Short Reads on The Point With Mindy Todd

Today on the monthly book show with Mindy Todd on WCAI, we were trying to offer short reads for short attention spans. Joining us this month was Nelson Ritschel, a Professor in the Department of Humanities at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Having trouble concentrating this year? Our book topic this month is short fiction, or as we like to think of them One-Night Reads. We shared short novels and short stories.

UPDATE: I have only just realized that during the course of our conversation I was talking about Laurie Colwin’s books being reissued, but managed to confuse her with Lorrie Moore, who is the author of the book I was actually talking about called Self-Help: stories. And I dearly love Laurie Colwin’s stories and novels, as well as her book Home Cooking: a writer in the kitchen. By all means you should read BOTH Laurie Colwin and Lorrie Moore! Pandemic brain strikes again!

Nelson’s Picks

“The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” by Stephen Crane,  https://public.wsu.edu/campbelld/crane/bride.htm

“The Dead” by James Joyce, Dubliners. London: Grant Richards, 1914—and http://online-literautre.com/

“A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, The Best American Short Stories of the Century, John Updike, ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

“Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party and Other Stories. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1922—and https://katherinemansfield.org

“The Adventure of ‘The Western Star’” by Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories, New York: William Morrow, 2013.

Jill’s Picks

The Virgin In the Garden by A. S. Byatt (A LONG book, which  made me realize I needed to read short books!)

Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls

Self-Help by Lorrie Moore (or really anything by Lorrie Moore)

Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin

High Rising by Angela Thirkell

Nothing Much Happens: cozy and calming stories to soothe  your mind and help you sleep by Kathryn Nicolai

Desperate Characters by Paula Fox

Margaret The First by Danielle Dutton (Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s essay on Margaret the First.)

Listener Picks

Roughing It by Mark Twain
The Opposite of Loneliness: essays and stories by Marina Keegan
I Love Everybody (and other atrocious lies) by Laurie Notaro

 

Books Into Movies or TV Series on The Point with Mindy Todd

This morning on The Point with Mindy Todd we talked about books that have been turned into movies and television series. Joining us was the delightful Petra Mayer, editor for NPR books. Thanks to all of you who called in or emailed with your book suggestions! What a plethora of new books to read or to watch. The full list of titles mentioned is below.

Petra’s Picks

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, YA novel by Jenny Han, adapted by Netflix.

The Magicians, original books by Lev Grossman, adapted for SyFy

Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, of course – the TV show was based on volume one, The Duke and I, and if you don’t want to wait for season 2, you can read The Viscount Who Loved Me, which is all about Anthony Bridgerton (and his fear of bees).

For a fun twist on Sherlock Holmes, there’s Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock series – the first one is A Study in Scarlet Women (Sherry Thomas, by the way, is an INCREDIBLE romance author – try the Heart of Blade books, they’re amazing), and the other series I mentioned was Laurie R. King’s Holmes & Russell – the first one of those is The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.

I also talked about Preacher, the mid-90s Vertigo comic series that was adapted for AMC but honestly, I wouldn’t recommend either the books or the show unless people understand they’re gonna be in for a LOT of violence, gore, weird sex, blasphemy and general disgustingness.

And then in terms of series that are in development that I’m excited about, there’s N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse books (try the Six of Crows duology, it’s a hoot!), Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death, Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea books (hopefully they won’t screw it up this time around – the last adaptation was Not So Good) and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time.

Finally, the series I’d love to see come to TV (I’ve heard rumors of a development deal but nothing concrete) is Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series, about a half-fae-half-human private investigator and sometime knight errant in San Francisco. The first one is Rosemary and Rue. (Also, and I didn’t get around to mentioning this one because I ran out of time, Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books, about an alternate Britain where the world of literature is real and people can cross back and forth into books. It’s SO fun. The first one is The Eyre Affair.)

Jill’s Picks

VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever edited by Michael J. Tyrkus
Masterpiece Theatre: A Celebration of 25 Years of Outstanding Television by Terrence O’Flaherty

The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott is book one in The Raj Quartet. The Granada Television version was spectacular.

The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes edited by Leslie S. Klinger

From Holmes to Sherlock by Mattias Boström

The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis. New Yorker article by Sarah Miller: The Fatal Flaw of “The Queen’s Gambit”

Islandia by Austin Tappan Wright. New Yorker article by Charles Finch: The Forgotten Novel That Inspired Homesickness For An Imaginary Land

A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch is the 1st Charles Lenox Mystery. A series which should be made into a television series.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney. No time for his novel Time and Again, a novel I love, which has  never been filmed, although it was made into a failed musical! There was a sequel as well, From Time to Time, but I never read it, because I thought the original novel did not need a sequel. (If you read the sequel and loved it, let me know!)

Listener Picks

Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling

Outlander series written by Diana Gabaldon

Walkabout by James Vance Marshall

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Murdoch Mysteriesa television series, but based on the mysteries by Maureen Jennings

1984 by George Orwell

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The World According to Garp by John Irving

A Man called Ove by Fredrik Backman