The Coode Street Podcast

Episode 468: Ten Minutes with Tad Williams

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Today Jonathan spends twenty minutes with the bestselling creator of Osten Ard, Tad Williams, discussing living and working during the pandemic; researching archaeology, science, and neolithic England; the work of Hilary Mantel and the BBC adaptation of Wolf Hall,  and his own forthcoming work, including a new Osten Ard short novel.

Books mentioned include:

• The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams
• Empire of Grass by Tad Williams
• The Navigator's Children by Tad Williams (forthcoming)
• The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

Episode 467: Ten Minutes with Stefen Brazulaitis and Tim Thomas

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

And now for something completely different. During the Ten Minutes with ... series we've talked to writers, editors, artists, agents and publishers. Today a conversation -- with apologies for a little patchy audio -- with two booksellers who bring a similar attitude to what appear to be different sides of the bookselling game. Stefen Brazulaitis is an award-winning bookseller and owner/proprietor of the respected independent Perth bookstore, Stefen's Books, while Tim Thomas is the owner/franchisee of Dymock's Books in Subiaco. Both love books, both are genuinely passionate about selling books, both have wonderful but different bookstores, and both have different stories to tell. 

Episode 466: Ten Minutes with Ursula Vernon

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Hugo and Nebula Winning author and artist Ursula Vernon, along with her alter ego for adult readers T. Kingfisher, chats with Gary about the comfort of reading historical romances and horror fiction that doesn’t seem too close to home, the classic fantasy of Robin McKinley and Terri Windling, and the sometimes arbitrary distinctions between adult and kids’ literature, especially given the occasional disconnect between who buys the latter and who reads it.

Books mentioned include:

• The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (forthcoming)

• The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

• The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

• Swordheart by Ursula Vernon

• The Damar Series by Robin McKinley

• Deerskin by Robin McKinley

• The Wood Wife by Terri Windling

• Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz 

Episode 465: Ten Minutes with Walter Jon Williams

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Nebula winner and recent Worldcon Guest of Honor Walter Jon Williams talks with Gary about hiding from COVID and the sun in rural New Mexico, a rare science fiction novel that deals with elder care, the appeal of E.R. Eddison and other pre-Tolkien fantasies, the hardboiled fiction of David Goodis, researching on Wikipedia, and the next book in his Praxis space opera series.

Books mentioned include:

• Quillifer the Knight by Walter Jon Williams
• The Accidental War by Walter Jon Williams
• Fleet Elements by Walter Jon Williams
• Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
• Mistress of Mistresses by E.R. Eddison
• Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 50s by David Goodis

Episode 464: Ten Minutes with Derek Künsken

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Today Jonathan spends ten minutes or so chatting with Derek Künsken about how he's been dealing with these strange and difficult times, what he's been reading and would recommend, the fiction of R. Scott Bakker and Isaac Asimov, an enormous X-Men re-read, some terrific recent comics, and more.

Books mentioned include:

• The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken
• The Quantum Garden by Künsken
• The House of Styx by Derek Künsken
• The Prince of Nothing Series by R. Scott Bakker
• The Robot Series by Isaac Asimov
• House of X by Jonathan Hickman
• Immortal Hulk by Bennett Ewing
  

Episode 463: Ten Minutes with Sam J. Miller

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Multiple award winner Sam J. Miller joins Gary to discuss judging this year’s Neukom Award (with its intimidating list of finalists), catching up with some favourite writers of colour, finally getting around to a classic, the remarkable narrative skills of William Gibson, and Sam’s own forthcoming ghost story novel, The Blade Between.

Books mentioned include:

• The Blade Between by Sam J. Miller Jr
• Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
• Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson
• Ulysses by James Joyce
• Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
• The Novels of William Gibson

Episode 462: Ten Minutes with Catherynne M. Valente

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Today Jonathan spends ten minutes with bestselling, multiple award-winning author of Space Opera, Catherynne M. Valente, who joins him from an island of the northeastern coast of America, to talk about reading, writing and working during these strange times and trying to do so with an infant in the house, the work of Hank Green and Jenny Slate, her love of Dune, her upcoming short fiction, the return of Tetley Abdnego, and much more.

Books mentioned include:

• Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
• A Perfect Host by Catherynne M. Valente
• A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
• Little Weirds by Jenny Slate
• Station Eleven by Hilary St. John Mandel
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees
• Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
• Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang
• Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes

Episode 461: Ten Minutes with G. Willow Wilson

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning G. Willow Wilson chats with Gary about what living in Seattle has felt like during the plague time and the city’s characteristically progressive politics, the fascination of listening to Proust on Audible, the remarkably prescient writing of James Baldwin and the literary innovations of William Makepeace Thackeray, and what it’s like to write in the Sandman universe after having been enthralled by it when younger.

Books mentioned include:

• The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
• The Dreaming: Waking Hours by G. Willow Wilson & Nick Robles
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• A Rap on Race by James Baldwin & Margaret Mead
• Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust
• Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray