”, an anthology of poems compiled by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes
• The Book That Changed His Mind: “Kon-Tiki” by Thor Heyerdahl

How do we, as readers, detect new and emerging talent in writing? We can look at book sales or book prizes but young writers don’t necessarily gain huge commercial success or awards early on in their careers. One list that has proved almost oracular in the last 40 years has been established by the venerable literary magazine Granta and that's the list of Best Young British Novelists.

My guest today, Olivia Sudjic, is a young British writer, who was included on the latest lists published this year. She has now published two novels as well as an extended essay on the art & process of writing. Her first novel, “Sympathy” was published in 2017 and is a tale of obsession & connection in our ever-creeping technological age. This was followed by “Exposure”, an essay published in 2018, which allowed her to look back and reflect on this momentous step of writing and how that had impacted her. It was a great look into the mindset, approach and perception of a young female writer in today’s world. This was then followed by another novel, “Asylum Road” in 2021, about the voyages of a young woman in the UK who is in a relationship on the brink.

I was excited to speak to Olivia to learn about her journey as a writer, her inspirations, her voice and of course her recommendations.

Books mentioned throughout the episode:

• Favourite book I’ve never heard of: “Confessions of a Justified Sinner”, by James Hogg. (1824)
• The best book Olivia read in the last 12 months: “My Phantoms” by Gwendoline Riley (2021)
• The book that she’s embarrassed not to have read: “The Golden Notebook” by Doris Lessing (1962)
• The book that she would take to a desert island: “Super-Infinite” by Katherine Rundell (2022)
• The book that changed her mind: “The End of the Story” by Lydia Davis (1995)

Find Olivia:

Instagram: @olivia.sudjic

Buy Asylum Road: https://amzn.eu/d/hiAKTJI

Follow me ⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

On May 25th 2020, in Minneapolis, a black man named George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer named Derek Chauvin who put his knee on George Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, thus asphyxiating him. That tragic event had an immediate global impact, sparking off demonstrations and riots, not just in the US but across the world.

But who was George Floyd? Where did he come from? What was he like? What was his life?

These questions are all addressed in the book co-authored by my guest today, Robert Samuels, and Tolu Olorunnipa called “His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life & Struggle for Racial Justice” which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non Fiction this year. It’s a superbly researched book which provides a look at George Floyd’s ancestry and how the trauma of slavery & discrimination is typically passed down in Black families in America.

In today’s interview, I ask Robert Samuels what the research was like given the raw emotions that must have been omnipresent. This is obviously a difficult subject, but one that must be discussed and this book certainly helps to open our eyes and instigate these important conversations. 

Books mentioned in the episode:

• Favourite book I’ve never heard of: “Nowhere Man” by Aleksandar Hemon (2002)

• Favourite book of the last 12 months: “The Haunting of Hajji Hotak & Other Stories” by Jamil Kochai (2022)

• The book that he would take to a desert island: “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck

• The book that changed his mind: “Locking Up Our Own” by James Forman Jr. (2017)

Buy Robert Samuels book: https://amzn.eu/d/jeix2UR

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The British writer LP Hartley opened his novel “The Go-Between” with an unforgettable line “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” There’s a long-standing idea of literature being a vehicle to explore these “foreign countries”, be they temporal or geographical or cultural. 

My guest today has been one of the most innovative voices with regard to the immigrant experience, especially through his 2007 novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”. Junot Díaz is a Dominican-American writer who won the Pulitzer Prize for that novel, thanks to its incredibly modern story-telling. The prose was insane, with different characters’ vernacular switching on and off, the timelines, inspirations, characters felt incredibly fresh and exciting. It’s the story of a young Dominican-American boy who navigates this new world of America, whilst pining for the homeland of the Dominican Republican, and he copes with this, and with the turmoil of adolescence, by immersing himself in typical teen nerd culture of comics, and sci-fi. If you haven’t read that book, then I strongly suggest that you do.

Junot Diaz is now a Professor of Creative Writing at MIT (the Massachussetts Institute of Technology) as well as a contributing editor to the Boston Review of Fiction. In this episode, we talk about his inspirations for his work, his process and what makes him tick as an artist.

A list of the books mentioned in the episode:

• The book I’ve never heard of: Incantations and Other Stories, by Anjana Appachana (1991)
• Best book of the last 12 months: “The Sellout” by Paul Beatty (2015)
• Most disappointing book of the last 12 months: “Star Maker”, by Olaf Stapledon (1937)
• Which book would he take to a desert island: Either “Beloved” by Toni Morrison (1987) or “Dhalgren”, a sci-fi novel by Samuel Delany (1975)
• What book changed his mind: “City of Quartz” by Mike Davis (1990)

Follow me ⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

Today's guest is a poet named Iona Lee, who I was lucky enough to meet at Glastonbury a few months ago. One night I was in a queue for an event, and Iona mentioned that she was about to publish her first collection of poems. Obviously, that peaked my interest and when I asked her if she would be willing to recite a poem, she delivered a really authentic, amazing performance, right there in the queue.

Iona generously shared with me a copy of her book, a collection of poems with the title “Anamnesis” which is an Ancient Greek word for recollection, especially a recollection of a previous life, it means an “unforgetting”. And I liked this collection a lot. For starters, I love anything that evokes memory and remembrance, but also I appreciate eclectic approaches to literature, and this collection is definitely that: eclectic. It weaves between classical & contemporary subjects, it’s playful and creative in the structure of the poems and above all, it feels really authentic, like this poet is putting her feelings, emotions and perhaps memories out there, which is what we ask of artists. 

I was so excited to speak to Iona about how she gets inspired, her path as an artist and what she recommends in the poetry world. 

Here is the list of books mentioned throughout the episode:

Her favourite poetry collections:

• “Glass, Irony and God”, by Anne Carson (1995)

• “Shine Darling” by Ella Frears (2020)

• “Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals” by Patricia Lookwood (2014)

• “When I Grow Up I Want To Be A List of Further Possibilities” by Chen Chen (2017)

Her favourite book that I’ve never heard of: “Forests: The Shadow of Civilization” by Robert Pogue Harrison, (1992)

Her favourite book of the last 12 months: “The Dangers of Smoking in Bed” by Mariana Enríquez (2009)

Her most disappointing book in the last 12 months: “The Passion of New Eve”, by Angela Carter

The book she would take to a desert island: “The Encyclopedia Britannica”

The book that changed her mind: “Where Are The Women?” by Sara Sheridan
Follow me ⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

Evoking the past and how it shapes the present has been the hallmark of some of the greatest writers in history. This year’s winner of the International Booker Prize is “Time Shelter” by the Bulgarian novelist Georgi Gospodinov and it’s been hugely successful not just in its Bulgarian homeland but also abroad. The character at the center of the book is a mysterious crypto-philosophical doctor who opens a clinic for Alzheimer’s patients which allows them to immerse themselves in a replicated era which they best remember, a way for them to reconnect with their memories.

One reason that the book got such visibility and recognition is in large part thanks to my guest today, Angela Rodel who is the translator of the book and a long-time collaborator of Georgi Gospodinov. As translator, she is the co-winner of the International Booker Prize. Angela is originally American, from Minnesota, and as she explains in the episode, she ended up in Bulgaria almost by chance thirty years ago and has built a real understanding of that country’s culture and language.

Here are a list of books Angela mentioned in the interview:

Great Bulgarian book: Wolf Hunt, by Ivailo Petrov (1986)

Favourite book I’ve never heard of: “The Deptford Trilogy” by Robertson Davies (early 1970s)

Best book of last 12 months: “Paradise” by Abdulrazak Gurnah

The book she found over-rated: “In Search of Lost Time” by Marcel Proust

The book she would take to a desert island: “Crime & Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)

The book that changed her mind: “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong

My guest today is the latest recipient of the prestigious Fauve d’Or award for a graphic novel whose innovative instincts will likely impact the publishing industry for years to come. Martin Panchaud is a Swiss graphic novelist, which is an interesting coincidence given the origins of the form I mentioned earlier, and his latest work is called “La Couleur des Choses” (The Color of Things). It’s a stunning achievement in that it presents all visual information not in the traditional form of pictures within panels but as somewhat abstract symbols, driven by data to reflect our technological era. The impersonal nature of the drawing is more than made up by the powerful characters and plot that Martin Panchaud has developed.

In today’s episode, Martin Panchaud and I discuss this book, his career path and his inspiration on how to build a completely new style of story-telling.

Books mentioned in the episode:

• Best graphic novel he’s read recently: Fior di Latte, by Miguel Vila, an Italian graphic novelist.
• Favourite book I’ve never heard of: How to Win Friends & Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
• Best book he read in the last 12 months: Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, published in 1899
• The book that he would take to a desert island: “In Search of Lost Time” by Marcel Proust
• The book that changed his mind: “The 4-Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss

Follow me ⁠⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

Joseph O’Neill published a beautiful novel “Netherland” in 2008 which was rapidly applauded for capturing the zeitgeist of a post-9/11 world, not in a figurative or literal way, but, as its title suggests, in an ethereal, otherworldly way. It is an excellent novel which, if you haven’t read yet, I strongly suggest adding to your reading list. 

In 2014, Joseph O’Neill followed up with an equally absorbing, if somewhat funnier novel, called “The Dog” about a lawyer who accepts an almost comically servile job as an “advisor?” to an ultra-wealthy Lebanese family based in Dubai. To me, that novel is a pioneer of the genre of story-telling around issues of great wealth and social inequality. This is the book that launched a thousand movies & shows like “Succession”, “Triangle of Sadness” or “Parasite”. 

Joseph O’Neill shared so much with me in this episode about his background, his process, his inspirations and overall we had a really great chat. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I did.

Books mentioned in the episode:

Favourite book I’ve never heard of: U & I by Nicholson Baker

Favourite book of the last 12 months: Radius, by Yasmine El-Riffae

The book that he would take to a desert island: The Complete Works of Shakespeare with scholarly annotations

The book that changed his mind: Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Follow me ⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

My guest today is one the leading academics on the life and work of Victor Hugo and his work. Marva Barnett is a Professor Emerita at the University of Virginia, where she taught French and drama. Her great passion and academic specialty is Victor Hugo on whom she’s written extensively, including two books "To Love Is to Act: Les Misérables and Victor Hugo's Vision for Leading Lives of Conscience", as well as "Victor Hugo on Things That Matter".

In this episode, we discuss the political and social context in which he wrote this massive work, how it fits into his wider bibliography, and what are some of the parallels that can connect to his other work.

Books mentioned in the episode:

Favourite book I’ve never heard of: “This Side of Brightness” by Colum McCann

Favourite book of the last 12 months: “Manhattan Beach” by Jennifer Egan

Disappointing book of the last 12 months: “The Good Lord Bird” by James McBride

Desert Island book: “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Follow me ⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

I received a book from this week’s guest, the London-based American artist Orfeo Tagiuri called “Little Passing Thoughts”. It reminded me of that fine tradition of cartoons, mixed with a dose of surreal humour, and a dash of poetic perspective, and above all, a very profound, touching, sincerity. 

In today’s episode, Orfeo and I talk about what it takes to come up with great ideas, where they come from, and about the fact that he dislikes the term artist and might prefer “visual poet” which seems apt after giving one glance at his work.

Also in this episode, we hear about Orfeo’s literary tastes and his recommendations on some great reads, including books you may never have heard of included below:

• Favourite book that I’ve never heard of: “Joseph and His Brothers”, by Thomas Mann

• Favourite book of the last 12 months: “The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder”, by Henry Miller

• Most disappointing book of the last 12 months: “Little Birds” by Anais Nin

• The book he would take to a desert island: “Actual Air“, by the late poet David Berman: a collection of poems

• The book that changed his mind: “The Gospel According to Judas”, written in the second century but not included in the Bible, and also “Chaos” by James Gleick

Find Orfeo:

Instagram: @orfeot

Website: https://www.orfeotagiuri.com/

Buy his book: https://chosecommune.com/book/orfeo-tagiuri-little-passing-thoughts/

Follow me ⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

I love a good collection of short stories, especially when there’s a great balance between overall thematic consistency and some diversity of genre & setting. And this is what I found in the book written by this weeks’ guest AJ Bermudez, who is an author and screenwriter who wrote the very fun (and occasionally quite dark) collection of short stories called “Stories No One Hopes Are About Them” which won the Iowa Short Fiction Prize in 2022.

AJ Bermudez is based between Los Angeles & New York and her work has appeared in a number of prestigious publications. She’s involved in a huge number of exciting literary organizations and projects but she’s also a screenwriter. In this episode, we discuss her award-winning collection, her process as a writer in different media, her inspirations and her literary tastes.

Books mentioned in the episode:

• Favourite book that I’ve never heard of: Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
• Favourite Book of the last 12 months: Trust, by Hernan Diaz
• Most disappointing book of the last 12 months: “Childhood”, by Leo Tolstoy
• Desert Island book: 2018 Edition of Greatest American Short Stories, edited by Roxane Gay.
• The book that changed her mind: “Race After Technology” by Ruha Benjamin

Find AJ Bermudez:

Website: https://amandajbermudez.com/

Book: https://amandajbermudez.com/index.php/stories-no-one-hopes-are-about-them/

Follow me ⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

In today’s episode, I talk with the Swedish novel Ann-Helen Laestadius about her novel “Stolen” which was released in an English translation several months ago. It’s part of an ongoing trilogy of thrillers exploring the lives of the Sami people who are an indigenous group living in the northern regions of Scandinavian countries. Ann-Helen is a member of the Sami community and in her book, we follow the adventures of a young girl Elsa and the challenges that she and her people face, especially when the reindeer which the Sami people herd start getting tortured and murdered.

