The Coode Street Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 488: Ten Minutes with Brooke Bolander Aug 18, 2020

Show notes

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 fires up Skype and calls sunny New York to talk to the fabulous Nebula Award-winning author of The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander, about reading, writing and living during the pandemic, the comfort of reading somewhat grim nonfiction, and her contribution to The Book of Dragons.

You can listen to an excerpt from Brooke's story, "Where the River Turns to Concrete", right now and if you live in the US and are over 18 you can enter our sweepstakes to win one of ten copies by following this link!

Books mentioned include:

The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner
Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro

Episode 486: Firing the canon Aug 16, 2020

Show notes

Flying in the face of both good judgment and common sense, Jonathan and Gary return once again to the question of canons in science fiction and fantasy—a discussion which has widely re-emerged in recent weeks as a result of controversies over the Hugo Awards presentation at ConZealand. Are canons lists of books that people actually need to read, or are they ways of defining and celebrating your own reading communities? Are they useful at all? Are publishing programs such as the Gollancz Masterworks or the Tor Essentials trying to impose a particular idea of canon, or simply to make certain works widely available for those who might be interested? Are there multiple canons for multiple interest groups, or does each reader form their own canon? Would it even be possible to start thinking about works published since 2000 in terms of this discussion? As usual, we have strong opinions without really deciding anything much.

Episode 485: Ten Minutes with A.T. Greenblatt Aug 15, 2020

Show notes

Gary chats with A.T. Greenblatt -- this year’s short story Nebula winner for "Give the Family My Love" -- about the pleasures of escape reading even in normal times, listening to romances, mysteries, and memoirs, the graphic novels of Marjorie Liu and Neil Gaiman, the Murderbot stories of Martha Wells, and serious walking as an inspiration for fiction.

Books mentioned include:

Educated by Tara Westover
Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz
Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman et al.

Episode 484: Ten Minutes with Cheryl Morgan Aug 14, 2020

Show notes

Legendary fan, publisher, and critic Cheryl Morgan talks with Gary about some favourite new and forthcoming books; the comfort in watching classic TV and movies; watching Doom Patrol and Black Panther; Sam Jordison and Galley Beggar Press; her own fanzine Salon Futura and Wizard’s Tower Press, and being a sensitivity reader for trans characters and issues.

Books mentioned include:

The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Mordew by Alex Pheby
The Green Man's Heir and The Green Man's Foe by Juliet E. McKenna
The Tales of Einarinn series by Juliet E. McKenna
The Aldabreshin Compass series by Juliet E. McKenna
untitled forthcoming collection by Aleksandar Žiljak

Episode 483: Ten Minutes with Alec Nevala-Lee Aug 13, 2020

Show notes

Hugo-nominated biographer, Analog contributor, and novelist Alec Nevala-Lee talks with Gary about his current research for a biography of R. Buckminster Fuller, who was a good friend of Arthur C. Clarke but also once gave a lecture at a Hubbard organization in the early 1950s; Alec’s own fascination with the cultural history of the 1960s, the evolution of futures studies, and the comfort to be found in returning to Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales, and the metafictional “grand game” that has evolved from them. Alec’s first collection, Syndromes, is available now as an audiobook original from Recorded Books.

Books mentioned include:

Syndromes: Science Fiction Stories by Alec Nevala-Lee
Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlen, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction by Alec Nevala-Lee
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
Miami and the Siege of Chicago: An Informal History of the Republican and Democratic Conventions of 1968 by Norman Mailer
The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer
The Annotated Sherlock Holmes by W.S. Baring-Gould
The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes by Leslie S. Klinger

Episode 482: Ten Minutes with Arkady Martine Aug 12, 2020

Show notes

Today Jonathan calls up newly minted Hugo Award winner for Best Novel, Arkady Martine, to talk about reading, writing, and working during the pandemic, how influence on writers is often quite different from what a reader might expect, the current state of space opera, her next novel, and a new novella coming late next year from Subterranean Press.

Books mentioned include:

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
Rose House by Arkady Martine (forthcoming)
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear
The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler
Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer

Episode 481: Ten Minutes with Molly Gloss Aug 11, 2020

Show notes

World Fantasy Award nominee Molly Gloss joins Gary to chat about listening to fiction on her commute to the horses, taking some solace in novels with pastoral settings (including SF), the eerie feeling of reading Sarah Pinsker's A Song for a New Day at the very beginning of the lockdown, recent reprints of her classic novels by Saga Press, her long friendship with Ursula K. Le Guin, and her award-nominated retrospective collection Unforeseen.

Books mentioned include:

Unforeseen: Stories by Molly Gloss
The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss
Wild Life by Molly Gloss
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker
The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
The Horseman by Tim Pears
This is Happiness by Niall Williams

Episode 480: Ten Minutes with K.M. Szpara Aug 10, 2020

Show notes

Ten minutes with... is a regular series of short podcasts 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.

Gary kicks of the second series of Ten Minutes with by spending a few minutes with Hugo and Nebula-nominated K.M. Szpara discussing the appeal of audiobooks, young-adult mysteries and horror stories (and their value in learning about plotting), what it’s like to launch a novel at the very beginning of the lockdown, and his own forthcoming work.

Books mentioned include:

Docile by K.M. Szpara
First, Become Ashes by K.M. Szpara (forthcoming April 2021)
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson
The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson
In the Hall with a Knife: A Clue Mystery by Diana Peterfreund
Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall
Here for It; Or, How to Save Your Soul in America by R. Eric Thomas

Episode 479: What Comes Next? Aug 02, 2020

Show notes

Well, without really planning it, we had a bit of a hiatus. It seems like recording over a hundred episodes in a row left us - or at least Jonathan - with the need for a little break, but we're back! We think.

With the Virtual ConZealand not quite over, Gary and Jonathan sit down to talk awards, congratulate the award-winners, talk about inclusiveness and the need for a fresher take on the genre, thank the ConZealand team and shout out to coming conventions, and more. Oh, and thank the World Fantasy Awards for a very unexpected nomination! Thank you!

As always, we hope you enjoy the episode. We should be back soon with more!

Episode 478: Ten Minutes with Sarah Monette and Katherine Addison Jul 16, 2020

Show notes

Today Jonathan spends ten minutes or so chatting with Sarah Monette about living and writing during the pandemic, her alter ego Katherine Addison, the comforts of immersive reading and true crime, and the recurring attraction of the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the world of his famous detective.

Books mentioned include:

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison
The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison (forthcoming)
The Anatomy Murders by Lisa Rosner
Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People by Tim Reiterman
The Baby Farmers: A Chilling Tale of Missing Babies, Shameful Secrets and Murder in 19th Century Australia by Annie Cossins

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected