Podcast appearances and mentions of Heidi Julavits

In this episode, I talk with author and novelist about his recent hybrid memoir and cultural exploration, Always Crashing in the Same Car. We discuss his fascination with figures who faced creative crises in Hollywood, from F. Scott Fitzgerald, filmmaker Hal Ashby or musician Warren Zevon to more overlooked but similarly brilliant figures like Carole Eastman, the screenwriter of the 1970s classic Five Easy Pieces.We also explore the realities of growing up in LA, including being “celebrity-adjacent.” That's perhaps best illustrated by the time Marlon Brando left an incredible monologue in the form of a voicemail. We do a deep dive into the attraction of hybrid memoir for fiction writer, Matthew's approach to research, and whether it's possible any longer to be a middle-class creative in Hollywood.--------------------------“All of those kind of impulses fused in me, and eventually, and I sort of realized, like, oh, this is what I want to write. I want to write a book that's a memoir that isn't about me, or a memoir that's only kind of, you know, partly about me.”--------------------------Key Takeaways* Always Crashing In the Same Car pays homage to figures who've faced both genius and marginalization in Hollywood, including Thomas McGuane, Renata Adler, Carole Eastman, Eleanor Perry, Hal Ashby, Michael Cimino, Warren Zevon & more. The book is about “those who failed, faltered, and whose triumphs are punctuated by flops...”* Matthew shares his fascination with Carol Eastman, best known for Five Easy Pieces. He was deeply touched by her prose writings, comparing her to poets like Hart Crane and Wallace Stevens.* The book and the interview also delves more deeply into women's contributions to Hollywood, focusing on other overlooked talents like Eleanor Perry and Elaine May. Matthew reflects on his mother, a one-time screenwriter, and how her generation had less opportunity to develop their skills.* Why a hybrid memoir? Matthew was reading, and inspired by, writers like Hilton Als, Heidi Julavits, and Olivia Laing. He wanted to create a narrative that wasn't limited to—or rather moved beyond—the self, weaving together cultural criticism about Hollywood and creative crises.* We talk a lot about voice, which Matthew says is crucial for him to discover early on. “Once I can locate the voice for any piece of writing... I have it in the pocket,” he says. The narrator of this book blends personal reflections with a noir quality, he says.* Matthew sees himself as a novelist at heart. He considers the narrative tools of a novelist indispensable, even when writing memoirs and cultural critiques: “I am fundamentally a novelist….I think that's part of being a fiction writer or novelist is, you know, anything that you write is a kind of criticism in code. You're always responding to other texts.”* Matthew begins by explaining his unique research style: "I'm kind of ravenous and a little deranged about it…” His research process involves intuitive dives, like a two-day blitz through Carol Eastman's archives.* The discussion also touched on Matthew's upbringing with a mom who was a one-time screenwriter and who crossed the picket line during one writer's strike, and his father, who had modest beginnings but went on to become a famous Hollywood “superagent” representing Marlon Brando, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren & many others.* At the same time, Matthew explores misconceptions around Hollywood glitz, addressing the middle-class reality of many involved in the film industry. For a long-time, Hollywood could support such middle-class creatives, Matthew contends, something that is no longer really possible.* Addressing the evolution of the entertainment industry, Matthew notes the shift towards debt servicing, influenced by corporate acquisitions. This financial pragmatism often overrides the creative impulse, squeezing the middle class out.* Another takeaway? The creative world, especially in Hollywood, is fraught with periods of drift and struggle. In one sense, Always Crashing In the Same Car is a love letter to that state of things.--------------------------"I still kind of think of [Always Crashing…] as being secretly a novel. Not because it's full of made up s**t…but because I think sometimes our idea of what a novel is is pretty limited. You know, there's no reason why a novel can't be, like, 98% fact."--------------------------About Matthew SpecktorMatthew Specktor's books include the novels That Summertime Sound and American Dream Machine, which was long-listed for the Folio Prize; the memoir-in-criticism Always Crashing in The Same Car: On Art, Crisis, and Los Angeles, California, and The Golden Hour, forthcoming from Ecco Press. Born in Los Angeles, he received his MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College in 2009. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, GQ, The Paris Review, Tin House, Black Clock, and numerous other periodicals and anthologies. He is a founding editor of the Los Angles Review of Books.Resources:Books by Matthew Specktor:* Always Crashing in the Same Car: On Art, Crisis, and Los Angeles, California* American Dream Machine* That Summertime Sound* Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz, introduction by Matthew SpecktorReferenced on this episode:* The Women, by Hilton Als* Low, by David Bowie* The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise, The Last Tycoon, The Pat Hobby Stories, and The Crack-Up, by F. Scott Fitzgerald* F. Scott Fitzgerald on Writing, edited by Larry W. Phillips* The Folded Clock: A Diary, by Heidi Julavits* The Lonely City, by Olivia Laing* 300 Arguments, by Sarah Manguso* “Bombast: Carole Eastman,” by Nick Pinkerton* “The Life and Death of Hollywood,” by Daniel Bessner, Harper's, May 2024.CreditsThis episode was produced by Magpie Audio Productions. Theme music  is "The Stone Mansion" by BlueDot Productions. Get full access to The Book I Want to Write at bookiwanttowrite.substack.com/subscribe

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Kaycie Hall interviews Heidi Julavits.Kaycie Hall is the lead editor of our online journal Autofocus. She's also a writer and literary translator, whose work has appeared in Peach Mag, Neutral Spaces, Triangle House Review, and other journals. Heidi Julavits is the author of the new book Directions to Myself: A Memoir of Four Years, The Folded Clock: A Diary, and four novels, including the PEN Award-winning The Vanishers. She is an associate professor at Columbia University and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives in New York City and Maine.____________PART ONE, topics include:-- psychic boundaries-- living and writing part of the year in Maine-- Narnia and Enid Blyton books-- writing young for the fun of it-- the life of The Believer-- writing novels and then writing The Folded Clock (memoir)____________PART TWO, topics include:-- a book Heidi sold and was supposed to write-- that book becoming Directions to Myself: A Memoir of Four Years-- thinking about how to mother a boy / mother blaming-- treatment of the same behaviors across gender-- writing about your own children____________PART THREE, topics include:-- Heidi's book tour on a boat-- getting into video editing-- the cutting involved in a current project-- a dead French actress' estate____________Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.Don't forget to check out Autofocus Books. 

Andrew Leland joins Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher to talk about his first book, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight. The book recounts Leland's experience of gradually losing his vision due to a condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which eventually results in blindness. The knowledge that it's not a question of if, but when he will become blind, leads him to a deeper investigation of blindness itself: how it is represented in literature, language, and media; what its political and racial dimensions are; the connection it has to technology and innovation; how it can both shape identity and also feel incidental to it. Most importantly, Leland relates the ways blindness is actually experienced by the many people he meets and writes about in his book. Their testimonies help him reckon with the two worlds he finds himself in—the blind and the sighted—and close the gap between them. Also, Heidi Julavits, author of Directions To Myself, returns to recommend David Wojnarowicz's Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration.

Andrew Leland joins Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher to talk about his first book, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight. The book recounts Leland's experience of gradually losing his vision due to a condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which eventually results in blindness. The knowledge that it's not a question of if, but when he will become blind, leads him to a deeper investigation of blindness itself: how it is represented in literature, language, and media; what its political and racial dimensions are; the connection it has to technology and innovation; how it can both shape identity and also feel incidental to it. Most importantly, Leland relates the ways blindness is actually experienced by the many people he meets and writes about in his book. Their testimonies help him reckon with the two worlds he finds himself in—the blind and the sighted—and close the gap between them. Also, Heidi Julavits, author of Directions To Myself, returns to recommend David Wojnarowicz's Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration.

This week on Flightless Bird, David Farrier investigates America's obsession with ice. From excessive ice in drinks to the joy of frozen food, Farrier finds that ice is deeply American. Meeting with Reid Mitenbuler, the author of Bourbon Empire, David discovers the story of Frederic “the Ice King” Tudor, who dug up ice from the lakes of New England and got America, and the world, hooked on ice in the 1800s. Farrier then heads to New York to meet writer and academic Heidi Julavits, who muses about the significance of ice in American culture and tells David about her icy memories from Maine… and 2023's Coachella. Farrier discovers how the Holiday Inn made ice machines mandatory in American hotels before he considers the fact Americans want to cryogenically freeze themselves to live forever. There is no denying it: Americans love ice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher are joined by author Heidi Julavits, whose new book is called "Directions to Myself: A Memoir of Four Years." Heidi Julavits is also the author of The Folded Clock: A Diary as well as four novels. She is an associate professor at Columbia University. In Directions to Myself, Heidi returns to her own life, specifically her relationship to her pre-adolescent son, whose childhood is nearly at an end. After a student at her university accuses another of rape, she begins to wonder about how a mother should steer her son as he grows into a man. How can a parent guide and form who their child becomes? How much of our personhood is nature, nurture, or culture? She looks back at her own childhood, growing up in Maine, and the lessons and stories she heard from her own parents. The book works through Julavits's own private thoughts and heartaches, but always leads back to bigger questions about the time we live in, the way we think about justice and punishment, and how we form ourselves as people. Also, John Yau, author of Please Wait By the Coatroom: Reconsidering Race and Identity in American Art, returns to recommend Ghost Music by An Yu.

Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher are joined by author Heidi Julavits, whose new book is called "Directions to Myself: A Memoir of Four Years." Heidi Julavits is also the author of The Folded Clock: A Diary as well as four novels. She is an associate professor at Columbia University. In Directions to Myself, Heidi returns to her own life, specifically her relationship to her pre-adolescent son, whose childhood is nearly at an end. After a student at her university accuses another of rape, she begins to wonder about how a mother should steer her son as he grows into a man. How can a parent guide and form who their child becomes? How much of our personhood is nature, nurture, or culture? She looks back at her own childhood, growing up in Maine, and the lessons and stories she heard from her own parents. The book works through Julavits's own private thoughts and heartaches, but always leads back to bigger questions about the time we live in, the way we think about justice and punishment, and how we form ourselves as people. Also, John Yau, author of Please Wait By the Coatroom: Reconsidering Race and Identity in American Art, returns to recommend Ghost Music by An Yu.

This week on From the Front Porch, it's time for another Literary Therapy session! Our literary Frasier Crane, Annie, is back to answer more of your reading questions and dilemmas. If you have a question you would like Annie to answer in a future episode, you can leave us a voicemail here. To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our website (type “Episode 434” into the search bar to easily find the books mentioned in this episode): Monsters by Claire Dederer American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon (unavailable to purchase) Ordinary Light by Tracy K. Smith (audiobook) (paperback) Life in Five Senses by Gretchen Rubin (audiobook) (hardcover) Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek by Thea Glassman (audiobook) (hardcover) The Celebrants by Steven Rowley (audiobook) (hardcover) The Bodyguard by Katherine Center (audiobook) (paperback) Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum (audiobook) (hardcover) Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter (audiobook) (paperback) Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes (audiobook) (hardcover) I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (audiobook) (hardcover) All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr  Dear Regina by Flannery O'Connor The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee 11/22/63 by Stephen King Memorial Drive by Natasha Tretheway Life and Other Love Songs by Anissa Gray Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Houston From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Bloomability by Sharon Creech (unavailable to purchase) The Watsons Go To Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin East of Eden by John Steinbeck Jaws by Peter Benchley From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.  A full transcript of today's episode can be found here. Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.  This week, Annie is reading Directions to Myself by Heidi Julavits. If you liked what you heard in today's episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are...Ashley Ferrell, Cammy Tidwell, Chanta Combs, Chantalle C, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Laurie Johnson, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Stacy Laue, Stephanie Dean, Susan Hulings, and Wendi Jenkins. Thank you to this week's sponsor, Visit Thomasville. Summer is a wonderful time to see Thomasville, Georgia!  If it's time to hit the road for a quick getaway, we're exactly what you're looking for! You can rekindle your spark, explore historical sites, indulge in dining out, shop at amazing independent stores, and finally relax and unwind. There's no better getaway than Thomasville!  Whether you live close by or are passing through, we hope you'll visit beautiful Thomasville, Georgia – it's worth the trip! Plan your visit at ThomasvilleGa.com.

In 2003, McSweeney's, the San Francisco-based literary quarterly, published the first issue of a new monthly magazine called “The Believer.” The graphic-rich journal focused on elevating new writers, publishing poetry, long-form journalism and quirky stories and was nominated for a raft of magazine awards. But hard times led to its sale, and through various twists and turns, the magazine's website was sold to a media company that tried to turn it into a less than literary clickbait factory. This story, however, has a happy ending that is a new beginning: After a successful Kickstarter campaign, McSweeney's has bought back “The Believer.” We'll talk to the editors about the first new issue, and what they hope for the magazine's resurrection. Guests: Vendela Vida, founding editor, The Believer; author of six books, including "We Run the Tides," "Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name" and "The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty;" founding board member, 826 Valencia. Heidi Julavits, founding editor, The Believer; author of "The Folded Clock: A Diary," as well as four critically acclaimed novels; co-editor, New York Times bestseller "Women in Clothes;" her memoir, "Directions to Myself," is forthcoming in 2023. Daniel Gumbiner, editor, The Believer; Gumbiner's first book, "The Boatbuilder," was nominated for the National Book Award and a finalist for the California Book Awards. Ed Park, founding editor, The Believer; author, "Personal Days" and forthcoming "Same Bed Different Dreams."

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works that offer unusual perspectives on clothes and fashion—selling, making, and coveting.  In Anne Enright's “(She Owns) Everything,” read by Mary-Louise Parker, a saleswoman becomes a compulsive consumer; In “Clothes on the Ground: A Conversation with Leap,” we hear from a Cambodian garment worker, interviewed by Julia Wallace for the compendium Women in Clothes, edited by Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, and Leanne Shapton.  Leap is voiced by Jennifer Lim.  And shopping is an antidote to aging in Joanne Harris's “Faith and Hope Go Shopping,” read by Lois Smith.

Rachel Kushner is the author of several novels including The Mars Room and The Flamethrowers.  Her work has been compared to Joan Didion’s, and that of Don DeLillo, a literary mentor to Kushner. Kushner’s newest book, The Hard Crowd, is a collection of essays from the past 20 years that showcase her intellect and diverse interests, from muscle cars to postmodern art and politics.  She has received grants and prizes from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and her fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. On April 29, 2021, Rachel Kushner talked with Heidi Julavits about the art of writing and the places and people that inspire her.

Novelist Heidi Julavits and scholar Leah Price join our host, Nicholas Dames, to consider how novels help us make sense of catastrophe. When Ling Ma's Severance was published in 2018, the idea of an airborne global plague seemed theoretical. In hindsight, it appears eerily prescient. How do novels like Severance guide us to understand our place in historical time—to process events like pandemics alongside the mundanity of everyday working life? You can find complete show notes here and purchase books from our independent-bookshop partner, Harvard Book Store, here.

Bande à part is three years old! We posted our very first episode in January 2018, listen again to celebrate our very first conversation. Hear us discuss Unzipped, Douglas Keeve’s 1995 documentary about the truly wonderful Isaac Mizrahi, and Beatrice’s foray into learning the art of visible mending. See links below. The Conversations with Jason Campbell & Henrietta Gallina: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-conversations/id1328893989 Emily Spivack, Worn Stories: http://wornstories.com/ Heidi Julavits, Leanne Shapton, Sheila Heti, Women in Clothes (2014): www.penguin.co.uk/books/196157/women-in-clothes/9781846148354.html Visible Mending: https://humantextilewellness.wordpress.com/ http://celiapym.com/ https://tomofholland.com/ http://www.woolfiller.com/ http://www.addresspublications.com/mended-scars/ http://goldenjoinery.com/ Boro: The Fabric of Life: https://www.boisbuchet.org/exhibitions/boro-the-fabric-of-life/ Douglas Keeve (director), Unzipped (1995): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114805/ and https://youtu.be/qNmJKsGylaY Robert J. Flaherty, Nanook of the North (1922): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013427/ Ernst Lubitsch (director), I don’t want to be a man (1918): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0010281/ and https://youtu.be/bCmwaXkf8Xg Charles Bryant (director), Natacha Rambova (costume design), Salomé (1923): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013571/ and https://youtu.be/Pt0DSbnf7q8 Jacques Becker (director), Marcel Rochas (costume design), Falbalas (1945): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035853/

Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks here with Christa Parravani about her harrowing account, , the story of one woman's reckoning with life, death and "choice". It is, she says, a memoir of 'Choice, Children and Womanhood.' In 2017 Christa Parravani had recently moved her family from California to West Virginia and was surviving on a teacher's salary and raising two young children with her husband, screenwriter Anthony Swofford. Another pregnancy, a year after giving birth to her second child, came as a shock. Christa had a history of ectopic pregnancies, and worried that she wouldn't be able to find adequate medical care. She immediately requested a termination, but her doctor refused to help. The only doctor who would perform an abortion made it clear that this would be illicit, not condoned by her colleagues or their community. Christa Parravani has crafted, through her own harrowing experiences with healthcare in contemporary America, a brilliant and moving exploration of the choices women have. Christa Parravani is the author of the Indie bestselling , which shares Parravani's journey through grief after the loss of her identical twin sister Cara. Her was named the Amazon Debut Spotlight Pick for March 2013, an Amazon best book of the month, and an NPR critics pick. Vanity Fair calls Her "astonishing." Her was an Indie Bound Next Pick, a 2013 Books for a Better Life nominee, and both an Oprah and People Magazine must-read memoir. In a starred review, Booklist calls Her "raw and unstoppable... a triumph of the human spirit." In Bookforum, Heidi Julavits says “Her invites obsessional reader behavior because Parravani has the ability to make life, even at its worst, feel magic-tinged and vital and lived all the way down to the bone.”   Review - 'Haunting, wild, and quiet at once. A shimmering look at motherhood, in all gothic pain and glory. I could not stop reading' - Lisa Taddeo, bestselling author of Three Women

Leanne is an extraordinary artist and writer. She is the author of 'Was She Pretty' which looks at jealousy and how we fixate on our partner's exes; 'Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry' which tells the demise of a relationship in a way no one else would think of; 'Native Trees of Canada'; 'Swimming Studies' which won the National Book Critic's Circle Award Award; and 'Women in Clothes' that Leanne wrote with Sheila Heti and Heidi Julavits. Her latest is 'Guestbook', a book about ghosts that isn't just about ghosts. Leanne's also written a picture book called 'Toys Talking', and she's done many other things – art director of the New York Times op ed page, cover designer, co-founder of the publisher J&L Books and judge of The Booker Prize. And she's a mum to Tomasina. Leanne's Canadian but has lived in New York for many years.You can find Leanne's work here: http://www.leanneshapton.com 

Not yet thirty years old, the Irish novelist Sally Rooney has quickly amassed an international following. In “Conversations with Friends” and “Normal People”, Rooney’s nuanced depictions of complex characters confront structures of intimacy, friendship, and class. On February 12, 2020, Sally Rooney and fellow writer Heidi Julavits had a conversation - originally scheduled before an audience at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in January, but postponed due to Rooney’s illness, the program was recorded in a New York studio.

Over a lunch at The Beatrice Inn, New York on October 24th, 2019, the writer and curator Charlotte Cotton presented for and against a motion concerning the effects of photographing. Afterwards, guests including Stella Bugbee, Kimberley Drew, Hailey Benton Gates, Heidi Julavits, Pashon Murray, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Doreen St. Félix, Matthew Schneider, Tessa Thompson and Kate Young were only too happy to share their views.

Sheila Heti's new novel 'Motherhood' (Henry Holt/Harvill Secker, 2018) is a formally inventive, deeply personal exploration of a woman's decision about whether to have children. It builds on the success of her 'novel from life', 'How Should a Person Be?' and confirms her as one of the most interesting and exciting authors of the 21st century. In our June 2018 episode, Juliet talks to Sheila about her new book and her life in writing. WORKS BY SHEILA HETI The Middle Stories (2001) Ticknor: A Novel (2005) How Should a Person Be? (2010) The Chairs are Where the People Go (2011) We Need a Horse (2011) Women in Clothes (2014, co-edited with Heidi Julavits and Leanne Shapton) All Our Happy Days are Stupid (2015) Motherhood (2018) Kathy Acker Thomas Bernhard Cool Runnings (dir. Jon Turteltaub, 1993) Rachel Cusk Dave Eggers 'The Hills' (TV series, 2006-10) JULIET JACQUES, Trans: A Memoir (2015) JULIET JACQUES, 'The Woman in the Portrait' Karl Ove Knausgaard CHRIS KRAUS, I Love Dick (1997) Ben Lerner Herman Melville Henry Miller Joe Orton Willam H. Prescott - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Prescott NATHALIE SARRAUTE, 'The Age of Suspicion' (1963) - http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1964/03/05/nathalie-sarraute/ George Ticknor - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ticknor Margaux Williamson - http://www.margauxwilliamson.com/

We talk about when, why, (whether), and what we Reread, and what does it all mean? Plus: format shifting for rereads, plays vs. scripts, cover versions of fiction, and the suck fairy. You can download the podcast directly, find it  on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favourite podcast delivery system.  In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi  Books We Mentioned Titus Groan and Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones Women in Clothes by Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, and Leanne Shapton The Kingkiller Chronicle series by Patrick Rothfuss The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett The BPRD: Hell on Earth series by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, and others A spinoff of the Hellboy series by Mike Mignola and others The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth Grendel by John Gardner (Jessi said “John Green”, but she meant this one) Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison The Hating Game by Sally Thorne Uprooted by Naomi Novik Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson On Trails by Robert Moor Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Microserfs by Douglas Coupland The Great Alta series by Jane Yolen Sister Light, Sister Dark White Jenna The One-Armed Queen Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon The Nintendo Adventure Books series The Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen LaFayette and the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell Othello by William Shakespeare Amadeus by Peter Shaffer And the movie based on the play The Others series by Anne Bishop Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick, graphic novel adaptation by Tony Parker Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff The Adventures of Tintin series by Hergé If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino The Princess Bride by William Goldman The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood And the Hulu show The Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery The movie with Megan Follows Anne, the new TV show Wild by Cheryl Strayed Links, Articles, and Things The Suck Fairy 10 Reasons We Reread Our Favorite Books by Sara Jonsson (Barnes & Noble blog) The Seven Basic Plots The Six Main Arcs in Storytelling, as Identified by an A.I. A Brief Guide to Tintinology The magic sound used by Matthew in our endtro is “fairy magic wand” by Robinhood76 from freesound.org. Questions Do you reread books? Why (or why not)? How often? What’s a book you wish you could read again for the first time? Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email! Join us again on Tuesday, June 19th, when we will inflict upon you the genre of QUILTBAG/LGBTQ+ NonFiction! Then come back on Tuesday, July 4th, when we’ll talk about Reading Exhaustion and Reading Slumps.

Break in Case of Emergency (Knopf) Jessica Winter's ferociously intelligent debut novel is a wry satire of celebrity do-goodism as well as an exploration of the difficulty of navigating friendships as they shift to accommodate marriage and family, and the unspoken tensions that can strain even the strongest bonds. Jen has reached her early thirties and has all but abandoned a once-promising painting career when, spurred by the 2008 economic crisis, she takes a poorly defined job at a feminist nonprofit. The foundation's ostensible aim is to empower women, but staffers spend all their time devising acronyms for imaginary programs, ruthlessly undermining one another, and stroking the ego of their boss, the larger-than-life celebrity philanthropist Leora Infinitas. Jen's complicity in this passive-aggressive hellscape only intensifies her feelings of inferiority compared to her two best friends one a wealthy attorney with a picture-perfect family, the other a passionately committed artist, as does Jen's apparent inability to have a baby, a source of existential panic that begins to affect her marriage and her already precarious status at the office. As Break in Case of Emergency unfolds, a fateful art exhibition, a surreal boondoggle adventure in Belize, and a devastating personal loss conspire to force Jen to reckon with some hard truths about herself and the people she loves most.  Praise for Break in Case of Emergency: “Jessica Winter is so insanely whip-smart and her novel, which I could not stop reading, made me see the world differently whenever I lifted my eyes from the pages.  Winter possesses that magical ability to render the familiar absurd and the absurd familiar, and to create characters that break your heart. Break in Case of Emergency is one of those books I considered my companion, and I missed it when it was over.” —Heidi Julavits   “Break in Case of Emergency is compelling, funny, sad, moving, and ultimately uplifting. Winter is one of the best satirists of the workplace I've read in years; she has a deadly ear for the belief-defying hypocrisies of the office and the art world. But she's also a tender portraitist of the bonds of love, family, and friendship, and of the thousand little (and not so little) ways a person can defeat herself in the search for happiness. I couldn't put this book down.” —Paul La Farge, author of Luminous Airplanes   “Break In Case of Emergency is brimming with sharp, bitingly funny commentary on the absurdities that abound in the world of celebrity philanthropy, and the seeming impossibilities of modern adulthood, but it also gives us smart, lovable characters to guide us through the maze.” —Caroline Zancan, author of Local Girls   “Jessica Winter nails the moment in your life when you go from “young” to “no longer young”—that see-saw teetering point between your 20s and 30s, and its specific mix of ignorance you’ll be embarrassed by later, and confidence you’ll someday wish you could have back.  If you’re wondering what it’s like to live in New York when you’re young, just buy Jessica Winter’s book.  It’s funny, satirical, and deftly written. And it’s much cheaper than a 2-bedroom in Brooklyn.” —Mike Schur, co-creator of Parks and Recreation Jessica Winter is features editor at Slate and the former culture editor ofTime. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Bookforum, The Believer, and many other publications. She lives in Brooklyn. Doree Shafrir is a culture writer for BuzzFeed News and the author of the novel Startup, forthcoming from Little, Brown in spring/summer 2017. She lives in Los Angeles.

This week, Heidi Julavits discusses “The Folded Clock”; Alexandra Alter has news from the literary world; Jeffrey Lieberman talks about “Shrinks”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.

This week, Heidi Julavits and Jeffrey Lieberman.

This week, Steven Brill discusses “America’s Bitter Pill”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Heidi Julavits talks about Rachel Cusk’s “Outline”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.

Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, and Leanne Shapton are the guests. They are the editors of the bestselling book Women in Clothes, which features the work of more than 600 authors, including notables like Cindy Sherman, Lena Dunham, Kim Gordon, and Molly Ringwald. Kirkus Reviews says “Poems, interviews, pieces that read like diary or journal entries—all these responses help the editors fulfill their aims: to liberate readers from the idea that women have to fit a certain image or ideal, to show the connection between dress and ‘habits of mind,’ and to offer readers ‘a new way of interpreting their outsides.’ ‘What are my values?’ one woman asks. ‘What do I want to express?’ Those questions inform the multitude of eclectic responses gathered in this delightfully idiosyncratic book.” And Publishers Weekly says “Thoughtfully crafted and visually entertaining, this collection, edited by Heti, Julavits, and Shapton, uses personal reflections from 642 contributors to examine women’s relationship with clothes in a deceptively lighthearted and irreverent tone….it also inspires meaningful questions…the prose is spliced with striking visuals…[a] provocative time capsule of contemporary womanhood.” Monologue topics: nerves, confusion, technology, not talking about literary scandal.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Women in Clothes (Blue Rider) Skylight Books is thrilled to present three phenomenal writers -- Sheila Heti (How Should a Person Be?), Heidi Julavits (The Vanishers), and Leanne Shapton (Important Artifacts) -- for a discussion on their highly anticipated new book, Women in Clothes. This event will feature a clothing swap!  Attendees are encouraged to bring one special item of clothing that you'd like to swap, with your name and an interesting detail about the garment pinned to the piece. Men are welcome to participate in the swap, too. You don't have to bring an item to attend, but we encourage it. All leftover clothing will be donated. Women in Clothes is a book unlike any other. It is essentially a conversation among hundreds of women of all nationalities--famous, anonymous, religious, secular, married, single, young, old--on the subject of clothing, and how the garments we put on every day define and shape our lives.  It began with a survey. The editors composed a list of more than fifty questions designed to prompt women to think more deeply about their personal style. Writers, activists, and artists including Cindy Sherman, Kim Gordon, Kalpona Akter, Sarah Nicole Prickett, Tavi Gevinson, Miranda July, Roxane Gay, Lena Dunham, and Molly Ringwald answered these questions with photographs, interviews, personal testimonies, and illustrations.  Even our most basic clothing choices can give us confidence, show the connection between our appearance and our habits of mind, express our values and our politics, bond us with our friends, or function as armor or disguise. They are the tools we use to reinvent ourselves and to transform how others see us. Women in Clothes embraces the complexity of women's style decisions, revealing the sometimes funny, sometimes strange, always thoughtful impulses that influence our daily ritual of getting dressed.  Praise for Women in Clothes: "Thoughtfully crafted and visually entertaining.... A provocative time capsule of contemporary womanhood, this collection is highly recommended." --Publishers Weekly "Poems, interviews, pieces that read like diary or journal entries—all these responses help the editors fulfill their aims: to liberate readers from the idea that women have to fit a certain image or ideal, to show the connection between dress and 'habits of mind,' and to offer readers 'a new way of interpreting their outsides.' 'What are my values?' one woman asks. 'What do I want to express?' Those questions inform the multitude of eclectic responses gathered in this delightfully idiosyncratic book." --Kirkus Reviews Sheila Heti is the author of five books, including the critically acclaimed How Should a Person Be? She writes regularly for the London Review of Books, and collaborates frequently with other writers and artists. She lives in Toronto. Heidi Julavits is the author of four novels, most recently The Vanishers, winner of the PEN/New England Fiction Award. She is a founding editor of The Believer and an associate professor at Columbia University. Leanne Shapton is a Canadian artist, author, and publisher based in New York City. She is the author of Important Artifacts and Swimming Studies, winner of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography.

  On today's show, I talk to writer Heidi Julavits. Originally from Portland, Maine, Heidi is a professor at Columbia and the author of four fantastic books: The Mineral Palace, The Effect of Living Backwards, The Uses of Enchantment, and most recently The Vanishers, which was published in 2012. As well, her short stories have been published in periodicals like McSweeney's, Esquire and Harper's. Heidi is also the co-founder and co-editor of one of the best magazines around The Believer, which is published my McSweeney's.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, and follow me on Twitter!

Today's show features conversations with multiple authors, all of whom have contributed to a new anthology entitled Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today's Best Women Writers.  Guests include the anthology's editors, Eleanor Henderson and Anna Solomon, as well as Amy Brill, Arielle Greenberg, Cristina Henriquez, Heidi Julavits, Jane Roper, Rachel Jamison Webster, Sarah Jefferis, and Sarah Strickley.   Booklist says "This isn’t a how-to book, nor does it present a case for the ‘perfect birth,’ which sets it apart from the plethora of childbirth manuals and lends it broader appeal and a very different type of resonance." And Emma Straub says "Pregnancy made my body ravenous for food and my brain ravenous for stories like this, stories of how other women had crossed the great divide. In delivery rooms, in the backseats of cars, and at home, these women tell their birth stories so clearly that they must have had stenographers present on the scene. I loved reading this book with my baby asleep in the next room, and will give it to every pregnant woman I know from here on out, forever." Monologue topics:  Labor Day, hard work, parenthood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Heidi Julavits on female rivalry and the psychic bonds between mothers and daughters in her imaginative new novel.

Heidi Julavits is today's guest.  She's the author of four books, the most recent of which is a novel called The Vanishers, now available from Doubleday. And she's also the co-editor of The Believer magazine. Here's what The New York ... Continue reading → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Flame Alphabet and The Vanishers

"...wouldn't it just be way easier to be a dead person these days?"

The theme for the Happy Ending Music and Reading Series at Joe's Pub in March was Strange Places. Listen to the extraordinary — and absurd — environments that authors Jessica Anthony, Amelia Gray and Heidi Julavitz conjured up their readings. Host and curator Amanda Stern was fighting through a migraine. Author Jessica Anthony had a chest cold. And half of the musical duo Kaiser Cartel, Courtney Kaiser, went into labor the day of the show, leaving Benjamin Cartel to perform on his own. Regardless of these challenges, Anthony, along with the two authors Amelia Gray and Heidi Julavits, were in the house, reading from their work as well as performing their one-thing-they'd-never-performed-on-stage-before for the audience, which is one of Stern's requirements for participating in the series. Gray, an author who funded her current book tour via the popular web site Kickstarter, read a story about a date gone horribly, viscerally, wrong: larynxes fall out of the daters' throats, arms land on the floor and "flesh is siphoned into a free standing grandfather clock" that's set on fire and rolled into the street. After her reading, Gray arm-wrestled her editor on stage. Anthony read from her first novel, "The Convalescent," about "a short, sickly Hungarian near-midget who sells meat out of a bus in Northern Virginia." Afterwards, she taught the crowd how to use sign language to perform a popular pop tune. Julavits, author and the co-editor of The Believer magazine, read what she calls "The Bachelor fan-fiction" — an imagined life of one of the bachelors who was kicked off of the show. She then performed rowdy rugby fight songs. Bon Mots: Happy Ending Music and Reading series host and curator Amanda Stern on headaches and humanity: "We are human beings. We grow people in our bodies. That's so weird. That's bizarre. So I think we actually live in the strangest place of all — where your head actually hurts. And you can't see what's causing it to hurt!" Amelia Gray reads the inconspicuous opening of a very conspicuous story: "The woman and man are on a date! It is a date! The woman rubs a lipstick print off her water glass. The man turns his butter knife over and over and over and over. Everyone has to pee. What's the deal with dates?!" Heidi Julavitz's Bachelor on how "so real" his connection to the bachelorette was: "When we were on our date on a half-finished skyscraper, which we summited with the help of a team of urban mountaineers, I said, 'This feels so real.' And Ashley had totally agreed."

In literature, what does it really mean to tell the truth? We explore that question with authors Mary Karr--she's the author of the hugely successful memoir "The Liar's Club"; and Heidi Julavits, whose novel "The Uses of Enchantment" explores the idea of how truth changes when different interests get involved.

Lies, Damn Lies and Therapy

Heidi Julavits' first book was a bleak novel. Her second book's vision is lighter, but the subject remains dark: a terrorist training cell…