Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Books and Bites
JCPL librarians bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them.
3_23 BB edit 1
===
Carrie: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Books and Bites podcast. Each month we bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them. I'm Carrie Green and I'm here with my co-hosts, Michael Cunningham and Jacqueline Cooper.
Michael: Hello.
Jacqueline: Hi everybody.
Carrie: So today we're talking about epistolary books. One of the prompts on the Books and Bites Bingo reading challenge.
And I guess we should start by defining what we mean by epistolary.
Michael: Hmm. So my understanding is epistolary is a novel that's written, written in forms of letters. But I believe over the years it has come to also mean like transcripts, emails,
Jacqueline: interviews,
Michael: interviews,
Jacqueline: instant messages,
even
Michael: message.
Yeah, exactly.
Carrie: Diaries.
Michael: Diaries, yes.[00:01:00]
Carrie: I also read one book, or I listened to it on audio that had a lot of post-it notes,
Michael: oh wow.
Carrie: It was called The Flat Share and it was a romance. And these two people were sharing a flat with sharing the same bed. But he, like, he was on night shift and she was on day shift, so they weren't ever there at the same time.
So they, their romance evolved through their post-it notes to each
other. .
Michael: Interesting.
Jacqueline: That is interesting.
Carrie: Yeah, it was cute. I do recommend that one, if you, if you're looking for something kind of light, light for this prompt. . Mm. But yeah, it can, it can be a lot of different things. That's a big, fancy word for an array of options.
Michael: Yeah.
Carrie: And of course we, we've got some different options for you today and we'll have some lists posted on our [00:02:00] website, and you can always stop by the Ask a Librarian Desk if you, if you need a little more help finding something.
So my book for this month is To the Bright Edge of the World by a Eowyn Ivey. . So To the Bright Edge of the World is an epistolary novel that combines some of my favorite things, historical fiction, adventure, nature, romance, and a touch of magic. In 1885 US Army Colonel Allen Forrester leads an expedition up the fictional Wolverine River in the Alaska Territory, leaving his pregnant wife Sophie behind in the Vancouver Barracks.
The book is written primarily in the form of Sophie's and Allen's diaries and letters. Allen and his [00:03:00] party travel through an extremely remote area of treacherous landscape, trying to make it up the frozen river before it thaws. The weather is harsh, and once their food stores run out, they have little way of replenishing them.
Often Indigenous people save the group from starvation despite the terrors their tribes experienced at the hands of earlier Russian explorers. At times Allen and his team encounter Indigenous people who appear to have supernatural connections with animals and plants. . There's an old man who turns into a raven.
Women who are descended from geese, a baby who is birthed from tree roots. Are these incidents, myth or reality, or as some white people later suggest, are they hallucinations, "brought on by starvation and exposure to the elements?" While the Alaska expedition is certainly [00:04:00] suspenseful and dangerous, the author doesn't treat Allen's story as more important than Sophie's.
In fact, Sophie experiences danger herself--that of a risky pregnancy in a remote army outpost with few friends and no family to help her. And like Allen, she's an adventurer at heart. A former school teacher, she is unsatisfied with the gender expectations that say housework, children and parties are the only socially acceptable roles for women.
Her intense loneliness spurs her to explore two of her interests, ornithology, and the new technology of photography. She begins photographing birds and their nests in the wild. Alaska's remoteness means that Sophie and Alan go months without knowing what is happening to each other. The epistolary format allows the reader to experience those gaps, to understand a little of what it must have been like
to wonder whether your partner is [00:05:00] alive or dead, or whether your child has been born . The inclusion of other archival material such as photographs, objects, and official military reports makes the story come alive. Letters between Allen's descendant Walter Forrester, an elderly man who donates the archive to an Alaska museum, and Joshua Sloan, the museum's director, connect the story to contemporary life.
