Two Book Nerds Talking

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell was just long-listed for the Women's Prize for fiction. What makes people over five hundred years later still speculate on Shakespeare's life? How much did the death of his son Hamnet influenced his tragedy Hamlet? Was the name coincidental or deliberate? Was it a way to process his grief? Surprisingly we found the main character in this novel is his wife, called Agnes and her inner life and sacrifices...

Our minisode this time brings you a young poet that hails from Sumatera. Ilham was the only emerging poet to be in the Ubud Indonesian writing anthology and we caught up with him during the festival last year. His poem was political and does hit home even though it was an observation on Indonesian politics. The interview was done in Bahasa Indonesian but we have punctuated this episode with explanations and our discussion on it.

Zoiks! We have a special crossover episode for all you geeks and nerds out there. In the studio with us this week are the gregarious Amelia Chen and Nick Dorian from the pop culture podcast Geeks in Malaysia. We chewed through Joe Hill's graphic novels and the Netflix series. First part is all about the printed matter of course while the second part which will be out on Geeks in Malaysia will be on the series. Enjoy!

When Jeanine Cummins' highly anticipated book American Dirt hit the shelves readers were beside themselves recommending it. The mother and son story of being pursued by a drug kingpin fired everyone's imaginations. And then controversy hit, Mexican and Latinx writers came down hard on it citing the fact that it fetishisize their culture and that Cummins wrote at best a summer pot-boiler and not a book that puts forward issues of migrants and social justice. Learn about the controversy surrounding this book in our latest episode.

The secondhand industry has spawned its own sub-culture, economy and entrepreneurs. Dive with us into the world of garage sales, flea markets and thrift stores with author Adam Minter who has spent a lot of his free time poking around secondhand stores and backyards. It's fascinating, compelling and heart-wrenching at times.

As promised from time to time we feature an emerging writer from the region. We met Lita Lestianti at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and talked how she juggles writing with motherhood...

Bernadine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other is a candid look into the lives of 12 British black women. The novel is clever, entertaining and experimental but did it deserve the joint Booker with Atwood's testaments. Well we sat down and talked feminism, gender, class, sexuality and all sorts of other juicy things in this week's episode.

Been mad about a certain monster-fighting, white-haired mutant? In this episode special we talk everything Witcher, the books, the games, the series. Love it or hate it, if you have Netflix there is no way you could miss The Witcher that has been storming everyone's feeds. So Toss a coin to your Booknerds and lets go!

With the launch go The Garden of Evening Mists movie, we got author Tan Twan Eng in the studio to spill the beans on borrowed sceneries, horimonos and, the thrill of seeing your characters come to life on the big screen. Of course we needed out on books too!

T'is the end of 2019. How was the reading year for you? We feel incredibly blessed really looking back at the year of reading and podcasting we had. Here are some of our reading highlights and the episodes we loved. We also talked about award-winners and books on everyone's reading list. Enjoy! And catch ya in the new year! qCp70ID9tInfd0anyNWs

We had the chance to interview Guy Gunaratne at URWF'19 where he chatted about his book The Mad and Furious City. We talked about belonging, extremism and finding the inspiration to write a book in vernacular and language that feels true to yourself. It's a great little interview folks! We also put in some excerpts of him reading some passages and bits of another interview he had with Kate Evans from Australia's ABC Radio National. Audio was courtesy of Ubud Readers and Writers Festival.

During the Ubud Writers Festival we checked out new emerging writers especially from Indonesia. For the next few months we will be featuring an emerging writer each month starting with the lovely Chandra Bientang. A philosophy major and content writer based in Jakarta, she was one of the five selected to be in the UWRF anthology. We caught up with her to talk about stories that need to be told such as the fate of street children and women's reproductive rights.

We are on a hiatus but we have plenty of good stuff for you to keep you company from the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. We caught up with the powerhouse behind one of the world's best Lit Fest, Janet Deneefe and talked about the festival this year, what she hopes for it and also her favourite Balinese food.

We are back! From the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and it was fabulous. As we are busy sorting out the interviews and crafting cool episodes for you constant listeners, have a listen to our festival roundup. It will give you a taste of what went on, the writers that we met and also our impressions of UWRF'19

Come join us in the disturbing world of Lovecraftian stories and weird tales, where The Old Ones disdain the insignificance of man and you, are but a sleep away from a dreamscape world of night gaunts and crafty cats. Lovecraft was prolific, at times problematic and, probably in love with his own prose yet, it is undeniable that his mythos casts a long and tentacled shadow over all the arts and popular culture until today. We talk about this reclusive genius and his terrible visions...

It's been 8 long years for Erin Morgenstern fans since The Night Circus captivated readers and dreamers alike all over the world. Now finally, her second novel, The Starless Sea is out. Come with us into her underground labyrinth of stories complete with hidden stairways, masquerade balls and tales within tales. There's a lot to sink your teeth into...

So still in a Spooktober mood we sat down and sunk our teeth into Tunku Halim's macabre mind. It was... delightfully pleasant. He shares his thoughts on Malaysian's obsession with the supernatural and everything from orang minyak to bomohs. We also talked a little bit about his non-fiction too including his weight loss book- So Fatlah!

Imaging sitting in a darkened room and listening to a really good ghost story, the thrill of fear licking down your spine, the hairs on the back of your neck rising as the tale builds up to its final fright. For as long as we have been telling stories, there have been ghost stories, its in our DNA because fear is universal and those that haunt us (be it ghostly or otherwise) never really leaves us...

So. . .John Connolly popped by the studio for a conversation on all things Charlie Parker. Book of Bones is book 17 of the series (imagine that) and Honey who has been following it from the very beginning was beside herself because she could ask all those burning questions about the series.

The Testaments, is the much-awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale (fans have waited over 34 years for it!) It follows three different women 15 years after the incidents of The Handmaid's Tale and aims to answer all your burning questions about Gilead. Does it? Listen on to our episode this week.