Burning Books

Monk on the run in 14th Century England has more to worry about than building himself a time machine to get out of 14th Century England. Obviously kidding about the sci-fi bit because this is Barry Unsworth. The book is the time machine. The moral of the story is less story, more moral. Photo Douglas R Witt Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

Hartmann and Fibitch arrived in England as refugees on the Kindertransport and then they had had wives and children and those children had families and – what was the point of this story again? Served (saved?) with a side of Sebald (how can you not) plus the flavour of Rushforth, which is the name of an author. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

The real life murder mystery of a CBS reporter is foreground and backdrop for a modern day high school student trying to figure out why the wrong man was put down. Also a love story. Salonic. Picture: George Laoutaris Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

Pinneberg is the Little Man; What Now is what everyone is asking at the outset of the Depression, when this novel is set. Fallada’s novel is about the piece by piece destruction of a young man by forces that are both incomprehensibly great and pathetically familiar, from the collapse of the world economy to the failure of basic decency. I’m overwhelmed just writing this ditty. But that’s what you get when you read Hans Fallada. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

Medical intern sent by boss to spy on a painter named of Strauch.  What the intern finds is the gaping wound of Lower Austria, which may or may not stand in for the entire world. Extremely bleak.  Extremely funny.  Basically, extreme in all senses. Photo: Florin Draghici Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

Spare parts make up the engine of this rickety ride from here to there. One solipsistic young man from England leads friends and acquaintances to Crimea, and for some reason they follow him. With allusions to Nicholson Baker and Peter Carey, this episode also features a drop from Masterchef Australia, which is what I’m into these days. The plating was not successful. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

A history of one aspect of the Nazi genocide is brought to present day Parisian suburbs via a massacre in an Algerian village. Extremism, integration, ghettos, religion – all the elements are refashioned to their new context. A memorably good book by an excellent writer and thinker. Fresh. Photo - John Perivolaris Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

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Can’t seem to shake the memoirs thing . . . This time it’s James Joyce writing about himself as the character Stephen Dedalus, a precocious, self-regarding artiste who one day is destined to become James Joyce. Not necessary. Photo by ☰☵ Michele M. F. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

Author David Lodge stars as his thinly disguised protagonist, Old Man Bates, who is entering retirement, uselessness, and, worst of all, permanent deafness, in this tragi-comi-tragic tale of David Lodge, starring as his protagonist. Largely good. Picture by clogsilk   >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

One of the world’s great authors goes back in time and space – from the Jerusalem of the 1940s to the Eastern Europe of the 19th Century, from a boy's heart to a mother’s face to a father’s brain – and brings back everything, but not enough. Cuts close and hurts so good. Wizardly? Masterful. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

The name Michael Arlen will mean nothing to most readers but Arlen was once the cream of the jazz age novelists, the envy of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Maugham, the owner of speedboats and a villa on the Mediterranean. Then he fell completely into obscurity. By the time his son was born, the golden days were past tense, with the father coasting on his stardust. This is the story of that. Sage butter. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

At the end of his days, sitting in his villa outside Rome, the Emperor Hadrian writes a long letter to his adopted son, and next great leader of Rome, Marcus Aurelius. In Hadrian’s world, thoughts duel with power, ideas with reality, books with life. Aurelius often gets praise as the first philosopher king, but in this telling it’s Hadrian who is as much thinker as conqueror. Marguerite Yourcenar’s towering intellect and faultless prose bring Second Century Rome to life. Yeah, it’s good. Photo: FraserElliot >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

Gauss and Humboldt set off to the same destination in opposite directions and unfortunately this novel was written about it. Tedious. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

Fall forward into one of the stranger stories you’ll encounter this year – or any other. Maxi, a young man from the middle classes of Buenos Aires, collects used cardboard, lifts weights, busts a drug ring, but can’t seem to surprise a sleeping street kid. Makes sense, right? No? Who cares – no plot outline is going to tell you what’s actually in the book. Different. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

 A novel that includes displaced persons, new countries, war, Cyprus, the OED, Venice, Blood Libel and Othello – this should be sweet. So why does it all taste so healthy? Caryl Phillips sucks all the sugar out of what should be a thrilling experience. Why? Granola. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

One man goes against the system he helped create and the results are not encouraging. Koestler fictionalises the Moscow Show Trials of the 1930s, where parts are fused onto the whole and the whole is broken into parts. A masterful novel. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

Morbidly obese misery of a writer – and Nobel Laureate (topical) – more than meets his match in the slender and deadly Nina, who conducts the last interview of the writer’s life. Secrets are dredged up and, in a twist, it *is* pretty. Keep your daggers handy. This is going to get nasty. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

From particle physics to market predictions, we thought scientists, right or wrong, traded in the world of facts. What we did not expect is that all the while they were deeply concerned about their looks. Beauty is at the heart of scientific endeavour, and has always been. As the stakes get higher, however, can we afford to have outdated notions of aesthetics guide the way we engage with the world? We look at this specific question, as well as the many baby questions to which it gives birth, alongside author David Orrell. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/  

Everything’s more or less normal in the little town of N until Piotr Stepanovich and his equally psychopathic sidekick, Nikolai Stavrogin, come back from abroad. One thing leads to another leads to another and another and some more after that in Dostoevsky’s extraordinarily rambling (as rambling as this sentence) novel, which does not end well for anyone involved, reader included. The devil inside, the devil inside, every single hour of reading this book – the devil inside. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/