Although it took me a little while to get into this novel, overall, I found it well-paced and wanted to keep reading. The writing is engaging and lyrical, and it has a strong sense of place. In addition to being an excellent choice for Books and Bites Bingo, this book would also make a great book club read. As in other frontier adventure stories I've read,
you won't envy what little food Allen and his team managed to cobble together. Let's just say that they are [00:06:00] hungry enough to think that eating moldy, dried salmon is a good option.
Jacqueline: Oh, that
sounds awful. .
Carrie: Yeah, it's, it's a bad idea. Their diet is so poor, they get scurvy, a severe vitamin C deficiency. If only they'd had citrus herb and tonic!
This recipe from the New York Times calls for two limes, one orange, and one lemon to be sliced and simmered with water, turmeric, and lemon grass. After five minutes, you take it off the heat and let it steep with sliced ginger and fresh oregano to make a tea concentrate that will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.
You can drink it warm with more water and honey, but I've found it's also good served cold with sparkling water or tonic and maybe a little gin thrown in. .
Michael: Yeah,
Carrie: And we'll [00:07:00] link to the recipe on our blog.
Jacqueline: That sounds refreshing.
Carrie: Yeah, it's really good. And I've made it, you know, different ways like, didn't have lemon grass, so I left that out and added some thyme and I usually don't put two limes in it cuz that seems like it would be too limey to me . So I usually just put one lime and like I said, you can, you can do a lot of different things with it. And,
keeps away the scurvy. .
Jacqueline: Oh, that's, yeah, that's true.
Michael:
I bet it goes nice with some moldy fish. , .
I
Carrie: have not tried it with that.
Jacqueline: That's funny. In my book, they're having to reuse their water over and over because they're aboard a spaceship, so,
Carrie: oh yeah.
Jacqueline: I think they probably wouldn't like to have some refreshing drinks
Carrie: yeah.
Michael: Mm.[00:08:00]
Jacqueline: The book I chose for the epistolary prompt is the science fiction novel, Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. This is book one of the Illuminae files trilogy. The story is the count of a Stellarcorp war in the year 2575, between two competing companies and the military. The war begins with the destruction of Kerenza IV.
Kerenza IV is a small planet at the edge of the universe. One of the companies, the WUC, has an legal mining operation that has been in place for over 20 years. So many families live on the small planet. The mega corporation, BeiTech discovers the competitor company, the WUC's mining Operation on Kerenza. BeiTech decides to attack the Kerenza colony using war ships.
The survivors decide the story [00:09:00] of the destruction must be recorded, so BeiTech does not get away with murdering innocent civilians and their families. The story is told from the point of view of the survivors, military personnel, the ship's computer, through hack documents, including emails, schematics, military files, instant messages, medical reports, and interviews. Among the inhabitants of Kerenza
are high school students, Kady Grant and Ezra Mason. They have been dating for over a year. However, the couple have just broken up when they are attacked by the BeiTech missiles. Kady is thinking of ways to get back at her ex when the Defiant, the WUC's protection ship, sounds the space port alarms to warn everyone that the colony is being attacked by warships.
Luckily, that day Kady drove to school instead of taking the planet's underground transportation system to avoid her ex-boyfriend, Ezra. Coincidentally, Ezra decides he doesn't want to [00:10:00] be in the tube during attack. He sees Kady and because she isn't mad enough to let him die, they flee to the transport space port together when the warships are attacking.
Ezra is shot during the escape to the Spaceport shuttles. Due to his injuries, he and Kady are being evacuated onto different spaceships. Ezra is aboard the United Terran Authority government warship, the Alexandra, with other wounded, and Kady ends up on the civilian science ship, the Hypatia. Other colonists escaped to the Copernicus.
Although Ezra and Kady with other colonists escape the BeiTech attack, it turns out there's a lot more in danger on the way. BeiTech has also exposed some of the colonists aboard one of the ships to a highly contagious and deadly plague, which turns people into murderers. BeiTech's warships are still in pursuit and due to some of the damages of the Alexandra and the Hypatia and the [00:11:00] other ships, they will not be able to outrun them for long.
Alexander also suffers damage to his artificial intelligence, aiden. Aiden, who should be protecting them may even be a bigger threat to, than the BeiTech corporation. Nobody in charge will say, what's really going on. Kady, a computer hack data whiz, is hacking the system to get to the truth. Meanwhile, Ezra is inducted into the military as a fighter pilot.
Will Ezra be killed in the war or can he help Kady discover how to save everyone? this novel has something for everyone. A horrifying plague, a war with fighter, pilots, everyday heroes, and a romance. My favorite part was the relationship between the characters. I think the way the novel is written, it gives in an air of authenticity.
I will warn readers that there are violent and gruesome scenes. Also, I found myself cringing at some of the more suggestive remarks between the male characters. [00:12:00] Due to all the horror and the provocative references, I would recommend this book be read by only mature readers. I paired my book with a recipe for a vegan Galaxy cake from the Vegan Dollhouse.
Michael: I have read one of Christoph's books before. I think the, the Never Night, the first one, the Never Night Series. I wanna say they're Never Night Chronicles.
Jacqueline: Oh, okay.
Michael: Whew.
And you're not, you're not lying. Those are brutal and bloody. And some of the scenes were very, very explicit.
Jacqueline: Yeah, they were.
Michael: I was like, whoa, .
Carrie: And is, is the book meant for teens? Is it a YA
novel?
Jacqueline: It is a YA. It's in the YA section. I would say high school though.
Carrie: Uhhuh.
Jacqueline: definitely. Just because the, well, I don't wanna give too much away, but the plague turns the people into like monsters, killing monsters and they're like chasing, trying to kill everyone.
Michael: Yeah. I'm like, yeah,
Jacqueline: all up in outer space and stuff.
Michael: And that sounds like my type of the book.
Jacqueline: There's some, [00:13:00] yeah, it's pretty, there's some horrifying, like at one point they find all these bodies and they're, all the skin's been torn off their bodies and just,
Carrie: jeez.
Michael: Yeah.
Jacqueline: Pretty brutal. So that's why the gave the warning.
Carrie: and I think I missed the part where you talked about the format it's written.
Jacqueline: Yeah, it's written through instant messages.
Carrie: Oh, okay.
Jacqueline: And transcripts, medical reports and emails. So Kady and Ezra do communicate through emails and they're aboard different ships.
Carrie: Mm-hmm. , so
Michael: interesting.
Jacqueline: Yeah.
Michael: I love how you can kind of play, there's a lot of creativity you can do in the epistolary
formats.
Jacqueline: It really, I think it really lends itself to this cuz like you're also getting like the AI's telling you mm-hmm. his report. Mm-hmm. . And so that's becomes in a report format and so you have all these different formats, but it all works with this. Yeah. It's just the way it's inter woven into the story.
Carrie: Yeah. I think [00:14:00] the book I read had a lot of different elements like that too. And like I kind of mentioned, I think, I think it kind of creates a little more suspense because you're not getting a straightforward narrative. You know, you're getting, there's like gaps in between what happens.
Jacqueline: Yeah.
And you have to piece it together. Yeah. And that's, mm-hmm. And like one of the guys when he, well maybe, so one of the people like is running from the, the, they call him the afflicted. He's running from them. And, you know, it's, he's just like horrified and he's telling the story of what he's trying to do in one of like I guess he mentally talks to the computer.
Michael: Wow.
Jacqueline: And he records it, so. Mm. , but it's
Michael: cool.
Jacqueline: I think you might, it has something for everyone, Michael. I'm saying they've got the horror for, you got some romance, the war
Michael: I could probably get through the, the romance ,
so I might have to check that one out.
Jacqueline: Yeah.[00:15:00]
Michael: My book for the epistolary prompt is Episode 13 by Craig DiLouie. I first found this book on Good Reads and knew immediately I was destined to read it for this prompt, since it's a haunted house story, it involves ghost hunters and it's written in epistolary slash found footage style. In this case, it's told in transcripts of raw video footage, webpages, journal entries, emails, and text messages.
This book compiles these documents in an attempt to piece together what happened to the cast and crew of the paranormal investigation show, Fade to Black. They were filming the 13th episode of their first season at the infamously haunted Paranormal Research Foundation house, an old rambling derelict house in the secluded Virginia countryside that slated for demolition.
Back in the seventies, a group of brilliant scientists set up shop in this house to [00:16:00] conduct paranormal experiments on volunteers to unlock any latent special abilities, almost like a hippie versions of the CIA's MK Ultra Project. That is until they all disappeared, scientists and volunteers alike. Now, almost 40 years later, Fade to Black has been granted special permission to be the first group to investigate the country's most notorious haunted house that hasn't been touched since the day the scientists and volunteers disappeared.
Led by Matt, a true believer who wants to know what happens after we die and his wife, Claire, the skeptic and debunker of the crew who has a PhD in physics. They're very much like a Mulder and Scully from the X-Files. They're joined by Kevin, a former Philly cop who is a devout believer in ghost after a running with a Demonn while on duty.
Jake, the Viking chic professional cameraman who's just here to shoot the footage. And Jessica, a single mom actress, added by the production company to round out the team and looking. Her big break the first night, they get absolutely nothing and are getting a bit [00:17:00] frustrated. The show's ratings are starting to dip, and this episode is essentially make or break
if the show is going to make it to a second season. Then they catch the Holy Grail of paranormal activity on film. As they continue with their investigation, something keeps toying with them as they dig into the old files left behind by the scientist. It leads them to, to the old well, in the basement where the Paranormal Research Foundation conducted some of their experiments.
And once they descend into the well, they start to find impossible things, things that make them question reality. It seems like it would be difficult, a difficult task to create, fleshed out and compelling characters in an epistolary found footage book, but DiLouie managed to do it quite effortlessly. When the spares do show up, they don't disappoint with some truly intense and scary scenes.
Also, this book flips the script on you. Starting out as one thing, ghost hunters and over their heads and a haunted house, but becomes something else entirely with a psychological confrontation for each character of their own insecurities and past traumas. Being a ghost hunter myself, an [00:18:00] average consumer of paranormal television, I can say he did his research and knew the terms and jargon you use in that community.
If you're a fan of ghost hunting shows, found footage horror films, or haunted house stories in general, I would highly recommend this book. If you're a fan of horror films like I am, this book gave me strong vibes of the found footage, classic Grave Encounters and the 1999 remake of House on a Haunted Hill.
So for my pairing, one evening before investigating, Jessica makes a pot of her mac and cheese for everyone. This recipe I found at dinneratthezoo.com. It's pretty close to the one she makes and calls for many of the same ingredients like bacon, cheddar cheese, and elbow macaroni, and even her secret ingredient.
Paprika. It's pretty easy to make of, make a great side dish and is even hardy enough for a main course.
Carrie: Sounds like something you would want to eat after or while reading that book.
Jacqueline: Comfort Food.
Michael: Oh yeah. Yes.
Carrie: Yeah, that sounds like
[00:19:00] that one also kind of uses those, that format to build suspense, so,
Michael: yeah.
Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.
Michael: The journal entries. They, most of it works. The journal entries I found maybe didn't work quite so much or maybe not quite believable, cuz I don't, there's some scenes, I guess, where characters are writing in a journal in a dark alley or a dark tunnel while something pursuing them, which just, I don't find.
Hey, I better stop and document,
Hey, I put
down write down what's going on in the, in the, you know, in the absolute darkness. So, . Yeah. What, so, so there's a little, but like overall, I, it did a, it did a good job.
Carrie: Mm-hmm. .
Jacqueline: Mm-hmm.
Michael: You know, building suspense with that.
Carrie: And and I know from the list that we made together epistolary books that some classic horror is also written in an epistolary format.
Michael: Yeah.
Dracula is probably the most famous.
Carrie: Mm-hmm.
Michael: written in letters [00:20:00] from Harker and I think is Frankenstein? Did I put
Frankenstein on that
list?
Carrie: I thought I saw Carrie?
Michael: Carrie,
yes. Carrie is is considered epistolary. I did not know that before.
Carrie: Yeah, well I, you know, I haven't, I haven't read that one.
Cuts a little close. .
Jacqueline: I've read it a long time ago, so I don't like
years ago, but
Michael: that's
one of his, I haven't read.
Carrie: Oh really? You haven't read it either?
Michael: I've not read. I've seen the movie. I have yet to read the book.
Jacqueline: I took a class where I read quite a, we read a quite a few Stephen King books.
Michael: Really?
Jacqueline: So,
yeah. , the teacher was really into Stephen King, so . I was like, okay.
Carrie: So I [00:21:00] also just wanted to mention, cuz we did put on the prompt epistolary book so it can be a nonfiction book as well. Mm-hmm. and I have a, just a couple short recommendations. One is, That is one that I've talked about before on the podcast, but it's been a long time. It's called Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak
in the Stacks: A Librarian's Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in her Life. , but it's a very long title by Annie Spence. And the book collects letters that the librarian author wrote to different books. So it's not just her favorite books, but also books that she doesn't like. Books that annoy her, books that just don't belong in her library's collection anymore.
I liked it because you can really see the full gamut of her relationship with books . [00:22:00] And I think most book lovers will appreciate that because you don't love every book . Mm-hmm. and so you get to kind of, you know, see the good and the bad. Also she's funny and a little snarky both about books. And about library patrons.
Not that we ever are .
Michael: Course not ,
Carrie: but that's okay because it comes from a place of love. And I laughed out loud on multiple occasions while listening to the book. I've. I listen to it on audio. And I will just say that Spence does her fair share of cursing, which is maybe not the typical librarian stereotype.
So if that's not your thing, you may want to keep that in mind. And then the other thing is I love reading letters, collections of letters between people. You know, once upon a time, that's how people communicated.
Michael: Yeah.
Carrie: in like real long letters, not just, you [00:23:00] know, little texts or
Jacqueline: quick emails.
Carrie: Yeah.
Jacqueline: Yeah.
Carrie: So some of my favorites: I enjoyed As Always Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis Devoto. Avis Devoto was her editor. . So if you've been watching the, the Julia series on HBO you might be interested in that. Meanwhile There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross McDonald.
Eudora Welty, of course, the, the famous southern writer and Ross McDonald was also a famous mystery writer. And they were friends. And Eudora Welty was a huge mystery fan and she I think they became friends cuz she sent him a fan letter or something, you know,
Michael: .
Wow,
Jacqueline: wow.
Carrie: So they had this like a years long correspondence.
And then I also really liked My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John [00:24:00] Adams. And that's a great one because you get to, you know, hear a woman's point of view from, from that time period of the 18th century. Mm-hmm. And. . Like I said earlier, we have even more options on our Books and Bites webpage or on our display, right?
Michael: Yeah. Mm-hmm. .
Carrie: We will,
Michael: yes. Yes. . Yeah. Yeah.
Carrie: By the time this airs , there will be a display .
Jacqueline: The librarian one you mentioned would also be a good one for books about books.
Carrie: Yes.
Jacqueline: For that, that prompt as
well. Mm-hmm. . Yeah.
Carrie: Thanks for listening to the Books and Bites podcast. To learn more about Books and bites, bingo, visit us at jesspublib.org/books-bites. Our theme music is The Breakers from the album In Close Quarters with The Enemy by Scott Whiddon. You can learn [00:25:00] more about Scott and his music at his website, adoorforadesk.com.