Podcasts about Edan Lepucki

[REBROADCAST FROM August 24, 2023] Edan Lepucki's latest novel, Time's Mouth, follows a woman who discovers an ability to time travel, which she then hones and transmits to other women. She joins us to discuss her book. *This segment is guest-hosted by Kousha Navidar

Edan Lepucki visits the virtual Damn Library by the power of the internet to discuss her intergenerational time travel novel, Time's Mouth. We get into all the fun stuff, like time travel mechanics, Reichian therapy, making fortresses, Santa Cruz, and how she's seeing her career at this point. Plus, we talk about The Possibilities by Yael Goldstein-Love, a book that Edan helped name. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Edan Lepucki is the author of the novella If You're Not Yet Like Me and the novels California, Woman No. 17, and Time's Mouth. She is a graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and her fiction and nonfiction have been published in Esquire, the New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Cut, Romper, and McSweeney's, among other publications. We talked about the editing process, mother - child relationships, generational trauma, time travel, and Sharon Olds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest this week is the delightfully funny and talented novelist Edan Lepucki who talks to us all about her new book TIME'S MOUTH, along with writing and mothering and prioritizing and getting older and process over outcome and time travel and the past (and jeans of the past). Also in this episode: hot flashes, maybe the only Vitamin C serum that works, how the seasons are no longer the seasons and a whole lot more!SHOW NOTESBuy Edan's book!! https://bookshop.org/a/79787/9781640095724Timeless Vitamin C SerumJones Road Miracle BalmGlossier's Boy BrowAbercrombie high rise jeansLevi's Lo Pro jeans Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Black fans of electronic dance music say they love raves for the mentality of peace, love, unity, and respect. But they wish the scene were more diverse. Is the tide turning? In her forthcoming book, journalist Rosanna Xia explores how rising tides might inspire Californians to rethink their relationship with the sea. In “Time's Mouth,” author Edan Lepucki follows three generations of Californians who've dealt with inherited trauma and more.

A generational time travel story.

Edan Lepucki's latest novel, Time's Mouth, follows a woman who discovers an ability to time travel, which she then hones and transmits to other women. She joins us to discuss her book. Lupucki will be appearing at a book event at Greenlight Bookstore tonight at 7:30pm.  *This segment is guest-hosted by Kousha Navidar.  

This week on The Maris Review, Edan Lepucki joins Maris to discuss Time's Mouth, out now from Counterpoint. Edan Lepucki is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels California and Woman No. 17, as well as the editor of Mothers Before: Stories and Portraits of Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them. Her nonfiction has been published in The New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Esquire, and The Cut, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles with her family. Her latest novel is called Time's Mouth, an intergenerational epic involving time travel.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Late Night supervising producer Sarah Jenks-Daly speaks with Edan Lepucki about her new novel Time's Mouth.Plus, Seth's mom Hilary Meyers offers some book recommendations.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Edan Lepucki is the author of three novels, including CALIFORNIA, WOMAN NO. 17, and her newest book, TIME'S MOUTH. In this week's episode, Annmarie and Edan grapple with fleetingness and nostalgia. What if we could go back in time? What might be better? What might be worse? They also discuss parenting and how much raising children is itself a form of time-travel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're joined by New York Times bestselling author Edan Lepucki, whose newest novel, Time's Mouth, is out now from Penguin Random House. We talk about her recent love of Larry McMurtry, why she'll never publish a short story collection, and why people need to get over their prudishness when it comes to literary depictions of sex. You can find all things Edan at her website, including links to order her new book, and to subscribe to her Substack: https://www.edanlepucki.com/ If you like our podcast, and want to help support it, please consider joining our Patreon, where we release two bonus episodes each month: https://www.patreon.com/BookFight Thanks for listening!

Edan Lepucki is the bestselling author of the novel Time's Mouth, available from Counterpoint Press. Lepucki's other books include the novels California and Woman No. 17. She is also the editor of Mothers Before: Stories and Portraits of Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them. Her nonfiction has been published in The New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Esquire Magazine, and The Cut, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles with her family. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch @otherppl Instagram  YouTube TikTok Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode features California by Edan Lepucki. Spoilers are between the 58 – 1:50 marks. In this we discuss our alternating protagonists, how much we loved the post-apocalyptic setting of this story, another failure to communicate and how we think we'd do trying to survive in this world. We finish with our usual segments and manage to keep it under 3 hours. Enjoy!

It's out last mini of June and it's another short story. This one is about a woman telling her unborn child how she came to be. You'll laugh, you'll be disappointed, you'll question the characters. But you won't learn who the baby daddy is here, you'll have to read the book to discover that fact!Book Discussed:If You're Not Yet Like Me by Edan Lepucki

Creative Parenting – Nina was captivated by NYTimes Bestselling Author, Edan Lepucki's recent NYTimes article, "Don't Play With Your Kids...Seriously" and in this conversation Nina and Edan break down how to create space and structure for creative play and then let the kids go it on their own! We also talk about how Edan's innate creativity as a novelist appears in her parenting. ~Links:https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/magazine/kids-play.htmlhttps://www.edanlepucki.com/https://www.instagram.com/edanlepucki/

First Draft Episode #300: Emma Straub Emma Straub, New York Times-bestselling author of The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, and the short story collection Other People We Married, talks about her most recent novel, All Adults Here, out in paperback now. She and her husband own Brooklyn bookstore Books Are Magic. Listeners can get two audiobooks for the price of one at Libro.fm when you use promo code FirstDraftPod at checkout! Links to Topics Mentioned In This Episode: Emma Straub’s father is Peter Straub, author of Ghost Story, Julia, A Dark Matter, and more The Magnetic Fields (band) The “Apology” episode of Still Processing, a New York Times podcast featuring conversations between culture writers Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham

First Draft Episode #289: Catie Disabato Catie Disabato, author of adult literary novels The Ghost Network and her newest, U Up? Links to Topics Mentioned In This Episode: Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will, Await Your Reply, and Stay Awake was Catie’s creative writing professor at Oberlin Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of California and Woman No. 17. Edan’s latest project is Mothers Before, a collection of essays and photographs based on the popular Instagram Mothers Before, which Edan created. She is also the co-host, with fellow writer Amelia Morris, of the podcast Mom Rage. The New York Times review of Catie’s debut novel, The Ghost Network Kirsten Reach, former editor at Melville House and current fiction editor at the Kenyon Review “Catie Disabato’s Novel ‘U Up?’ Renders LA’s Magic In Dark Bars And Chaotic Text Messages,” an interview with Catie by Zan Romanoff in CNMN magazine. Zan Romanoff, journalist and author of A Song to Take the World Apart, and Grace and the Fever, appeared most recently on First Draft to discuss her latest YA novel, Look. Listen to her interview here. Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker

“Edendale is a sly and smart novel that contains multitudes—itʼs strange, funny, dark, violent, frightening, compelling, and mysterious. Jacquelyn Stolos takes many exciting risks on the page, and together these risks accumulate to become a powerful and unique story about young, alienated people trying to find their way in an inhospitable world.”--Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of California   Stolos is in conversation with novelist Madeline Stevens.  ________________________________________________ Produced by Maddie Gobbo & Michael Kowaleski Theme: "I Love All My Friends," a new, unreleased demo by Fragile Gang. Visit https://www.skylightbooks.com/event for future offerings from the Skylight Books Events team.

In which we interview Edan Lepucki, the author of California and Woman No. 17, and discuss the blockbuster debut novel, Luster.

Novelist Edan Lepucki joins Mallory in the MILK Studio. Edan is the bestselling author of California and Woman No. 17, and the creator of the popular Mothers Before Instagram account. @MothersBefore was timed to the release of her latest book, which explored the themes of art, motherhood, and identity. Edan asked women and non-binary people of all ages to submit a favorite photograph of their mother before she became a mother and write a description of what the images invoke. @MothersBefore was and remains hugely popular, and now Mothers Before is a book. In it, Edan gathers more than sixty original essays and favorite photographs to explore the question: Who was your mother before she became a mother? The daughters in this remarkable collection are writers and poets, artists and teachers, and the images and stories they share reveal the lives of women in ways that are vulnerable and true, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and always moving. Contributors include Jennifer Egan, Angela Garbes, Alison Roman, and Jia Tolentino, among others. Mothers Before is a thoughtful and intimate celebration of motherhood and female identity. Edan is also the cohost of the podcast Mom Rage, which is candid and terrific. She lives in Los Angeles with her family. Follow her at edanlepucki dot com and @edanlepucki.    

Kate and Doree reflect on Mother’s Day, and the many emotions — both good and bad — that come along with it. Then, Edan Lepucki, editor of Mother’s Before, joins them to discuss the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship, her passion for journaling, why masturbation is self-care, and her favorite lube.To leave a voicemail for a future episode, call 781-591-0390. You can also email the podcast at forever35podcast@gmail.com.This episode is sponsored by: This week’s episode is sponsored by: WONDERCIDE - Try Wondercide Flea & Tick Spray today at wondercide.com/forever35 and get 20% off.BETTER HELP - Get 10% off your first month with the discount code FOREVER35. Go to betterhelp.com/FOREVER35 to get started today.PURPLE - Go to Purple.com/forever35, and use promo code forever35. For a limited time you’ll get $150 off any Purple mattress order of $1500 or more!MOLEKULE - For 10% off your first order, visit molekule.com and enter FOREVER10 at checkout.BEST FIENDS - Download Best Fiends FREE on the Apple App Store or Google Play. That’s FRIENDS without the R – Best Fiends.UNTAMED by Glennon Doyle - You can purchase UNTAMED from your favorite audiobook retailer or visit penguinrandomhouse.ca to learn more!Theme music by Riot. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In our second edition from our living rooms, we're joined by novelist Edan Lepucki to talk about her new book, Mothers Before: Stories and Portraits of Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them, which she adapted from her popular Instagram page. Plus, we cover topics as important as bread making and our dreams!

First Draft Episode #246: Edan Lepucki Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of California and Woman No. 17. Edan’s latest project is Mothers Before, a collection of essays and photographs based on the popular Instagram Mothers Before, which Edan created. She is also the co-host, with fellow writer Amelia Morris, of the podcast Mom Rage. Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will, Await Your Reply, and You Remind Me of Me, was an influential teacher in Edan’s young writing life A breakthrough moment for Edan was drafting a story that mimicked the structure used by Cary Holladay in “Merry-Go-Sorry,” a short story published in Alaska Quarterly Review (read an excerpt of the story, based on the West Memphis 3, here). Cary is also the author of Brides in the Sky: Stories and a Novella and The Quick-Change Artist: Stories. Edan worked at Book Soup, a local bookstore in Los Angeles, Calif. For 45 years, until her recent retirement, Connie Brothers shaped the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, including by calling every accepted writer personally to welcome them to the program. As a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, Edan is in a position to correct the depiction of the esteemed writing program in HBO’s Girls Frank Conroy, director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, died halfway through Edan’s time at the program. He was replaced by Lan Samantha Chang, who has been credited with a shift in the program’s makeup and away from a once-toxic environment. Raymond Carver, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Cathedral, and Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel, and Tenth of December: Stories Lorrie Moore, author of Birds of America: Stories and Self-Help and Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? Mary Gaitskill, This Is Pleasure: A Story, Bad Behavior: Stories, and Because They Wanted To Edan founded Writing Workshop L.A. after coming home from Iowa Leslie Parry, author of Church of Marvels, was a classmate of Edan’s at Iowa and one of the earliest authors to help teach at Writing Workshop L.A. Chris Daley was another early writing instructor who now serves as director of Writing Workshop L.A. The UCross Residency program in Wyoming The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood Edan’s appearance on The Colbert Report The New York Times profile about Edan’s debut experience with California, written by Brooks Barnes Appearing on Fresh Air with Terry Gross is one of Edan’s life goals Aimee Bender, author of Willful Creatures, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, and The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories Edan’s agent, Erin Hosier “Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them,” a piece Edan wrote for the New York Times that went viral Writers who contributed to Mothers Before include: Brit Bennett (author of The Mothers: A Novel); Jennine Capó Crucet (author of Make Your Home Among Strangers and My Time Among the Whites: Notes From an Unfinished Education); Jennifer Egan (author of A Visit From the Goon Squad and Manhattan Beach: A Novel); Angela Garbes (author of Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through The Science and Culture of Pregnancy); Annabeth Gish; Alison Roman (author of Nothing Fancy: Unfancy Food For Having People Over); Lisa See (author of The Island of Sea Women: A Novel and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan); Danzy Senna (author of Caucasia: A Novel, and New People); Dana Spiotta (author of Eat the Document: A Novel and Stone Arabia: A Novel); and Jia Tolentino (author of Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion). Annie Dillard, author of The Writing Life, as well as Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and An American Childhood Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project: Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun and Better than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits—To Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier LIfe I want to hear from you! Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998. Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too;  Michael Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free!   Rate, Review, and Recommend How do you like the show? Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you! Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post! Thanks again!

In this heavily Utah and Utah diaspora themed episode, Claire relays to Julia an interaction between Meri and Kody. Later, Claire confuses author Edan Lepucki and Adrian Pasdar of "Profit," which is a TV show, apparently.

Unique in its structure and written to mimic the tidal charts that Evie studies as well as the natural ebbs and flows of life, Creatures takes readers on a provocative and mesmerizing journey as Evie is forced to reckon with her complicated upbringing in this lush, feral land off the coast of Southern California. On the eve of Evie’s wedding, a dead whale is trapped in the harbor of Winter Island, the groom may be lost at sea, and Evie’s mostly absent mother has shown up out of the blue.  Evie grew up with her well-meaning but negligent father, surviving on the money he made dealing the island’s world-famous strain of marijuana, Winter Wonderland. Although he raised her with a deep respect for the elements, the sea, and the creatures living within it, he also left her to parent herself. Crissy Van Meter based Creatures on her own coming of age in Newport Beach. “I was asking questions about what it means to grieve, to love, to experience love informed by grief, and to love someone who isn’t always good.” She explains, “I was interested in digging into my own experiences with my father’s drug and alcohol addiction, his failures as a father, and the dichotomy of still loving him so much… And, I was interested in exploring what it means to have a treacherous past with a father like this, and what it means as an adult to decipher what it means to love, what it means to forgive.” Van Meter is in conversation with Edan Lepucki, bestselling author of the novels California and Woman No. 17.

Coming at you in person, Matt & Adrian sat down in the same room to record an episode about Colson Whitehead's post-apocalyptic literary novel, Zone One (https://amzn.to/2MR1hZT). We loved this book, and had in particular have a lot to say about its relationship to other apocalyptic literary fiction, the ways the novel discusses, analogizes, and interacts with depression & PTSD, and New York City in literature and reality. Other works mentioned: * Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead * White Noise by Don DeLillo * Cosmopolis, dir. by David Cronenberg * 10:04 by Ben Lerner * California by Edan Lepucki * Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson * Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel * The New & Improved Romie Futch by Julia Elliott  (Links in the shownotes at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher. All amazon links are affiliates.) --- As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at spectologypod@gmail.com, or submit the episode to r/printSF on reddit. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast when we talk about your comment. And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends! Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.

Novelist and genre shapeshifter Edan Lepucki is our guest on today’s show. Expert writing tips include: what to do when you realize you’ve spent four years writing two different novels that are actually the same, spoiler alert: Instagram poetry is probably not the answer. We talk about how having a baby is a great way to make you finish a project, and the value of an editor who is really good at telling you you’re brilliant. Also: Phuc does virtual marriage counseling sponsored by the I.T. department at Bloomsday Literary.Buy all of Lepucki’s riveting work and also support her (budding) rescue-Maltese adoption habit by pre-ordering her Mothers Before photo project (inspired by her Instagram of the same name):CaliforniaWoman No. 17If You’re Not Yet Like MeCheck out these essays of Edan’s that we love:from the NYT series Modern Love: “Taking Marriage One Year at a Time”and this inspired by the novel Woman No. 17, “Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them”all the things she wrote for The MillionsSuggested Reads and Honorable Mentions:Edan and cohost Amelia Morris’ Mom Rage podcastAmelia Morris’ memoir Bon Appetempt: A Coming of Age Story (with Recipes!)Minding the Gap documentaryGood Talk by Mira JacobSally Mann selected works & photographyFinally, since we are huge dog people here on the show, in case you were wondering, Edan did not adopt the last available rescue Maltese in California. There are plenty. Find one of your very own here. photo credit: Pet MD**also what Kate looks like when she wakes up in the morning. photo credit: Adam Karsten

Twenty-first century visions of the future now seem drawn from Hollywood horror films. Runaway climate change portends the wholesale destruction of economies and species. Scientists fear new mass epidemics. Old technologies are breaking down and new technologies are used for oppression and social control. The deluge of digital information makes it hard to separate truth from fiction. What are the risks of human society of entering a darker, less civilized age? Do the rise of authoritarians and political extremists portend greater barbarity in how our societies are governed? Even if we all agreed that we’re close to the apocalypse, do humans have the capacity to save themselves? University of New South Wales global biosecurity scholar Raina MacIntyre, SCI-Arc speculative architect and futurist Liam Young, and RAND Corporation defense policy researcher and former U.S. Marine Jonathan P. Wong visited Zócalo to examine whether the future will take us backwards. Moderated by Edan Lepucki, novelist and author of California, this Zócalo/Getty event took place in Los Angeles at the Getty Center.

In part two of our three-part series, “Why Should I Have Children?”, we speak with author, blogger, and podcaster Amelia Morris. Mother to two young boys, Amelia reflects on her decision to have children and how society might have played a role. She offers sincere, honest advice to women who are considering motherhood, which begins with space to understand yourself. Amelia Morris is the author of the award-winning food blog Bon Appetempt, as well as the book by the same name, Bon Apptemept: A Coming-Of-Age Story With Recipes! Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, McSweeney’s, The Millions, and USA Today, and she is currently working on her novel. She co-hosts the podcast Mom Rage with novelist Edan Lepucki. For show notes and more information about our guest, please visit whyshouldipodcast.com Be sure to follow on Instagram @whyshouldipodcast

In Lydia Kiesling's razor-sharp debut novel, The Golden State, we accompany Daphne, a young mother on the edge of a breakdown, as she flees her sensible but strained life in San Francisco for the high desert of Altavista with her toddler, Honey. Bucking under the weight of being a single parent--her Turkish husband is unable to return to the United States because of a "processing error"--Daphne takes refuge in a mobile home left to her by her grandparents in hopes that the quiet will bring clarity. But clarity proves elusive. Over the next ten days Daphne is anxious, she behaves a little erratically, she drinks too much. She wanders the town looking for anyone and anything to punctuate the long hours alone with the baby. Among others, she meets Cindy, a neighbor who is active in a secessionist movement, and befriends the elderly Alice, who has traveled to Altavista as she approaches the end of her life. When her relationships with these women culminate in a dangerous standoff, Daphne must reconcile her inner narrative with the reality of a deeply divided world. Kiesling is in conversation with Edan Lepucki, the bestselling author of novels California and Woman No. 17.

The best books don't center around perfect characters doing easy things. I am so excited to share this week's episode as each of these conversations was so much fun to record. Edan has been on the show before, but I wanted to have her back to talk about her love of writing difficult characters within the framework of her latest novel, Woman No. 17. Edan delights in creating tension by revealing her character's flaws for the reader's view and puts these characters in situations sure to highlight these flaws and bring them to a head. So many books create tension through plot and action, but the suspense in Edan's books is just as much about pushing flawed characters to their edge, all the while leaving us asking "Oh my god, what will they do now??" Jim Butcher has written so many novels that I wouldn't be shocked to learn that he doesn't sleep at all. He admitted that he has trouble keeping track of the exact details of former books after having revised them numerous times, so he relies on his fanbase Wiki to keep track, a detail I found both charming and extremely practical. In addition, we dove into the beauty of throwing your characters into sticky situations and the necessity to write scenes so things go from bad to worse. This chat helped me feel much braver about putting my character into tough spots to see how she will navigate rocky territory. I hope both these conversations inspire you to investigate the less savory corners of your story and take your books into riskier places. May we all send our characters down a dark alley, metaphorically, after taking both of these writers' advice! Sponsored by the SLP Patreon | Show notes with links See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Guy Branum, Margaret Wappler and Andrew Ti are joined by novelist Edan Lepucki. Together, they’ll take a look at our favorite bad moms, and grapple with how they're portrayed in popular culture. It turns out that being in the golden age of television could also mean the golden age of the portrayal of matriarchy in pop culture. Edan is all about the novel Blue Bird Blue Bird by Attica Locke, which she says is filled with the best kind of thriller tropes. Margaret is all about the Netflix series The Letdown, a show that features all the joy of motherhood… and just the right amount of its dark side. Guy is all about Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher’s new comedy special The Honeymoon Tour, a three-part piece that features one of the scariest and greatest things a comedian can attempt: interacting with the audience. Andrew is all about Childish Gambino’s music video This is America, including the analysis and backlash to the analysis. The panel will discuss how they feel the portrayal of motherhood in pop culture has evolved over the years, in everything from Fresh Off the Boat and Transparent to Tully and Carrie. Plus, they’ll explain some of the damaging tropes of mothers on TV, and which shows are finally starting to get it right. With Guy Branum, Margaret Wappler, Andrew Ti and Edan Lepucki. That’s My Jam: Edan Lepucki - Gino Paoli - Sapore di Sale. Andrew Ti - B.B. King & UGK (mixed by AMERIGO GAZAWAY) - Make Love To My Car Margaret Wappler - Kacey Musgraves - Space Cowboy. Guy Branum - Troye Sivan - Bloom. You can let us know what you think of Pop Rocket and suggest topics in our Facebook group or via @PopRocket on Twitter. And you can follow us on Instagram as well. Produced by Laura Swisher for MaximumFun.org. Edited by Julian Burrell.

How well can you ever really know another person—even the woman that you sleep beside, night after night?It's been a year since Billie Flanagan--a Berkeley mom with an enviable life--went on a solo hike in Desolation Wilderness and vanished from the trail. Her body was never found; just a shattered cellphone and a solitary hiking boot. Her husband and teenage daughter have been coping with Billie's death the best they can: Jonathan drinks as he works on a loving memoir about his marriage; Olive grows remote, from both her father and her friends at the all-girls school she attends. But then Olive starts having strange visions of her mother, still alive. Jonathan worries about Olive's emotional stability, until he starts unearthing secrets from Billie's past that bring into question everything he thought he understood about his wife. Who was the woman he knew as Billie Flanagan?  Together, Olive and Jonathan embark on a quest for the truth--about Billie, but also about themselves, learning in the process about all the ways that love can distort what we choose to see. Janelle Brown's insights into the dynamics of intimate relationships will make you question the stories you tell yourself about the people you love, while her nervy storytelling will keep you guessing until the very last page.  Praise for Watch Me Disappear "Clever and compelling, this ricocheting tale reveals that even in the closest families, how little we know of the ones we love, and how our own secrets are often the hardest to bear, can cost us dearly in the end." --Lisa Gardner, author of Right Behind You  "Tantalizing and twisty, Watch Me Disappear is both a spider's web of a thriller and a moving exploration of the deeper mysteries of marriage and family. You won't be able to put it down, but you won't forget it either." --Megan Abbott, author of You Will Know Me  "A riveting, seductive read about the secret, protected places within even the most intimate relationships . . . Janelle Brown has written a novel that provokes thought as her story twists and turns. I loved it." --Sara Gruen, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Water for Elephants  "Watch Me Disappear is at once a riveting page-turner and a thoughtful meditation on what it means to know other people--and ourselves." --Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of Woman No. 17 and California  "I devoured Watch Me Disappear in one sitting. In this poignant and captivating story of a missing woman and the family she left behind, Brown deftly peels away the layers of a loving marriage to reveal a haunting mystery and a devastating truth: that no matter how much you love someone, you can never truly know them." --Laura McHugh, author of The Weight of Blood and Arrowood "The real magic of Watch Me Disappear is Brown's gift for evoking familial love in all its mad permutations--and the more intensely for the high stakes of what has been taken, and what is yet to be found. This is a story you simply don't want to end--but then, lord, what an ending!" --Tim Johnston, author of Descent Janelle Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and This Is Where We Live. An essayist and a journalist, she has written for Vogue, The New York Times, Elle, Wired, Self, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, and numerous other publications. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two children.

Today we're connected with Edan Lepucki, author of California (Little, Brown and Company) and If You're Not Yet Like Me (Nouvella), staff writer for The Millions, and founder and co-director of Writing Workshops Los Angeles. Producer: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Kevin Staniec Manager: Sarah Becker Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels Guest: Edan Lepucki

Luke Burbank kicks off the “Cautionary Tales” episode with a harrowing anecdote about his dog’s actual tail, Welcome to Night Vale creators Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor provide some techniques for concentrating on art during trying political times, poet Danez Smith deconstructs wokeness, author Edan Lepucki shares her methods for conjuring a ‘female snarl’ writing state, and musician and animator Chad VanGaalen performs the track “Static Shape.”

How far would you go for someone you love? These three gripping novelists contemplate the unexpected barbs, the questions, and disappointments of love's promise. With provocative looks at relationships between parents, children, lovers, and friends, this event reminds us that love, as Stephen King put it, “has teeth.” Sylvia Brownrigg, Edan Lepucki, Shanthi Sekaran, moderated by Barbara Lane.

ctober is National Reading Group Month. Celebrate the joy of reading! Join WNBA/LA for a panel discussion at Skylight Books with critically-acclaimed authors Siel Ju (Cake Time), Abbi Waxman (The Garden of Small Beginnings), and Gabrielle Zevin (Young Jane Young).  This event is free and open to all.  About the authors: Siel Ju is a writer in Los Angeles. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks: Feelings Are Chemicals in Transit (Dancing Girl Press, 2014), and Might Club (Horse Less Press, 2014). Her stories and poems appear in ZYZZYVA, The Los Angeles Review, Denver Quarterly, and other publications. She also edits Flash Flash Click, a weekly email lit zine for fast fiction. Siel is the recipient of a residency from The Anderson Center at Tower View and holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. Cake Time is her first novel-in-stories. “Siel Ju’s Cake Time is sharply observed and wonderfully contemporary: these complex, flawed, and real characters live in our current world, with all its confusions and opportunity to connect—or disconnect. It’s about the perils and pleasures of intimacy, and its heroine feels as alive as you and I. A compelling and unflinching debut.” - Edan Lepucki, author of California Born in England, Abbi Waxman has worked as a copywriter and then a creative director at various advertising agencies in London and New York, including Ogilvy and Mather, Y&R, Grey, and Wunderman. She now writes books, TV shows, and screenplays of her own.  “It is Waxman’s skill at characterization that lifts this novel far above being just another “widow finds love” story. Clearly an observer, Waxman has mastered the fine art of dialogue as well. Characters ring true right down to Lilian’s two daughters, who often steal the show. This debut begs for an encore from Waxman.”-- Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review Gabrielle Zevin is a New York Times bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than thirty languages. Her eighth novel, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, spent more than four months on the New York Times Bestseller list, reached #1 on the National Indie Bestseller list, and has been a bestseller all around the world. She has also written books for children and young adults, including the award-winning Elsewhere. “This book will not only thoroughly entertain everyone who reads it; it is the most immaculate takedown of slut-shaming in literature or anywhere else.” --Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review

Episode 29 - New kids on the books Justine and Natalie have retired from Dear Reader, but Natalie gives new hosts Bernadine and Louise a quick tour of the studio and hands over the keys. Bernadine's book: Our souls at night / Ken Haruf Louise's book: South and west / Joan Didion Natalie's book: Woman no. 17 / Edan Lepucki

Edan Lepucki joins Amy to talk performance art, class in California, and which books she reads over and over again. Learn about WOMAN NO. 17 here: http://bit.ly/2vl9htL

Cake Time (Red Hen Press) Daring yet aimless, smart but slightly strange, Cake Time’s young female protagonist keeps making slippery choices, sliding into the dangerous space where curiosity melds with fear and desires turn into dirty messes. In “How Not to Have an Abortion,” the teenaged narrator looks for a ride from the clinic between her AP exams. In “Easy Target,” the now-college-grad agrees to go to a swingers party with a handsome stranger. A decade later, in “Glow,” she is suddenly confronted by the disturbing and thrilling fact of her lover’s secret daughter. Ultimately, this unflinching novel-in-stories grapples with urgent, timeless questions: why intelligent girls make terrible choices, where to negotiate a private self in an increasingly public world, and how to love madly without losing a sense of self. Joining us will be Jim Ruland, Victoria Patterson, and Janice Lee. Victoria Patterson is the author of the novel The Little Brother, which Vanity Fair called “a brutal, deeply empathetic, and emotionally wrenching examination of American male privilege and rape culture.” She is also the author of the novels The Peerless Four and This Vacant Paradise, a 2011 New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Her story collection, Drift, was a finalist for the California Book Award and the Story Prize and was selected as one of the best books of 2009 by The San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in South Pasadena, California with her family and teaches at Antioch University.  Jim Ruland is the co-author of My Damage with Keith Morris, founding member of Black Flag, Circle Jerks and OFF! (Da Capo 2016) and Giving the Fingerwith Scott Campbell Jr. of Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch (Lyons Press 2014). He is also the author of the award-winning novel Forest of Fortune(Tyrus Books 2014) and the short story collection Big Lonesome (Gorsky Press 2005). Jim’s work has appeared in many publications, including The Believer, Esquire, Granta, Hobart, McSweeney’s, Mississippi Review, and Oxford American, and has received awards from Reader’s Digest and the National Endowment for the Arts. He runs the Southern California-based reading series Vermin on the Mount, now in its thirteenth year. Janice Lee is the author of KEROTAKIS (Dog Horn Press, 2010), Daughter (Jaded Ibis, 2011), Damnation (Penny-Ante Editions, 2013), Reconsolidation(Penny-Ante Editions, 2015), and The Sky Isn’t Blue (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2016). She is Editor of the #RECURRENT Series for Civil Coping Mechanisms, Founder and Executive Editor of Entropy, Assistant Editor at Fanzine, Contributor at HTMLGIANT, Co-Editor (w/ Maggie Nelson) of SUBLEVEL, the new online literary magazine based in the CalArts MFA Writing Program and CEO/Founder of POTG Design. She can be found online at http://janicel.com. Praise for Cake Time  “Cake Time is a delicious indulgence. Treat yourself to its dark, seductive intimacies and savor the gritty sugar of its unsentimental humor.”—Jillian Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, and Everything You Ever Wanted “Siel Ju writes with refreshing candor about sexual appetite and the treacherous difficulty of finding love. There is cruelty in the search and tenderness and a lot of honest fumbling around. Cake Time is our time—a provocative debut.”—Noy Holland, author of BIRD “Siel Ju’s Cake Time is sharply observed and wonderfully contemporary: these complex, flawed, and real characters live in our current world, with all its confusions and opportunity to connect—or disconnect. It’s about the perils and pleasures of intimacy, and its heroine feels as alive as you and I. A compelling and unflinching debut.”—Edan Lepucki, author of California “Siel Ju’s Cake Time is an astonishing debut. Ju’s novel-in-stories is unsettling and fierce and full of loneliness, sadness, and humor. Her voice is so alive, and her candor—particularly about men and sex—is keenly astute, intimate, and startling. The prose is precise and poetic, and Los Angeles vibrates on the page. Wry and heartfelt and uniquely defiant, Cake Time is like a hard slap I didn’t expect or see coming.”—Victoria Patterson, author of The Little Brother and Drift “Siel Ju’s stories are not boring because they are about not-boring things, like swingers’ parties and organic fashion company beauty pageants and high school sex and breakups and hook ups. Lots and lots of breakups and hook ups. I worried for Siel Ju reading about all these breakups and hook ups. Then I reminded myself these are fictions Siel Ju is telling us, and Siel Ju is fine. We are all fine, even after all these breakups and hook ups.”—Elizabeth Ellen, author of Fast Machine and Bridget Fonda Siel Ju's novel-in-stories, Cake Time, is the winner of the 2015 Red Hen Press Fiction Manuscript Award and will be published in April 2017. Siel is also the author of two poetry chapbooks. Her stories and poems appear in ZYZZYVA, The Missouri Review (Poem of the Week), The Los Angeles Review, Denver Quarterly, and other places. She gives away a book a month at sielju.com.

MARLENA MARLENA MARLENA! Julie Buntin drops into the Damn Library to talk her terrific debut novel, Marlena, and gets into whether she's a Marlena or a Cat, if there's a real Spicy Bob's Pizza, and what she was hoping to get to at the core of her characters. Plus, she and the guys get really into Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki, which isn't a noir even if it seems like it. 15 seconds of a song: Chet Faker - Gold contribute and help the show: patreon.com/smdb find drink lists and recipes at somanydamnbooks.com! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Among many tangents, side conversations and musings (authors writing about unhappy marriages while all claiming to have happy marriages, the disappointing odds of Goodreads giveaways, authors whose debut novels are published by a different company than their first, and Gayle accosting Tom Perotta at BookExpo America), Gayle and Nicole discuss the books they can't wait to get their hands on is the next few weeks and report back on a some recently mentioned books they've read. Basically, they spend half an hour adding to each other's, and hopefully your, TBR lists. http://amzn.to/2rx1eJ0 (The Light We Lost) by Jill Santopolo http://amzn.to/2re2T6D (Woman No. 17) by Edan Lepucki http://amzn.to/2qS8KgR (California) by Edan Lepucki http://amzn.to/2rdmyU3 (Perennials) by Mandy Berman http://amzn.to/2rwV1N8 (The Shadow Man) by Alan Drew

If the first thing you think of when you think of Los Angeles is movie stars, palm trees, and traffic, there's nothing wrong with that. But what about all the great writers who call L.A. home? In this special L.A. episode recorded during the recent Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, we talk with Hollywood Reporter features editor Stephen Galloway about his new bio of Sherry Lansing; comedian Carl Reiner; novelist Edan Lepucki; and bestselling YA writer Melissa de la Cruz. Join us on this all-things-L.A. episode!

Epigraph  The Drunk Booksellers get stoned on this 4/20 themed episode with Paul Constant of the Seattle Review of Books. Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, our website, or subscribe using your podcatcher of choice. This episode is sponsored by Books & Whatnot, the newsletter dedicated to books, bookselling, and bookish folk; check out their newsletter archive here. Follow Books & Whatnot on Twitter at @booksandwhatnot. If you want to get our show notes delivered directly to your inbox—with all the books mentioned on the podcast and links back to the bookstore we’re interviewing PLUS GIFs—sign up for our email newsletter. Introduction In which we make pot jokes and get excited about books We're switching up our intoxicant of choice this episode and getting stoned rather than drunk (mostly). Paul's rocking Mr. Moxey's Mints (of the peppermint/sativa variety). Emma's smoking CBD (not to be confused with William Steig's children's picture book, CDB!). Kim stops talking while stoned—which would make for a really awkward podcast episode—so she's drinking the hoppiest IPA she could find instead. Everyone's a little too high to explain the varieties of weed particularly well, so you should just read David Schmader's Weed: The User's Guide: A 21st Century Handbook for Enjoying Marijuana. Paul's Reading: Up South by Robert Lashley The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks A collection of books from Mount Analogue Press Manners by Ted Powers Final Rose by Halie Theoharides (a comic book tone poem about love and loss made up screenshots from The Bachelor) Reading Through It book club pick: What We Do Now: Standing Up for Your Values in Trump's America, edited by Dennis Johnson Emma's Reading: First Position by Melissa Brayden (thanks to a recommendation from our episode with The Ripped Bodice) Giant Days 4 by John Allison, Max Sarin, Lissa Treiman, Liz Fleming, and Whitney Cogar All the Lives I Want: Essays about My Best Friends Who Happen to Be Famous Strangers by Alana Massey (thanks to a recommendation from our episode with Amy Stephenson) Kim's Reading: We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder The Aisles Have Eyes: How Retailers Track Your Shopping, Strip Your Privacy, and Define Your Power by Joseph Turow  Forthcoming Titles We're Excited For: You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie (out June 13) Love and Trouble: a Midlife Reckoning by Claire Dederer (out May 9) also mentioned Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002) by David Sedaris (out May 30) Hunger: a Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay (out June 13) Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood (out May 2) Borne by Jeff VanderMeer (out April 25) Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch (out April 18) Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki (out May 9) Isadora by Amelia Gray (out May 23) Dreaming the Beatles: the Love Story of One Band and the Whole World by Rob Sheffield (out April 25) Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive by Kristen J Sollee (out June 13) Modern Tarot: Connecting with Your Higher Self Through the Wisdom of the Cards by Michelle Tea (out June 13) The Perfect Mix: Everything I Know about Leadership I Learned as a Bartender by Helen Rothberg (out June 20) Chapter I [18:50] In which we learn what The Seattle Review of Books is, talk about book reviews as a meta art form, and get advice on promoting diversity and being a safe, welcoming place for people who aren't white bros The Seattle Review of Books is a book news, review, and interviews site. This isn't consumer reports, with a thumbs up or down on each title; each review aims to have a conversation with the book. It's a site that aims to look like your bookshelf, without genre classification. Emma & Kim don't quite understand Paul's assertion that people don't organize their bookshelves, but we roll with it. SRB makes all their money through a single sponsor (which changes each week). If you're interested in their sponsorship program, you can learn more here. Paul wants to promote young, new writers and help them build up their clip file. So you should probably pitch him with your brilliant, bookish ideas. Email submissions@seattlereviewofbooks or fill in the contact form on their about page. Emma particularly loves the Help Desk by Cienna Madrid. Ask Cienna an awkward book-related question at advice@seattlereviewofbooks.com. Being a couple of white guys, Paul and his co-founder Martin McClellan are extremely concerned with diverse representation. You can learn more about how SRB encourages diversity in both the books they review and the reviewers they publish on their about page (or by listening to this episode...). But you should know right off the bat, they are not here to promote the new Franzen novel and they will not pander to bros.  Chapter II [33:10] In which we talk about life in the US post-election, say something negative about a book, and discuss Paul's past (and current) life as a bookseller Reading Through It is a post-election book club hosted by Seattle Review of Books, the Seattle Weekly, and Third Place Books Seward Park. They meet the first Wednesday of every month. On our post-election world, Paul Constant says: "This is what books were made for. Books are engines of empathy... the only way to do a deep-dive into an issue. It's our stored knowledge... This is the moment for books." The next Reading Through It book group pick is The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt. They'll be meeting Wednesday May 3rd at Third Place Books Seward Park. Read Paul's article on his time at Borders: Books Without Borders: My Life at the World's Dumbest Bookstore Chain Though he's not technically a bookseller anymore, Paul is still "on team books." Keep an eye out for our "I'm On Team Books" t-shirts, which may or may not be a thing we sell one day. Chapter III [43:20] In which Paul is better at explaining our questions than stoned Emma is at asking them, Emma and Kim give Paul major side-eye due to his bookseller confession, and Emma continues to push Uprooted by Naomi Novik Desert Island Pick (what would you read that you never had the time to read before): The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro (beginning with The Path to Power) We couldn't find a video of the following clip of Caro on the Colbert Report, so we'll just leave you this series of gifs to explain why you, too, should consider bringing an epic five-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson as your desert beach read: You're welcome. Now, back to your regularly scheduled show notes.  Station Eleven Picks (the books to preserve for society) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (everything you need to know about living in a society) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (everything you need to know about life and how it doesn’t always work out the way you want, but you should live it anyway) Read Paul's essay about The Scarlet Letter, originally written for Scarecrow Video. Wild Pick (traveling is about observing things... soaking everything in) We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order to Live by Joan Didion ("because she is the greatest observer on the planet and I would want to be like her when I was traveling") Bookseller Confession  Once again, we have a guest who hasn't read Harry Potter. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? Paul also hasn't read Lord of the Rings and Kim proceeds to side-eye him from across the city. (In case you were wondering, the title of the direct link to this gif is "wtf-i-cant-even-you-are-stupid." Just sayin'.) Emma, naturally, tries to convert Paul to fantasy w/ an Uprooted recommendation because "nobody doesn't like it." Paul commits to reading it in order to prove her wrong. Go-To Handsell Fup by Jim Dodge Paul saved the book from going out of print and—arguably more importantly—he handsold a copy to Allison Hannigan. Impossible Handsell  Paradise by AL Kennedy (and everything by AL Kennedy) Book for Booksellers Saving Capitalism by Robert Reich Favorite Bookstores Elliott Bay Ada’s Technical Books Third Place Ravenna Favorite Literary Media Not to brag, but, we’re the only podcast Paul listens to. The Rumpus Lit Hub Book Forum Electric Literature Shelf Awareness Epilogue In which we tell you where to find us on the Internets You can find Paul on: Twitter Seattle Review of Books is also on Twitter Seattlereviewofbooks.com You can find us on: Twitter at @drunkbookseller Litsy at @drunkbooksellers Facebook Instagram Email Newsletter Website Emma tweets @thebibliot and writes bookish things for Book Riot. Kim tweets occasionally from @finaleofseem, but don’t expect too much 'cause she saves all of the interesting (ie. book-related) shizzle for Drunk Booksellers. Subscribe and rate us on iTunes!  

Epigraph On this episode we becomes best friends with Amy Stephenson, Events Director at Booksmith in San Francisco and co-creator/host of Shipwreck, a competitive literary erotic fan fiction live show. This episode is sponsored by Books & Whatnot, the newsletter dedicated to books, bookselling, and bookish folk. We were too excited about hosting Books on the Nightstand to mention Books & Whatnot on air, but you should definitely check out the newsletter archive here. Follow Books & Whatnot on Twitter at @booksandwhatnot. Introduction In Which We Discuss Sad Sociology Books and Amy’s Twitter Life Coach, and Furiously Take Notes On the Books We’re Recommending Each Other (but oh wait look, show notes!) We’re drinking Manhattans—Amy’s go-to, “I’m fancy on a Friday night” drink—and making jokes about robotripping. We’re Reading: Amy is reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (and Kim & Emma are SO excited) and Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin. Kim is reading Necessary Trouble by Sarah Jaffe, The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis, and The Revenge of Analog by David Sax—which is her favorite book of 2016. Emma is reading My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris (out from Fantagraphics Feb 14) and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.  Also mentioned: Shirley Jackson’s memoir(ish) essay collections Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons and the new biography on Jackson, Shirley Jackson: a Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin. She recommends all the Shirley Jackson book. Because Shirley Jackson is a #bosswitch Emma’s favorite book of 2016 is Trainwreck by Sady Doyle. Amy’s is Evicted by Matthew Desmond (paperback out Feb 28). If Kim were allowed to pick two favorites, her other favorite would be While the City Slept by Eli Sanders (paperback out Feb 7). We’re Excited About: Amy is looking forward to so many books in 2017, but, when pressed, narrowed it down to these six: All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg (out March 7) All the Lives I Want: Essays about My Best Friends Who Happen to Be Famous Strangers by Alana Massey (out Feb 7) Alana Massey is Amy’s “Twitter life coach,” so you should probably follow her too: @alanamassey The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn (out April 11) Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki (out May 9) And We’re Off by Dana Schwartz (out May 2)  Dana Schwartz is also the creator of Guy In Your MFA. Amy says, “She’s so talented it makes me angry.” Emma is excited about Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (out Feb 14) Seriously. Read this book. It’s his debut novel and it’s amazing. Or listen to the record-breaking audiobook. What We Do Now: Standing Up for Your Values in Trump's America edited by Dennis Johnson and Valerie Merians  shout out to Melville House for putting this out with a quickness. Always Happy Hour by Mary Miller the cover is done by the amazing painter Lee Price. And Kim is looking forward to The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker because she’s pretty sure it’s queer. Chapter I [19:50] In Which We Discuss How Kids Book Authors Write The Best Erotic Fan Fic, Dick Jokes, and Shipwreck in Seattle Amy works at Booksmith in San Francisco, California. She is their Events Director, does all their social media, and is their de facto HR dept. Because bookstores.  Booksmith recently celebrated their 40th anniversary and they’re opening a new store called The Bindery—a sort of wine bar/living room space/events annex—across the street. Amy is also the co-creator and host of Shipwreck, “a competitive literary erotic fan fiction live show,” which began in June 2013 and runs once a month at Booksmith (and sometimes travels to Comic Cons). They record ALL the shows so you can enjoy crazy dick jokes from the comfort of your own headphones. They were inspired by the competitive reading series Write Club, which also has  a podcast! Shipwreck is such an amazing concept, that Grand Central Publishing wanted to collect the stories in a book: Fanfiction Parodies of Great (and Terrible) Literature from the Smutty Stage of Shipwreck edited by Amy Stephenson and Casey A. Childers Hey, Seattleites, does this sound awesome? You too can enjoy live erotic fan fiction at Emerald City Comic Con this year on March 2nd. The line-up includes:  Seanan McGuire (whose most recent book is Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day and who wrote for the very first Shipwreck) Peter Mountford (author of The Dismal Science) Scott Westerfeld (who has a graphic novel called Spill Zone coming out May 2nd)  Matt Fraction (who writes Sex Criminals, so you know his erotic fanfic will be excellent).  They’ll be writing fan fiction for Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman comics. And their San Francisco performer, Baruch Porras-Hernandez, will be reading for both shows. Buy tickets here. There will be two shows, one at 7pm and another at 9:30pm. BONUS: we, the Drunk Booksellers, will be there selling books and representing Elliott Bay Book Co. Chapter II [40:00] In Which We Reveal Bookseller Secrets and Are Super Supportive of Each Other The book description guaranteed to get Amy reading is: “strong female character written by a women involved in a murder somehow and you won’t believe the twist… bathtub gin reading.” If you need a gateway mystery, Amy recommends Tana French, specifically The Likeness. Her desert island pick is The Comedians by Graham Greene because she already reads it every year. Her Station Eleven pick (aka the world is falling apart, which it kind of is) is Erich Fromm: The Sane Society (NOTE: this is still in print, despite what we say in the episode) and On Disobedience by Eric Fromm Her Wild pick: something Didion “because Didion teaches you how to see the world.”  Bonus bookseller confession: neither Kim or Emma have read Didion. So where do you start with Didion? If you want to read something that’s going to make you cry: The Year of Magical Thinking If you want astute cultural commentary: Slouching Towards Bethlehem Amy’s bookseller confession: she can’t get into Ferrante Go to handsells: Tana French Margaret Atwood’s contemporary fiction: Cat’s Eye and The Robber Bride Fred Vargas, who writes police procedurals that are weirdly witty, funny, and entertaining; her newest book, A Climate of Fear is out March 7th go to non-fiction: A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres (who also wrote a memoir called Jesus Land The book Amy wants to champion to other booksellers: Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Griffin, which she describes as “a modern, feminist telling of Frankenstein, sort of” Chapter III [50:40] In Which Our List of Bookstores to Visit and Sites to Check Out Grows Almost As Long As Our List of Books to Read Bookstore Crushes WORD Bookstores  (in Brooklyn, NY and Jersey City, NJ)  Skylight Books (in Los Angeles, CA) Title Wave Books (in Anchorage, AK) Favorite Literary Media: website:  Book Riot—“I think they’re doing the lord’s work out there.” podcasts: Let’s Not Panic: podcast by bookseller Maggie Tokuda-Hall who is spending the year traveling around South America in a Jeep with her husband Adam Wolf. WARNING: it will make you want to quit your job and travel the world. Boars, Gore, and Swords: Game of Thrones-y pop culture podcast by stand-up comics Ivan Hernandez and Red Scott other: Alana Massey’s twitter @alanamassey Maris Kreizman’s tinyletter Drafts, a writing prompt newsletter by Joe Wadlington you can send him what you’ve written and he’ll send you back validation. How awesome is that?? Epilogue [56:39] Amy can be found on the internet as @losertakesall​—a Graham Greene reference, in case you were curious. her personal website Twitter Tumblr Instagram You can also follow Shipwreck on Tumblr and Facebook. And keep up with ALL the hilarity and eroticism by subscribing to their podcast. Having a bad day? Listen to an old episode. Mood = instantly transformed. You can find us on Twitter at @drunkbookseller and everywhere else as DrunkBooksellers (plural). Emma tweets @thebibliot and writes bookish things for Book Riot. Kim tweets occasionally from @finaleofseem, but don’t expect too much.

A Song to Take the World Apart (Knopf) Hanging out with Chris was supposed to make Lorelei’s life normal. He’s cooler, he’s older, and he’s in a band, which means he can teach her about the music that was forbidden in her house growing up. Her grandmother told her when she was little that she was never allowed to sing, but listening to someone else do it is probably harmless—right? The more she listens, though, the more keenly she can feel her own voice locked up in her throat, and how she longs to use it. And as she starts exploring the power her grandmother never wanted her to discover, influencing Chris and everyone around her, the foundations of Lorelei’s life start to crumble. There’s a reason the women in her family never want to talk about what their voices can do. And a reason Lorelei can’t seem to stop herself from singing anyway. Praise for A Song to Take the World Apart "Zan Romanoff has created a hypnotic, lush coming of age story about what it means to have a voice.”—Emily Gould, author of Friendship"Family secrets, first love, and the elemental, raw power of music are all on display in Zan Romanoff's gorgeous novel. A Song To Take the World Apartgives us a heroine who's as fierce as she is vulnerable, and a story that's as page-turning as it is profound. An enchanting and beautiful debut." —Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of California"Zan Romanoff’s music-saturated debut will snare readers with its melodic, pop-punk hooks and elegant riffs on growing up, falling in love, and letting go." —Sarah McCarry, author of All Our Pretty Songs "With its dark sexiness, moody LA atmosphere, and fresh take on age-old legends, A Song to Take the World Apart will lure readers into its grip and keep them there.”—Bennett Madison, author of September Girls Zan Romanoff was born and raised in Los Angeles, fifteen miles (at least an hour in traffic) from the ocean. She received a BA in literature from Yale, then returned to LA, where she lives in an apartment that never has quite enough shelves for all of her books. Her work has appeared in publications that range from the Paris Review to the Toast and the Atlantic. This is her first novel. Visit her at zanromanoff.tumblr.com and follow her on Twitter @zanopticon.

Edan Lepucki came on the show to celebrate finishing the latest draft of her forthcoming novel, Woman Number 17. Edan's first novel, California, was subject to an intense amount of press and scrutiny when she found herself the sudden beneficiary of Stephen Colbert's feud with Amazon in 2014.  Today on the show Edan talks about dealing with crazy press, how to have a new novel waiting like a lover on the side as you finish your current book, and worth the time it takes to listen alone: an ACTUAL FORMULA about how many pages you have to read before you can give up on a book.  Such a treat. I know you'll love this episode.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kevin Kramer Starts on Monday (Unnamed Press) Debbie Graber’s debut short story collection, Kevin Kramer Starts on Monday is a trenchant and searing satirical look at office life that is as astute and hilarious as Joshua Ferris’s And Then We Came to the End. These thirteen stories skewer corporate culture, as told through souls adrift in a khaki-clad purgatory. And Graber knows from what she writes – she has held a number of jobs in corporate America, which informed her gimlet-eyed writing. One of the aspects of the workplace that most interested her are the personas are forced to adopt. “It’s like they exist in a far flung area of the time space continuum where reason seems to always be taking a vacation day,” says Graber, “If we’re spending all these hours in make-believe land, what does that say about the work we are doing? What does it say about us?   In Kevin Kramer Starts on Monday, our hero Kevin Kramer is the new Senior Vice President of the Products Profit center at Production Solutions. He has worked hard for all his success, perfected the non-clammy handshake, and speaks “corporate” like a second language. But our Kevin Kramer harbors many dark secrets. As do many of the characters in Graber’s stories: An HR manager trying desperately to maintain order, even as the entire software department vanishes under mysterious circumstances. An estranged (and possibly deranged) sister devises her reunion by throwing together a DIY wedding shower. A man who wears a Chewbacca costume feels he is uniquely qualified to divide the world into winners and losers. And a call center representative tries to give himself a pep talk after a particularly egregious client interaction. With a wit and voice all its own, with Kevin Kramer Starts on Monday, Debbie Graber announces herself as a literary talent to watch. Praise for Kevin Kramer Starts on Monday “The stories in Kevin Kramer Starts on Monday are funny and funny-sad, formally bold, and a total delight to read. Graber captures perfectly the absurdities of contemporary, corporate America and her fabulous debut reminds us that we are all searching for meaning and human connection, whether it be from friends, family, or reply-all emails.”-Edan Lepucki, author of California “Debbie Graber's stories are crisp, sardonic, and funny—as antic and acerbic as they are intelligent and alert. A sly and incisive observer of human nature, Debbie Graber will win you over with this delightful debut.”-Sara Levine, author of Treasure Island!!! "Evil, evil, evil stories-- If you know the devil, you should buy him this for Christmas."-Ben Loory, author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day “Kevin Kramer Starts on Monday offers satirical fiction that causes you to howl with laughter at the same moment its sharply exposed horrors cut into you. Debbie Graber's stories capture the absurdities of the 21st century corporate workplace in which white-collar millenials find their inboxes always brimming with new incentives for betrayal and self-betrayal. Neither the powerless nor the powerful outrun their demons in these brilliantly funny and bruising tales of American "enterprise."-Kevin McIlvoy, author ofThe Fifth Station “Kevin Kramer Starts on Monday skewers that place where so many of us spend our days and about which we spend the other hours of our lives complaining: the modern workplace. In this bitingly funny, precisely crafted collection, Debbie Graber takes on office excess: happy hours, overtime, trysts, and petty grievances. In doing so, she questions our societal notions of success and failure and invites us to laugh at our bosses and coworkers and, perhaps most of all, ourselves—knowing that if we don’t laugh, we just might cry. Kevin Kramer Starts on Monday is satire at its most incisive.”-Lori Ostlund, author of After the Parade "With laugh-out-loud humor and a wildly keen eye for detail, Graber doesn't just brilliantly satirize our heavily corporate and medicated world, she wonderfully eviscerates it."-J. Ryan Stradal, author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest Debbie Graber has performed at Second City, worked in an office, and received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from U.C. Riverside at Palm Desert.  Her stories have appeared in The Nervous Breakdown, Harpers, Zyzzyva, Hobart, and elsewhere. Kevin Kramer Starts on Monday is her first collection of stories. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband. Matt Flanagan began his career as a writer for The Late Show With David Letterman, wrote movies you haven't seen, and several shows that were canceled after 13 episodes. He currently writes for Disney Channel's Stuck In The Middle and co-hosts a storytelling podcast called Tell It Anyway with his wife Jennie Josephson.

First Draft interview with Edan Lepucki, author of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Papercuts J.P. hosted Edan Lepucki, author of the New York Times bestseller CALIFORNIA, for a reading and conversation on writing, gender roles, and post-apocalyptic literature. 

Kitchens of the Great Midwest (Pamela Dorman Books) From one of our favorite local authors comes a hotly anticipated debut--about a young woman with a once-in-a-generation palate who becomes the iconic chef behind the country's most coveted dinner reservation.  When Lars Thorvald's wife, Cynthia, falls in love with wine--and a dashing sommelier--he's left to raise their baby, Eva, on his own. He's determined to pass on his love of food to his daughter--starting with pureed pork shoulder. As Eva grows, she finds her solace and salvation in the flavors of her native Minnesota. From Scandinavian lutefisk to hydroponic chocolate habaneros, each ingredient represents one part of Eva's journey as she becomes the star chef behind a legendary and secretive pop-up supper club, culminating in an opulent and emotional feast that's a testament to her spirit and resilience.  Each chapter in J. Ryan Stradal's startlingly original debut tells the story of a single dish and character, at once capturing the zeitgeist of the Midwest, the rise of foodie culture, and delving into the ways food creates community and a sense of identity. By turns quirky, hilarious, and vividly sensory, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is an unexpected mother-daughter story about the bittersweet nature of life--its missed opportunities and its joyful surprises. It marks the entry of a brilliant new talent. Praise for Kitchens of the Great Midwest: "Kitchens of the Great Midwest is a big-hearted, funny, and class-transcending pleasure. It's also both a structural and empathetic tour de force, stepping across worlds in the American midwest, and demonstrating with an enviable tenderness and ingenuity the tug of war between our freedom to pursue our passions and our obligations to those we love." --Jim Shepard, author of Project X and National Book Award finalist for Like You'd Understand, Anyway "Tender, funny, and moving, J. Ryan Stradal's debut novel made me crave my mother's magic cookie bars...and every good tomato I've ever had the privilege of eating. Kitchens of the Great Midwest manages to be at once sincere yet sharply observed, thoughtful yet swiftly paced, and the lives of its fallible, realistic, and complicated characters mattered to me deeply. It's a fantastic book."-- Edan Lepucki, bestselling author of California  "In Kitchens of the Great Midwest, a charming, fast-moving round robin tale of food, sensuality and Midwestern culture, Mr. Stradal has delivered one extremely tasty, well-seasoned debut in what is sure to be a long and savory career."--Janet Fitch, author White Oleander "From the quite literally burning passions of a lonely eleven-year-old girl with an exceptional palate, to the ethical dilemmas behind a batch of Blue Ribbon Peanut Butter Bars, J. Ryan Stradal writes with a special kind of meticulous tenderness--missing nothing and accepting everything. A superbly gratifying debut."--Meg Howrey, author of The Crane's Dance  "An impossible-to-put-down, one-of-a-kind novel. The prose is beautiful, the characters memorable, and the plot is surprising at every turn. I have never read a book quite like this--and neither, I'll bet, have you. This stunning debut announces J. Ryan Stradal as a first-rate voice in American fiction. This is a wildly creative, stunningly original, and very moving novel. I can't wait to see what Stradal does next."-- Rob Roberge, author of The Cost of Living  "A Great American Novel in the fullest sense of the term. Everything you want a book to be."--Ben Loory, author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day J. Ryan Stradal is the author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest. Born and raised in Minnesota, he now lives in Los Angeles, where he is Acquisitions Editor at Unnamed Press and the Fiction Editor at The Nervous Breakdown.  Julia Ingalls is primarily an essayist. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Salon, Guernica, and KCRW, among others. From David Mitchell to Alan Ball to Amelia Gray, she's had the pleasure of conversing with the world's finest imaginative writers, a tradition she continues tonight with J. Ryan Stradal.

Both of today's readings come from novels that take their characters to foreign places: in Rebecca Dinerstein's The Sunlit Night, it's arctic Norway, and in Edan Lepucki's California, it's the wilderness of a world falling apart. The Sunlight Night is in bookstores now, and California is newly out in paperback. CatapultReads.com // @CatapultReads // The Trebuchet

The Ghost Network (Melville House)  When Molly Metropolis, the world's hottest pop star, goes missing, two young women launch a desperate search across the underbelly of Chicago to find her. Using Molly's songs and journals to uncover clues to her whereabouts, her personal assistant and a journalist join forces to determine if Molly's been kidnapped, gone into hiding, or worse. Catie Disabato's debut novel, The Ghost Network is the story of the young women's quest to find Molly, which leads them to a secret side of Chicago, as they make their way through a half-completed subway system and the secret, subterranean headquarters of an intellectual sect. As they race to locate her and end up in grave danger, they find themselves falling in love, in a witty, haunting story of larger-than-life fantasies—of young love, sex, pop music, transportation, and personal reinvention. Suspenseful and wildly original, The Ghost Network has already been hailed by The Millions as one of the “Most Anticipated Books of 2015,” and by The Masters Review as one of “Fifteen Books We're Looking Forward to This Year.” Praise for The Ghost Network: “The writing throughout is so crystalline, the dialogue so acerbically funny and the characters so engaging as to make the pages seem as though they're turning themselves.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review “One of the most entertaining books I've read in years.”—Christopher Boucher, author of How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive "Brilliant, daring, and masterful. . . Impossible to put down."--Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of California Catie Disabato is a columnist for Full Stop. She's written criticism and commentary for This Recording, The Millions, and The Rumpus, and her short fiction was recently featured on Joyland. After growing up in Chicago and graduating from Oberlin College, she now lives in L.A. and works in public relations.

Good Girl (Gallery Books)  Told with raw, rugged honesty, this heartrending memoir from journalist Sarah Tomlinson recounts her unconventional upbringing and coming-of-age as colored by her complicated relationship with her father.  Sarah Tomlinson was born on January 29, 1976, in a farmhouse in Freedom, Maine. After two years of attempted family life in Boston, her father's gambling addiction and broken promises led her mother to pool her resources with five other families to buy 100 acres of land in Maine and reunite with her college boyfriend. Sarah would spend the majority of her childhood on "The Land" with infrequent, but coveted, visits from her father, who--as a hitchhiking, acid-dropping, wannabe mystic turned taxi driver--was nothing short of a rock star in her eyes.  Propelled out of her bohemian upbringing to seek the big life she equated with her father, Sarah entered college at fifteen, where a school shooting further complicated her quest for a sense of safety. While establishing herself as a journalist and rock critic on both coasts, Sarah's father continued to swerve in and out of her life, building and re-breaking their relationship, and fracturing Sarah's confidence and sense of self. In this unforgettable memoir, Sarah conveys the dark comedy in her quest to repair the heart her father broke.  Bittersweet, honest, and ultimately redemptive, Good Girl takes an insightful look into what happens when the people we love unconditionally are the people who disappoint us the most, and how time, introspection, and acceptance can help us heal."" Praise for Good Girl: “A compelling, insight-laden memoir documenting the devastating impact of a father's undependable love on a daughter.  Tomlinson's lucid depiction of her DIY backwoods girlhood and punk teen years, precocious entry to college, tempestuous love life and literary ambitions, her excesses and failures and successes—portrays a young woman whose emotional life is a shimmering, shifting sea whose currents are shaped by a geologic formation a the bottom, the charming bohemian fantastist that was her father.”–Janet Fitch, New York Times bestselling author of White Oleander “Tomlinson is a clear-eyed, compassionate writer, and she brings an emotional rigor to this book that is rare and beautiful.” –Edan Lepucki, bestselling author of California “Good Girl is a father-daughter story unlike any other I've read before. Tomlinson's prose is vivid and compelling, bringing you right along with her as she travels from her rural hometown to the big city in search of fulfillment, clarity, and—hopefully—a sense of peace in her relationship with the man who made her who she is.”–Jill Soloway, creator of the 2015 Golden Globe-winning television show “Transparent” and author of Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants “Shot from the heart, Tomlinson's memoir of her dance around her enigmatic and elusive father resonated deeply with me, as it will with anyone who has yearned for a parent's love and their own place in the world.”–Wendy Lawless, New York Times bestselling author of Chanel Bonfire “Sarah Tomlinson's Good Girl courageously explores the central journey of every woman's life: from wanting the love of Daddy -- and the men who stand in for him -- to learning how to love herself.”–Tracy McMillan, television writer and author of the soon to be released Multiple Listings;  I Love You and I'm Leaving You Anyway, and Why You're Not Married...Yet “With great poignance and vulnerability, Tomlinson turns a frank, funny, and honest gaze on one girl's struggle to redefine ‘good' on her own terms.”–Jillian Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Some Girls: My Life in a Harem Sarah Tomlinson has more than a decade of experience as a journalist, music critic, writer, and editor. She has ghostwritten ten books (with two more in the works), including two uncredited New York Times-bestsellers.  She has turned her passion for music, literature, and pop culture trends into cutting-edge coverage and cultural criticism. Her personal essays have appeared, or are forthcoming, in publications including Marie Claire, MORE, Salon.com, The Huffington Post and The Los Angeles Review of Books. Her fiction has appeared on Vol. 1 Brooklyn. Her articles and music reviews have appeared in publications including The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Boston magazine, Spin.com,Billboard.com, Alternative Press, Swindle, Preen, Rockpile, The OC Weekly, and The Willamette Week, and she wrote a weekly local music column, “Notes,” for The Boston Phoenix.  She has written bios for bands on Virgin, Red Ink/Columbia, and MySpace Records and contributed to the electronic press kits for artists on Warner Bros. Records. Sarah currently splits her time between Los Angeles and Brooklyn. She writes journalism, novels, memoirs, screenplays, TV pilots, personal essays, short stories and online dating profiles for her friends. She has read at Los Angeles literary happenings including Sit ‘n Spin, Vermin on the Mount, Tongue and Groove and Little Birds. Her favorite band is T. Rex. 

Bon Appetempt: A Coming of Age Story (with Recipes!) Grand Central Publishing When Amelia Morris found a beautiful chocolate cake in Bon Appétit and took the recipe home to recreate it for a Christmas day brunch, it collapsed into a terrible (but delicious) mess that had to be served in an oversized bowl. It also paralleled the never-quite-predictable situations she's gotten herself into throughout her life, from her one-day career as a six-year-old lady wrestler to her ill-fated job at the School of Rock in Los Angeles. Now author of a blog named one of the best of 2012 by TIME magazine and awarded “Best Food Humor Blog” 2012 by Saveurmagazine, Amelia has woven those stories into Bon Appetempt: A Coming-of-Age Story (with Recipes!) – a funny and poignant memoir about collapsing cakes and coming of age in your twenties and thirties. Full of hilarious and touching observations about food, family, unemployment, romance, and the excesses of modern L.A., and incorporating recipes as basic as Toasted Cheerios and as advanced as gâteau de crêpes, Bon Appetempt follows Amelia as she finds that even if some of her attempts fall short of the standard set by a food magazine, they can still bring satisfaction to her and her family and friends. Praise for Bon Appetempt "Bon Appetempt is a charming, thoughtful, and touching memoir about growing up and becoming the person and artist you've always wanted to be--both inside and outside the kitchen. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and I could not put it down. It also made me very, very hungry for crepes!"--Edan Lepucki, author of California "Amelia Morris's debut, Bon Appetempt, is one of the most compulsively readable books I've picked up in years. It's spirited, funny, smartly nostalgic, wistful, real. I've never seen another author break a reader's heart, make them laugh, and offer up a recipe for broccolini in the span of two pages. It's all here: big love, big sadness, superb self-aware writing, and cake. Indulge in all of it as fast as you can, and enjoy the rewarding fullness of this incredible book."--Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise and Almost Famous Women "Amelia Morris uses her trademark humor and fierce honesty to tell a wry and touching coming-of-age story. It made me laugh, wrenched my heart and gave me an instant craving for beans and rice in coconut milk."--Luisa Weiss, founder of The Wednesday Chef and author of My Berlin Kitchen "Morris adopts an interest in cooking as an adult, grabbing food glossies at grocery checkouts and trying to re-create the meals they picture. The impetus for the blog she starts, with which this book shares its name, was a growing realization that if words failed her, food wouldn't: cooking, as opposed to writing, became a place to lightheartedly attempt great things, and not feel personally hurt if she failed. . . Some recipes are described in the text, too, like the toasted cheerios Morris makes, immediately summoning childhood memories. Sure to appeal to fans of her personable blog, and to round up new ones."--Booklist Amelia Morris is the creator of Bon Appétempt, which TIME magazine named as one of the twenty-five best blogs of 2012. Her work has also been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Splendid Table, Saveur.com, BonAppetit.com, and McSweeney's. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, where she was the recipient of the Margaret Shannon Morton Fellowship. She currently lives on the east side of Los Angeles with her husband, baby son, and small dog. Visit her at www.bonappetempt.com and on Twitter @bonappetempt

Edan Lepucki ("California") joins the show. We discuss her critically acclaimed novel that tackles a post-apocalyptic world.

Edan Lepucki is the author of California, which became the #1 bestseller on Powells.com after being praised by Stephen Colbert. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a staff writer for The Millions, she has had short fiction published in McSweeney’s and Narrative magazine, and she is the founder and director of Writing Workshops Los Angeles. In conversation with John McMurtrie, book editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, whose writing has appeared in the Boston Globe, Washington Post, Toronto Globe and Mail, and the International Herald Tribune. Recorded live to a sold-out audience in San Francisco on August 5, 2014.

Colin Marshall talks with Edan Lepucki, staff writer at The Millions and founder of Writing Workshops Los Angeles. She is the author of California, a mid-21st century domestic relationship novel set somewhere outside Los Angeles after the whole country suffers a long, gradual apocalypse.

A summer reading list from Edan Lepucki, breakout author of the novel California. Then the hosts of On the Media's TLDR podcast stop by to chat about everything from explaining Reddit to old people to why Chipotle is a cruel mistress. http://nerdettepodcast.com

Joanna Rakoff reads from My Salinger Year and Edan Lepucki reads from California at Brookline Booksmith. Listen in as these two writers read from their work and answer questions about driving through LA during a blackout that seems to presage apocalypse, about the experience of working in J.D. Salinger's agency, and about the shift from novel to memoir, third-person to first.

The world Cal and Frida have always known is gone, and they've left the crumbling city of Los Angeles far behind them. They now live in a shack in the wilderness, working side-by-side to make their days tolerable in the face of hardship and isolation. Mourning a past they can't reclaim, they seek solace in each other. But the tentative existence they've built for themselves is thrown into doubt when Frida finds out she's pregnant. Terrified of the unknown and unsure of their ability to raise a child alone, Cal and Frida set out for the nearest settlement, a guarded and paranoid community with [...] The post California by Edan Lepucki | Book Discussion appeared first on Book Circle Online.

The world Cal and Frida have always known is gone, and they've left the crumbling city of Los Angeles far behind them. They now live in a shack in the wilderness, working side-by-side to make their days tolerable in the face of hardship and isolation. Mourning a past they can't reclaim, they seek solace in each other. But the tentative existence they've built for themselves is thrown into doubt when Frida finds out she's pregnant. Terrified of the unknown and unsure of their ability to raise a child alone, Cal and Frida set out for the nearest settlement, a guarded and paranoid community with [...]

California (Little Brown and Company) A former Skylight staffer comes home to read from her much anticipated debut novel! You might recognize this book is you're a regular viewer of The Colbert Report -- this is the novel Sherman Alexie and Stephen Colbert recommended on the June 3 show! (You can pre-order it from us, too. Just click the Add to Cart button below.) The world Cal and Frida have always known is gone, and they've left the crumbling city of Los Angeles far behind them. They now live in a shack in the wilderness, working side-by-side to make their days tolerable in the face of hardship and isolation. Mourning a past they can't reclaim, they seek solace in each other. But the tentative existence they've built for themselves is thrown into doubt when Frida finds out she's pregnant.  Terrified of the unknown and unsure of their ability to raise a child alone, Cal and Frida set out for the nearest settlement, a guarded and paranoid community with dark secrets. These people can offer them security, but Cal and Frida soon realize this community poses dangers of its own. In this unfamiliar world, where everything and everyone can be perceived as a threat, the couple must quickly decide whom to trust.  A gripping and provocative debut novel by a stunning new talent, California imagines a frighteningly realistic near future, in which clashes between mankind's dark nature and deep-seated resilience force us to question how far we will go to protect the ones we love. Praise for California “In her arresting debut novel, Edan Lepucki conjures a lush, intricate, deeply disturbing vision of the future, then masterfully exploits its dramatic possibilities.” —Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize winner “An expansive, full-bodied and masterful narrative of humans caught in the most extreme situations, with all of our virtues and failings on full display: courage, cowardice, trust, betrayal, honor and expedience. The final eighty pages of this book gripped me as much as any fictional denouement I've encountered in recent years....I firmly believe that Edan Lepucki is on the cusp of a long, strong career in American letters.”—Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk “Edan Lepucki is the very best kind of writer: simultaneously generous and precise. I have long been an admirer of her prose, but this book—this book, this massive, brilliant book—is a four-alarm fire, the ambitious and rich introduction that a writer of her caliber deserves. I can't wait for the world to know what I have known for so many years, that Edan Lepucki is the real thing, and that we will all be bowing at her feet before long.” —Emma Straub, author of Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures “A stunning and brilliant novel, which is a wholly original take on the post-apocalypse genre, an end-of-the-world we've never seen before and yet is uncomfortably believable and recognizable. By turns funny and heartbreaking, scary and tender, beautifully written and compulsively page-turning, this is a book that will haunt me, and that I'll be thankful to return to in the years to come. It left me speechless. Read it, and prepare yourself.” —Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply “It's tempting to call this novel post-apocalyptic, but really, it's about an apocalypse in progress, an apocalypse that might already be happening, one that doesn't so much break life into before and after as unravel it bit by bit. Edan Lepucki tells her tale with preternatural clarity and total believability, in large part by focusing on the relationships—between husband and wife, brother and sister, parent and child—that are, it turns out, apocalypse-proof. Post-nothing. California is timeless.”—Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore Edan Lepucki is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a staff writer for The Millions. Her short fiction has been published in McSweeney's and Narrative magazine, and she is the founder and director of Writing Workshops Los Angeles. 

Edan Lepucki is the guest.  She's the author of the novella If You're Not Yet Like Me, originally published by Flatmancrooked and now available from Nouvella Books.  She's a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop and a staff writer over ... Continue reading → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pulp and Paper (University of Iowa Press) by Rolnick If You're Not Yet Like Me (Flatmancrooked) by Lepucki Josh Rolnick, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, will read and sign his new short story collection Pulp and Paper, joined by Edan Lepucki, a staff writer for The Millions, reading and signing her novella-with-stories collection If You're Not Yet Like Me. “Josh Rolnick is a wonderful observer and a beautiful storyteller. Each story in Pulp and Paper is a path to the hearts of Rolnick's characters, who, like you and me, strive to be their true, honest selves despite follies and weaknesses. A truly compassionate collection.” --Yiyun Li, author of The Vagrants "If You're Not Like Yet Like Me tells quite a few damn good jokes before it decides to twist your heart apart. Gracefully written, barbed and biting; a touching meditation on the mistakes we make before meeting the ones who truly deserve our love." --Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine Josh Rolnick's short stories have won the Arts & Letters Fiction Prize and the Florida Review Editor's Choice Prize. They have also been published in Harvard Review, Western Humanities Review, Bellingham Review, and Gulf Coast, and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best New American Voices. A reporter, editor, and journal publisher, he grew up in New Jersey, spent summers camping his way through Upstate New York, and has lived in Jerusalem, London, Philadelphia, Iowa City, Washington, D.C., and Menlo Park, California. He currently lives with his wife and three sons in Akron, Ohio. Edan Lepucki is a staff writer for The Millions. She is a fiction writer and instructor living in Los Angeles, and her stories have been published in McSweeney's, Narrative Magazine, Meridian, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine, among others. She has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and an excerpt of her recently-completed novel, The Book of Deeds, won the 2009 James D. Phelan Award. Her novella, If You're Not Yet Like Me, was published last fall. Learn more about her writing classes at writingworkshopsla.com. Photo of Rolnick by Nancy Williams. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS SEPTEMBER 13, 2011.

If You're Not Yet Like Me (Flatmancrooked) Edan Lepucki, a writer for book blog The Millions (and a former Skylight staffer!) presents her acclaimed debut novella. "Edan Lepucki's sly, smart novella is never quite a love story—in fact, rarely has the edict 'only connect' seemed more difficult to enact than among her small tribe of underachievers.  Sex, however, retains its reliable consequences.  And therein lies the beauty and the gut punch of this sneaky, deft book. "  --Michelle Huneven, author of Blame "If You're Not Like Yet Like Me tells quite a few damn good jokes before it decides to twist your heart apart. Gracefully written, barbed and biting; a touching meditation on the mistakes we make before meeting the ones who truly deserve our love.  --Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine Edan Lepucki is a staff writer for The Millions. She is a fiction writer and instructor living in Los Angeles, and her stories have been published in Narrative Magazine, Meridian, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine, among others. She has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and an excerpt of her recently-completed novel, The Book of Deeds, won the 2009 James D. Phelan Award. Her novella, If You're Not Yet Like Me, is newly published by Flatmancrooked. Learn more about her writing classes at writingworkshopsla.com. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS NOVEMBER 20, 2010.