Podcasts about wildeeps

This week, Shannon, Robin, and Brooke are discussing books written by authors of color. Titles mentioned include: Shauna Robinson, The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster E. Lynn Harris, Invisible Life Hanna Alkaf, Queen of the Tiles Kim Johnson, The Color of a Lie Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory S.K. Ali, Love From A To Z (Love From A To Z #1) K.A. Cobell, Looking For Smoke Kai Ashante Wilson, Sorcerer of the Wildeeps (Sorcerer of the Wildeeps #1) Ela Lee, Jaded Alyssa Cole, One of Us Knows Darcie Little Badger, Sheine Lende (Elatsoe #0) Ann Zhao, Dear Wendy You can always contact the Book Bistro team by searching @BookBistroPodcast on facebook, or visiting: https://www.facebook.com/BookBistroPodcast/ You can also send an email to: TheBookBistroPodcast@gmail.com For more information on the podcast and the team behind it, please visit: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/book-bistro

This month we discuss The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson. It's a story of love, loss, and legend. We discuss magic, world building, beautiful prose, and more! Send in your thoughts, questions and recommendations to wearedoingfine@gmail.com. TikTok: @wearedoingfine Instagram: @wearedoingfine

This week: Robbie is on annual leave (who is she?) and Lisa is experiencing allergies for the first time. We go over some of the differences between UK and U.S. slang for injections, discuss some lighter news from celebrity crimes to ridiculous congressional hopefuls, we also take a look at the lighter side before asking the age-old question, “Who Asked for This?”, set new long-term goals for Accountabilibuddies, AITA, and much more!   Join us for book club; this month we're reading The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson. Find it on our book shop at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bookshop.org/shop/wearedoingfine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Send in your thoughts, questions and recommendations to wearedoingfine@gmail.com. TikTok: @wearedoingfine Instagram: @wearedoingfine

This week, Robbie tells us big news, Lisa is a tired gal and we discuss American Politics, European geography, weird Twin things as well as our usual bits like Who Asked For This, Accountabillibuddies and AITA! Join us for book club; this month we're reading The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson. Find it on our book shop at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bookshop.org/shop/wearedoingfine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Send in your thoughts, questions and recommendations to wearedoingfine@gmail.com. TikTok: @wearedoingfine Instagram: @wearedoingfine

This week: Lisa can may be seen on Fite TV and Robbie is in his Eras Tour era (to see Paramore of course). We go over some of the differences between UK and U.S. electives in school, discuss the news from the worst to the best (in that order), before taking a look on the lighter side before asking the age old question, “Who Asked for This?”, set new long-term goals for Accountabilibuddies, AITA, and much more!   Join us for book club; this month we're reading The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson. Find it on our book shop at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bookshop.org/shop/wearedoingfine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Send in your thoughts, questions and recommendations to wearedoingfine@gmail.com. TikTok: @wearedoingfine Instagram: @wearedoingfine

Intro - Metz and Phil discuss the value of a thank you note. Content (9:50) - Discussion of The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, by Kai Ashante Wilson.

On this week's episode, we're discussing jobs, occupations, and vocations, both fantastical and mundane despite the fantastical settings.  The tentpoles for this episode are Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef by Cassandra Khaw, Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots, and “Always Near” by afrai.   What We’re Into Lately A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark  How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole Hollow Empire by Sam Hawke The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi  Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Hiding in the Leaves by aventria & iluxia (Naruto fanfic) Legend of Yun Qian Scarlet Heart   Other Stuff We Mentioned Jumanji Labyrinth Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke  "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin Naruto After Working At Google, I’ll Never Let Myself Love A Job Again (Op-Ed, NYT) My Life as a Background Slytherin (webcomic) Avengers movies Superhero Damage Insurance (TikTok) Rogue One Star Wars franchise The Mandalorian Be the Serpent Space Sweepers episode The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson Jessica Jones October Daye series by Seanan McGuire Lost Girl Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone Discworld series by Terry Pratchett Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold John Scalzi (author) Honor Harrington series by David Weber We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson Catalyst by Jennifer Mace Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett My Next Life as a Villainess  “Period Piece” by thimblefullofdespair for a hundred vision and revisions by aventria, iluxia Merlin TV show Macey’s Fun Facts Tech Job Corner An Example of Bad Radio The Story Engine storytelling game   For Next Time Hikaru no Go (2020 live action Chinese drama)   Content Warnings Slavery (in “Always Near” + episode discussion) Medical trauma & body horror (in Hench) Cannibalism and gore (in Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef + episode discussion)   Transcription The transcript for this episode is available here. Thanks as always to our fabulous team of scribes!

Denham talks about Destiny, Jake talks about WOW, Connor talks about books, Kingdom Hearts takes over, the PS5 is sorta there. It's truly business as usual.   TV & Movies: Trickster, Aunty Donna's Big Ol House of Fun, Eric Andre Show Season 5, Star Trek Discovery Season 3, Fargo Season 4, Bake Off, The Next Generation, Lord of the Rings Games: Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Demon's Souls, Astro's Playroom, Miles Morales: Spider Man, Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, Destiny 2: Beyond Light, Picross S5, WoW Shadowlands, XCloud, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin Books: Zeb Wells' New Mutants, A Dead Djinn In Cairo, The Haunting of Tram Car 015, The Black Gods Drum, Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, The Tensorate Series, The Poppy War, The Imperial Radch trilogy, Way of Kings Ronald Wimberly's Lighten Up: https://thenib.com/lighten-up-4f7f96ca8a7e/ A Dead Djinn In Cairo: https://www.tor.com/2016/05/18/a-dead-djinn-in-cairo/   Follow Us! Email: winemumspodcast@gmail.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/WineMumsPod Twitter: twitter.com/WineMumsPod Website: winemumspodcast.libsyn.com

On this week's episode, we're taking a break to answer questions submitted by our listeners and play a fun game! It's the Extravaganza! o/ What We’re Into Lately Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow Down to Agincourt series by seperis The Game of God by seperis How Long ‘til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin What the Water Gave Me by iesika Knock Down the House Blaseball   Other Stuff We Mentioned Qantas Lounge at Heathrow International Airport The 10th Circle of Hell, ie Newark Liberty International Airport Supernatural fandom Hannibal fandom “What the Water Gave Me” by Florence + the Machine Muffuletta sandwiches “I Am All Love Blaseball (And You Can Too)” by Cat Manning Welcome to Night Vale Haikyuu The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson Yuri!!! on Ice crossovers Lagaan A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske This guy with magnets in his nose Catalyst by Jennifer Mace “In the Salt Crypts of Ghiarelle” by Jennifer Mace in Silk and Steel  Sorting Hat Chats Macey dearly missing Sentinel AUs Yoon Ha Lee Haikyuu!! anime Alex’s love for the entire fictional nation of Arasht Four Pillars Modern Australian gin Roku gin The Botanist gin Fic Author Feuds on fic sites of old Hugo Award Winning Archive Of Our Own Campaign Skyjacks Chloe Ting’s ab workout videos The Chant Literary Universe (CLU) by Alexandra Rowland Claire Rousseau’s YouTube Channel Shmanners Podcast Captain Awkward  Am I The Asshole (AITA) Buzzfeed Unsolved Mythbusters   For Next Time A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik   Transcription The transcript of this episode is available here. A hundred thousand thank you to  our wonderful team of scribes!

On this week's episode, we are pondering the nature of mortality -- and immortality! We're discussing demigods and other sorts of very, very long lived folks. The tentpoles for this week are The Old Guard, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson, and “The god of scraped knees.” by spqr. What We’re Into Lately The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia Fiyah, issue 15 Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher Campaign: Skyjacks   Other Stuff We Mentioned WorldCon Feminine Pursuits series by Olivia Waite Alice Payne series by Kate Heartfield Alice Payne Rides by Kate Heartfield Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Annihilation The Adventure Zone The Decemberists Our Opinions Are Correct Episode 39 of Be the Serpent Claire Rousseau’s Youtube channel Finding Faeries by Alexandra Rowland Hercules The Witcher television show Star Wars prequels Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson Mad Max: Fury Road Atomic Blonde Smallville A Memory Called Empire Yoon Ha Lee’s books Good Omens Good Omens TV adaptation The Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone MXTX Scum Villain's Self-Saving System Keanu Reeves definitely Not being immortal For Next Time "Favorite" by astolat   Transcription The transcript for this episode is available here. Thank you as always to the eternal beloveds of our hearts: the team of scribes who made this possible!

On this week's episode, Macey gets her feet tangled in her cardigan, Freya tries to convince everyone to submit Extravaganza questions via 5-star iTunes reviews, and Alex is very tired. Oh, and we're also doing a deep-dive on a single tentpole: The Witcher tv show!   What We’re Into Lately The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí ClarkTake a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia HibbertHaikyuu!! The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho The Wild Dead by Carrie Vaughn Wild Seed by Octavia Butler Naruto fanfic Rookie Goo Hae-ryung “this river runs to you” by sundiscus   Other Stuff We Mentioned Prince of Tennis  The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by P. Djèlí Clark Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn Bobbin lace-making variolation Dragon Age Shrek “Toss a Coin to Your Bitcher” by Suzanne Walker The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski Queer Eye Baby Shark Person of Interest The waning droning quality of a hurdy gurdy Miles Vorkosigan Robin Hood Galavant Chant Bullshit, courtesy of Alex’s book series Gossip Girl Macey’s eternal dedication to Scum Villain fanfic The Sorting Hat Chats podcast episode on The Witcher For Next Time The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson.   Transcription The transcript of this episode is available here. Thank you a thousand times to our wonderful team of scribes, who make this possible!

Kai Ashante Wilson's 2015 novel The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps establishes a new and vibrant fantasy world that draws inspiration from African culture. This sword and sorcery tale depicts the journey of Demane, a gifted healer and fighter who hides numerous secrets, as he helps guard a caravan against enemies of the mortal and supernatural varieties. What are the similarities and differences to traditional fantasy tropes found in this book? How is language and dialog deployed to depict its characters? Are there limitations to shared warrior brotherhood? Kate and Jack explore all these questions and more in the latest episode of Bad Books for Bad People. BBfBP theme song by True Creature  Find us at BadBooksBadPeople.com, on Twitter @badbooksbadppl, Instagram @badbooksbadpeople and on Facebook. You can discover where to get all the books featured on Bad Books for Bad People on our About Page.

On today's episode we're talking about Harry Potter, the unbearable TERFness of JK Rowling, and the power of fanfic to reclaim and transform problematic canons: We're doing a deep-dive on the fanfic "Transfigurations" by Resonant! What We’re Into Lately Greenlight by Benjamin Stevenson The Letdown TV series Pink Slip by Katrina Jackson The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson Seraphina by Rachel Hartman What married people do by Shamelesscooper, a Scum Villain/Untamed crossover fanfic The Black Calhouns by Gail Lumet Buckley The 1619 Project TorCon 2020 panel: A Whole Universe in Pages — Worldbuilding for SFF The Devil In America by Kai Ashante Wilson Watchmen miniseries on HBO Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi "White Bears in Sugar Land: Juneteenth, Cages, and Afrofuturism" essay by Tochi Onyebuchi "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream: The Duty of the Black Writer During Times of American Unrest" essay by Tochi Onyebuchi Queer Eye Good Omens Other Things We Mentioned Juneteenth Black Lives Matter Mr. & Mrs. Smith A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson The Stabby Queer Ladies Anthology, Silk & Steel  Kerin Cunningham’s Kickstarter My Chemical Romance The Unbearable TERFness of J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Witchmark by C. L. Polk Lumos by birdsofshore The Untamed Star Trek In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae Eclipse by Mijan A Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat Alexander the Great’s sex life tissue of silver by fearlessdiva Maya’s Harry Potter fics   For Next Time Mating the Huntress by Talia Hibbert   Transcription The transcript for this episode is available here. Thank you to our amazing team of scribes, as always!!

Link Stars Without Number http://www.sinenomine-pub.com/?page_id=395 | Welcome to Sector Hades Zeta https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IyzbtMqy2AdHQe82CW9ffrXKBYesElGNnroGB-E0ZF4/edit?usp=sharing | Sectors Without Number https://sectorswithoutnumber.com/ | The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson (excerpt) https://www.tor.com/2015/07/13/the-sorcerer-of-the-wildeeps/ | Judd's Twitter https://twitter.com/Judd_of_Kryos | --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/daydreaming-about-dragons/message

Amanda and Jenn discuss Korean fiction, Central American authors, fluffy audiobooks, and more in this week's episode of Get Booked. This episode is sponsored by Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao and Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.   Questions   1. Hello Get Booked friends! I would love some book recommendations for books written by Korean authors or about Korea. I recently read The Vegetarian by Han Kang and The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson and realized that I do not know very much about Korean culture and history. I loved the cultural side notes that were included about Japan in Ozeki's Tale for the Time Being and would enjoy something like that, but about Korea. I am open to fiction or non-fiction and historical or contemporary works. --Sally   2. First, I just wanted to give Amanda a huge thank you for recommending Captive Prince! I’ve heard you recommend it a few times before, but I just never got around to reading it. After hearing you recommend it a few weeks ago I finally decided to pick it up from the library. Suffice it to say, I think this is the book I’ve been looking for all my life and I finished the series in three days. I’d love to know if there are any read-alikes out there? The Captive Prince series checked almost all of my boxes. M/M relationships are strongly preferred and no need to worry about trigger warnings for me. I’ve already read and loved Amberlough. I’ve also read The Magpie Lord, but only thought it was ok. Thanks again for the Captive Prince recommend! --Kevin   3. Coming off Black History Month I need help. I listened to The Bone Tree, read Brown Girl Dreaming, and read Invisible Man. Also read Banthology. These were all great esp, Brown Girl Dreaming. My request....I have noticed as with Homegoing, several of the books by people of color are very mentally heavy when reading one after the other. Justifiably so. I am looking for a female voice, mid 20-40's, lyrical, fun, a bit biting, with her girls with a story to tell. Something almost musical. I don't want YA. Something where the setting even plays a part. Got anything? --Michele   4. I know this is really last minute and I have no idea if you'll be able to help me, but I am really stuck. I am supposed to be getting a book for someone who I don't know based on their "reading" profile. They said they like autobiographies, especially ones related to travel and sports and that they are looking to get into self help books. They also mentioned that their favorite books are The Last Lecture, Mud Sweat and Tears and 1000 Days of Spring. They have a completely different reading taste to mine, so I am really out of my depth and hoping you could help. Thanks in advance and I LOVE the show! --Marija   5. Greetings! My husband and I are going on the trip of a lifetime during the month of April. We will be traveling through the Panama Canal and stopping at all the Central American countries except El Salvador. We will also be making 3 stops in Mexico and Cartegena, Colombia. I'm looking for literary fiction novels that take place in Central America (rather than Mexico or South America.) No short stories, please! Here are some books that I've read or are familiar with. (None of them take place in Central America, but you get the idea!): The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez Like Water for Chocolate How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Thanks! --April   6. For about a year now I've been listening to podcasts (mostly Book Riot ones) at work. I haven't quite found enough to fill all my hours, but I find I prefer listening to talking over music. To fill the gaps, I tried turning to audiobooks. (Libby is the best.) My typical fare is heavily Sci Fi and Fantasy, but I was finding them a little too complicated to follow while working - so I tried YA (another love of mine) and it was still too important that I caught every detail. After that I tried nonfiction, but kept finding things that were either too dry on audio so it became basically white noise, or super depressing. TL:DR can you help me find books that are A) on audio, B) light in subject matter (as a grad student in my "free time" I spend a lot of time stressed out and would like my audiobooks to be a break from that), and C) simple enough that I can still follow even if I get a little distracted by a more-complicated-than-usual problem at work? Something like a cozy mystery or a fluffy romance (like Austenland?) might be good, but I don't know where to start. Bonus points for SF/F flavors, but they're not necessary, and extra bonus points for diversity of any kind, which I feel like I don't get enough of. Already read: Sarah Maclean, and Tessa Dare. Also, I used to love Lillian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who series, but have not kept up with the latest in cozy mystery good stuff. Thanks in advance! I love the show - a part of me wishes I could just fill all of my weekly hours with listening to Get Booked, but I imagine that would be very tiring for you. --Anne   7. Hi Amanda and Jenn, I'm in dire need of help! ! I'm going through a major life transition and I've found that the books that I would normally turn to don't seem to work anymore. I would like some recommendations of memoirs, nonfiction, or fiction that feature strong women who have made radical changes to their lives. Thank you! --Daniela   Books Discussed Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan by Ruby Lal (July 2018) Salt Houses by Hala Alyan The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich While the City Slept by Eli Sanders Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo I’ll Be Right There by Kyung-Sook Shin, translated by Sora Kim-Russell The Calligrapher’s Daughter by Eugenia Kim Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson Valdemar: Last Herald Mage series (Magic’s Pawn #1) trigger warnings for rape, child abuse, suicide The Sisterhood of Blackberry Corner by Andrea Smith The Unleashing by Shelly Laurenston A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson A Guidebook to Relative Strangers by Camille T Dungy The Dream of My Return by Horacio Castellanos Moya, translated by Katherine Silver Central American author recommendations post The World In Half by Christina Henriquez Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James Hammer Head by Nina MacLaughlin Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed Braving The Wilderness by Brene Brown

Brea and Mallory help absolve guilt about reading for pleasure and review some pretty weird reading aids. Use the hashtag #ReadingGlasses to participate in online discussion! Email us at readingglassespodcast at gmail dot com!   Reading Glasses Tote Bags   Sponsor - SquareSpace Promo Code - GLASSES   Links -   Reading Glasses Transcriptions on Gretta Reading Glasses Facebook Group   Reading Glasses Goodreads Group Apex Magazine Page Advice Article Amazon Wish List   Thumb Thing Books Mentioned -   Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt   The Turner House by Angela Flournoy Provenance by Ann Leckie The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley   Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey   The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson  

Amanda and Jenn discuss immigrant stories, royalty, close friendships, and more in this week's episode of Get Booked. This episode is sponsored by Here We Lie by Paula Treick DeBoard and Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi.     Questions 1. Hello! I am wondering if you have any recommendations of any books about royalty in other countries besides the U.S. and Britain. I would prefer fiction, but am open to non fiction too! Thanks for all your amazing recommendations! --Marissa   2. Hi! I recently pick up reading more voraciously again after a several year drought. I started listening to this podcast from the beginning and have already devoured a whole bunch of the recommended comics. I typically fall into a pattern of reading through whole series very quickly because I'm a tad bit obsessive, you could call me a binge reader in that sense. I was hoping you could provide some recommendations that will challenge me from a story perspective (not a writing style), with some more deep/emotional themes. I'm kind of over the mystery thriller, vampires, Harry Potter type books. Thanks, --Courtney   3. I am a lover of books and read since I was a child, now that I have children of my own I want to pass that on to my girls. My dilemma is my 11yo doesn't love to read, or even like to unless she has to for school. So my question is, can you recommend some books that will maybe jump start her love of reading. She just finished Eragon for school and claims she didn't like it, but I know better, she was talking to the book. She’s a very girly girl if that helps. --Melli   4. Hi guys, I was hoping you could recommend me some fiction that focuses on the immigrant experience in America. I recently read and loved Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue and I would love to find more like it. I'm currently reading Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie but I'm not sure where else to look. Thanks! --Katherine   5. Basically: I'm looking for fiction in which the characters a) have extremely close friendships and b) take care of each other's mental/physical health. If that makes sense? Examples: A Little Life and the ways in which everyone takes care of Jude, or The Rest of Us Just Live Here and the ways in which, well, everybody in that book takes care of everybody else. Caveats: In spite of the example above, I generally don't like YA. --Alex   6. Hi Amanda & Jenn, Love the show, especially how enthusiastic you are about all the books you are recommending! I would like a recommendation myself. In the summer I love walking/hiking and climbing outdoors. Now that it's winter I'm spending more time with a book on the couch. It would be great to read about the activities I'm missing. I loved Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Into the Wild. Also love books with extensive walking like The Hobbit (Fantasy is definitely allowed) and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I haven't been able to find many novels about climbing/with climber(s), so that would be a bonus. Not a big fan of non-fiction, although I thought The Places in Between by Rory Stewart was amazing. Thanks so much! --Lea   7. I stopped reading for awhile (blame Netflix and Hulu) and have recently gotten back in the habit. I've watched a lot of mob movies/shows lately so my first request would be any books about any type of mob, fiction or nonfiction (I do seem to have a thing for the Irish mob though). My second request would be, since I've been reading mostly crime/murdery, darker type books, I'm looking for a break from that. I loved shotgun love songs by nickolas butler, a visit from the goon squad and sweetbitter. I do like music related fiction, the found family trope, romantic subplots and complicated women. --Kate   Books Discussed After the Flare by Deji Bryce Olukotun Winston’s War by Max Hastings The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole (out Feb 27) Gather the Daughters by Jennie Malamed (trigger warning: sexual assault, eating disorders) Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter Inkheart by Cornelia Funke Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson The Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang Jade City by Fonda Lee The Chimes by Anna Smaill

This week we sit down with Crawford Award winning author Kai Ashante Wilson to discuss his fiction, his career and the pros and cons of being a late starter. We focus on his multiple-award nominated novella "The Devil in America", Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, and his new book, the just-released and highly recommended A Taste of Honey. As always, our thanks to Kai for making the time to join us. We hope you enjoy the episode!

Jaime Lee Moyer comes on to discuss historical fantasy and add to Mount TBR. Also a review of Sorcerer of the Wildeeps

This episode is all me talking about what it was like to create and host Cabbages & Kings in 2015. Lots of gratitude for my listeners, identifying areas for improvement, and thinking about what might happen in 2016. No discussion of books. I talked about my reading in 2015 over on The Three Hoarsemen podcast.A few links:Discussing The Fifth Season with Troy & Khaalidah (and Troy's first appearance)Discussing Ancillary Justice with Ethan (pt. 1, pt. 2)Folklore with Mike UnderwoodComics with ParrishMiddle-Aged Women Aren't Coming of Age and a much better Rocket Talk episode with a similar premiseFangirl Happy Hour podcastGalactic Suburbia PodcastOut on a Wire (radio storytelling)Pilot (podcast of possible-podcast episodes)Cooode St. PodcastMy roundup of lots of podcasts I've listened toVision StatementContact Page (be a guest!)Wisdom of the CrowdsEpisode & Guest indexHalf-Dark PromiseEyes I Dare Not Meet In Dreams (LadyBusiness Review)A not-quite-transcript is below. These are the notes I read and occasionally ad-libbed:Navel Gazing 2015Here’s a year-end wrap up podcast. This isn’t about my reading. I did an episode of the Three Hoarsemen where I talked about that. Short version - I adored Grace of Kings, Fifth Season, Black Wolves & Sorceror of the Wildeeps, while being able to see flaws in a couple of them. This is a podcast where I look back at what Cabbages & Kings is and where I’d like to go in 2016. What I’m trying to do, what I’ve done so far, what went well & poorly, and where the show might go in the future. If you don’t want that episode, bail out now, and I’ll be back in 2016 with plenty of new episodes where I talk about books and stories.OK - What am I trying to doWhat went really wellWhere is there room for improvementWhat cool stuff could I do with a podcast in the future?What am I trying to doI started Cabbages & Kings on the theory that there are a lot of science fiction & fantasy podcasts out there, but there’s a kind of disappointing sameness that I felt left a hole for (among other things) a show that focused readers talking to readers about books, with minimal chit-chat and an editor at the least cutting out fumbles and uhms. And I figured I could make that.It’s worth saying right here that this isn’t either unique or necessarily a “better” format than others. Friends hanging out talking about what they love is basically a genre in and out of science fiction and fantasy: look at For Colored Nerds, Fan Bros Show, or the Accidental Tech Podcast. In the genre space, I love inviting the ladies of Fangirl Happy Hour and Galactic Suburbia and the Gentlemen of The Three Hoarsemen into my ears every few weeks just to sit & converse for a while. Arguably Cooode St. is a similar format podcast. I think the best Writing Excuses episodes are not only tighter than Cabbages & Kings, but usually inspiring and insightful even listening as just a reader. I know that Sword and Laser has created a community around their reading experience, and I think Mahvesh Murad is a fascinating interviewer whether or not I’ve heard of the author she’s got on. I’m also periodically reminded how many podcasts there are out there that I don’t know about. So Cabbages & Kings isn’t an attempt to be the “best” science fiction and fantasy podcast out there, just fill a hole I saw.According to my slightly more aspirational vision statement: Cabbages & Kings is an attempt to create exactly the podcast that I want to listen to. I want a podcast that makes science fiction and fantasy readers smile, pump their fists in recognition, and pause to consider a new idea. I want an excuse to work out ideas that are in my head and to interview a diverse group of other thoughtful readers. Cabbages & Kings is my attempt to contribute to the speculative fiction conversation in the format that I love the most. With Cabbages & Kings I hope to focus on books and stories that I love to read, and the experiences and reactions of other readers. All of this in under 30 minutes per episode, ending with a nostalgic look back at a favorite book.So, basically - I hate blogging because I get bogged down when trying to write words. I want to put a focus on the reading experience that readers have, and I’d like to talk about books in a way that can both gush about what we love and also apply a critical eye. I’ve found that the critical reading I like the most teaches me something about how to approach any new book or media, and I hoped to create some of that.What went really well?I’m going to take a moment to cheer for a moment! I put out 22 episodes in the 34 weeks between May 13 and the end of the year, not counting this one. That’s pretty cool!I really, really enjoyed having Ethan on to talk about Ancillary Justice - I think we got at elements of the ways Artificial Intelligence and Identity are handled that I didn’t see discussed very many places, but apparently there’s a philosophy class using Ancillary Justice to talk about those very topics, so clearly we (by which I mean Ethan) saw something interesting there.Troy Wiggins has been on twice - the podcast that we did with Khaalidah on The Fifth Season was a highlight of this year, and certainly in the first few months, our discussion of his history with the genre was one of my favorite episodes.Talking Short Stories with Nick Mamatas was great, and the discussion of folklore with Mike Underwood was fun to do & seemed to touch a few people when it came out.I was expecting to enjoy having fun & interesting people come on the podcast to talk about books. I was not expecting just how enjoyable it would be. Podcast recording evenings are some of my favorites. Getting a message out of the blue from Maureen Speller (who’s writing in Strange Horizons I’d recently discovered) letting me know very politely that I’d missed the point of the Buried Giant (which I confessed to at the time) and could we talk about it led to an almost two hour conversation, two of my favorite episodes, and a deeper appreciation of the book which is really the point of so much of this! You may have mixed feelings about the endless discussions of Grace of Kings, but for me, sorting out my thoughts about the book has been delightful. Plus I got to actually talk to Kate Elliott about the book (episode to come), and will hopefully get a chance to go over some of the themes with Ken Liu once I’ve finally put out the whole series of deep dives. So anyone out there thinking of starting a podcast - you get an excuse to ask your heroes and/or the smartest people you know to talk about your favorite topics for a while. It’s pretty awesome.Where is there room for improvement?So - I’ve put out some episodes I’m really proud of. I’ve gotten to have the thrilling experience of talking about fascinating topics & books with amazing people. Have I emphasized enough just how cool that it? It’s awesome!There’s something Tobias Buckell said a while ago on Twitter that I keep going back to (and I’m quoting from memory here, so hopefully getting the spirit if not the words) - that he hopes to be able to look back at his writing from 6 months ago and see flaws in it. That’s a sign he’s improving as an author. I haven’t listened back to many early episodes, but even week to week I find that when I listen back to the episode, I can usually see room for improvement. I tend to think about four areas where the show can get better. One is guests & topics which I’ll talk about more in a minute, but three are basically production related:First, there’s the actual interview. Do I hear my guest. Am I giving them space to talk & gather their ideas when that’s what’s needed. Can I listen and follow up on an interesting track. If there’s something *I* don’t understand, can I push them to be more clear? Notably, I had my mom to talk about middle-aged women as protagonists early on and was so invested in how *I* read (looking at worldbuilding and seeing the protagonist as an opportunity to reveal that world to the reader) that I didn’t really do a great job with the interview. (I’ll note that there’s a Rocket Talk episode with Kate Elliott & Emma Newman that touches on middle-aged women in genre stories which is worth listening to and which touches on some of the same topics). Listening back to the Ancillary Justice episode, I also didn’t really follow up on the most interesting things Ethan was saying. Live & Learn. I don’t think I’ve done a really a great job on any interviews yet, but I have at least learned to pause when I’m uncomfortable or confused & pursue a better line, or keep the guest talking. Editing afterwards ... Luxury! Luxury!Quick aside - in the Three Hoarsemen episode I was on at the end of the year with Andrea Phillips, the guys and Andrea did a really good job of pulling back threads that had been mentioned earlier and either building on them or questioning the premise. They heard each other, applied those statements to their experiences, and looked for common ground or interesting differences. It’s a skill or an art or something that I’m still learning the knack of, but at least I hear it sometimes now.Fine, so I’ve got an interview. How do I present it to you listeners? I’m not good at sticking to a time limit during the interview, so I’ve often got over an hour of audio that I’d like to turn into a 30 minute episode (which is about 28 minutes of content, and usually the significant book at the end chew up 1 to 3 minutes). I’ve been working on putting together a story structure. That was there in the first of the two Buried Giant Episodes as well as the comics episode that just went up. Ideally, I’m able to set up the interview with a story of who the guest is, what we’re going to talk about, and what the story of the interview is. Something like: After mostly reading prose fiction, I tried out a comic, and the experience was Exciting! and there were some similarities in the experience but there were important differences between the two media! This, ideally, gives you a hook to tell you why you care about the episode & what you’re listening for. I’m cribbing here extensively from a pretty neat podcast that Jessica Abel is putting out to support her book Out on the Wire: Storytelling Secrets of the Modern Masters of Radio, which has been really helpful in thinking about how to put out a podcast. Brief aside - the terrifying thing about doing heavyhanded editing is that I’m taking the words of someone I was talking to and trying very hard to understand and elicit responses from, and then I’m rearranging those words. And that means there’s the possibility that I’m misrepresenting them. Or missing something they thought was really important that I thought was less important. That’s already happened once (fortunately the guest took an early listen, something I offer everyone who comes on and suggested a couple tweaks), but if the best unanticipated surprise is the sheer joy I’m getting from having an excuse to sit & talk books with amazing people, the scariest unanticipated piece of this is taking other people’s words in my hands and doing something with them.So, thing 1 that I can still improve (that sounds so much better than stuff I’m often sucking at) is getting an interesting interview with my guest. Thing 2 is shaping the audio I’ve got into a story that’ll keep you engaged and set up the key moments or insights from the story.Thing 3 is actual post production audio. Making sure that things aren’t TOO LOUD or *too soft* and that the guest and I sound similar and transitions aren’t really ragged and all of the other stuff that you can do to work with audio to make it sound good. Despite growing up on NPR, Cabbages and Kings is never going to be something like Radiolab. I know I’ve had some moments that sound pretty awful, though. The Eye of the Tiger corny audio experiment was … a corny experiment. Was it awful? I only discovered compression (which helps make soft stuff louder and loud stuff softer) recently - before that I was balancing every second or two manually and that led to some really weird volume shifts. Truncate silence has also been a good tool to learn. I’m pretty sure I’ve still got a lot to learn about audio production. Problem is my preferred podcast client (shout out to Overcast!) does some silence truncating and audio leveling, plus I listen at about 1-and-a-quarter-speed (there are way too many great podcasts out there - 59 unlistened-to-episodes at last count.So, good audio? Bad audio? I probably couldn’t tell you. I am going to order a pop filter, though. And hopefully in 2016 the basic “two or more people are talking to each other and it should sound like they are having a conversation without distracting background noise and plosives” will get better. If anyone has advice on the technical aspects of getting better audio, please, please let me know.OK, so, there are the three pieces of “interviewing people”, “making you the listener care about the interview” and “making the actual sounds good”. All of those can be improved. I’m pretty sure I have improved all of these since the early episodes, and still has a way to go.Now let’s talk a bit about who comes on the show and what we talk about. I’m a pretty firm believer that the conversation is richer and better when many people from many backgrounds are talking. Episode 16 includes a bunch of us talking about how we got into science fiction & fantasy and making fun of my notion that reading Tolkien and then a bunch of Tolkien-clones from the 80s and 90s is the cliched way to engage with the genre. (Show notes will be full of links if you want to follow any rabbit holes). “Diversity” is sometimes a buzzword that hides as much as it obscures, but looking especially over time at the race, gender, and other backgrounds of the people I have on, as well as the topics we’ve chosen can be illuminating. So lets look back at the year:In 2015, I put out 22 episodes before this one. Two solo episodes & twenty with guests. Ethan, AFishtrap, Troy, and Maureen were all on twice.So 16 guests. 8 guys, 8 women. No one who identifies as genderqueer as far as I know.4 who weren’t white, and they were all black and american3 guests not in the US - one Canadian, one British, one american living in GermanyOne thing I’m trying to do is get out of my usual Twitter book discussion bubble. 6 Guests didn’t come on because I follow & chat with them about books on Twitter, though some of them are part of many of the same conversations I am.That gender parity was actually a pleasant surprise. All of the other numbers make we want to have a show that pushes to talk to more people outside the US, outside my comfortable Twitter bubble, and more people from historically marginalized backgrounds. I’ve got a stake in the ground this year. We’ll see how things change next year.So, what’d we talk about - Broadly speaking, we had some general discussions about reading history and common interests, like worldbuilding with Anna and small presses with Shana, focused discussion on specific topics like Short Fiction with Nick and Folklore with Mike, and then deep dives on specific books - The Fifth Season, Grace of Kings (sorry, there’s going to be more of this next year), Ancillary Justice, and The Buried Giant. These deep dives took up 8 of the 20 episodes with guests. Of the four books we went deep one, 2 were by women and two by men, and Ann Leckie was the only white author. The show right now *feels* to me like it’s heavy on in-depth book discussion, mostly because I let those get out of control and have so much great stuff to run. It’s a bit light on themed discussions, though there have been more of those recently (the discussion of Saga & Comics, Folklore and short fiction). In my head, I’d like to be getting about a third of the episodes to explore a theme or subgenre while referencing a few different exemplars, about a third going deep on a book (hopefully revealing some more universally applicable critical approaches) and about a third a grab bag of other reading experiences, and I don’t think I’m there right now.I’ll note that I interviewed 4 of the 5 white guys who came on the show about an in-depth topic - Nick on Short Stories, Aidan on Cover Art, Mike on Folklore and Carl on Queer Romance in the genre. All of these were really good episodes (in fact, Mike’s folklore episode consistently comes up when I ask people about what they’ve liked), but in contrast to the “general background” discussions with Troy and Akil, or the more back-and-forth dialog on worldbuilding that Anna and I had, there’s a trend that white guys come on to be experts at a thing. That’s something interesting to notice that I’d like not to see when I’m doing next year’s roundup.OK enough navel gazing about who talked about what. What am I thinking about going forward?I have a bunch of interviews done & waiting to be edited. An avalanche-load. A heavy mountain. A wince-inducing pile. It’s a little terrifying. I’m coming close to the sense that I have a process for these interviews - I listen to them, make notes, pick out key quotes, figure out the structure, then piece them back together. This process worked well when talking Saga with Parrish, so hopefully it’ll carry me through this batch & going forward. Content isn’t a problem. Figuring out a schedule I can keep is.So is finding guests. Especially finding guests outside of Twitter, outside the US, outside the usual suspects you might hear elsewhere. Maybe even guests who don’t share my political ideology but do share my love of this genre. I’ve got a lot of room to find interesting people whose voices I’m not hearing right now. If you are one, please let me know - there’s a contact form on the website, or send an email to contact@cabbagesandkings.audio.I’d also like to try an experiment with putting together a show that doesn’t require an interview. Skipping the logistics of getting 2 or 3 people together means a back-and-forth is harder, but there’s less chance of talking over each other and no need to navigate timezones. There’s a new link on the website: cabbagesandkings.audio/wisdom-of-the-crowds with hyphens between all those words (oh just check the show notes), where right now I’ve got a bunch of questions up about Dune because 2016 will be the 51st anniversary of it’s publication so this is the perfect time to do a Dune retrospective. Pick a few questions, answer them by recording your voice in the voice recorder of your choice. Share the audio via email, dropbox link, google drive or whatever else you please, and I may include the audio in an upcoming episode.This doesn’t have to be crystal-clear NPR quality audio. I’d suggest not recording outside in the wind, but talking into a phone headset that you’re not nervously playing with and moving around as I so often do would be fine. If you want to get fancy, real professional NPR reporters cover themselves up with coats or hotel sheets to record on the road. But record the audio & send it in. I’d love to hear what you think of Dune and put together an episode with wisdom gleaned from my listeners.I’m also often without a memory of a treasured book to close an episode, so if you’ve got one of those, let me know.Other experiments that may come - there’s a new show called Pilot where Stephanie Foo of This American Life puts out a single episode of something that *could* turn into a full podcast - a bunch of starter ideas. It got me thinking about what some of the other sounds missing from the genre podcasting sphere might be, so I may be trying a few things, including possibly a week or so of running very short morning bulletins. We’ll see.I’ve toyed with the notion of running reviews on the site. A crazy idea since I mostly don’t understand the point of a review, but I try to remember that “I don’t understand” can be an opportunity to learn, so maybe if I have smart people write & read reviews of books, I’ll get the point. Maybe?I’d kind of like to edit two other people talking about something, so take me the interviewer out of the equation. If you’d be interested in that, let me know.I’d like to be reading more short fiction next year, so maybe I’ll figure out how to incorporate that into the podcast. We’ll see.I’ve been hoping that after 25 or so episodes I’ll at least see a bit of a plateau. It’s comforting to think of Tobias Buckell’s “looking back & seeing room for improvement means I’m getting better”, but right now it also means that I kind of sucked at some aspects of this podcasting gig when I started. Hopefully sometime soonish I’ll have to actually work at getting better because I’ll have swiped the low-hanging fruit of awfulness. Then again, Parrish mentioned something about finding your stride around episode 100, so maybe I have a longer slog ahead of me.Regardless, starting Cabbages and Kings this year has been an incredibly fun and rewarding experience. I’ve had people contact me out of the blue because they liked what I was making & wanted to talk about books. I’ve got an excuse to talk to readers I respect and authors whose books I admire. Apparently people in Australia, Israel, and England all listen to the show, so that’s pretty cool! I have this awesome art of a cabbage with a crown on its head that looks badass and not like a destructive meteor anymore which was draft one. I’m really enjoying this. I’m really enjoying this in large part because every once in a while someone stops by the contact form or twitter to let me know that they’re listening & enjoyed something. I think I’ve only dropped the ball on a guest once, sorry about that. I’d love to hear from you. I’d love to hear what you like about the show. I’d love to hear what I can do better. I’d love to talk to you about this genre. If you’re listening now, you’re either somewhere without access to your podcast player controls, or a pretty dedicated listener, so let me know what I can do better. Next year will hopefully have a look ahead at reading plans, a discussion of representation within the genre, an episode on Uprooted, more Grace of Kings, quite possibly an episode on The Just City if I can bring myself to finish it, and hopefully a whole lot of other things that I can’t anticipate right now. No navel-gazing until the end of next year, though.I’ll close the episode by recommending two short stories. From early this year, Malon Edwards’ Half-Dark Promise in Shimmer magazine, set in an alternate Chicago and a girl with a steam-clock heart who needs to get home through the half-dark. Beautiful voice and use of dialect, and Sunny Moraine’s “Eyes I Dare Not Meet In Dreams” about women who’ve been fridged returning just to watch us. I’m not much of a horror reader, and I don’t know that either of these are really horror stories, but they’re tense, wonderful, and well worth a read. When I dive into short fiction next year, I’m hoping to be able to discover gems like thse on my own.Thanks for listening. Tweet me, email me, rate me on iTunes? Is that something people actually do? Recommend a show that you enjoyed to a friend who reads science fiction. And if I don’t have an episode that friend would like, tell me why not, or tell them to come on the show. Happy 2015, and hoping 2016 will be even better.Thanks!

Discussion of Queer Romance in science fiction/fantasy with Carl Engle-Laird, including The Inheritance Trilogy & Sorcercer of the Wildeeps