Book Dreams
205 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 months ago -Book Dreams is a podcast for everyone who loves books and misses English class. In each episode co-hosts Julie Sternberg and Eve Yohalem explore a book-related topic they can’t stop thinking about, everything from the genius of your favorite picture books to books bound in human skin. Julie and Eve are both award-winning authors, which allows them to come at interviews with an insider’s knowledge as well as all the wonder associated with storytelling.
Book Dreams is brought to you by The Podglomerate and is a member of Lit Hub Radio. New episodes run every Thursday.
Find Book Dreams on Twitter (@bookdreamspod) and Instagram (@bookdreamspodcast), or email [email protected].
Visit our website and sign up for our newsletter for information about our episodes, guests, and more.
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Episodes
Bonus Ep. 141 - When One Book Leads to Another, with Eve and Julie
January 18, 2024 08:00 - 18 minutesOur theme for this episode is book connections—times when one book leads us to thoughts of another or inspires us to read further. It’s one of our very favorite aspects of reading: escaping into the world of one book, then tying it together with the world of another. Eve talks about two pairs of books—one of her all-time favorites, one a new discovery, and two that are “absolutely delicious”—all connected by a common theme, and, despite being in a terrible reading slump, Julie’s found a verit...
Bonus Ep. 140 - Roz Chast!
December 21, 2023 08:00 - 33 minutesIt's been a long time since you've seen an author interview here on Book Dreams, but we were recently given the chance to interview Roz Chast, and who could possibly say no to that?! Roz is a beloved New Yorker cartoonist with a style all her own, and Eve and Julie have both been big fans of her work for decades. She is as funny, insightful, and distinctive in person as she is in her drawings, and it was a joy to get to speak with her. Take a listen to hear about everything from her latest bo...
Bonus Ep. 139 - The Stephen King Novel That (Almost) Drove Us Apart, with Eve and Julie
October 12, 2023 07:00 - 13 minutes“This is so bad that I feel like I'm in a Stephen King novel where there's just one thing off about my familiar world, but that one thing is a living nightmare.” In a Book Dreams first, Eve and Julie disagree wildly about a book. Can they resolve their differences? Find out in this episode where they talk about books they’ve both read, with the exception of one novella that Julie says is “definitely going to be one of my favorite books that I've read this year, and might make it onto my all-t...
Bonus Ep. 138 - One Great Read After the Other, with Eve and Julie
August 11, 2023 16:57 - 18 minutesEve read so much during the weeks since our last episode, she gave herself a repetitive reading injury. But it was worth it! In this episode she shares thoughts about books with mesmerizing voice, memorable characters, sweeping scope, and poetic brilliance. Meanwhile, Julie--who has managed thus far to avoid reading-related injury--talks about a critically acclaimed novel set in Berlin around the time of the fall of the wall, and a buzzy satire of the publishing industry. Find us on Twitter ...
Bonus Ep. 137 - Talking Books to Honor the Legacy of a Constant Reader, Eve’s Dad, with Eve and Julie
July 06, 2023 07:00 - 13 minutesWhat have Julie and Eve been reading lately? Find out in this new bonus episode, in which Eve talks about the legacy of her dad, a constant reader, the brilliance of Helen Dewitt (again), the searing poetry of Louise Glück, and a light and highly readable beach read. Meanwhile, Julie’s been pursuing a reading vision, discovering the propulsive, mind-expanding books—and book recommendations—of S. A. Cosby. Find us on Twitter (@bookdreamspod) and Instagram (@bookdreamspodcast), or email us at ...
Bonus Ep. 136 - What We’ve Read and Loved Lately, with Eve and Julie
May 25, 2023 07:00 - 21 minutesWhat have Julie and Eve been reading lately? Find out in this new bonus episode where we talk about loving old favorites even more the second time around, lessons Julie gleaned from a book about life in a picturesque German village during the Nazi regime, discovering an author whose novel is “dazzling,” and the joy and abundant rewards of overcoming a fear of poetry. Find us on Twitter (@bookdreamspod) and Instagram (@bookdreamspodcast), or email us at [email protected]. We enco...
Bonus Ep. 135 - Good Books for Bad Times, with Eve & Julie
April 06, 2023 12:10 - 18 minutesWe’ve all been there: one of those tough times in life when it’s hard to get your mind to settle enough to escape into a good book. Yet that’s when we need books more than ever. Eve and Julie have both been going through rough patches recently. Here are the books that have been helping. Find us on Twitter (@bookdreamspod) and Instagram (@bookdreamspodcast), or email us at [email protected]. We encourage you to visit our website and sign up for our newsletter for information abou...
Ep. 134 - The Most Personalized Book Subscription Service in the World, with James Gilbert
February 23, 2023 08:00 - 32 minutesWelcome to our last regularly scheduled episode of Book Dreams. We started the podcast because books, more than just about anything, bring us joy. So we thought, what better way to end the podcast than to spread that joy and talk about how to make great book recommendations for other people? Our guest, James Gilbert, is a bookseller at the Heywood Hill bookstore in London, which runs, in its words, “the most personalized book subscription service in the world.” James makes personalized book r...
Ep. 133 - Fire Island: A Century in the Life of a Queer, Literary Paradise, with Jack Parlett
February 09, 2023 08:00 - 32 minutesIn this episode, Book Dreams producer and guest host Gianfranco Lentini takes us on a journey to a real-life literary paradise—a thin barrier island just 50 miles east of New York City—that has been a haven for authors, especially queer authors, for more than a century. Author and scholar Jack Parlett joins Gianfranco to discuss the subject of Jack’s latest book, Fire Island: A Century in the Life of an American Paradise. They talk about the significance of creating and maintaining queer spac...
Ep. 132 - How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, with Angie Cruz
January 26, 2023 08:00 - 25 minutesIn this episode, we talk to author Angie Cruz, whose latest novel is the widely acclaimed How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water. This irresistible book inspired a conversation about a myriad of topics: how the unconscious mind influences the creative process, the lengths women will go to escape a dangerous situation, invisible labor as it pertains to women–especially immigrant women. Friendship, partnership, motherhood, and more. Take a listen! Angie Cruz is the author of four novels. Her boo...
Ep. 131 - Keeping Family Secrets, with Margaret K. Nelson
January 12, 2023 08:00 - 25 minutesWhat do family secrets show us about the times we live in, and how do they impact the people who safeguard them? These are questions that sociologist Margaret K. Nelson explores in her most recent book, Keeping Family Secrets, a study of more than 150 memoirs involving families hiding something of consequence during the 1950s. In this episode of Book Dreams, we talk to Margaret about a host of fascinating topics, everything from how misguided—and even damaging—prevailing expert advice can be;...
Ep. 130 - Our 2022 End-of-Year Holiday Extravaganza!
December 29, 2022 08:00 - 45 minutesWelcome to our 2022 end-of-year holiday extravaganza! In the spirit of holiday giving, we have a present for you, which, if we’re being honest, is also a present for us: BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS. Two dozen of them, in fact! At the end of almost all the interviews we conducted this year, we asked our guests, “What’s one book you love and why do you love it?” We held back the recordings of their answers so we could share them with you now, with our gratitude for another year of book dreaming. Fin...
Ep. 129 - The Science Behind Heartbreak, with Florence Williams
December 15, 2022 08:00 - 32 minutesWhy, exactly, do we feel so shattered when someone we love leaves us? What is the science behind the physical changes we experience during heartbreak, such as weight loss and anxiety, and why do so many of us stop behaving rationally? In this episode of Book Dreams, we talk with acclaimed science writer Florence Williams about her latest book, Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey, in which she explores questions like these within the framework of a heartbreak of her own and its after...
Ep. 128 - A Feminist Retelling of the Ramayana, with Vaishnavi Patel
December 01, 2022 08:00 - 31 minutesWhat is it like to create a modern, feminist retelling of an ancient, foundational text? Vaishnavi Patel–author of the instant New York Times bestselling novel Kaikeyi, a reimagining of the Hindu epic the Ramayana–paints a vivid picture in this episode of Book Dreams. Vaishnavi’s novel “tells the story of the evil stepmother character [Kaikeyi], who sets off the whole epic by exiling Rama, and then just sort of disappears. [The novel] asks, What if she had reasons for doing what she did? What...
Ep. 127 - Constructing a Nervous System, with Margo Jefferson
November 17, 2022 08:00 - 35 minutesWhat are the raw materials of our lives? Who are the authors, the singers and songwriters, the actors and artists whose work resonates with each of us and makes us who we are? It’s a question that is brilliantly and masterfully explored by arts critic Margo Jefferson in her new memoir, Constructing a Nervous System, in which she weaves her personal history with those of the artists who are part of her “nervous system,” setting it all within a wider cultural context. In this spirited and wide-...
Ep. 126 - Read Dangerously, with Azar Nafisi
November 03, 2022 07:00 - 30 minutesHow can reading a novel become an act of political rebellion? This is one of the important questions we take up with Azar Nafisi, author of the memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran. Azar’s latest book is Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times. In it, she focuses on the parallels and connections between the totalitarian mindset in Iran and totalitarian tendencies in the United States. Azar notes that tyrants and writers in both countries seek to recreate reality, tyr...
Ep. 125 - South to America: Understanding the Soul of a Nation, with Imani Perry
October 20, 2022 07:00 - 32 minutesIf we want to understand America today, we must first understand the South. This is both a central premise of Imani Perry’s latest book, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, which is a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction, and a proposition she explores in depth in this episode of Book Dreams. During her conversation with Eve and Julie, Imani illuminates the connections between Southern history and pivotal aspects of contemp...
Ep. 124 - Trust, with Hernan Diaz
October 06, 2022 07:00 - 28 minutes“I think the narratives about capital are an even more fundamental myth in America than those about the frontier.” Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Hernan Diaz takes on nothing less than American capitalism in his latest novel, Trust. In this episode of Book Dreams, he speaks with Eve and Julie about why he chose Trust’s innovative and surprising structure, and how that structure first reinforces and then deconstructs misconceptions about money. In a surprise move, he deliberately designed on...
Ep. 123 - The Zen of Therapy, with Dr. Mark Epstein
September 22, 2022 07:00 - 31 minutes“A monk asked, ‘What is meditation?’ The Master said, ‘It is not meditation.’ The monk said, ‘Why is it “not meditation”?’ The Master said, ‘It’s alive, it’s alive!’” –Chao-Chou, 8th century Buddhist master How can traditional psychotherapy, with its emphasis on the self, work with Zen practices like meditation, with their de-emphasizing of the ego, to make us feel better? In this episode of Book Dreams, Dr. Mark Epstein–psychiatrist, Zen practitioner, and author of The Zen of Buddhism: Unco...
ATTENTION ALL BOOK DREAMERS
September 15, 2022 07:00 - 2 minutesAn exciting announcement from Eve and Julie about the past, present, and future of humanity! (And also a small schedule change.) Find us on Twitter (@bookdreamspod) and Instagram (@bookdreamspodcast), or email us at [email protected]. We encourage you to visit our website and sign up for our newsletter for information about our episodes, guests, and more. Book Dreams is a part of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes pod...
Ep. 122 - How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, with Mónica Guzmán
September 08, 2022 07:00 - 33 minutes“I get so upset during conversations about politics with certain family members, I feel like my body’s on the verge of explosion, with body parts flying off and blood splattering all over walls.” Do you ever feel like Julie does when you’re trying to have a meaningful discussion with someone with whom you vehemently disagree? Then you’re going to love this episode with journalist Mónica Guzmán, author of the book I Never Thought Of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in...
