Length: 10:08 mins

Download it here.

Recorded 30 Nov 2009
Babblers: Lone, Marcel, Renee, Donny

Synopsis:

The group talks about Christmas gifts – books we’d like to give people, and what we’d like to receive.  We covered Black Friday and Cyber Monday, many books, and a toaster.  Also, find out what Doraemon and Renee’s handbag have in common (hint: it’s not the colour).

Show Length: 1:35:20 mins

Mentioned

• Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
• Essays of Virginia Woolf, Vol 1, Virginia Woolf
• Intimacy, Hanif Kureishi
• Invisible, Paul Auster
• Lars Saabye Christensen
• Heiner Müller
• PG Wodehouse
• The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Volume 1, 1929-1940, Samuel Beckett
• Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails: From the Alamagoozlum to the Zombie:100 Rediscovered Recipes and the Stories Behind Them, Ted Haigh
• Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody, Michael Gerber
• Die Reise, Bernward Vesper
• Cromwell, Victor Hugo
• The Passport, Herta Muller
• An Equal Music, Vikram Seth
• A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
• Collected Poem, Paul Auster
• Beautiful Days, Franz Innerhofer
• Raven (Raabe Baikal), Thomas Strittmatter
• The Magicians, Lev Grossman (and the article of Grossman’s that Marcel found)
• The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• The Sorrows of An American, Siri Hustvedt
• The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy: Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny and the Dead, and Johnny and the Bomb (Johnny Maxwell, Vol. 1, 2, 3), Terry Pratchett
• I like you: Hospitality under the Influence, Amy Sedaris

Links

• The Last Poem, Sophie Auster (Youtube)
• Sophie Auster (music)
• Foyles

Download the show here.

Synopsis:

Uma leads the group in listing each of our 5 desert island reads – books that we’d like to take with us when we get stranded in a desert island.  Some of us took some liberties on the topic and decided to list books they haven’t read that they’d like to bring, for whatever practical reasons. 

Show Length: 1:26:50 mins

Bjorn’s 5

• The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails, Robert Musil 
• Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
• Life: A User’s Manual, Georges Perec
• Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco
• The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson

Lone’s 5

• The Book of Illusions, Paul Auster
• La Commedia Divina (The Divine Comedy), Dante Alighieri
• The Red Book, Carl Gustav Jung
• Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
• Intimacy, Hanif Kureshi

Donny’s 5

• Gormenghast Trilogy, Mervyn Peake
• The Once and Future King, TH White
• Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
• The Complete Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
• A Wizard of Earthsea,  Ursula Le Guin

 Uma’s 5

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, Michael Chabon
• Hopscotch, Julio Cortazar
• The Princess Bride, William Goldman
• Don Quixote, Cervantes
• The Man on the Moon, Andrew Chaikin

Marcel’s 5

• The Recognitions, William Gaddis
• Fluß ohne Ufer, Hans Henny Jahnn
• Pierre, Herman Melville
• Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
• The Changing Lights at Sandover, James Merrill

Mentioned

• Intimacy, the movie
• Maus, Art Spielgelman
• The Secret History, Donna Tartt
• What you really should have in a desert island:
  • Boatbuilding: A Complete Handbook of Wooden Boat Construction, Howard Irving Chapelle
  • Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants, Lewis S Nelson

Links

• Alternative view of German politics: http://www.classless.org/

Download the show here.

Synopsis:

Founding member of the Fric Frac Club, Francois Monti, and literary reviewer Umapagan Ampikaipakan joins the group to talk about the literary awards given out recently, namely the Man Booker Prize and the Nobel.  Of course, when discussing the Nobel, this year’s oft-debated Nobel Peace Prize laureate also found his way in our chit-chat.  Also discussed are elements important in a literary review, as seen from both the enthusiast blogger/reviewer and the professional critic perspectives.  Also, Marcel’s adventures in the fantasy convention RingCon (held in Bonn, Germany) and the origin story for the Fric Frac Club.

Show Length: 1:28:22 mins

About Uma

• Uma on the radio – BFM 89.9 (search for ‘umapagan’)
• Uma on Twitter 
• Uma on Facebook 

About Francois

• Fric-Frac Club
• Blog – Tabula Rasa (selected picks here, here and here, and Marcel’s post here)

Mentioned

• Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates
• The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
• Leviathan, Paul Auster
• Moby Dick, Herman Melville
• Shakespeare, The Complete Works
• Zadie Smith
• Atemschaukel, Herta Muller
• Herztier, Herta Muller
• The Land of Green Plums, Herta Muller
• A Man for All Seasons, Robert Bolt
• Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
• The Childrens Book, A.S. Byatt
• Not Untrue and Not Unkind, Ed O’Loughlin (review by Marcel)
• The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters (review by Marcel)
• The Glass Room, Simon Mawer

Links

• Shigekuni’s Writeup on RingCon: Conventional (Ring*Con 1)
• Shigekuni’s Writeup on RingCon: Conventional (Ring*Con 2)
• Booker Prize Winner announced
• Herta Muller Nobel Prize in Literature winner
• Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize 2009
• Science fiction author hits out at Booker judges: Kim Stanley Robinson, one of science fiction’s contemporary greats, accuses the Booker prize judges of ignorance
• Clemens Setz – info here, here and here

Shigekuni’s selection of poems:

• http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/john-berryman-god-among-poets/
• http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/this-is-not-a-cultural-event-this-is-entertainment/
• http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/poem-of-the-day-lowell/
• http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/how-quivering-and-fierce-we-were/
• http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/poem-of-the-day/
• http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/poem-of-the-day-6/

Note:

The subject matter raised while Marcel discusses RingCon may not be suitable for young listeners.

Download the show here.

Recorded 15 March 2009

Babblers: Bjorn, Gem, Renee, Donny

Synopsis:

This week’s topic is about authors who suck over time; examples of writers who start off their careers with a bang, but slowly whimper and choke as their output quality deteriorate over time.  The babblers discusses why this happens, and touch on authors who do not suck as they go along.  Also, Donny talks about an attempt to improve on a timeless Jane Austen classic with, uhm, something you might not expect.

Show Length: 63:50 mins

Authors mentioned in show:

• Stephen King
• Hermann Hesse
• Paul Auster
• Chuck Palahniuk
• Thomas Pynchon
• Philip Roth
• Kazuo Ishiguro
• Salman Rushdie
• Gore Vidal
• Arthur Conan Doyle
• Agatha Christie
• Terry Pratchett
• Harper Lee
• Frank Herbert
• Orson Scott Card
• Robert Jordan
• Jim Butcher

Links:

• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
• Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me

Note: There’s a bit of static when I speak, and I apologize for that.  Looks like I may have to start investing in a professional mic… (or just a professional to replace me).

Download the show here.