Ann-Helen who is originally from the region around Kiruna, in the very north of Sweden, began her career as a journalist until she started publishing award-winning children’s books and young adult novels. This is her first adult-themed novel, and as you’ll see from the episode, her journalistic skills were very useful in researching and writing about the dangers and challenges that the Sami face.

The books mentioned in this interview:

• Ann-Helen’s recommendations with regard to other Scandinavian authors were the following books: Asa Larsson, Rebecka Martinsson
• Favourite book that I’ve never heard of: “Blackwater” by Kerstin Ekman
• Ann-Helen’s favourite book that she read in the last 12 months: “My Life As A Rat” by Joyce Carol Oates
• The book that Ann-Helen would take to a desert island: “The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt
• The book that changed her mind: “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

Find Ann-Helen:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annhelenlaestadius/?hl=en

Book: https://amzn.eu/d/0CR8uYK

Follow me ⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

Last week, I released the first half and this week’s release is the second part of the wonderful interview with DT Max, who wrote an excellent biography of David Foster Wallace in 2012 called “Every Love Story is a Ghost Story”. If you haven’t listened to the first part, I suggest you start with that to make sure you understand the context. 

List of books mentioned:

Favourite book that I’d never heard of: Harold Brodkey’s: “First Love and Other Sorrows”.

Favourite book of last 12 months: “The Netanyahus”, by Joshua Cohen

Disappointing book of the last 12 months: Janet Malcolm “Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory”

A book that he would take to a desert island: “Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace, and “Sentimental Education” by Gustave Flaubert

A book that changed his mind: “The First World War” by John Keegan

Find DT Max:

Book: ⁠https://amzn.eu/d/d3RQP5t⁠

Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/dtmax?lang=en⁠

Website: ⁠https://dtmaxdotcom.wordpress.com/⁠

Follow me ⁠⁠@litwithcharles⁠⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

One of my favourite authors of all time is the American novelist (and essayist) David Foster Wallace. That name can evoke a variety of things to different people and in this episode, I’ll try and unpack these different facets with the writer DT Max who wrote an excellent biography of David Foster Wallace in 2012 called “Every Love Story is a Ghost Story”.

DT Max’s book is amazing as it tells the story of this great artist, his evolution & inspirations, while also recalling some of the more problematic aspects of his life including accounts of domestic abuse with some of his former partners. This was such a fascinating conversation that I've decided to split it into two parts - enjoy!

Find DT Max:

Book: https://amzn.eu/d/d3RQP5t

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dtmax?lang=en

Website: https://dtmaxdotcom.wordpress.com/

Follow me ⁠@litwithcharles⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

Libraries are historically the greatest transmitters of knowledge and culture for any civilization. From the appearance of the very first collection of manuscripts to the building of the greatest temples of books, libraries have risen – and invariably fallen – through the ages and throughout time, they’ve played many different roles and fulfilled a variety of functions, and continue to evolve as we speak. 

What is the history of libraries, what is their role and how has that been changing? This is what my two guests today have written about. Professor Andrew Pettegree is a historian at Saint Andrews University where he specializes in the history of the book and media transformations, and Dr. Arthur der Weduwen is a Postdoctoral Fellow also at Saint Andrews University in Scotland. They co-wrote in 2021 an engaging and deeply researched book called “The Library: A Fragile History” where they investigate this institution throughout different eras and countries to reveal that libraries didn’t always look like the ones we think about today, and also that they’re a lot more fragile than we think.

Here is a quick recap of the books mentioned throughout the episode:

• The Book At War, by Andrew Pettegree, published in 2023, which explores the role that books have played in conflicts.

What is their favourite book that I’ve never heard of?

• Andrew: “Thurn und Taxis”, by Wolfgang Behringer (1990)

• Arthur: “The Forgotten Soldier”, by Guy Sajer (1965)

What is the best book that they’ve read in the last 12 months?

• Andrew: “State Communications and Public Politics in the Dutch Golden Age” by Arthur der Weduwen (2023) and “The Bookseller of Inverness” by SG Maclean (2022)
• Arthur: “The Gates of Europe, a history of Ukraine”, by Serhii Plokhy (2015)

What book disappointed them in the last 12 months?

Arthur: “To Have and Have Not”, by Ernest Hemingway (1937)

What book would they take to a desert island?

Andrew: War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy (1867)

Arthur: Scoop, by Evelyn Waugh (1938)

What book changed their mind?

Andrew: “Thurn und Taxis” by Wolfgang Behringer (1990)

Arthur: “Double Fold” by Nicholson Baker (2001)

Find Andrew:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/apettegree?lang=en

Follow me ⁠@litwithcharles⁠ for more book reviews and recommendations!

The mission of getting children to read more is – in my mind – probably one of the noblest ones out there.

