Dec. 6, 2024

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Inheriting the Inescapable: Lovia Gyarkye on Marie NDiaye’s Ladivine

Jo discovers one of the most fascinating books of all time with Extraterrestrial Languages by Daniel Oberhaus, while Charlotte issues her verdict on whether Lional Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin lives up to its good reputation. Beloved critic Lovia Gyarkye then joins to assess the complex, beguiling mother-daughter dynamics at work in Marie NDiaye’s Ladivine.

Lovia Gyarkye is a critic at The Hollywood Reporter based in New York.

Send questions, requests, recommendations, and your own thoughts about any of the books discussed today to readingwriterspod at gmail dot com.

Charlotte’s most recent book is An Honest Woman: A Memoir of Love and Sex Work. Learn more at charoshane.com

Jo co-edits The Stopgap and their writing lives at jolivingstone.com.

To support the show, navigate to https://www.patreon.com/ReadingWriters

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

History

Society & Culture

Arts

Books

English

United States

explicit content

Use API to fetch this episode in JSON

IN THIS EPISODE

lional shriver

daniel oberhau

# marie ndiaye

# lovia gyarkye

Edit these tags

TRANSCRIPT 🔗

Are you the producer of this podcast? Add a podcast transcript

Need Audio-to-Text? Transcribe with Listen411 in Just 60 Seconds

SEARCH PAST EPISODES

Search past episodes of Reading Writers.

Embed this search bar to your website

OTHER EPISODES IN THIS PODCAST

French Sicko: Annelise Ogaard on Gabrielle Wittkop’s Murder Most Serene

Nov. 26, 2025

Jo and Charlotte discuss secret gardens, indoor kids, and Peter Pan’s baby teeth before they’re joined by culture-shaping Annelise Ogaard, who introduces listeners to the lavish, creepy world of Gabrielle Wittkop’s fiction. Annelise Ogaard is a writer, translator, filmmaker, vibesmith, area woman, …

00:56:36

SAVE

CLIP

Stinking and Miserable: Clio Chang on Cheryl Strayed's Wild

Dec. 17, 2025

In a scandalous rejection of holiday spirit, Jo and Charlotte reflect on the dark, elegant pleasures of Gabrielle Wittkopf’s The Necrophiliac alongside contemporary novel conventions as deployed in Rebecca Novack’s Murder Bimbo. The hosts are then joined by dear friend Clio Chang, who outlines the …

00:58:47

SAVE

CLIP

A Certain Mistake: Jackie Ess on Tolstoy’s Resurrection

Dec. 3, 2025

Charlotte delves into Ecclesiastes through the work of liberation theologist Elsa Támez (When the Horizons Close) before Jo shares some of Pierre Guyotat’s horny, rapturous literary memoir, Idiocy. Icon of many RW conversations past, the thoughtful Jackie Ess then joins to discuss Tolstoy’s crank-i…

00:48:55

SAVE

CLIP

Each Brick in This Wall: Hanif Abdurraqib on Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place

Jan. 7, 2026

Charlotte and Jo spring into the new year with a conversation about ancient poetry: Beowulf, The Iliad, and Dante’s Inferno as translated by Mark Musa, Mary Jo Bang, and Danny Lavery. They’re then joined by the wise and wonderful Hanif Abdurraqib who—after sharing a scoop about what series of book …

01:06:23

SAVE

CLIP

A Year in Reading

Dec. 31, 2025

In this host-only bonus episode, Charlotte and Jo discuss some of their most memorable reads of 2025. Authors discussed include Arthur C. Clarke, Shon Faye, Sarah Schulman, Ai Yazawa, Marjane Satrapi, Ariana Reines, Kyung-Ran Jo, and more. Please consider supporting us on Patreon, where you can acc…

00:38:01

SAVE

CLIP

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Reading Writers, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.