It's Friday!!!
This week on HTBH: Whidbey, discussed!
It’s the last Friday of May, which means it’s time to discuss T Kira Madden’s novel Whidbey!
My guest for this discussion is the wonderful Kristen Arnett!!!!!! She’s the author of several novels. (Her most recent book, Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One, is especially wonderful!)
Kristen, a Florida-based writer, has known and admired T Kira’s work for many years. She also read an early draft of Whidbey and blurbed the book.
So it’s no surprise that she’s a huge fan of the book. But her admiration helped me appreciate Whidbey even more than I already did, and I hope the conversation does the same for you!
Further reading:
When I talked to Kristen, she offered up several titles that she thought you should check out if you liked Whidbey. Many fit into what she calls “Florida Canon” -- there are a lot of interesting writers doing interesting things in The Sunshine State, and here’s a list of a few:
Laura Van den Berg, State of Paradise
Edgar Gomez, Alligator Tears
Lauren Groff, Brawler
When I was thinking about comparisons, two titles immediately came to mind: Danya Kukafka, Notes on an Execution for its un-framing framing of a serial killer, and God of the Woods by Liz Moore for its literary roots and pageturning plot,
Kristen also thought of Joyce Carol Oates’ Fox and I recommend Arizona Triangle by Sydney Graves, but be warned -- these two also deal with child sexual abuse and are more on the graphic side.
Book club reminders
Last call for our Whidbey discussion this Sunday! It’s from 12-1pm CT! Email me for the zoom link.
In JUNE, we’re reading Julia Langbein’s weird and wonderful Dear Monica Lewinsky. Congrats to Rachel and Kristine for winning copies! I’m going monthly giveaways of every book club book, and all paid subscribers are in every drawing! Upgrade your membership if you want to get in on the good luck.
Your Dear Monica Lewinsky voicemails are due FRIDAY JUNE 19! THANK YOU LIS IN MINNESOTA FOR SENDING ME A MESSAGE ABOUT WHIDBEY!
ALSO!
The podcast schedule will be a bit pared down this month because DRAGONS. I’m just doing the author interview on 6/1 and the discussion on 6/29. But I’ll still write the newsletter, and I’ll be back with lots of fun stuff in July!
