Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff
Speaker 1: works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas and
Speaker 1: this is our second summer Reading episodes for this year. Again.
Speaker 1: Last year we did an episode where Julie and I
Speaker 1: shared some some recommendations a little science a little fiction,
Speaker 1: a little science fiction for our more enlightened listeners, to
Speaker 1: listeners out there who might want to read something during
Speaker 1: their travels around the beach. Everyone seemed to get a
Speaker 1: kick out of it, so we thought, let's do it again,
Speaker 1: except let's do an extra episode where we we have
Speaker 1: some guests come on and shared their ideas of about
Speaker 1: what you might want to read this summer. Uh so
Speaker 1: that's what this episode is all about. We have three
Speaker 1: external guests from the outside world and three internal guests
Speaker 1: from how stuff works dot com. Mry guests, yes, but
Speaker 1: pretty soon not so much a mystery. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: kick things off here with an external guest. The man
Speaker 1: by the name of DJ Food also goes by the
Speaker 1: name strictly keV. He is a UK DJ, performing artist
Speaker 1: and overall connoisseur of all things weird and wonderful in
Speaker 1: the areas of music, comics, sci fi needs to say.
Speaker 1: Food has a really busy schedule, but I said, hey,
Speaker 1: I'll reach out to him. He's he's involved in all
Speaker 1: these very cool projects. He's he's constantly keeping track of
Speaker 1: interesting books, interesting music, interesting comics on his website dj
Speaker 1: food dot org, where he's constantly sharing his his own music,
Speaker 1: his own mixes, his uh stuff about his lawyerst album,
Speaker 1: as well as all sorts of cool comics, lots of
Speaker 1: cool design stuff. Highly recommend checking that out. And now
Speaker 1: let's hear from the man himself with three recommendations for
Speaker 1: your summer reading. Hi, I'm DJ Food otherwise owned a
Speaker 1: strictly keb and I'm here to present it three things
Speaker 1: to blow your mind. First off, I've got a great
Speaker 1: book called King City by an artist in rights called
Speaker 1: Brandon Graham who's kind of tearing things in the comics
Speaker 1: world at the moment. For the company image, King's City
Speaker 1: is I think twelve issues collected of a comic that
Speaker 1: completely passed me by. The story is revolves around a
Speaker 1: number of people who live in King City. The city
Speaker 1: is kind of the star of the book, but there's
Speaker 1: a guy who's a cat master, who's kind of like
Speaker 1: a ninja master of a cat that can do all
Speaker 1: sorts of crazy things and change its body and stuff.
Speaker 1: And there's an adventure of him, and there's a venture
Speaker 1: of his ex girlfriend. There's eventually his friend whose name
Speaker 1: escapes me now. But one of the things I like
Speaker 1: about it is there's masses of detail on every page
Speaker 1: and suddenly you'll dip into a cross word or join
Speaker 1: the dots page or a game, even on a double
Speaker 1: page spread. So it's a very unique way of storytelling
Speaker 1: and it's a good page turn. So if you think
Speaker 1: you know comics, you know, if we both know, I'm
Speaker 1: sure everyone your your listeners know that it's not all
Speaker 1: about d C and Marvel and guys and tights and capes.
Speaker 1: This is this is something that anyone could get into.
Speaker 1: You never have to really read a comic, mer are
Speaker 1: It's not just a guy thing you can except you
Speaker 1: know easily, girls can get into it, no problem. So
Speaker 1: there you go. Not a very description, but it's it's
Speaker 1: a very unique comic. So that's my first one. The
Speaker 1: second one is another huge book copendium by Julian Cope.
Speaker 1: You might know Julian Cope, the should I say rock
Speaker 1: star singer artists recording artist spun to fame over here
Speaker 1: anyway in the UK with the teardrop explodes. Um. He's
Speaker 1: also a very good writer. If you ever find his
Speaker 1: biography head on, it's well worth reading. But this is
Speaker 1: something else. It's it's a collection of his album reviews
Speaker 1: he used to do on his website, sort of arranged
Speaker 1: in the sort of chronological alternate history of rock writing
Speaker 1: from the last half of the twentieth century. It starts
Speaker 1: at the end of the fifties. We all know the
Speaker 1: accepted classics of rock led Zeppelin, the Who, the Beatles
Speaker 1: of Stones, etcetera, etcetera. This is an alternate version of that.
Speaker 1: It's um the things that fell under the radar, the
Speaker 1: weird and the one for all the private pressings, the
Speaker 1: oddities that he thinks that just as worthy as any
Speaker 1: Beatles album but never got the kudos. So um, it's
Speaker 1: a very very readable book. Again, he's got an excellent
Speaker 1: turn of phrase, a sort of mixed of sort of
Speaker 1: Hippie and Celtic if that makes any sense. And just
Speaker 1: I always enjoy reading his stuff. As I said, his
Speaker 1: biography head on is incredible. Um, he's had a very
Speaker 1: interesting life and he's got a very unique tape on music.
Speaker 1: It's as good as any writer you're reading the Music
Speaker 1: press or on online Indium and Expedition into the Rock
Speaker 1: and Roll Underground by Julian Cope. And last, but not least,
Speaker 1: we have Watching the Watchman by Dave Gibbons, designed by
Speaker 1: Chick Kidd and Mike Essel. And I'm sure a lot
Speaker 1: of readers or listeners would know Watchman the comic Animore
Speaker 1: and Ve Gibbons classic, you know, one of the first
Speaker 1: graphic novels in inverted commas. This is a huge each
Speaker 1: cover table book which basically explores the artwork at the
Speaker 1: background and the genesis of the whole thing, including never
Speaker 1: seen before artwork, preliminary designs, layouts for pages, promotional items,
Speaker 1: original drawings, merchandise, the whole thing from start to finish
Speaker 1: in order of the creation of Watchman by Dave Gibbons,
Speaker 1: laid out superbly by the designership Kid with lots of
Speaker 1: very very magnified illustrations splashed across the pages so you
Speaker 1: really get into the grain of the book, and running
Speaker 1: commentary by Dave Gibbons talking about the genesis of the book,
Speaker 1: how he put it together, how we designed things, lots
Speaker 1: of little clues which I'd never seen in the original
Speaker 1: comics that he put in for people to find, and
Speaker 1: just a very interesting historical look back at the classic
Speaker 1: basically the making of a classic, and how the comics
Speaker 1: industry changed from the beginning of the book to two
Speaker 1: years later when it finished and it was it literally
Speaker 1: did help change the comics industry overnight. Cool. I think
Speaker 1: those are all three very interesting recommendations there. I was,
Speaker 1: of course, I'm familiar with Watchman. Everyone I think it's
Speaker 1: familiar with Watchman at this point, a very important comic book.
Speaker 1: And uh, and it would be interesting for anyone out
Speaker 1: there who's a fan to check out, um this this
Speaker 1: new volume that gives even more visual insight into that world.
Speaker 1: And uh, the other comic that Food mentioned, King City,
Speaker 1: I have not read, but wow, I was just looking
Speaker 1: at some of the visuals from this and it looks phenomenal.
Speaker 1: One of the skills we were looking at here involved
Speaker 1: like a space suit and kind of adorable cats crawling
Speaker 1: all over the place. It's it's really wonderful looking. And
Speaker 1: as far as Julian Cope goes, I think you had
Speaker 1: some experience. Yeah. Yeah, Julian Couple was definitely in heavy
Speaker 1: rotation some number of years ago in our household. And
Speaker 1: I have to say, my husband's kind of mixed mixed
Speaker 1: master and he's the person who curates the music in
Speaker 1: our house. So um, I think that this will be
Speaker 1: in an awesome there's day present for him because he
Speaker 1: is a huge Julian Cope fan. And now I have
Speaker 1: absolutely like, I mean going home after this and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna put some Julian Cope in rotation because I that's
Speaker 1: some good stuff. So I can't wait to check that out. Now,
Speaker 1: since that book deals with with music, I would like
Speaker 1: to play just a quick clip from DJ Foods two
Speaker 1: thou twelve albums The Search Engine, which includes this track
Speaker 1: the Electric Hoax featuring Natural Self, which really seems to
Speaker 1: to summon some of the vibes that are discussed in
Speaker 1: this in this book. Yeah ye see. And next we
Speaker 1: are going to listen to Lauren vogel Bond's recommendations. She
Speaker 1: is the co host of tech Stuff and forward Thinking
Speaker 1: and just all around wonderful person. Yes, definitely a bookworm.
Speaker 1: So when we set out to do this episode. I
Speaker 1: was like, well, we gotta ask Lauren, because she's one
Speaker 1: of these people that will bring you books and set
Speaker 1: them on your desk and uh and and give you
Speaker 1: strong recommendations on one which you need to read. And
Speaker 1: so she has a couple here for you. Hey. There,
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. I'm the co host of tech Stuff
Speaker 1: and also Forward Thinking, and I've got a couple of
Speaker 1: recommendations for your summer reading list. This first one is
Speaker 1: a book that you'd find in the Kids too Young
Speaker 1: Adults section, but I think it's a good choice for
Speaker 1: all ages. It's called The Gate. It's by John Connolly,
Speaker 1: and the reason that I'm recommending it is Okay, the
Speaker 1: crux of the plot of this book rests on two things,
Speaker 1: large Hadron collider and a demon horde that is trying
Speaker 1: to come through it in order to take over the world.
Speaker 1: And that seems like prime stuff to blow your mind
Speaker 1: fan material right there. The language in it is is
Speaker 1: really just cheeky and hilarious. It's got science and fantasy.
Speaker 1: There's a ton of footnotes, all the stuff that I
Speaker 1: really love in a good young adult book about demons
Speaker 1: and science, and at its core, it's it's really about
Speaker 1: a very clever boy and his extremely brave docs, and
Speaker 1: it's it's heart woman and wonderful and uh, if young
Speaker 1: adult is not necessarily your thing, Connolly has a lot
Speaker 1: of other books for children and adults, and I recommend
Speaker 1: most of them. My second wreck on the list is
Speaker 1: called The Magicians. It's by Love Grossman, and this one
Speaker 1: is for grown ups only, or mature audiences or immature
Speaker 1: mature audiences. I'm never really sure why mature is the
Speaker 1: word that they choose to use when they're saying that
Speaker 1: there's sex and alcohol use in a book. But it's
Speaker 1: sort of like if Harry Potter had been set in
Speaker 1: college and involved an extremely disaffected main character. The reason
Speaker 1: that I'm recommending this one specifically is that, um, it's
Speaker 1: got a system of magic in it, and uh, the
Speaker 1: magical ability in this universe is based on a level
Speaker 1: of creativity and intelligence in a person, in addition to
Speaker 1: a a psyche breaking level of study that essentially renders magicians, uh,
Speaker 1: not really operating under the normal confines of what we
Speaker 1: would call sanity anymore. And to me, that's fascinating watching
Speaker 1: these characters kind of go through this process and deal
Speaker 1: with it and also deal with normal coming of age,
Speaker 1: growing up sort of things. Also with within the story,
Speaker 1: there's there's a series of fictional books about a magical
Speaker 1: land called Philery, and this is a direct parallel to
Speaker 1: the Narnia land and books and theories by C. S. Lewis.
Speaker 1: When I was a kid, I loved Narnia, and the
Speaker 1: protagonist of the Magicians was a huge fan of the
Speaker 1: Philery books when he was a kid, and it becomes
Speaker 1: really a very important part of the story. And just
Speaker 1: watching what Grossman does with that source material, if you
Speaker 1: know the Narnia books, becomes immensely fun. The book is
Speaker 1: dry and very rilely funny and very poignant. It's it's
Speaker 1: beautiful and heartbreaking and winds up being very hopeful in
Speaker 1: in strange and lovely ways. Also there's a sequel and
Speaker 1: that is on my summer reading list. So I hope
Speaker 1: that you guys check out one or both of these.
Speaker 1: If you do, tell Robert and Julie how you feel
Speaker 1: about them, or if you want to, you can drop
Speaker 1: me an email. You can reach me at tech stuff
Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com, and I would love to hear
Speaker 1: from you and uh yeah, enjoy your summer now. I
Speaker 1: think it's it's awesome that she she brought up The
Speaker 1: Magicians by Love Grossman because my wife just finished reading
Speaker 1: this book and is already on the second book that
Speaker 1: it follows it, and just just a word of caution.
Speaker 1: When she was first reading it, I had actually given
Speaker 1: it to her as a birthday gift, so she first
Speaker 1: when she first started reading it, she was like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's all right, It's all right, And then she
Speaker 1: definitely reached a point where then she was just just
Speaker 1: completely obsessed with it. Uh. And this is this world
Speaker 1: of magic that it creates. So um So if you
Speaker 1: pick it up and it's not getting you right away,
Speaker 1: just just wait because if this test case proves to
Speaker 1: be accurate, um, it will get his hooks into you. Well.
Speaker 1: I kind of have a hundred page rule, Like if
Speaker 1: I'm hundred page pages into it and it's not really
Speaker 1: gripping me, then I kind of feel like, Okay, maybe
Speaker 1: it's not the thing for me. Although I really do
Speaker 1: prefer to finish a book. Yeah, and its entirety, but
Speaker 1: I do feel like sometimes it takes a while for
Speaker 1: the author to kind of get into the material and
Speaker 1: lay it all down to where you're you're firmly set
Speaker 1: in the trap. Yeah, I feel like a hundred page
Speaker 1: rule is pretty fair because because on one hand, you
Speaker 1: don't want to quit books and put them back on
Speaker 1: the shelf or return them unfinished, and you know, you
Speaker 1: want to get your money's worth out of it. You
Speaker 1: don't want to be a quitter. But on the other hand,
Speaker 1: life is short. You can only read so many books
Speaker 1: in this life, and it's just not worth it to
Speaker 1: struggle through when you're not enjoying. And I know people
Speaker 1: who refuse to give up, like it'll be for months.
Speaker 1: They're complaining about this book they're reading, and you're you're like,
Speaker 1: don't finish it. What are you doing? I've done it
Speaker 1: twice twice. One was a book that had been us
Speaker 1: in the title, and I can't remember it, but I
Speaker 1: was just I think I actually threw it across the
Speaker 1: the room, um. And then the second one. And I
Speaker 1: would love to pick this up sometime when I have
Speaker 1: like one thousand weeks in a row just to do nothing,
Speaker 1: and that is the infinite just which I think. I
Speaker 1: was on page two hundred and eighty and then I went, Okay,
Speaker 1: I can't. Yeah, and it was. And it was so
Speaker 1: frustrating to me because this story, the characters were very intriguing,
Speaker 1: but there was so much bobbing and weaving between that
Speaker 1: I kept feeling as though I was dumped on the
Speaker 1: side as a reader and would have to keep sort
Speaker 1: of picking back up. So emotionally, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: but I was really invested in this, sorry, and here
Speaker 1: I am in some other world. Well, you know, it's
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in the right book for the
Speaker 1: right time. You know, sometimes it'll it'll be a great book,
Speaker 1: and it will even be a great book for you,
Speaker 1: but you have to be in the proper headspace for it.
Speaker 1: You've got to have the right appetite for it at
Speaker 1: the time. I mean, we all have those books on
Speaker 1: our shelves who are like, oh, I really would love
Speaker 1: to read that, but it's just not time yet. I
Speaker 1: would love to hear from a listener who has read
Speaker 1: Infinite just all the way through, and I would love
Speaker 1: to know whether or not it really lives up to
Speaker 1: the hype, Like if you put one thousand pages of
Speaker 1: reading into it, will you feel like you had a
Speaker 1: return on investment. On the other side, so if anybody's
Speaker 1: out there, let us know. Alright, up next, we're gonna
Speaker 1: hear from Mary Roach, who was, of course the author
Speaker 1: of Stiff Spook, Bonk Packing from Ours and most recently Gold.
Speaker 1: Of course you've heard us talk about golf. You've heard
Speaker 1: us interview Mary Roach about this book. Uh. And and
Speaker 1: we we we read it and ended up doing a
Speaker 1: number of episodes on Digestion as a spinoff from it.
Speaker 1: So of course we highly recommend any book by Mary
Speaker 1: Roach Beach. But but we we also in our recent
Speaker 1: talk whether we asked Mary, it's like, well, what books
Speaker 1: are you excited about? Because I'm always interested in that,
Speaker 1: you know, what's feeding the minds of the minds that
Speaker 1: feed us. Uh. And she had a couple of really
Speaker 1: tantalizing suggestions for your summer reading. There's a book that
Speaker 1: is coming out by John Mullum uh M O O
Speaker 1: A L. L. E. M. Called Wild Ones. And John
Speaker 1: Lallum he wrote, I don't know if you saw it
Speaker 1: was a cover story in the New York Times magazine
Speaker 1: about homosexuality and animals and people who study it. And
Speaker 1: and he is just the most amazing in terms of
Speaker 1: his research, his ability to write beautiful essay and this
Speaker 1: it's just this writing style, and it's this wonderful book. Well,
Speaker 1: it's about how endangered species and and and basically humans
Speaker 1: and how we see animals and what we decide to
Speaker 1: save and what we don't decide to save, and just
Speaker 1: the the unique views of humans, the approach towards different
Speaker 1: animal species over the years. And it's very hard to
Speaker 1: describe that book in a way that captures the sparkle
Speaker 1: and interests of it. Anyway, I love that book and
Speaker 1: that is coming out, I believe in May. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's coming up. I'm trying to think what else I've
Speaker 1: seen that is coming up. Rose George who wrote that
Speaker 1: wonderful book on that called The Big Necessity, which I
Speaker 1: had to do with poop and sanitation and the global
Speaker 1: need for clean bathrooms. A lovely science writer, fascinating book,
Speaker 1: and she has a new one coming out on shipping
Speaker 1: global the world behind the scenes world of shipping, which
Speaker 1: is not science, it's not exactly science, but in terms
Speaker 1: of how things work. Just I can't wait to read it,
Speaker 1: just just because you know, everything's shipped and it's this
Speaker 1: sort of secret network that's out there and nobody really
Speaker 1: knows much about it, and she spent a year on
Speaker 1: ships and in shipyards and really uh sharreting that out.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking forward to that one very much too.
Speaker 1: So there, yeah, there you go. Uh. That shipping book
Speaker 1: sounds really interesting. Unfortunately, as of the publication date of
Speaker 1: this particular episode, that book is not out yet. Definitely,
Speaker 1: as you're listening to this in the future, uh, it
Speaker 1: is probably already available, but as of now, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to wait on that, and instead you'll have to
Speaker 1: go after The Big Necessity, which seems like an awesome
Speaker 1: book on its own, very interesting. Um. I also wanted
Speaker 1: to point out that Rose George was a war correspondent
Speaker 1: and she also has a book out on refugees, so
Speaker 1: it seems to me like she has covered the spread
Speaker 1: no matter what the topic, as she does some deep
Speaker 1: dives on that and John mullum um the Wild Ones book.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to pick that up because I keep
Speaker 1: thinking that that would be a really nice companion book
Speaker 1: to the book we discussed last year, which was Some
Speaker 1: we Love, Some we Hate, and Some We Eat, which
Speaker 1: at our relationship with animals and Malalam just kind of
Speaker 1: takes it sounds like a different look at animals and
Speaker 1: how we perceive them. And in fact, we have referenced
Speaker 1: one of his articles before when we talked about homosexuality
Speaker 1: and animals. Very interested to see what other sort of
Speaker 1: discoveries he has in that book. Cool, you know, we're
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna take a quick break and when we
Speaker 1: come back, we will hit you with three more guests. Um,
Speaker 1: just throw them at you, Just throw them at you.
Speaker 1: Two of them are going to be in house here
Speaker 1: from some House Stuff Works podcasters that you you may
Speaker 1: or may not be familiar with already. And then we're
Speaker 1: also gonna hear from one more guest. Is Tracy thisling
Speaker 1: Tracy alright, color back right after these uh these words.
Speaker 1: All right, we're back and uh for this. For this
Speaker 1: half of the episode, we're gonna kick things off with
Speaker 1: Tracy V. Wilson, one of the long term of Faces
Speaker 1: Voices writers here the rock of How Stuff Works. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's uh, she's the site manager as well as co
Speaker 1: host of formerly of Pop Stuff and currently of Stuff
Speaker 1: you Missed in a history class. So obviously we turned
Speaker 1: to Tracy. We know she's a big reader, really into
Speaker 1: sci fi and fantasy and writer herself writer herself that
Speaker 1: she's an and a poet, and we said, well, hey,
Speaker 1: let's uh, let's let's reach it out out to her,
Speaker 1: see what she's got. And we just said, hey, whatever
Speaker 1: you want to recommend to our listeners, let us have it.
Speaker 1: So here you go. Hi. My name is Tracy V. Wilson,
Speaker 1: co host of Stuff You Missed in History Class, and
Speaker 1: here's my contribution to your summer reading list. It is
Speaker 1: a combination of history and science fiction called The Doomsday
Speaker 1: Book by Connie Willis. It came out in and it's
Speaker 1: about a world where historians study history by actually traveling
Speaker 1: back in time to observe things. And in this book,
Speaker 1: our histor, Orion, our hero of the story, is traveling
Speaker 1: back to the Middle Ages, and she is the first
Speaker 1: historian ever to do this. Of course, things do not
Speaker 1: go as planned, either in the Middle Ages or back home.
Speaker 1: It is a page turner and I hope you all
Speaker 1: enjoy it. Well, that one sounds fun, That one sounds uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a little sort of time travel thrown
Speaker 1: in there. I knew that she is a fan of that,
Speaker 1: even in her own writing, So yeah, be interesting to
Speaker 1: check out. All right. Up next, we're gonna hear from
Speaker 1: David Barnett, who is an English journalist and author. You
Speaker 1: may have seen his work and wired, Uh, the Independent,
Speaker 1: and he's also a regular contributor to Tour Books, the
Speaker 1: blog over there which it covers a lot of fantasy,
Speaker 1: sci fi literary stuff. And I actually block a little
Speaker 1: bit over there at tour Um, so I said, hey,
Speaker 1: well it's let me reach out and see whoever at
Speaker 1: tour will be interested in talking to us and sharing
Speaker 1: some work with us. David also is a novelist. He's
Speaker 1: written the books The Hinterland, Angel, Glass, Pop Cult, Don't
Speaker 1: Let Them Take You Alive and Uh. He also has
Speaker 1: a book called Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl, which
Speaker 1: is alternative history, steam bunk Victorianism, just a lot of
Speaker 1: fun stuff thrown in there. And he has some some
Speaker 1: more horror themed books for us for those of you
Speaker 1: who want something a little spooky or a little grimmer
Speaker 1: for your summer reading. So let's hear from David. Hello.
Speaker 1: My name is David Barnett, and I'm an author and
Speaker 1: journalist based in the North of England, where I live
Speaker 1: with my wife Claire and our children Charlie and Alice.
Speaker 1: The first book in my alternate history Victoriana series, Gideon
Speaker 1: Smith and the Mechanical Girl, is published in September by
Speaker 1: Tall Books in the US and Snow Books in the UK,
Speaker 1: and you can find my writing on science fictional matters,
Speaker 1: among other things, at Tall dot com and other places.
Speaker 1: I'd like to recommend for your summer reads a couple
Speaker 1: of books that are very different but which could be
Speaker 1: said to be thematically linked. They're all horror books, and
Speaker 1: although at least two of them do actually deal with
Speaker 1: a supernatural, they're all notable for routing their individual horrors
Speaker 1: very much in the real world by way of a
Speaker 1: firm grounding in science. The first book I'd like to
Speaker 1: talk about is Red Moon by Benjamin Percy, which was
Speaker 1: published in May. Red Moon is in essence a werewolf book,
Speaker 1: but Percy kind of expertly brings his wolf men and
Speaker 1: wolf women out from the shadows cast by the full
Speaker 1: moon and puts them under a very contemporary and scientific spotlight.
Speaker 1: In the world of Red Moon, werewolves or likens as
Speaker 1: the non to the general public, aren't the product of
Speaker 1: the occult or the supernatural, but rather those who have
Speaker 1: been infected by a prion based BSc type disease. This
Speaker 1: can and is often passed on by way of a
Speaker 1: bite in the traditional werewolf style, or by other sharings
Speaker 1: of bodily fluids. As as Percy goes into quite a bit.
Speaker 1: He is an associate editor for Esquire Magazine. Is writing
Speaker 1: is very cool and assured and sexy. Red Moon is
Speaker 1: set in the modern day, but in a world that's
Speaker 1: been greatly changed by the existence of Likens for a
Speaker 1: century or more. So. It's kind of alternate history, retrofitted
Speaker 1: history in itself. In the present day of the book,
Speaker 1: Likens our government registered. They have to keep the transformations
Speaker 1: under control with strict usage of government proved drugs. There's
Speaker 1: actually a Like and Homeland, which is created from a
Speaker 1: vast tract of wasteland between Finland and Russia, where American
Speaker 1: martial law is established to look after things. Western companies
Speaker 1: mind the rich uranium reserves. Their American troops are actually
Speaker 1: fighting kind of an Afghanistan style war against Like and
Speaker 1: Rebels in the mountains of this early godforsaken landscape, and
Speaker 1: Red Moon kind of is about how the Like and
Speaker 1: Rebels are bringing the war home to America and the
Speaker 1: Lins in person's book kind of double for any number
Speaker 1: of ethnic or minority groups, and their history in the
Speaker 1: US has parallels with the civil rights movements of the sixties, Islamophobia,
Speaker 1: fundamental terrorism in the present day pro fight. It's a
Speaker 1: very kind of post nine eleven sort of book, and
Speaker 1: Percy quite deftly tells all sides of the story by
Speaker 1: following different characters with different objectives, different viewpoints. So there's
Speaker 1: very much an anti like and senator who's running for president.
Speaker 1: There's a young guy who's the main focus of the
Speaker 1: book whose father is away with the army fighting in
Speaker 1: the like and homeland, and there's a young woman who's
Speaker 1: her self alike, and and all these stories, as you
Speaker 1: would expect, come together for a fairly explosive climax. And
Speaker 1: it's a very ns blockbuster of a novel, as much
Speaker 1: a political thriller as it is a horror novel. I think.
Speaker 1: Another book which is heavy on the science, though it
Speaker 1: does bring supernatural elements to the four quite more than
Speaker 1: Red Moon is Revivor by Seth Patrick, which is out
Speaker 1: in the middle of June, and this takes another standard
Speaker 1: horror trope, which is people who can talk to the dead,
Speaker 1: which we've seen a lot in movies and books, but
Speaker 1: it gives it a very smart and glossy modern twist. Basically,
Speaker 1: revive a twelve years or so before the action in
Speaker 1: the book, the world discovers the existence of these people
Speaker 1: who can, by touching the hands of the flesh of
Speaker 1: the dead shortly after they've died, have conversations with them
Speaker 1: temporarily bring them back to life, only for a few minutes,
Speaker 1: but it enables them to have brief conversations with them. Obviously,
Speaker 1: this is greeted with a wide range of panic and
Speaker 1: then interest and curiosity, but it isn't very long before
Speaker 1: the military and the police applications of this come to
Speaker 1: the fall. So by the time the action in the
Speaker 1: book takes place, which is so modern day criminal investigations,
Speaker 1: homicide investigations especially heavily using revivers. They can bring murder
Speaker 1: victims back to life at the scene for a few minutes,
Speaker 1: and those mode of victims can immediately identify their killers,
Speaker 1: so it changes the whole face of criminal investigations. The
Speaker 1: book follows a guy called Joan and Miller who was
Speaker 1: a forensic reviver. He's brought into murder scenes to question
Speaker 1: the newly dead about the moments that led to their killings.
Speaker 1: It's it's quite tough, demanding work. It really takes it
Speaker 1: out of these revivers that these guys doing this, It
Speaker 1: really sort of hammers them both psychically and psychologically and physically.
Speaker 1: Jonah finds himself increasingly troubled by the revivals he is doing,
Speaker 1: not just because of the exhaustion it brings on, but
Speaker 1: because he can't shake the feeling that when he starts
Speaker 1: to temporarily revive the dead, there's kind of some other
Speaker 1: presence that's lurking on the edges and wanting to come through.
Speaker 1: It's revives great edge of the seat read which possibly
Speaker 1: owes more to shiny, high tech TV crime shows than
Speaker 1: a traditional horror. It's kind of like C S I Zombie,
Speaker 1: something like that, Patrick pals On. The tension doesn't spur
Speaker 1: the shocks, and it keeps the revelations coming thick and fast.
Speaker 1: So it's a really good summer blockbuster read again. The
Speaker 1: third book I'd like to do our attention to is
Speaker 1: one that has been it a little longer than though
Speaker 1: that those of us. It's called London Falling by Paul Cornell.
Speaker 1: Now this is much heavier on the supernatural, but it
Speaker 1: does taken a lot of scientifics the side of it,
Speaker 1: not so much with the technical side of things, but
Speaker 1: more in the science of police work really, So it
Speaker 1: has some parallels with Reviving that it concentrates on the
Speaker 1: police work and how that is linked to the supernatural
Speaker 1: in this story, but it's much much grittier, much more
Speaker 1: down to earth. It uh, It's London Falling, concentrates on
Speaker 1: the science really of old school policing as seen through
Speaker 1: the eyes of a bunch of coppers in present day London.
Speaker 1: Paul Cornell is perhaps more well known for his comic
Speaker 1: book work. He's currently the addor of Wolverine from Marvel,
Speaker 1: and he's also a lot of TV work, written some
Speaker 1: Doctor Who episodes, and this is his first novel and
Speaker 1: it's very accomplished, inspired and genuinely scary. I think, possibly
Speaker 1: more scary than the other two books, which are more
Speaker 1: thriller type novels, but this, this, I think ticks all
Speaker 1: the old style horror boxes. The story follows this team
Speaker 1: of police detectives and they're investigating series of child disappearances
Speaker 1: in London, and they slowly become to realize that This
Speaker 1: is looks like the work of a woman who should
Speaker 1: be along dead, and she's got some strange links to
Speaker 1: an English football team that's socked team for American listeners,
Speaker 1: west Ham United, and it sounds quite odd on paper,
Speaker 1: but Cornell really pulls all these strands together. It's very British,
Speaker 1: though in in my copy he does helpfully provide a
Speaker 1: glossary of terms at the back of the book that's
Speaker 1: perhaps as much for other English readers as it is
Speaker 1: for American readers because a lot of its London Company
Speaker 1: Eastern type stuff. So it's quite interesting that respect, and
Speaker 1: it's very um It would possibly appeal to anyone who
Speaker 1: may have enjoyed Hell Blazer John Constantine comics from Vertigo.
Speaker 1: It's that kind of rough and ready sort of horror,
Speaker 1: and if anyone out there remembers the Sweeney the older
Speaker 1: seventies British Cops show with JOHNA. Thorne Dennis Waterman, it's
Speaker 1: that kind of don't and dirty vibe with this gritty,
Speaker 1: grimy urban horror. And there's a there's an amazing revelation
Speaker 1: involving one of the main characters which absolutely not my
Speaker 1: socks off when it comes and I bet it does
Speaker 1: the same friend on Nels who reads it as well,
Speaker 1: And so those really am I recommended summer reads. There
Speaker 1: perhaps a little dark for summer, but I think they'll
Speaker 1: definitely stick in your mind. And the perfect beach reads
Speaker 1: to my mind. Cool. Well, I you know, I'm particularly
Speaker 1: interested in Benjamin Percy's Red Moon, the idea of taking
Speaker 1: taking the werewolf myth and then explaining it with a
Speaker 1: little science, throwing in some pyon diseases in there. It's
Speaker 1: I love new takes on old monsters. Yeah, and well,
Speaker 1: the werewolf is I think just a great classic monster.
Speaker 1: So anyway that you can sort of get to that
Speaker 1: story in a new and refreshing way, I'm all for that.
