The Goldberry Books Podcast
47 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 months ago - ★★★★★ - 66 ratingsPresent by the team behind Goldberry Books, an indie bookshop in Concord, NC, the Goldberry Books podcast features conversations about topics of a bookish bent, from interviews with authors to discussions about notable happenings in the world of publishing, and much more.
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Episodes
The Best Fiction of 2023 So Far (with Sam Sacks)
July 04, 2023 13:38 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBSam Sacks writes the weekly fiction column for the Wall Street Journal’s book review, one of the most comprehensively interesting book sections in the media today. Sam has fascinating taste and he does a great job finding books that most people won't have heard of—and on today’s episode he shares some of the best books he has read so far this year. We hope you’ll find a favorite new book during this episode! The Goldberry Books podcast is produced by Goldberry Books. Please stop on by the ...
Tess Gunty on Narrative Voice, Her Writing Process, and the Books That Most Inspire Her
November 04, 2022 05:00 - 39 minutes - 27.4 MBTess Gunty is an award-winning novelist based in Los Angeles, whose fascinating (and acclaimed) debut novel, The Rabbit Hutch, was recently published by Knopf (North America) and Oneworld (UK & Commonwealth) and is a finalist for the National Book Award. For this week’s episode she chatted with David about her creative approach, the books that inspire her most, and much, much more. Here’s to long TBR lists! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or g...
Tyler Dunne on the state of the NFL and good sports books
October 27, 2022 20:45 - 41 minutes - 28.4 MBSports writer, Tyler Dunne has written “the definitive guide to the real men of the gridiron: NFL tight ends”. It’s called The Blood and Guts: How Tight Ends Save Football and it’s available wherever books are sold. This week, Ty joins Bibliography to chat about the state of the NFL, his favorite sports books, and more. You can grab a copy of the book here. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.sub...
Scott Avett on His Favorite Books, Truth in Art, and the Notion of the Contemplative Life
October 05, 2022 03:06 - 1 hour - 59.6 MBScott Avett is perhaps best known for his work in the acclaimed and much-loved band, The Avett Brothers, but he’s also a very accomplished visual artist who has two exhibitions running concurrently this fall. Scott Avett: Purpose at Random, is showing at the SOCO Gallery in Charlotte, NC until November 2. You can learn more about this show here. Meanwhile, Scott Avett: After the Fact is at the Greenville Museum of Art from October 7 until January 21, 2023. Click here for tickets to this s...
The Best Fiction of 2022 So Far (with Sam Sacks)
September 21, 2022 19:32 - 1 hour - 42.5 MBSam Sacks writes the Fiction Chronicle for the Wall Street Journal Book Review, one of the best sections in the world of book criticism. He is eloquent in his defense of good books, tactful in his criticism of bad ones, and always interesting in his taste. In this episode, he joins David to chat about several stand-out novels that have been published so far in 2022. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closere...
Audio Book Narrator Edoardo Ballerini
July 29, 2022 17:28 - 37 minutes - 25.6 MBEdoardo Ballerini has been in your head—or at least there’s a good chance he has if you listen to audio books. Having narrated more than 350 books (including classics by Dante, Dostoevsky, Eliot, Camus, and others and books by a plethora of popular modern writers like Amor Towles, Jess Walter, Isabel Allende), Ballerini is one of the superstars of the audio book world. So on this episode of Bibliography we talked about how he jumped into that line of work, how he prepares to narrate a book, ...
Alissa Wilkinson Talks Great Food Writing (and more)
July 02, 2022 17:39 - 54 minutes - 37.2 MBYou know that classic question, if you could have a dinner party with anyone dead or alive, who would it be? Well, Alissa Wilkinson’s new book, Salty: Lessons on Eating, Drinking, and Living from Revolutionary Women, is her fascinating and perhaps a tad unconventional answer to that question. She has gathered a hypothetical table of women who challenged norms and defied conventional wisdom: Ella Baker, Alice B. Toklas, Hannah Arendt, Octavia Butler, Agnes Varda, Elizabeth David, Edna Lewis, ...
Chris Beha Shares the Books He Loves
June 24, 2022 18:40 - 56 minutes - 39.1 MB“Christopher Beha is one of the most talented young writers at work today.” —Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins This episode’s guest is Chris Beha, author of one of my favorite recent novels, The Index of Self Destructive Acts, which was nominated for the 2020 National book award and is one of the best books about people talking about ideas. Beha is also the author of a memoir, The Whole Five Feet, and the novels Arts & Entertainments and What Happened to Sophie Wilder. Plus, he is the...
David McCloskey Shares His Favorite Spy Novels
May 30, 2022 15:32 - 43 minutes - 29.9 MBDavid McCloskey knows spy fiction. Having been a CIA analyst in a former life, he knows what makes a spy novel realistic and as a novelist he knows what makes the drama work. His 2021 novel, Damascus Station, is one of my favorite books of recent vintage precisely because it blends the two so beautifully. So on this episode of Bibliography, McCloskey joined the show to discuss some of his favorite books in the genre—new and old—as well as several other books that have defined his reading lif...
Historian Megan Kate Nelson Shares Her Favorite Books of History (and more)
May 12, 2022 19:34 - 49 minutes - 34.2 MBMegan Kate Nelson is an expert in the history of the American Civil War, the U.S. West, and popular culture. In fact, she’s such an expert that in 2021 she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History for her book, The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the Wes. Her new book, out this Spring, is called Saving Yellowstone and is about the historical context in which Yellowstone was discovered, preserved, and established as a national park. ...
Austin Kleon Spreads Some Book Love
April 26, 2022 01:58 - 57 minutes - 39.7 MBAustin Kleon is an enthusiast, a man of joy, who takes great pleasure in contemplating the creative process and who has built a loyal following by sharing his love for books, music, movies, comics, journaling, notebooks, brush-pens, and so much more. He’s a man with eclectic tastes that are both curated and wide-ranging, and so he is an ideal guest for a podcast like this. Kleon joined the show recently to discuss his life in books, his own book writing process, books he reads with his kids,...
William Kent Krueger shares his most beloved books
April 15, 2022 03:28 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBWilliam Kent Krueger is the author of the Cork O’Connor series of mystery books about a detective who is part Irish, part Ojibwa and who solves crimes on the frozen tundra of northern Minnesota. Eighteen books in, it is one of the most beloved active crime series. Book eighteen, Lightning Strike, came out last fall, and the next iteration, Fox Creek, is due out autumn 2022. As with each of his last nine books, this new title is sure to be a New York Times best seller. Of course, some of yo...
Michelle Nijhuis
March 15, 2022 02:37 - 53 minutes - 37.1 MBOne of David’s favorite books last year was Michelle Nijhuis’ Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, a fascinating history of the way human knowledge about species extinction (and survival) has evolved. There was a time, she writes, that scientists (and human culture at-large) simply didn’t understand the way animals lived and died. Most people figured that even creatures that seemed to be getting scared with find a way to come back. But then in the twentieth century thi...
Josh Ritter On Books He Loves and the Differences Between Songwriting and Novel Writing
December 15, 2021 17:06 - 36 minutes - 24.8 MBThis week’s guest is Josh Ritter, novelist, musician, all around highly intelligent gentleman. In 2006, he was named one of the "100 Greatest Living Songwriters" by Paste magazine and his music has won numerous accolades. His albums The Animal Years and So Runs the World Away are both extremely important to me. But of course we’re here to talk books, including his own. His first novel, Brights Passage, came out in 2011, and then earlier this autumn, his second novel was published. It’s ca...
Josh Ritter
December 15, 2021 17:06 - 36 minutes - 33 MBThis week’s guest is Josh Ritter, novelist, musician, all around highly intelligent gentleman. In 2006, he was named one of the "100 Greatest Living Songwriters" by Paste magazine and his music has won numerous accolades. His albums The Animal Years and So Runs the World Away are both extremely important to me. But of course we’re here to talk books, including his own. His first novel, Brights Passage, came out in 2011, and then earlier this autumn, his second novel was published. It’s ca...
Jess Walter
November 26, 2021 23:09 - 1 hour - 66.3 MBWalter is the author of seven novels, one book of short stories and one nonfiction book. His work has been selected three times for Best American Short Stories as well as the Pushcart Prize and Best American Nonrequired Reading. He’s been published in, Harper's, Esquire, McSweeney's, Tin House, Ploughshares, the New York Times, the Washington Post and many others. He began his writing career in 1987 as a reporter for his hometown newspaper, The Spokesman-Review where he was a finalist for t...
Jess Walter's Reading Life
November 26, 2021 23:09 - 1 hour - 49.8 MBWalter is the author of seven novels, one book of short stories and one nonfiction book. His work has been selected three times for Best American Short Stories as well as the Pushcart Prize and Best American Nonrequired Reading. He’s been published in, Harper's, Esquire, McSweeney's, Tin House, Ploughshares, the New York Times, the Washington Post and many others. He began his writing career in 1987 as a reporter for his hometown newspaper, The Spokesman-Review where he was a finalist for t...
James Lee Burke
November 19, 2021 19:21 - 1 hour - 41.7 MBBest known for his David Robicheaux series of novels, James Lee Burke is a New York Times best selling author many times over, who has been awarded two Edgar Awards for best novel, as well as the Grand Master Master Award, by the Mystery Writers of America. His novels have been translated into almost every language in the world and his stories of the Deep South and American West make him on the essential American novelist of the last half century. His newest book came out this fall and its...
Kate Baer
November 11, 2021 03:32 - 46 minutes - 31.6 MBKate Baer is a #1 New York Times bestselling poet and author of What Kind Of Woman, a book that Publishers Weekly describes as “ confident and fearless.” Her new collection of poems, I Hope This Finds You Well, is out this week and is inspired by critical messages and comments she has received over the past year, primarily on Instagram. Baer created the poems in the collection by deleting words from the original more-ugly messages such that what is left over is a poem. Erasure poetry is not ...
Wiley Cash
November 04, 2021 16:44 - 40 minutes - 28 MBWiley Cash is a NC-based writer whose new novel is called When Ghosts Come Home. It’s the story of a NC sheriff named Winston Barnes who is forced to reckon with a complicated and strange murder investigation on the NC coast that is instigated by a mysterious plane crash. Cash’s previous award winning fiction includes A Land More Kind Than Home, The Last Ballad and This Dark Road to Mercy and he has received numerous awards including the Southern Book Prize, The Thomas Wolfe Book Prize, The...
Alexandra Andrews
October 27, 2021 16:54 - 48 minutes - 33.2 MBAlexandra Andrews is the author of Who is Maude Dixon, a delightfully twisty new mystery that has been described as heir to Patricia Highsmighth’s legacy (think Strangers on a Train or The Talented Mr. Ripley). It's the story of a young woman who works in publishing, is disillusioned with her prospects, and suddenly finds herself as the assistant for an Elene Ferrante-like novelists. Suddenly, the two of them are caught up in an international mystery complete with mistaken identities, cliffs...
Ron Rash
October 20, 2021 15:12 - 42 minutes - 38.8 MBRon Rash is one of the Carolina's most beloved authors, known in equal measure for his novels and his short fiction. He's the author of Serena, an award-winning 2008 novel about love and timber in depression-era North Carolina, and Something Rich and Strange, a 2014 collection of stories, and most recently 2020's In the Valley, a collection of stories and novella that follow up on Serena. Rash has won several awards for his writing, has been anthologised multiple times in the Best Short Stor...
Ron Rash
October 20, 2021 15:12 - 42 minutes - 29.2 MBRon Rash is one of the Carolina's most beloved authors, known in equal measure for his novels and his short fiction. He's the author of Serena, an award-winning 2008 novel about love and timber in depression-era North Carolina, and Something Rich and Strange, a 2014 collection of stories, and most recently 2020's In the Valley, a collection of stories and novella that follow up on Serena. Rash has won several awards for his writing, has been anthologised multiple times in the Best Short Stor...
Graham Greene the Spy, with Christopher Hull
July 13, 2019 02:19 - 55 minutes - 38.4 MBIn this episode of Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed, David chats with historian, Christopher Hull, about his new book Our Man Down in Havana: The Story Behind Graham Green's Cold War Novel. Although he's obviously best known for his many wonderful novels (and screenplays), Greene spent most of his adult life working for Great Britain's secret service. He was an adventurer, and a bit of rogue, and in many ways his work in the world of espionage met a deep-seated psychological need....
On the Work of the Regional Novelist, with David Joy
July 03, 2019 16:58 - 45 minutes - 31.2 MBIn this episode of Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed, David chats with novelist David Joy about what it's like to be a regional novelist and whether that was something he set out to be when he first started writing fiction. They discuss the authors that influenced his work, how his neighbors have responded to his novels, and much more. Remember: subscribe, rate, review! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discus...
Callie Feyen on Teaching Shakespeare
June 17, 2019 18:01 - 53 minutes - 36.5 MBIn this episode of Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed, David chats with author and teacher Callie Feyen about her book, The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet, in which she contemplates her time teaching Shakespeare to a group of students who didn't seem ready for it. They discuss her classroom strategies, her own love of Shakespeare, her love of libraries, and much, much more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you’d like to di...
Callie Feyen on Teaching Shakespeare
June 17, 2019 18:01 - 53 minutes - 85.1 MBIn this episode of Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed, David chats with author and teacher Callie Feyen about her book, The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet, in which she contemplates her time teaching Shakespeare to a group of students who didn't seem ready for it. They discuss her classroom strategies, her own love of Shakespeare, her love of libraries, and much, much more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The Summer Reading Episode
June 06, 2019 14:30 - 1 hour - 42.6 MBJoin David Kern and guest Levi Stahl (marketing director for University of Chicago Press and a wonderful books-based Twitter follow) for a conversation about some great summer reads. They start by chatting about what makes for a good summer read, then dive in to their own lists. Here are some of the books discussed on this show: A Month in the Country, by J. L. Carr Novels and stories by Craig Rice Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolo series, Lymond Chronicles, and King Hereafter The Can...
Paul Sahre, One of the World's Foremost Book Cover Designers
May 31, 2019 14:48 - 1 hour - 45.3 MBIn which David chats with Paul Sahre, one of the world's foremost book cover designers. Sahre's designed covers for the likes of Chuck Klosterman and Malcolm Gladwell, and he's done updates for Hemingway and Spark, among others. In this conversation, David and Paul discuss the process of designing a cover, some of his favorite covers of all time, and much more. Remember: If you like this episode be sure to subscribe, rate, review! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out informatio...
Discussing the 2019 Pulitzer Prize Finalists with John Wilson
May 22, 2019 17:25 - 50 minutes - 34.9 MBIn this episode, longtime book critic and former editor of Books and Culture, John Wilson, joins the show to discuss the three finalists for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize: Richard Powers' The Overstory, Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers, and Tommy Orange's There There. They discuss what makes each book appealing, some of their flaws, and what these choices say about the contemporary literature world at-large. Remember: Subscribe, rate, review. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out ...
Christian Kiefer on "Phantoms" and the Writing Life
May 16, 2019 20:01 - 59 minutes - 40.5 MBWelcome to Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. In this episode, David chats with novelist Christian Kiefer about his new novel, Phantoms, a page-turner that weaves the "splintered stories" of two broken families torn apart by two key twentieth century wars, the cruelty of Japanese inter...
Dostoevsky's Gambling Problem (featuring Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson)
April 22, 2019 15:37 - 49 minutes - 33.8 MBWelcome to Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. In this episode David chats with Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson, author of Walker Percy, Fyodor Dostoesvsky, and the Search for Influence (among other books), about Dostoevsky's gambling problem and the impact that it had on his life and his wor...
Eighth Day Book's owner, Warren Farha
April 02, 2019 16:26 - 27 minutes - 25 MBWelcome to Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. In this episode David chats with Warren Farha, proprietor of one of America's most beloved book stores: Eighth Day Books, in Wichita, Kansas. They talk about the life of a bookshop owner, the landscape of bookshops, choosing books for the s...
The Tragic Story of A Confederacy of Dunces
March 21, 2019 20:34 - 1 hour - 53.3 MBWelcome to Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. In this episode David chats with Cory MacLauchlin, author of the book Butterfly in the Typewriter, about the tragic and wild story of John Kennedy Toole and his beloved novel, A Confederacy of Dunces. Conversation explores the book's tremen...
On Sans Forgetica, a new font to aid memory retention
March 08, 2019 18:40 - 41 minutes - 28.8 MBWelcome to Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. In this episode, David chats with renowned typographer, Stephen Banham, about his work on a new font called Sans Forgetica, which was designed in association with RMIT in Australia, in hopes of helping students improve memory retention.They...
On the Best Film Adaptations of Books, with Jeffrey Overstreet and Steven Greydanus
March 02, 2019 04:46 - 1 hour - 62.3 MBWelcome to Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. In this episode David chats with noted film critics Jeffrey Overstreet and Steven Greydanus about some of the best film adaptations of books. Many of the titles they discuss will be familiar to you. Others not so much. Either way, tune in f...
Libromania Top 5: The Most Romantic Books
February 13, 2019 15:49 - 1 hour - 44.9 MBWelcome back to Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed. In this episode, David is joined by Heidi White and Tim McIntosh to talk the most romantic books ever written. In honor of Valentine's Days, they each present their 5 favorite romantic books - with a little bit of discussion on what makes a book really, truly romantic. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus e...
Matthew Zapruder, author of WHY POETRY, on life as a poet
February 01, 2019 18:43 - 1 hour - 43.6 MBWelcome to Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. This week, poet Matthew Zapruder, author of Why Poetry, joins the show to discuss his life as a poet. Discussion touches on how he became a poet, his interest in Russian literature, teaching poetry, knowing when a poem is finished, the new ...
Remembering Mary Oliver (with A.M. Juster and Allison Backous Troy)
January 26, 2019 19:35 - 1 hour - 52 MBWelcome to Libromania, a podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. This week, guests Allison Backous Troy, a writer for IMAGE's "Good Letters" blog, and A.M. Juster, the poetry editor for First Things, join the show to discuss the work and legacy of Mary Oliver, who passed away last week at age 83. They di...
Why Do We Love the Smell of Old Books?
January 17, 2019 22:23 - 47 minutes - 87.8 MBIn this episode of Libromania, David chats with Cecilica Bembibre, a researcher at University College London, about the science behind the smell of old books: why people love it, why it matters, and what it means for the preservation of culture. Cecilia Bembibre is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Science and Engineering in Arts Heritage and Archaeology (SEAHA), University College London. She holds a degree in Communication from the University of Buenos Aires and...
Why Do We Love the Smell of Old Books?
January 17, 2019 22:23 - 48 minutes - 33 MBIn this episode of Libromania, David chats with Cecilica Bembibre, a researcher at University College London, about the science behind the smell of old books: why people love it, why it matters, and what it means for the preservation of culture. Cecilia Bembibre is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Science and Engineering in Arts Heritage and Archaeology (SEAHA), University College London. She holds a degree in Communication from the University of Buenos Aires and...
S.D. Smith, Jonathan Rogers, & Douglas McKelvey talk process and vocation
January 10, 2019 03:02 - 1 hour - 61.2 MBWelcome to Libromania, a new podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. Here in chapter 4, David chats with middle-grade (as they call themselves) novelists S.D. Smith (The Green Ember series), Jonathan Rogers (The Wilderking Trilogy), and Douglas McKelvey (The Angel Knew Papa and the Dog) about their writi...
Why "To Kill a Mockingbird" is America's most popular novel
January 04, 2019 15:25 - 56 minutes - 38.5 MBWelcome to Libromania, a new podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. Here in chapter 3, we contemplate the incredible (and enduring) popularity of Harper Lee's 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, which was recently named "America's most-loved book" on The Great American Read. More than 4.3 million votes w...
The Year in Movies, with Jeffrey Overstreet
December 29, 2018 04:23 - 1 hour - 72.4 MBWelcome to Libromania, a new podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. Here in chapter 2, David goes off-book a bit and talks to film critic and novelist, Jeffrey Overstreet, about the year in movies. Jeffrey offers his ten favorite films of the year, which is capped by a few choices that might surprise mo...
The Year in Movies, with Jeffrey Overstreet
December 29, 2018 04:23 - 1 hour - 121 MBWelcome to Libromania, a new podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. Here in chapter 2, David goes off-book a bit and talks to film critic and novelist, Jeffrey Overstreet, about the year in movies. Jeffrey offers his ten favorite films of the year, which is capped by a few choices that might surprise mo...
John Wilson on his favorite books of 2018
December 16, 2018 04:14 - 45 minutes - 31 MBWelcome to Libromania, a new podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. Here in chapter 1, David chats with John Wilson (former editor of Books & Culture, which he ran for 20+ years, and currently a contributing editor at the Englewood Review of Books and a book columnist at First Things) about the best boo...
John Wilson on his favorite books of 2018
December 16, 2018 04:14 - 45 minutes - 72.3 MBWelcome to Libromania, a new podcast for the book-obsessed from the Close Reads Podcast Network. Each week David Kern will be chatting with authors, biographers, designers, collectors, critics and other people who help make book's so worthy of our attention. Here in chapter 1, David chats with John Wilson (former editor of Books & Culture, which he ran for 20+ years, and currently a contributing editor at the Englewood Review of Books and a book columnist at First Things) about the best boo...