Marginalia

In this podcast, I visited with Michael Finkel about his new book, The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit. The story is really Christopher Knight’s story. In 1986, Knight was 20 years old. He left his home and job in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, left his keys in his unlocked car and walked into the woods where he didn’t speak with another human being for 27 years. Okay, there was one time he encountered a hiker and said, “hi”--so that’s one syllable in 27 years.

In today’s podcast, I visited with Josh Barkan about his new book of stories, Mexico. He has divided his time between the United States and Mexico for several years, and many of these stories were derived from personal experience, as Josh explains in our conversation.

Here he is:

And if you listened to the Marginalia on air, here's what you heard:

-

Mexico: Stories was published by Hogarth.

Thanks for joining us for Marginalia. Discover new episodes at kmuw.org or through iTunes. Marginalia was produced at KMUW - Wichita.

Although All Our Wrong Todays is Elan Mastai’s first novel, it’s not his first go at telling a story. It’s just a different medium. You see, Mastai comes to literature from the movie industry. He has written and produced movies such as “Alone in the Dark,” “The Samaritan” and “What If.” Perhaps it’s his background in film that makes All Our Wrong Todays so visually appealing. And there’s not an image to be seen.

Alex George is a novelist, a teacher, a lawyer, and founder of the Unbound Book Festival, which is held in Columbia, Missouri. 

Novelist. Teacher. Lawyer. Book Festival Founder. These are not small jobs. How does one juggle them all? I recently asked Alex George that question and more about his latest his latest book, Setting Free the Kites. Here’s our conversation:

And if you listened to the commentary on-air, this is what you heard:

-

Setting Free the Kites was published by Putnam.

I’ve been waiting for this moment forever. Well, since October… that’s almost forever. Right?

Last October, a bookseller friend recommended that I read Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller. He was pretty insistent, and he tends to have impeccable reading taste, so I contacted the publisher to request an advance reading copy. The release date was February 7.

We’ve all heard the warning, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” We should probably add “don’t judge a book by it’s title” to the list of literary pitfalls to avoid. That’s especially the case with it comes to Brit Bennett’s The Mothers.

Keir Graff is the executive editor for Booklist publications, the author of four books for adults, and also books for young readers. His second book for young readers, The Matchstick Castle, was just published on January 10.

I recently spoke with Keir about his job, the new book, and the differences between writing books for adults and young readers, and how The Matchstick Castle has found favor with a sometimes tougher audience… boys.

Here's our conversation:

And if you listened to the commentary on-air, this is what you heard:

Why does the word “messy” have such a negative connotation? Messy desks. Messy rooms. Messy lives. It shouldn’t, according to Tim Harford. In his new book, Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives, he uses research in neuroscience, psychology, and social science to explain why should embrace messiness instead of resist it. And how the creativity, responsiveness, and resilience we crave rely on the disorder, confusion, and disarray require to produce them.

One year ago, December 2015, we had an idea here at KMUW. 'Wouldn't it be great,' we thought, 'if we could talk with the authors of the books we were reading for Literary Feast? Wouldn't it be great if we could gain some insight before our book club discussion?'

And in that moment, Marginalia was born.

It was our first foray into podcasting, and we discovered that we love the platform. And we also discovered that we wanted to expand Marginalia to include other authors beyond Literary Feast.

This episode features an conversation I had recently with Carol Birch. Birch is skilled at crafting fiction around historical fact, especially when there’s not enough factual information available. That was the case with her latest book, Orphans of the Carnival.

The novel looks at the life of Julia Pastrana. Born in Mexico in the 1930s, she could sing and dance, was fluent in three languages, and was billed as the Ugliest Woman in the World. It’s fiction based on fact, and against a backdrop of carnivals and freak shows, the story is stranger than fiction.