Otherppl With Brad Listi

Steve Almond is the guest. His new book, Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto, is due out from Melville House on August 26, 2014.  (Author photo:  Sharona Jacobs) Publishers Weekly calls it "Powerful… Almond is drawing on his own experiences as a fan to illustrate how difficult the problem, which provides the book with an engaging personal angle that will lure readers who are mature enough to hear him out whether they agree with his conclusions… An important read, even if as Almond concedes, it offers more questions than answers." And Kirkus Reviews says “A provocative, thoughtful examination of an ’astonishingly brutal’ sport… Comic, compassionate and thought-provoking.” Monologue topics: football, fandom, non-fans, football as a lens through which to view the wider culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shane Jones is the guest. His latest novel, Crystal Eaters, is now available from Two Dollar Radio.  Vice says "Jones demonstrates a tightrope-like eye for finagling between Pynchon-esque quasi-science-fictional feels and the books' physics, allowing almost anything to happen at any time, wrapped in a Wallace-like grip of childlike awe. The result is a novel that, paragraph to paragraph, is alive with imagination. Crystal Eaters is the rarest of kinds of objects, one that replenishes its readers' crystal counts by simply being read." And The Millions says "Crystal Eaters is splattered with Technicolor crystal vomit and eye goo, with bodies leaking red, yellow, and blue; the sun wants to swallow the earth; and the indestructible city encroaches on the country like kudzu. This crystal mining country is Jones’s own Yoknapatawpha County, a town with its own peculiar inhabitants and notions and schemes (such as a prison break in reverse). These fantastical trappings give way to deeper questions — about death, the

Aimee Bender is the guest. She is the bestselling author of several books, including The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, and The Color Master. The LA Times says "Bender’s work has never been the stuff of manic pixie dream-girl lit. Her fairy tales are dark and wicked, not hipster-precious and faux old-timey. Her sorcery altogether avoids the saccharine, and the thrills and chills of this sometimes sexual, often horror-drenched collection are completely adult. At a time when realism reigns supreme over the literary landscape, one can argue it is absolutely imperative that Aimee Bender be spotlighted for what she is: a vital MVP of modern letters, period…In our world of flash-and-trash insta-Internet-oddities and stranger-than-fiction social-media-bloopers, she will have surpassed the simple feat of inventiveness to own a most dazzlingly urgent relevancy." And The Wall Street Journal says “The fairy-tale elements in her writing, far from seeming outlandish, highlight the every

Dan Chaon is the guest. He is the acclaimed author of several books, including the story collection Among the Missing, a finalist for the National Book Award, Stay Awake, and You Remind Me of Me. The Boston Globe calls him "The modern day John Cheever." And the New York Times Book Review calls his work "Superbly disquieting." Monologue topics: complaining, Twitter, robots, simplicity, second-guessing.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stuart Dybek is the guest. He is the award-winning author of several books of fiction and poetry, including Childhood and Other Neighborhoods, The Coast of Chicago, Streets in Their Own Ink, and I Sailed With Magellan. George Saunders says "[Stuart Dybek] somehow manages to conjure up beautiful, detailed imitations of real America, and then infuse them with so much surreal truth that they read like myths or fairy tales. Like the Chicago he often writes about, his work is full of genuine sentiment, and edge, and beauty. One of the most soulful writers in America, and a national treasure." And the Chicago Tribune calls him "A magician comparable to Eudora Welty and Joy Williams." Monologue topics:  Episode 300, wondering if it means anything, writing in coffee shops, guilt.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cynthia Bond is the guest. Her debut novel, Ruby, is now available from Hogarth Press.  Ruby is the official July selection of The TNB Book Club. Edwidge Danticat raves “Reading Cynthia Bond’s Ruby, you can’t help but feel that one day this book will be considered a staple of our literature, a classic. Lush, deep, momentous, much like the people and landscape it describes, Ruby enchants not just with its powerful tale of lifelong quests and unrelenting love, but also with its exquisite language. It is a treasure of a book, one you won’t soon forget.” And the Dallas Morning News says "In Ruby, Bond has created a heroine worthy of the great female protagonists of Toni Morrison…and Zora Neale Hurston… Bond’s style of writing is as magical as an East Texas sunrise, with phrases so deftly carved, the reader is often distracted from the brutality described by the sheer beauty of the language.” Monologue topics:  mail, war, peace, duality, mocking myself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice

Jac Jemc is the guest. Her new story collection, A Different Bed Every Time, is due out from Dzanc Books this fall.  Jesse Ball says "To Jemc the world is a place where each person, every human cypher, must devour another. What then can we do, if we are devoured, if we are overcome with our own devouring? Her escape plan is inspired and ancient -- to become protean, to dwell in costume after costume, parcelling away the truth that can be found in each. But where is it hid? Ask her, though she may not say." And Lindsay Hunter says "Jac Jemc is an artisan. A Different Bed Every Time stays with you long after you've finished reading. Every story is painstakingly crafted with words and imagery that are honed and placed just so, creating a mosaic you feel grateful, exhilarated, thrilled to experience." Monologue topics:  awards shows, the word "lil," humanity, world peace, fuckedness.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Letitia Trent is the guest. Her debut novel, Echo Lake, is now available from Dark House Press. Kirkus Reviews says "Trent’s years as a poet serve her well in this heavily atmospheric novel, which deftly conjures up both evil and the small town’s complicit reluctance to face its past." And Kyle Minor says "Echo Lake is more than just a good debut novel. It is the coming-out party for Letitia Trent, the new poet-queen of neo-noir." Monologue topics: awards shows, celebrities, awkwardness, The Dude, Jeff Bridges. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leesa Cross-Smith is the guest. Her debut story collection Every Kiss a War is now available from Mojave River Press.  It was a finalist for the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award and the Iowa Short Fiction Award. Roxane Gay says “Leesa Cross-Smith is a consummate storyteller who uses her formidable talents to tell the oft-overlooked stories of people living in that great swath of place between the left and right coasts. She offers thrilling turns of phrase like, 'His mouth tasted like thousand-page Russian novels I’d never read,' or 'let your smeary mouth be his question mark.' Where she is most stunning is in the endings of each of the 27 stories in Every Kiss a War, creating crisp, evocative moments that will linger long after you’ve read this book’s very last word.” Monologue topics:  mail, friends, IRL communities, fostering connectivity, being social.      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guillaume Morissette is the guest. His debut novel, New Tab, is now available from Vehicule Press. Melissa Broder says “In this hilarious novel, Morissette meditates on finding and making meaning in a time when distractions coalesce to form the new and glossy void. The deconstruction of regrets, an email with feelings and the screaming universe cement Morissette as both a master of the absurd and a seer of the real. I lol’d.” And Dazed and Confused calls him "Canada's Alt Lit poster boy." Monologue topics: being late, rushing, being unprepared, Alt Lit initiation, Frank Hinton's genitals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julia Fierro is the guest. She is the founder of the Sackett Street Writers' Workshop and her debut novel, Cutting Teeth, is now available from St. Martin's Press. The Millions says "When a group of thirty-something parents gather at a ramshackle beach house called Eden, no serpent is required for the sins, carnal and otherwise, to pile up. Fierro, founder of Brooklyn's Sackett Street Writers' Workshop, argued in The Millions last year that writers need to put the steam--and the human sentiment--back into sex scenes in literary novels. You may want to keep Fierro's debut novel on a high shelf, away from children and prudish literary snobs." And Megan Abbott says "Julia Fierro’s Cutting Teeth offers immense rewards to readers far beyond those who will identify with the frantic, conflicted, yearning parents who fill the novel (though many will). It’s for any reader seeking a tale rich in character, strong in voice and filled with both incisive social critique and a luminous generosity of spirit, a rare combinat

John Brandon is the guest. His new story collection, Further Joy, is now available from McSweeney's.  Kirkus Reviews calls it “An impressive collection, cleareyed and penetrating.” And Booklistcalls it "Intensely readable, and enormously entertaining.” Monologue topics: vacation, relaxation, terrifying hippies, chickens, dancing white women, Coldplay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Smith Henderson is the guest. His debut novel, Fourth of July Creek, is now available from Ecco. Ron Charles of The Washington Post calls it “The best book I’ve read so far this year...Henderson choreographs these parts so masterfully that the novel is never less than wholly engaging… All week I was looking for opportunities to slip back into these pages and follow the trials of this rural social worker.” And The New York Times says “First novels don’t come much more confidently written or fully imagined than this.” Monologue topics: travel, family travel, parental aspirations, travel hell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Miranda Beverly-Whittemore is the guest. Her new novel, Bittersweet, is now available from Crown. It is a New York Times bestseller and the official June selection of The TNB Book Club. Entertainment Weekly says “What begins a little like Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep quickly warps into a sickly addictive thriller…think ABC’s Revenge when it was good, only more scandalous…With books like Bittersweet to stuff in beach bags, it’s beginning to feel a lot more like summer." And The New York Times Book Review says "A fairy tale aspect—of the Grimm, not the Disney variety—pervades the novel, which artfully builds an increasing sense of menace…Like a Downton-in-Vermont, Bittersweet takes swift, implausible plot turns, and its family secrets flow like a bottomless magnum of champagne, but Beverly-Whittemore succeeds in shining a light into the dark, brutal flaws of the human heart.” Monologue topics:  success, competition, ego, Vanity Fair, The Last Magazine.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoi

Mike Sacks is the guest. His new book, Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today's Top Comedy Writers, is now available from Penguin. Bob Odenkirk says “No one generates more interesting, revealing, or entertaining interviews than Mike Sacks. Poking a Dead Frog is a classic.” And Will Ferrell says “This book is what I really look forward to in a book about humor: rich with words and humor, and funny stories with words. Thank you for your time.” Monologue topics: family vacation, sweltering heat, chickens, fear, sexlessness.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robin Sloan is the guest. His bestselling novel, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, was the May 2014 selection of the TNB Book Club. It is now available in paperback from Picador.  George Saunders calls it “A real tour de force [and] a beautiful fable...The reader is swept along by Sloan’s enthusiasm.” And John Hodgman says “In a time when actual books are filling up tag-sale dollar boxes, along with VHS tapes and old beepers, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore reminds us that there is an intimate, adventurous joy in the palpable papery things called novels, and in the warm little secret societies we used to call ‘bookstores.’ Robin Sloan’s novel is delightfully funny, provocative, deft, and even thrilling. And for reasons more than just nostalgia, I could not stop turning these actual pages." Monologue topics: Episode 300, Stephen King, Lorrie Moore, Teju Cole, angst, Mary Karr, false summits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ariel Schrag is the guest. Her new novel Adam is now available from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  Publishers Weekly says "Schrag's frisky debut...is one of the most original coming-of-age stories of recent years." And Flavorwire says "Ariel Schrag’s story about a teenager who goes to spend the summer in New York with his sister is unlike any coming-of-age story you’ll read anytime soon. Funny and tender... Anybody familiar with Schrag’s comics won’t be disappointed with her work as a novelist; if you haven’t read her other work, let Adam be your introduction and read everything else you can find of hers from there." Monologue topics: preschool, social anxiety, inferiority, courtesy, instincts.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Barbash is the guest. His story collection Stay Up With Me is now available in paperback from Ecco. The Daily Beast calls it “Fantastic…These Cheever-esque stories all show that Barbash has a sensitive ear towards the subtle ways that relationships are formed and altered, but he’s also not afraid to open a story with a car accident and watch the sparks fly.” And The New York Times says “These stories should come with a warning: They might undo you.” Monologue topics: competition, competitive mania, confusion, fear, loathing.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brittani Sonnenberg is the guest. Her debut novel, Home Leave, is now available from Grand Central Publishing. Karen Russell says "It's hard to believe that this astonishing novel is Brittani Sonnenberg's first--she writes about family with wisdom, humor, and native daring. Here is Persephone's journey, undertaken by an entire family, the Kriegsteins, who ricochet through time zones, moving from Berlin to Singapore to Wisconsin to Shanghai to Atlanta, together and alone. Sonnenberg's prose is so vital and so enchanting that you will read this book in the dilated state of a world-traveler, with all of your senses wide open. Her family members are so well-drawn and complex that you'll close this book certain they exist." And Wim Wenders calls it "A captivating tour de force that follows a nomadic family across generations and continents." Monologue topics: mail, multilingualism, cultural superiority, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Iran, Egypt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nicholas Grider is the guest. His story collection, Misadventure, is now available from A Strange Object. Brian Evenson calls it "A dark and luscious hell ride through the damaged but nonetheless appealing rituals of bondage. These are tantalizing and difficult stories in which fantasy and reality bleed (quite literally) into one another." And Matt Bell says "Each of these compelling stories is ruled not by certainty but by maybe, by sometimes, by ‘this is not necessarily a proclamation of anything’—and so we finally sense behind their pages the nervous heart of the modern man, stubbornly clinging to a fading authority, now more desperately than ever before.” Monologue topics: thanks, Skylight Books, xTx, Roxane Gay, Lisa Mecham, curtseying.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices