Podcasts about these hills is gold

 It's episode 201 and time for us to discuss the genre of Weird West! (Just in time for Halloween!). We talk about the potential temporal and geographic restrictions on western fiction, folklore, tall tales, and more! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray

Today on the show we're sharing two singular conversations, one with chef and cooking personality Ham El-Waylly and one with novelist C Pam Zhang. Ham is a staple on the NYT Cooking YouTube channel, with an all-star restaurant résumé from Momofuku's Ando to the new Fort Greene seafood destination Strange Delight. C Pam Zhang is the author of the transportive novels How Much of These Hills Is Gold and Land of Milk and Honey, and she writes about food like no one else.Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you.MORE FROM HAM EL-WAYLLY & C PAM ZHANG:Chicken Stroganoff [New York Times Cooking]The World's Smelliest Fruit? Sohla and Ham Try Cooking With Durian [Mystery Menu]See It Slant [The Cut]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Samara Bay is a downright truth-giver. She is the author of Permission to Speak: How to Change What Power Sounds Like, Starting With You (Penguin Random House, 2023). Samara coaches rising business leaders, political hopefuls, and public figures. In Hollywood, Samara worked as a speech and dialect coach on Wonder Woman 1984 with Gal Gadot, American Crime Story: Versace with Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez, and Avengers: Infinity War. Her work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, TIME, Fast Company, Glamour, Entrepreneur Magazine. Books recommended by Samara Bay: Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes by Elizabeth Lesser Women and Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell Recommended by VW bookseller/co-host, Julia: How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at podcast@villagewell.com. If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please leave us a review! Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!

Set in a near future in which a mysterious smog has enveloped the world, devastating crops and biodiversity, the narrator of Land of Milk and Honeytakes a job as a chef at an isolated mountain colony, run by a wealthy entrepreneur and his daughter, a visionary scientist. However, what she first takes to be little more than a decadent end-times holiday camp for the perennially wealthy, she soon discovers is much more ambitious, and potentially much more sinister.Buy Land of Milk and Honey: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/land-of-milk-and-honey-3Born in Beijing, C Pam Zhang is mostly an artifact of the United States. She is the author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold, winner of the Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award and the Asian/Pacific Award for Literature, nominated for the Booker Prize, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and one of Barack Obama's favorite books of the year. Zhang's writing appears in Best American Short Stories, The Cut, McSweeney's Quarterly, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel of sorts to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-englandListen to Alex Freiman's latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Acclaimed author C Pam Zhang's latest novel, “Land of Milk and Honey,” is set after smog blocks the sun, killing 98% of commercial crops and 12% of the human population in famine. Bland mung powder is eaten by all but the very rich, who continue to eat lavishly. As the protagonist — a chef who decides to work for the rich to again taste real food — recalls, “A world was gone. Goodbye to all that, to the person I'd been, to she who'd abandoned, half-eaten, a plate of carnitas under blaze of California sun. It wasn't grease I missed so much as the revelation of lime. Waiting on grief, I met hunger.” We'll talk with Zhang about portraying hope in an apocalyptic novel, the interconnections between food, class, culture and climate change, and the meal she'd want to eat if it felt like the world was ending. Guests: C Pam Zhang, author of the novels, “Land of Milk and Honey" and “How Much of These Hills Is Gold." Zhang was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, long-listed for the 2020 Booker Prize and named a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree

This week on The Maris Review, C Pam Zhang joins Maris Kreizman to discuss Land of Milk and Honey, out now from Riverhead. C Pam Zhang is the author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold, winner of a whole bunch of prizes and one of Barack Obama's favorite books of the year. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree and a New York Public Library Cullman Fellow. Her new novel is called Land of Milk and Honey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

C Pam Zhang is the author of the novel Land of Milk and Honey, available from Riverhead Books. Zhang's other book is the debut novel How Much of These Hills Is Gold, winner of the Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, long-listed for the Booker Prize, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award and the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, and one of Barack Obama's favorite books of the year. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree and a New York Public Library Cullman Fellow. *** 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

How much do you know about olive oil? After this episode, a lot more. Skyler Mapes, cofounder of EXAU Olive Oil and coauthor of the new book The Olive Oil Enthusiast, joined us from her home in Calabria, Italy, to drop invaluable olive oil knowledge from harvest to bottle, plus Italy travel tips and more. It's a fun episode, and we hope you'll enjoy it.Also on the show, Aliza and Matt go over three things they each are enjoying, including: The Neon Croissant, JJ Johnson's great new book The Simple Art of Rice, IG of note @haileecatalano, Dwight Garner's The Upstairs Delicatessen, C Pam Zhang's How Much of These Hills Is Gold, the TikTokers are coming!Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you. MORE FROM SKYLER MAPES:Meet the Woman Bringing Calabrian Olive Oil to the U.S. [Conde Nast Traveler]Forbes 30 Under 30, 2021 [Forbes]Demystifying Extra Virgin Olive Oil With Skyler Mapes and Giuseppe Morisani [Italy Magazine]

“It really illuminates these questions of privilege and pleasure, and what kind of joy we can look forward to in the human experience as things continue to get worse.” In a world facing food scarcity and limited resources, a young chef enters a world of allure, privilege, abundance (and their consequences) in Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang. Zhang joins us to talk about the mythology of the worlds she creates, the secret to great food writing, the politics of privilege and pleasure and more with Miwa Messer, host of Poured Over. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Executive Producer Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang.   New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app.     Featured Books (Episode):  Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang  How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang  The Lover by Marguerite Duras  Provence, 1970 by Luke Barr  Prophet by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché  H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald 

C Pam Zhang is the author of the acclaimed novel How Much of These Hills Is Gold. Her new book, Land of Milk and Honey, is set in a near future where smog has choked out almost all agriculture, and where a chef is lured to cook at a reclusive mountain institute for the global elite with the promise of produce. It's a gripping book about power and politics and, mostly, a love letter to food, and we're thrilled to have her on the show to discuss it.Also on the episode, Aliza and Matt preview more fall cookbooks they are really enjoying including new books from Jon Kung, Sohla El-Waylly, two Italian wine experts, James Park, the Pie Hole in Los Angeles, and Alicia Kennedy. Don't forget to smash that pre-order button. Fall cookbook season is here. MORE FROM C PAM ZHANG:See It Slant [The Cut]The Pen Ten: An Interview with C Pam Zhang [Pen America]Buy: Land of Milk and Honey

"All of them, in my mind… were wrestling with the same question, which is — what do I do with either the burden of family or what do I do with the found family that I've made?" Victor LaValle's Lone Women takes supernatural suspense to early 1900s Montana as one young woman sets out to leave her past and family secrets behind. LaValle talks about the history that inspired this novel, the connection between this story and one of his previous books, the upcoming streaming adaptation of The Changeling and more with Poured Over host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Madyson.  This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Executive Producer Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang.    New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app.     Featured Books (Episode):  Lone Women by Victor LaValle The Changeling by Victor LaValle Big Machine by Victor LaValle The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):   How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann  

This episode we're talking about Beach Reads! We discuss what counts as a beach read, what doesn't count as a beach read, whether any of us has even been to a beach recently (yes!), and more. Plus: We play “two truths and a lie” with books! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Two Real Books and One Fake Contemporary romance (RJ) Just Haven't Met You Yet Head Over Feet Call Me, Maybe Endurance Sports (Meghan) The Pain Cave: Pushing the Limits of Human Endurance Hell on Two Wheels: An Astonishing Story of Suffering, Triumph, and the Most Extreme Endurance Race in the World The Pursuit of Endurance: Harnessing the Record-Breaking Power of Strength and Resilience Domestic Thriller (Matthew) The Lady in Waiting: A Novel Her Dark Lies: A Novel The Girls Are All So Nice Here: A Novel Travel Memoir (Anna) Adventure Food Family Other Media We Mentioned Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett Death on the Beach by Anna Johannsen Beach Read by Emily Henry That's a Christmas to Me #1  Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert Links, Articles, and Things What Makes a Book a Beach Read? Read it and keep: is it time to reassess the 'beach read'? What Is a Beach Read, and Why? Vancouver's comedic and controversial ‘Barge Chilling Beach' sign is no more Old-Timey Bathing Suit (TV Tropes) Call for Papers: Hallmark movies! Westerns by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here. Stone Song by Win Blevins Prize Money by Celeste Castro The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis Gabriel's Story by David Anthony Durham The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich Wounded by Percival Everett God's Country by Percival Everett Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine Book of the Little Axe by Lauren Francis-Sharma Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin Hundred in the Hand by Joseph M. Marshall III The Devil's Revolver by V.S. McGrath The Righteous Revenge of Artemis Bonner by Walter Dean Myers Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down by Ishmael Reed That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott Dream Wheels by Richard Wagamese Fools Crow by James Welch The Death of Jim Loney by James Welch How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang Give us feedback! Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read! Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email! Join us again on Tuesday, July 5th we'll be discussing the genre of Humour Non-Fiction! Then on Tuesday, July 19th it's time for our “we all read the same book” book pitches! 

In this week's bonus episode, Kayla and Taylor discuss the history of the western and the emergence of the “weird western”. Also: Tom Lin himself, author of The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, joins us for a conversation! (!!!!)Books, etc. discussed in this episode:Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns by Paul GreenThe Dark Tower series by Stephen KingBlood Meridian by Cormac McCarthyHow Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam ZhangIn the Distance by Hernan DiazForgetting the Alamo, or Blood Memory by Emma PerezThe Drop Edge of Yonder by Rudolph WurlitzerHaints Stay by Colin WinnetteOutlawed by Anna NorthThe Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWittUpright Women Wanted by Sarah GaileyListen to the History of Literature podcast episode on westerns with author Anna North hereSources Kayla used for this episode:https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-a-western-novel-definition-of-the-western-genre-and-tips-for-writing-a-great-western-book#the-history-of-the-western-genrehttps://bookriot.com/weird-westerns-explained/ https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-weird-west https://lithub.com/on-reimagining-the-limitless-potential-of-the-literary-western/ https://lithub.com/what-happened-to-the-classic-western-it-got-better/ Check out Tom Lin's blog: https://twotreeforest.com/fieldnotes and his Instagram: @tom_lin__Follow us on Instagram @literatureandlibationspod.Visit our website: literatureandlibationspod.com to submit feedback, questions, or your own takes on what we are reading. You can also see what we are reading for future episodes! You can email us at literatureandlibationspod@gmail.com.Please leave us a review and/or rating! It really helps others find our podcast…and it makes us happy!

Sleepy readers, welcome in AAPI Month with this new episode! Riss read On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee and sweet Liza read How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang. This episode turned out to be one of Riss's favorites that the two have recorded yet! The ladies had a beautiful conversation in the middle of the episode on liking books, and also why they continue to do this podcast weekly. It was a beautiful reader moment and it gave the ladies warm and fuzzy feelings.

This month Amy and Kayla discuss "How Much of These Hills Is Gold" by C. Pam Zhang. Join us if you're looking for a historical fiction that challenges history.

Forum Book Club returns with "How Much of These Hills Is Gold," the debut novel from C. Pam Zhang. Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, the book has been praised for its "arresting," "lyrical," and "ravishingly written" style. It follows the quest of two Chinese-American orphans, Sam and Lucy, to bury their father, a failed gold prospector. In this tender coming-of-age story, Zhang asks "what makes a home a home?" and in placing a Chinese family at its center, a group that history has not just forgotten, but in some instances, erased, the novel reshapes the American western. We'll talk to Zhang and a panel of fellow writers about the book.

Since 1931, the California Book Awards have honored the exceptional literary merit of California writers and publishers. Each year a select jury considers hundreds of books from around the state in search of the very best in literary achievement. Over its 90 years, the California Book Awards have honored the writers who have come to define California to the world. Among them are John Steinbeck, Wallace Stegner, MFK Fisher, Thom Gunn, Richard Rodriquez, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joan Didion, Ishmael Reed, and Amy Tan. Recent award winners include Hector Tobar, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Susan Orlean, Rachel Kushner, Rachel Khong, Tommy Orange, Morgan Parker and Steph Cha. This year's winners include: GOLD MEDALSFICTION A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, Daniel Mason, Little, Brown and Company  FIRST FICTION How Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang, Riverhead Books NONFICTION South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War, Alice L. Baumgartner, Basic Books JUVENILE Efrén Divided, Ernesto Cisneros, Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers YOUNG ADULT Private Lessons, Cynthia Salaysay, Candlewick Press POETRY Quiet Orient Riot, Nathalie Khankan, Omnidawn  CALIFORNIANA California Exposures: Envisioning Myth and History, Richard White, with photos by Jesse Amble White, W.W. Norton & Company  CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLISHING A Natural History of the Anza-Borrego Region, Marie Simovich and Mike Wells, Sunbelt Publications SILVER MEDALSFICTION Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu, Pantheon/Vintage NONFICTION Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream, Conor Dougherty, Penguin Press YOUNG ADULT The Black Kids, Christina Hammonds Reed, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers SPEAKERS Julia Flynn Siler Juror, California Book Awards—Moderator Peter Fish Jury Chair, California Book Awards—Moderator In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on August 16th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since 1931, the California Book Awards have honored the exceptional literary merit of California writers and publishers. Each year a select jury considers hundreds of books from around the state in search of the very best in literary achievement. Over its 90 years, the California Book Awards have honored the writers who have come to define California to the world. Among them are John Steinbeck, Wallace Stegner, MFK Fisher, Thom Gunn, Richard Rodriquez, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joan Didion, Ishmael Reed, and Amy Tan. Recent award winners include Hector Tobar, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Susan Orlean, Rachel Kushner, Rachel Khong, Tommy Orange, Morgan Parker and Steph Cha. This year's winners include: GOLD MEDALSFICTION A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, Daniel Mason, Little, Brown and Company  FIRST FICTION How Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang, Riverhead Books NONFICTION South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War, Alice L. Baumgartner, Basic Books JUVENILE Efrén Divided, Ernesto Cisneros, Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers YOUNG ADULT Private Lessons, Cynthia Salaysay, Candlewick Press POETRY Quiet Orient Riot, Nathalie Khankan, Omnidawn  CALIFORNIANA California Exposures: Envisioning Myth and History, Richard White, with photos by Jesse Amble White, W.W. Norton & Company  CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLISHING A Natural History of the Anza-Borrego Region, Marie Simovich and Mike Wells, Sunbelt Publications SILVER MEDALSFICTION Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu, Pantheon/Vintage NONFICTION Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream, Conor Dougherty, Penguin Press YOUNG ADULT The Black Kids, Christina Hammonds Reed, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers SPEAKERS Julia Flynn Siler Juror, California Book Awards—Moderator Peter Fish Jury Chair, California Book Awards—Moderator In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on August 16th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prepare to have your heart broken in all the best ways by Ash Davidson's miraculous debut novel, Damnation Spring — our August Discover Pick. She joins us on the show to talk about starting with endings (and making big last-minute story changes); grounding her beautiful prose in real-life stories and first-person research; her love for her characters, and more. Featured Books: Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, The Round House by Louise Erdrich, How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang, and A Bitter Fog by Carol Von Strum. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Poured Over is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Born in Beijing, C Pam Zhang is mostly an artifact of the United States. She is the author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold, which won the Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award and the Asian/Pacific Award for Literature, was nominated for the Booker Prize, and was one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year. Zhang’s writing appears in Best American Short Stories, The Cut, McSweeney’s Quarterly, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree. For more Thresholds, visit us at www.thisisthresholds.com This week's sponsor: Get $100 off your first month with Talkspace. Visit talkspace.com and use promo code Thresholds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Compared by The New York Times to Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and Steinbeck's mighty The Grapes of Wrath, C Pam Zhang's How Much of These Hills Is Gold? brilliantly reimagines both the American West and the Classic American Western. Longlisted for the Booker, it tells of Chinese American orphans Lucy and Sam's quest through the Californian hills during the Gold Rush as they seek to bury the body of their father in a homeland that constantly tells them “this land is not your land.” Chaired by Mirandi Riwoe

This week, Katie and Don reflect on the Western, Asian representation in American culture, and the concept of home through the lens of C Pam Zhang's debut novel How Much of These Hills Is Gold.

Perry and David wind up their discussion of the best books they read in 2020 and roll on to talking about their best movies and television seen during the year. David's Top 10 books of 2020 (04:51) Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman Normal People by Sally Rooney We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Truth by Peter Temple The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang Solaris by Stanisław Lem The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. Perry's Top 10 books of 2020 (06:04) The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jnr Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick Way Station by Clifford D. Simak Tango Briefing by Adam Hall The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John David's Top films of 2020 (04:18) Brazil 12 Monkeys Solaris (dir. Tarkovsky) Yesterday Time Bandits Perry's Top films of 2020 (06:33) Stalker The Old Guard Yesterday Sometimes Always Never Brazil David's Top TV of 2020 (06:08) Tales from the Loop (Mini-series) Upright (Mini-series) His Dark Materials (Season 1) The Expanse (Season 4) For All Mankind (Season 1) Perry's Top TV of 2020 (27:32) Food (03:00) Food Safari Fire Rick Stein's Secret France Chef's Table : BBQ Crime (07:39) Criminal : UK S01 and S02 Trapped S01 and S02 The Alienist S01 Des Giri/Haji Horror (01:15) The Outsider Science Fiction (03:35) The Expanse S04 The Umbrella Academy S02 For All Mankind S01 The Umbrella Academy S01 Other (04:55) The Queen's Gambit The Test Freeman Best 5 of the Year (05:51) The Queen's Gambit The Expanse S04 Criminal : UK S01 and S02 The Test Trapped S01 and S02 Wind-up (02:08) Photo: public domain

San Francisco author C Pam Zhang reads from her new novel, "How Much of These Hills Is Gold."

Ba dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future. Both epic and intimate, blending Chinese symbolism and re-imagined history with fiercely original language and storytelling, How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a haunting adventure story, an unforgettable sibling story, and the announcement of a stunning new voice in literature. On a broad level, it explores race in an expanding country and the question of where immigrants are allowed to belong. But page by page, it's about the memories that bind and divide families, and the yearning for home.

In honour of National Reading Group Day and World Refugee Day, we discuss The Beekeeper of Aleppo, the bestselling novel by Christy Lefteri.  It's a heartrending and important novel. The story of Nuri and Afra, a devastated couple forced to flee their home in Aleppo in the hopes of reaching safety in the UK. Harrowing and haunting, it's a must read. But did it make for a good discussion book? Is there any hope amid the heartbreak? Listen in to find out. We sat down to discuss it with special guest and fellow podcast host Anna Baillie Karas of Books on the Go. * If you'd like to be more involved, Christy Lefteri suggests at the end of her book that you seek out the following organisations: Open Cultural Centre, an NGO and education project in northern Greece Faros (The Lighthouse), a Christian non-profit providing humanitarian care in Athens Salusbury World, a charity supporting refugees in the UK. The Buzz Project, a Yorkshire charity founded by the Syrian apiarist Professor Ryad Alsous. * Books mentioned in this episode: The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri No Friend but the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan Disoriental by Negar Djavadi I Will Never See the World Again by Ahmet Altan What Is The What by Dave Eggers Cleanness by Garth Greenwell How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang The Nickel Boys and Zone One by Colson Whitehead Simon the Fiddler and The News of the World by Paulette Jiles Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke Au Revoir, Tristesse by Viv Groskop * Follow us on Instagram or Facebook @BookClubReviewPodcast, on Twitter @bookclubrvwpod, or email thebookclubreview@gmail.com.  Subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts to never miss an episode. And if you like what we do please take a moment to rate and review us. It helps other listeners find us.

An electric debut novel set against the twilight of the American gold rush, two siblings are on the run in an unforgiving landscape—trying not just to survive but to find a home. Ba dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future. Both epic and intimate, blending Chinese symbolism and re-imagined history with fiercely original language and storytelling, How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a haunting adventure story, an unforgettable sibling story, and the announcement of a stunning new voice in literature. On a broad level, it explores race in an expanding country and the question of where immigrants are allowed to belong. But page by page, it's about the memories that bind and divide families, and the yearning for home.

Caleb Masters from Bookmarks bookstore in downtown Winston-Salem visits with C Pam Zhang about her new novel, How Much of These Hills Is Gold. Find out how you can continue to support our local independent bookstore by visiting them at bookmarks.orgSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.