That is exactly what my guest today does. Jessica Ewing is the founder & CEO of Literati, which she founded in 2016, after working at the White House and Google. Literati is based in Austin, Texas and it is a curated book subscription service which sends monthly book boxes to their members, depending on their age (from newborn to 12) & reading level. They also have Literati Book Fairs where schools can set up a curated physical library, easy to set up, for children to browse and be exposed to books. I was really excited to talk to Jessica to find out more about this business of how to get kids to read more. 

The books that Jessica mentioned were the following:

Favourite book I’ve never heard of: “The One Hundred Nights of Hero”, by Isabel Greenberg. (2016)

The book Jessica would take to a desert island: “Desert Solitaire”, by Edward Abbey (1968)

The book that changed Jessica’s mind: “Moonwalking with Einstein”, by Joshua Foer (2011)

Her literary hero: Joseph Campbell, the author of “The Power of Myth”

Find Jessica:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessicarewing/?hl=en

Literati website: https://literati.com/

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

Issues of race & race relations – in real life and in literature – are a difficult subject to broach. Depending on perspective, it can evoke trauma, pain, shame, embarrassment. But is race even the right angle with which to discuss some of these burning questions? 

My guest today belongs to a new generation of thinkers on the subject and has been an active contributor in the public debate. Thomas Chatterton Williams is an American author and cultural critic and visiting professor at Bard University. He’s written extensively - and some might say provocatively - on the subject of race, in numerous articles for the magazine The Atlantic, as well as a 2019 book “Self-Portrait in Black & White” in which he relates his own relationship with the subject of race

I found this book and this interview really enlightening, and I hope you do too.

Here are the books Thomas mentioned during the interview: 

Great books about the subject of race:

• Racecraft, by Barbara and Karen Fields

• Notes of a Native Son, by James Baldwin

• Favourite book of the last 12 months: The Outline Trilogy, by Rachel Cusk

• Most disappointing book of the last 12 monthsPure Colour, by Sheila Heti

• Favourite book I’ve never heard of: The Omni-Americans, by Albert Murray

Find Thomas:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chattertonwilliams/

Website: https://www.thomaschattertonwilliams.com/

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

Today’s episode is about quizzes, especially those that have a literary dimension to them. Today’s guest is Gary Wigglesworth who by day works as Sales and Marketing manager for British Library Publishing. But by night, once a month, he hosts London’s only monthly book quiz for literature lovers, on the first floor of the Betsy Trotwood pub, a charming Victorian establishment in Farringdon. You would not believe the lengths that Gary goes to in order to provide an extensive, detailed, and elaborate quiz that draws on literary knowledge, lateral thinking and above all, teamwork. His first book 'The Book Lover's Quiz Book' was published in 2020 - his second book will be published in October 2023.

Find Gary:

Website: https://www.gpwigglesworth.co.uk/

Twitter: @gpwigglesworth

Buy his book: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/gary-wigglesworth/the-book-lovers-quiz-book/9781472145291/

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

The book “Savor: A Chef’s Hunger for More” is the story of Fatima Ali, a young Pakistani-American chef working in the US who was featured on the TV show Top Chef and who was set to become an influential voice in the world of gastronomy when she was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer. 

My guest today is Fatima Ali’s collaborator Tarajia Morrell who is a New York-based food writer, who’s written numerous food-related pieces for publications like the WSJ Magazine and Departures who was brought in to help Fatima express her story.

The book follows her life from her childhood in Lahore, Pakistan which was the beginning of her love affair with food, to working in leading restaurants in the United States. It's a really powerful book that packs an emotional punch, because it’s about dreams and ambition, love of food & family and how all of that is ultimately so fragile in the face of illness & death. 

Buy the book: https://amzn.eu/d/gH3F7NY

Find Tarajia:

Website: https://www.tarajiamorrell.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tarajiamorrell/?hl=en

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

My guest today is Bill Sherman, who is the director of the Warburg Institute since 2017, following a distinguished career in academia and museums, most recently at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where he was director of Research and Collections and head of the V&A Research Institute. In today's episode, we explore how one man's true passion for books and deep sense of curiosity led to the creation of one of the world's most unique and influential libraries. In the late 1870s in Hamburg, Germany, a young boy named Aby Warburg was the heir of a wealthy and influential family of German-Jewish bankers who had built their bank over generations. But Aby Warburg didn't have a head for numbers in business, but rather for books. When he was barely a teen, he made a deal with his little brother Max that he would forfeit to him his right to manage the family bank if Max agreed to provide him with as many books as he wanted for the rest of his life. This deal and his extensive studies in art history and his research into indigenous tribes built the foundation for what would become the Warburg Library for Cultural Knowledge in Hamburg.

The library was moved from Hamburg to London in 1934 after the Nazis came to power in Germany. In London, it became the renowned Warburg Institute, which is located today in Woburn Square in London and is part of the University of London. It's a library with over 360,000 volumes, the largest collection in the world focused on the afterlife of antiquity and the transmission of culture, with a special emphasis on medieval and renaissance studies.

Visit the Warburg Insititute: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/

Find out more about Bill Sherman: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/people/bill-sherman

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

In today’s episode, we discuss the nation of Haiti, a small country in the Caribbean with a history that is equal parts heroic and tragic. It was the first country in the world to be established by a successful slave revolt, following a 12-year war of independence from France in 1804. But it has in recent years been in the news more for its political instability & economic struggles, not to mention a cataclysmic earthquake in 2010 which killed anywhere between 100,000 to 300,000 people.

My guest today is the Haitian author Dimitry Leger who wrote a novel based in the country called “God Loves Haiti” which was published in 2015 and revolves around a cast of characters on the island who are caught in the 2010 earthquake. The book examines the aftermath of this tragedy on the local population, with questions around fate & divine intervention arising from the rubble. There’s an absurdist, tragicomic but fundamentally human tale here which reflects the complex history & culture of Haiti.

In this interview, we talk about the country of Haiti, as seen through his book, what it means to be Haitian and what great literature Dimitry recommends.

Here’s a quick recap of the books that Dimitry mentioned:

Pico Ayer: The Half Known Life, by the British travel writer Pico Iyer

Soleil a Coudre by Jean d’Amerique

Edwige Danticat – Haitian American author

Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Find Dimitry:

Buy his book: https://amzn.eu/d/dKV3By0

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dimitryleger/?hl=en

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dimitryleger?lang=en

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

Sports writing is a genre that I find particularly thrilling because sports is the ultimate form of non-violent competition, and there’s always something at stake. But as many people will tell you, it’s not all about winning, it’s about taking part. My guest today has written a book which might even argue that it’s not about taking part, but that it’s all about the preparation and the extreme lengths some people go to, in order to gain an edge. 

Ed Hawkins is a sports writer who’s published numerous books including “The Lost Boys” a non-fiction exposé, for which he posed undercover to identify a human trafficking network bridging African & European football, and “Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy” which looks at the devastating effect of large betting syndicates in the sport of cricket. He’s also co-written the book “Why We Kneel, How We Rise” with the Jamaican cricket legend Michael Holding that looks at racism across various sports. 

But the book that caught my eye had a more unusual title “The Men on Magic Carpets”. It’s an examination of some fairly outlandish developments in sports training, starting in the 1960s and is inspired by hippyish philosophies around the paranormal abilities of elite athletes and how these could be enhanced and mastered. 

In this interview, we talk about the evolution of sports training, about the characters who devised some of these crazy methods and about the sports writing genre in general. 

In this interview, Ed mentioned the following books:

Jon Ronson – The Men who Stare at Goats which looks at the US Army’s attempts to channel the paranormal.

Will Storr – The Science of Story-Telling – by the British journalist 

George Orwell – Down and Out in Paris & London, 1984

Norman Mailer - The Fight -> about the Muhammad Ali – George Foreman fight

Dave Meghaessy - Out of their League

Find Ed Hawkins:

Twitter: @cricketbetting

Books: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Journalist-Ed-Hawkins/e/B00EZZY6X8/ref=aufs_dp_ftatl_dsk

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

My guest today is Tom Ayling, a rare and antiquarian bookseller and cataloguer at Jonkers Rare Books. Jonkers was founded in 1994 and is currently located in Henley on Thames, an idyllic town in England. Their mission has been to source and locate rare and unique books for their clients, some of whom are foremost collectors and institutions in the world. So what makes a book rare? What factors might influence its value? How does one find a rare book? Those were all questions that I wanted to ask Tom and dive a bit deeper into this fascinating business which many book lovers dream about.

Find Jonkers Rare Books:

Website: https://www.jonkers.co.uk/

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

In today's episode, I'm speaking to Matthew Campbell, the author of a book called Dead in the Water, which was published in 2022. It's a riveting true story investigation, weaving an unbelievable tale between Yemen, the city of London and Athens. It's a page turner which has the added bonus of making the world of oil shipping completely mesmerizing. For those of you that are yet to read the book, quickly provide you with some context.

In July 2011, an oil tanker called The Brilliant Virtuoso was attacked by a group of Somali pirates off the coast of Yemen, which is a fairly frequent occurrence in those dangerous waters. During the attack, the crew were evacuated off the ship and the ship was set on fire and eventually abandoned as part of the insurance claim process, which was being managed in London. A British investigator living in Yemen was dispatched to the ship to assess the damage, but he immediately detected that something about the pirate narrative rang false before he could investigate further. He was killed by a car bomb in Yemen. This left many questions unanswered, such as was his death connected to the attack or who might have been responsible for either event. In this book, Matthew Campbell tries to untangle a criminal web in an industry known for its secrecy.

Buy the book: https://amzn.eu/d/5Pjz8cX

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

Today’s guest is Elizabeth Semmhack, the director of a Museum, and not just any Museum but one that I hold particularly close to my heart: The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada. 

The reason it’s close to my heart is because it was founded by my late grandmother Sonja Bata. In 1946, she married my grandfather who was rebuilding his family’s footwear business. Together, they travelled the world and through these travels, she developed a passion for collecting historic shoes that best represented their cultures and environments. After decades of travelling, she’d accumulated a collection of shoes and as one does, in 1995, she founded this museum.

If ever you’re in Toronto, I really recommend the Bata Shoe Museum, it’s an amazing institution and today the Museum has a collection of over 15,000 pairs, with footwear from all eras and regions. One of my grandmother’s passions was the Arctic regions of northern Canada, and so there’s an amazing collection of circumpolar footwear from local indigenous groups from that region, with whom the Museum works regularly to maintain, preserve and showcase that shoe-making heritage. 

Elizabeth Semmelhack has published several excellent coffee-table books that show the Museum’s collection. In this interview, I discuss with her the role of footwear in societies, as shown through the great books that she’s put together. In this episode, we discuss sneakers, circumpolar boots, virtual footwear and many others.

In this episode, we talked about the following books:

Out of the Box by Elizabeth Semmelhack

The World At Your Feet: Bata Show Museum, 2019

Future Now by Elizabeth Semmelhack

A Taste for China by Eugenia Zuroski Jenkins

Precious Bane by Mary Bane

Visit the Bata Shoe Museum: https://batashoemuseum.ca/

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

Today's guest is Nina Freudenberger, a Los Angeles-based interior designer and the author of a superb coffee table book called Bibliostyle: How We Live at Home With Books, where she has documented and photographed some of the most gorgeous home libraries in the world, including those of major writers. Many book lovers have a strong desire to house their books in a way that cherishes and highlights them. On my Instagram account, I occasionally post content featuring beautiful libraries from around the world, and the reaction is immediate: people love a good library, and I’m definitely no exception.

In this episode, we talk about the role of books within homes and why we’re all so obsessed with beautiful home libraries. I really do recommend this wonderful piece of work and it's yet another great book to add to any library. 

Buy "Bibliostyle: How We Live at Home With Books": https://amzn.eu/d/bPeM0gh

Instagram: @ninafreudenberger

Website: https://www.freudenbergerdesign.com/

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

Today's episode was actually the first one I recorded a little while ago. I first came across the Book Club Review podcast hosted by Kate and Laura about a year ago, and I was always really impressed by the books they were discussing and the friendly, approachable tone they adopted during those discussions. Last year they contacted me to do an interview on the anniversary of the publication of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and we recorded the interview in Tavistock Square, where Virginia Woolf used to live and where she is commemorated with a statue. The interview was a lot of fun and I was very glad I got the opportunity to continue the conversation. 

Both Kate and Laura share some excellent book recommendations so make sure to have a pen and paper at the ready! 

Find more information: 

Website: https://www.thebookclubreview.co.uk/

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-book-club-review/id1215730246

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bookclubreviewpodcast/?hl=en

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

On today's episode I am joined by author, Alice Sherwood about her book "Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture". We live in a world where it is increasingly difficult to make the difference between what’s authentic and what’s fake. Whether we are talking about counterfeit fashion or Tinder swindlers making up identities, inauthenticity is a force that seems to be taking over. Alice's book is thought-provoking – and an often humorous look at the concept of realness and fakeness across many topics, ranging from 17th century forgers to contemporary technology, and how the challenges to authenticity have evolved over time. This book and our conversation was profoundly illuminating and I hope it will be for you too.

Find Alice Sherwood: 

Buy "Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture": https://amzn.eu/d/d5DD6xx

Instagram: @alice.sherwood

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

On today's episode, I am interviewing James Crabtree, who is currently the executive director of the Asia branch of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Asia. James was previously the bureau chief for the Financial Times in Mumbai and it was in that capacity that he wrote the fantastic book The Billionaire Raj, which I read and reviewed last year. India is very much at a political and economic crossroads at the moment, and the level of analysis that James Crabtree provides in his book is very enlightening. I was super excited to speak to James about the country and those massive changes. 