Speaker 1: Let's go on to our last contributor. Here is Christen Conger,
Speaker 1: she of Stuff Mom Never Told You. He has a
Speaker 1: great recommendation, and here it is. Hey, this is Kristen Conger,
Speaker 1: co host of Stuff Mom Never Told You, and my
Speaker 1: summer book reading recommendation is Breasts, A Natural and Unnatural
Speaker 1: History by Florence Williams. I literally took it with me
Speaker 1: to the beach last week when I went on a
Speaker 1: brief vacation and dived right into it and it's a
Speaker 1: fascinating look at both the evolution and science of human
Speaker 1: breasts and also our cultural associations with it. How breast
Speaker 1: implants became a thing. Hint it has to do with
Speaker 1: paraffin injections, yikes. And Florence Williams is a great job
Speaker 1: using really engaging language to draw you into not only
Speaker 1: the science but also the cultural history of breasts. So
Speaker 1: if you want to bring a book to the pool
Speaker 1: side or beach side with you that Mike get some
Speaker 1: looks because it does say press on the cover. I
Speaker 1: highly recommend it. It's a really great read and it
Speaker 1: appeals to the brainier side and also the lady's side,
Speaker 1: And so yeah, check it out. Florence Williams Breasts and
Speaker 1: Natural and Unnatural History. Well, there you go. The science,
Speaker 1: the biology, the history of breast sounds like a good
Speaker 1: place to to end out the podcast. I cannot actually
Speaker 1: wait to check out this book myself, because I think
Speaker 1: that it's one of those things that well, you can't deny.
Speaker 1: All of us have breast real female right so um
Speaker 1: as we discussed in our milk episode, and men have
Speaker 1: all the same equipment and under the right circumstances can
Speaker 1: certainly lacktate as well, so we all have breasts well
Speaker 1: and culturally this is a huge thing right for us. Um.
Speaker 1: Sorry that there's I feel like there are breast chips
Speaker 1: right there in the surface and I will try not
Speaker 1: to touch them. But well, there he goes again. Uh So, anyway,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to point out that on Slate this week,
Speaker 1: one of the top performing articles was about bras and
Speaker 1: about how there's new sizes something like ten different new
Speaker 1: sizes that are coming out because apparently the broad industry
Speaker 1: is servicing women in an all together wrongheaded manner um.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was fascinating. I thought this one
Speaker 1: article on sort of revamping the bra industry is number
Speaker 1: one for this week on Slate. Well, it directly influences
Speaker 1: like half the population, So there you go. That's right.
Speaker 1: Well awesome. Well, I would like to personally thank all
Speaker 1: of the the individuals who took time out of their
Speaker 1: schedule in house or elsewhere in the world and on
Speaker 1: other continents to to talk with us, to think think
Speaker 1: it over and come up with some books and and
Speaker 1: share you know, their their ideas and share the stuff
Speaker 1: they love with you. Guys. I think it's it's easy
Speaker 1: to overlook how cool that is because so many times
Speaker 1: people who produce content, uh, you know, you get pped
Speaker 1: up in in your own stuff, creating your own stuff,
Speaker 1: promoting your own stuff, and it's it's it's really cool
Speaker 1: when somebody takes some time to say, you know what,
Speaker 1: this is the stuff I love that influences me, but
Speaker 1: it's not of me, and I would like to to
Speaker 1: share it. So so thanks to to everybody who who
Speaker 1: chimed in. As for the rest of you, uh, some
Speaker 1: of you are probably wondering, oh, what was that book
Speaker 1: that that food was talking about? What was the name
Speaker 1: of that author that that that conger or or Lauren mentioned,
Speaker 1: how do you spell that? Well, be sure to go
Speaker 1: to our website, Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com
Speaker 1: and that's where everything is. That's our mothership. That's also
Speaker 1: where the blog posts are. And there is a blog
Speaker 1: post accompanying these episodes that will have a complete list
Speaker 1: of all the book recommendations, both the ones that that
Speaker 1: Julie and I made in the previous episode and the
Speaker 1: guest recommendations in this episode, all and went easy to
Speaker 1: handle list with links and everything that you could desire.
Speaker 1: So be sure to check that out. You can also
Speaker 1: check us out at various social media outlets. We're on Facebook,
Speaker 1: We're on Twitter, We're on tumbler, and on YouTube. Are
Speaker 1: handle is mind Stuff Show. And please do share your
Speaker 1: thoughts with us on the recommendations that we gave, recommendations
Speaker 1: that our guests gave, and what you also recommend and
Speaker 1: you can do so by sending us an email at
Speaker 1: below the Mind at Discovery dot com. And I'm going
Speaker 1: to close out here with just a little bit of
Speaker 1: music from DJ Food from his album two thousand and
Speaker 1: twelve album The Search Engine, which is amazing. You should
Speaker 1: check it out. More information about it at DJA food
Speaker 1: dot org or Ninja tune dot net. This track is colors.
Speaker 1: Beyond the colors at the upper end of the electromagnetic
Speaker 1: spectrum is energy of short wave length and very EMag
Speaker 1: frequency gamma raised X ray and dra a violet rate.
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics because
Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot com. Next comes the end
Speaker 1: of energy. We can see with violet light at the
Speaker 1: high energy and to bend down to the green yellow
Speaker 1: our ange and read at the low frequency end below
Speaker 1: the bed, we can again no longer see the An