Ep. 121 - We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption, with Justin Fenton
September 01, 2022 07:00 - 31 minutesWe Own This City–written by Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Justin Fenton and the basis for David Simon’s HBO miniseries–tells the shocking, true story of a massive police corruption scandal. Baltimore had been struggling with high rates of violent crime for decades when, in 2007, the police department established the Gun Trace Task Force, a unit of plain-clothed police officers whose mandate was to go after gun traffickers by conducting sophisticated investigations. Instead, the officers...
Ep. 120 (Re-Release) - The Rigorous Refusal to Waste a Reader’s Time, with Jo Ann Beard
August 25, 2022 07:00 - 37 minutes“It’s a testament to [Jo Ann] Beard, a towering talent, that she ... deliver[s] a book as forceful as it is fine, leaving us both awed and unsettled.” -- New York Times review of Festival Days (RE-RELEASE) In this week’s episode, Eve and Julie talk to Jo Ann Beard about Festival Days, her extraordinary new collection of essays, some of which took decades to write. Jo Ann describes her deeply reflective, painstaking process and shares why so many of the pieces in Festival Days involve life an...
Feed Drop: Introducing Missing Pages
August 22, 2022 07:00 - 11 minutesToday, we’d like to introduce you to the new podcast from The Podglomerate, Missing Pages. Missing Pages is an all-new investigative podcast hosted by world-renowned literary critic and publishing insider Bethanne Patrick. In its first season, Missing Pages uncovers the power struggles, mistaken identities, and unfathomably bad behavior within the secretive world of book publishing. Learn about the untold story behind alleged Harvard plagiarist Kaavya Viswanathan and the web of lies told by ...
Ep. 119 - “You Want Me to Read WHAT?” with Marc Acito
August 18, 2022 07:00 - 42 minutesWelcome back to another installment of our favorite bibliophilic game, You Want Me to Read WHAT? The rules are simple: Julie, Eve, and a guest assign each other off-the-beaten path books and then gather to talk about them! This time around, Julie picked the Japanese thriller Seventeen by author Hideo Yokoyama for guest Marc Acito; Marc picked Colette’s feminist novella Gigi (which Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe turned into an anti-feminist musical–remember the 1958 movie that starred Les...
Ep. 118 - Civil Rights Queen Constance Baker Motley, with Tomiko Brown-Nagin
August 11, 2022 07:00 - 34 minutesConstance Baker Motley was a groundbreaking civil rights lawyer and the first Black woman to become a federal judge. Her “world-changing accomplishments, which made her a ‘queen’ in her time, should place her in the pantheon of great American leaders,” alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thurgood Marshall. And yet,“far too few Americans today know Motley’s name and deeds. Students do not routinely study her work and example—[she was] King’s lawyer, Marshall’s co-counsel, and a tactician pra...
Ep. 117 - Tell Me Everything, with Erika Krouse
August 04, 2022 07:00 - 33 minutesOne pivotal afternoon, Erika Krouse met an attorney in a bookstore when they both reached for the same Paul Auster novel. Much to his surprise, he soon found himself confiding in her. She told him not to worry–strangers divulged secrets to her all the time–whereupon he offered her a job as a private investigator. And so, with no prior experience, Erika wound up investigating sexual assaults by members of a Division I college football team for what became the first Title IX sexual assault case...
Ep. 116 - The Author Who Terrified Neil Gaiman, with Julie and Eve
July 28, 2022 07:00 - 31 minutesTensions are running high at Book Dreams! Why? The fantasy novels of author Susanna Clarke, that's why. After Julie--and multiple Book Dreams guests--strongly recommended Clarke's novel Piranesi, Eve gave it a try, only to quickly toss it on her DNR pile. Outraged, Julie insisted that Eve not only finish Piranesi, but also dig into Clarke's 800-page doorstopper Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Can Eve see the error of her ways? (Can you tell who is writing this description?) Is she still speak...
Ep. 115 - How Fiction Helps Us Understand the Path We're On, with Vauhini Vara
July 21, 2022 07:00 - 29 minutesFiction can invite the reader into unknown worlds and perspectives, or it can hold up a mirror so that we can see the familiar more clearly. In this episode of Book Dreams, Eve and Julie talk to first-time novelist Vauhini Vara about her new book, The Immortal King Rao. Together they explore how fiction helps us understand the path we’re on now, whether we can or should transcend global capitalism, how technology has played a role in the fracturing of family relationships and can also help gi...
Ep. 114 - What Neanderthals and Other Ancient Hominins Teach Us About Being Human, with Gregory Forth and Rebecca Wragg Sykes
July 14, 2022 07:00 - 38 minutesWhat makes us human? It’s a question we keep coming back to, in part because it's got no definitive answer. In this week’s episode we explore the ultimate existential query by looking at two of our most recent human ancestors–Homo floresiensis and Neanderthals–with two experts, anthropologist Gregory Forth and archeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes. Discovered by archeologists in 2003 on the Indonesian island Flores, Homo floresiensis were nicknamed “Hobbits” for their small stature and large feet...
Ep. 113 (Re-Release) - The Women Ahead of the Women Who Were Ahead of Their Time, with Sally Roesch Wagner
July 07, 2022 07:00 - 43 minutes(RE-RELEASE) How do you write a trailblazing woman back into history after her iconic colleagues wrote her out? Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner--founder and executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and Center for Social Justice Dialogue; a founder of one the first college-level women’s studies programs in the United States; and author of The Women’s Suffrage Movement and Sisters in Spirit--introduces Eve and Julie to Matilda Joslyn Gage, the should-be household name of the suffrage mo...
Ep. 112 - Spook Fish, Star-Nosed Moles, Vampire Bats, and Us, with Jackie Higgins
June 30, 2022 07:00 - 33 minutesSometimes finding hope requires shifting our gaze from humanity. In this episode of Book Dreams, we take an up-close and uplifting look at the four-eyed spook fish, the great gray owl, the star-nosed mole, and even the bloodthirsty vampire bat. Our guest, Jackie Higgins–author of Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses–shares riveting details about the sensory capabilities of these animals: the great gray owl’s soundlessness and uncanny hearing, for instance; the spook...
Ep. 111 - “A Really Superb Novel and a Film That Should Probably Be Burned,” with Jack Zipes
June 23, 2022 07:00 - 37 minutesFairy tales. Why have they survived a thousand years of re-telling? How do they adapt to reflect changing times, places, and storytellers? And what is it about them that captivates us from early childhood and continues to intrigue us throughout our lives? In this episode of Book Dreams, Eve and Julie explore the magic of these familiar stories with scholar, author, and teacher Jack Zipes, one of the world’s leading authorities on fairy tales, folklore, and children’s literature. They talk abo...
Ep. 110 - That Compelling Unputdownable Quality, with Sara Gran
June 16, 2022 07:00 - 30 minutes"I always think of that moment in North by Northwest, the Hitchcock movie, when someone is falling off one of the mountains in Mount Rushmore, and he grabs someone's hand, and then he loses their hand, and then he grabs their jacket. And then the jacket starts to rip." In this week's episode of Book Dreams, beloved mystery writer Sara Gran talks about how suspense writers create that "compelling unputdownable quality" that keeps readers turning pages from the start to finish. With refreshing...
Ep. 109 - Black Food, with Bryant Terry
June 09, 2022 07:00 - 29 minutesThe best cookbooks are so much more than collections of recipes. They’re windows into a life or a place or a time or a way of thinking. The very best cookbooks are all of these things at once. Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora is one of these rare books. Edited by author-activist Bryant Terry, and published by his new imprint 4 Color Books, Black Food is the work of more than a hundred chefs, artists, and scholars who contributed recipes, artwork, and essa...
Ep. 108 - Citizenship and an Age of Invisible War, with Phil Klay
June 02, 2022 07:00 - 35 minutesHow should we, as a country, execute our military power, and what role should we, as citizens, play in military policy? In what ways does our current engagement in modern warfare, as it has evolved during the war on terror, fall short of the ideal, and what’s the impact of that shortfall? What’s the connection between our deep polarization at home and the endless, invisible conflicts we’re mired in overseas? What does the conflict in Ukraine teach us about the power and significance of a clea...
Ep. 107 - A Deep History of Work, with James Suzman
May 26, 2022 07:00 - 36 minutesWhat makes us human? In this episode, Eve and Julie explore one of our favorite questions with James Suzman, PhD, in a wide-ranging conversation about his book Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots. They talk about which aspects of work are specific to our species and how so much of what we believe to be intrinsic to work is actually just a product of our culture. James also discusses how the way we evolved to find purpose and meaning in work is what distinguishes us ...
Ep. 106 - A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice, with Ellen McGarrahan
May 19, 2022 07:00 - 35 minutesEllen McGarrahan was a young reporter at the Miami Herald when she volunteered to witness the execution of Jesse Tafero, who’d been convicted of killing two police officers. That execution went horrifically awry, and watching it changed the course of Ellen’s life. She left journalism, became a private investigator, and reinvestigated the murders attributed to Jesse Tafero, in an effort to determine whether she’d witnessed the execution of an innocent man. Ellen details her reexamination of th...
Ep. 105 - A Libertarian Walks into a Bear, with Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
May 12, 2022 07:00 - 36 minutesWhat do wild bears and libertarians have in common? Turns out, more than you might think. In 2004 a group of libertarians founded the Free Town Project, a movement to take over a town and turn it into a libertarian utopia. After some research, the Free Towners decided that Grafton, New Hampshire, a town with a history of resistance to taxation that goes back to the American Revolution, seemed like the perfect place for their experiment. Enter investigative reporter Matt Hongoltz-Hetling. Ma...
Ep. 104 - Feed Drop: History of Literature, Sense and Sensibility
May 05, 2022 07:00 - 1 hourThis week we’re running an episode from the fabulous podcast, History of Literature, about one of our favorite authors, Jane Austen. Each week on his podcast, literature enthusiast–and dear friend of Book Dreams–Jacke Wilson journeys through the history of literature, from ancient epics to contemporary classics. Recent episodes include conversations about Kafka; about the wonderful world of mysteries; and about poet-novelist Stephen Crane. Here’s Jacke’s description of the episode we’re airi...
Ep. 103 (Re-Release) - Native Americans and Comedy, with Adrianne Chalepah and Kliph Nesteroff
April 28, 2022 07:00 - 52 minutes“My people are from Wisconsin. We used to be from New York. We had a little real estate problem.” -Charlie Hill, comedian and member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. (RE-RELEASE) In this week’s episode, Julie and Eve talk to comedian, writer, and actor Adrianne Chalepah and comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff about Native Americans and comedy. In her conversation with Eve and Julie, Adrianne describes how before becoming a professional comedian, she was kicked out of public school for being a...
Ep. 102 - How to (and How Not to) Steal Like an Artist, with Austin Kleon
April 21, 2022 07:00 - 31 minutesIn 2011, a 27-year-old Austin Kleon gave a talk to college students outlining a simple list: 10 things he wished someone had told him about being creative when he was their age. Austin posted the advice to his blog after the talk, and the list went viral. A year later, his New York Times bestselling book Steal Like an Artist was born. Now, in 2022, Austin joins returning guest host (and Book Dreams producer) Gianfranco Lentini to muse on the 10th anniversary of the publication of Steal Like ...
Ep. 101 - The True Story Behind Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, with Kevin Birmingham
April 14, 2022 07:00 - 44 minutes“When Dostoyevsky was 28, he was arrested in the pre-dawn hours by the Czar's political police. ... [Nine months later] the men were brought out into a square in the middle of St. Petersburg in December. Three men were tied to stakes; there were hoods pulled over their heads. A firing squad came out to aim their rifles. Dostoyevsky was next in line to be executed.” Thus begins our Book Dreams interview this week with Kevin Birmingham, author of The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Ge...
Ep. 100 - Have We Got Book Recommendations for You! Celebrating 100 Episodes
April 07, 2022 07:00 - 45 minutesWe did it! We reached our 100th episode of Book Dreams! In celebration, we went back to our guests and asked them this question: What's one book you love and why do you love it? And so now, have we got book recommendations for you! Twenty-eight beloved books from twenty-four of our beloved guests. From old favorites to new discoveries, from short stories to epic doorstoppers, we’ve got your reading list mapped out for you for at least the next 100 episodes. Enjoy! And thanks, as always, for b...
Ep. 99 - The Photographer Nanny, Vivian Maier, with Ann Marks
March 31, 2022 07:00 - 39 minutesIt was a story that captured the attention of the public and art critics worldwide: A treasure trove of exceptional photographs was discovered after a storage locker auction in 2007. The then unknown photographer? Vivian Maier, a woman who worked her whole life as a nanny. Even after two documentaries were made about Vivian–one of which, “Finding Vivian Maier,” was nominated for an Oscar–many questions remained about her life and art. After watching “Finding Vivian Maier,” retired executive A...
Ep. 98 - Goliath and Captain America, with Tochi Onyebuchi
March 24, 2022 07:00 - 38 minutesIs it possible for one person to write both award-winning literary speculative fiction and Marvel's newest “Captain America” series and also be a former civil rights lawyer, a film school graduate, and be less than 35 years old? If the person in question is author Tochi Onyebuchi, the answer is yes. In this episode, Julie and Eve talk with Tochi about his new novel, Goliath, a sweeping science fiction epic set in a post-apocalyptic America only thirty years from today. They also talk about T...
Ep. 97 - There’s a Lot of Sex in This Book, with Hillary Jordan and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
March 17, 2022 07:00 - 26 minutesHow’s this for fun? Take 27 incredible writers–including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, PEN Awards, Women's Prize for Fiction, Edgar Award, and more–and invite each of them to write an erotic short story. Then publish the collection in one steamy anthology with the authors listed alphabetically at the beginning of the book but none of the stories attributed, so nobody knows who wrote what. We're talking about authors Robert Olen Butler, Louise Erdrich, Julia Glass, Re...
Ep. 96 - “Go Keep Your Hobbit,” with Marlon James
March 10, 2022 08:00 - 37 minutes“Wussy” European vampires. African folklore and mythology, and how they help establish that “homophobia is not African.” How reading Jackie Collins and Leon Uris during childhood fosters a lifelong passion for books. The structuring of an immersive, propulsive fantasy trilogy. This week on Book Dreams, Eve and Julie discuss all of this and so much more with Marlon James, the powerhouse author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, which won the 2015 Man Booker Prize and was a finalist for the ...
Ep. 95 - Murderers and Mindhunters, with Ann Burgess and Steven Constantine
March 03, 2022 08:00 - 37 minutesHow did a forensic and psychiatric nurse transform the way that the FBI studies, profiles, and catches serial killers? In this week’s episode of Book Dreams, Julie and Eve speak with Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess, the inspiration for the psychological expert, Wendy Carr, on one of Eve and Julie’s favorite Netflix series, “Mindhunter,” as well as her co-author Stephen Matthew Constantine. In the 1970s a small team of agents in the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit decided to interview convicted serial ...
Ep. 94 - Mysteries of a Merlin Manuscript, with Dr. Laura Chuhan Campbell
February 24, 2022 08:00 - 32 minutesIn 2019, a librarian at the Central Library in Bristol, England, uncovered a mystery. Pasted to the bindings of four Renaissance books were scraps of parchment from a medieval manuscript. And on these scraps, written in old French, were two names that have captivated readers for almost a millennium: Merlin and Arthur. In this week’s episode, Eve and Julie talk about the origins and the enduring power of the Arthurian legends with Dr. Laura Chuhan Campbell, part of an interdisciplinary team o...