In fact, a lot has happened since I interviewed James in December 2022, not least of which the news in the last few weeks regarding Gautam Adani, an Indian billionaire and one of the richest men in the world, whose business empire came under unprecedented attack by short sellers in the market. This was prompted by a report issued by the investment research firm Hindenburg Research, which accused the Adani Group of fraud. Over a matter of days Gautam Adani's business empire lost around $100 billion in valuation. So it seems that the extraordinary wealth of this billionaire class can occasionally be accompanied by very rapid falls in wealth as well. 

Find James Crabtree: 

The International Institute for Strategic Studies: https://www.iiss.org/people/directing-staff/james-crabtree 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamescrabtree

Buy The Billionaire Raj: https://amzn.eu/d/1j1anpC

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

Today's guest is the author, Benjamin Moser, who is the biographer of not one, but two larger than life writers, one of them being the Brazilian novelist Clarice Lispector and the other being the American public intellectual, Susan Sontag. I came across Clarice Lispector when I read her last novel, The Hour of the Star, published in 1977, shortly before her death. It's got a really unusual style and a bit of a weird structure, but there was something quite fascinating about it. 

Benjamin Moser has not only written an excellent biography about Clarice called Why This World, but he was also appointed as the editor for a new English translation of the Complete Works by this author, which has been a major force in the revival of her work. Benjamin then went on to write a biography of Susan Sontag, published in 2019, which won the Pulitzer Prize for best biography. I'd only read one book by Susan Sontag called Against Interpretation, which is a collection of her cultural commentary essays in 1966, which firmly established her as a cultural high priestess in the U.S. for many decades. It's a brilliant book, but it has a certain prickliness. And as you will learn from Benjamin Moser's biography, Sontag: Her Life and Work, Susan, albeit brilliant and influential on public intellectual discourse was perhaps a tricky character in private. So having read both of those excellent biographies, I was curious to discuss the biographical process and genre with Benjamin Moser to understand more about how she worked, what the actual process was, and what motivated him to write these biographies. 

Find more information on Benjamin Moser books: 

Why This World: https://amzn.eu/d/9ycVJtR

Sontag: Her Life and Work: https://amzn.eu/d/8WCfviU

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

This week's episode is with the British philosopher David Edmonds. Six months ago, I came across his book about Wittgenstein called Wittgenstein's Poker and I absolutely loved this book because it deals with an episode later in the life of Wittgenstein, which I found absolutely fascinating in 1946. Wittgenstein, who was by then a professor at Cambridge University, found himself in a room at the Moral Sciences Club Philosophy Club at Cambridge, where they had invited a young upcoming philosopher called Karl Popper. The conversation deteriorated very rapidly until the point where Ludwig Wittgenstein was seen as threatening Karl Popper with a fire poker. Like a detective novel, David Edmonds unpacks the circumstances behind this very unique incident. It's a truly fascinating book and I'm really delighted to introduce to you today this discussion that I had with David Edmonds about his fantastic book, Wittgenstein's Poker.  

Find more information on David Edmonds: 

Website: http://www.davidedmonds.info/

Buy Wittgenstein's Poker: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wittgensteins-Poker-David-Edmonds/dp/057122735X/ 

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

For the very first episode of my brand new podcast Lit with Charles, I wanted to interview an author whose work I’ve really enjoyed and admired. Caitlin Macy is a New York based author, she’s published two novels and two collections of short stories. Her first novel, The Fundamentals of Play, was published in 2000, which was followed by the short story collection Spoiled in 2009. Her second novel, Mrs., was published in 2018, and I connected with Caitlin when she published her second collection of short stories called A Blind Corner. 

Caitlin’s stories inhabit a world where discomfort and neurosis lurk behind the edges. The women who populate these tales always seem to be one step away from a major, self-inflicted social disaster. As the author pokes her finger into the areas of gender, class, race, money and so many others. Her stories are fun, humorous and true, but also thought provoking and unsettling. I was very excited at the prospect of having a conversation with Caitlin Macy about her books and as you'll see in this episode, I wasn't disappointed.

Links for Caitlin Macy:

Website: https://caitlinmacy.com/

Books: https://caitlinmacy.com/books/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrscaitlinmacy/

Follow me @litwithcharles for more book reviews and recommendations!

Welcome to my brand new podcast, Lit with Charles - a podcast on all things literary where I interview people who have either written books or have interesting things to say about them. Upcoming guests include: 

- Caitlin Macy, an American novelist and the author of A Blind Corner

- David Edmonds, a British philosopher and author of Wittgenstein's Poker

-James Crabtree, author of The Billionaire Raj

- Benjamin Moser, Clarissa Lispector, Susan Sontag and many more. 

I hope you're as excited as I am to listen to my extremely talented guests talk about their craft and their books. Launching Monday 6th February. 

Follow me on @litwithcharles