Transcript / LoLT: Grammy-Nominated Audiobooks and Two New Books — 31 January 2025

This is a transcription of LoLT: Grammy-Nominated Audiobooks and Two New Books — 31 January 2025

[cheerful music]

Melissa: Coming up, a delicious food memoir with recipes.

David: A story about how a book can change the author.

Melissa: Plus, our Distraction of the Week. I’m Mel.

David: I’m Dave. This is The Library of Lost Time.

David: Before we get into our books, a programming note. We won’t be releasing a new episode next week. We’re taking a trip to France. We’ll be back on February 14.

Melissa: Today, I’m sharing a book I received from a dear friend for my birthday. It’s ‘Cold Kitchen’ by Caroline Eden.

Melissa: The author Caroline Eden has written for ‘The Financial Times’ and ‘The Guardian.’ She’s also authored a handful of cookbooks about Central Asia, Turkey, and Russia. All of her writing combines travel stories with sensory food writing and recipes.

Melissa: This book — ‘Cold Kitchen’ — is an exploration of the world that’s grounded in her kitchen in Edinburgh. The narrative covers a year in her life — the book is divided into the four seasons. Each chapter is an essay about an ingredient or a food memory… like pies on a Russian railroad or a hike in Scotland in search of cloudberries. Her essays seamlessly weave history, culture, and travel adventures with her observations. It’s immensely personal in a way that’s engaging. Her stories are threaded with references to other books and vivid descriptions of ingredients. It often feels like you’ve been dropped into the middle of the action. A chapter called Better a Dinner of Herbs starts like this. You’re going to hear the word dulse. That’s a type of red seaweed.

Rain is rushing in from the North Sea, battering the wild greens and pot herbs… The deluge, like a birdsong or the distant buzzing of the very first lawnmower, is ringing in spring. A time of nervous and untrustworthy weather. Whole banks of wild garlic are glistening and reeking down by the River Tweed, there are buds on the trees and blossom is promising just up head. The land is dandelions and the sea is dulse. Kitchens have their seasons. And in this subterranean world, hidden from rainstorms and eager winds, is a world of wheat, wine, and herbs. Always herbs.

Melissa: The chapter ends with a recipe for a springtime soup with handfuls of fresh herbs, preserved lemon, and croutons.

Melissa: You can also make a simple candied brittle with nuts and cherries or a cozy Polish beet soup topped with feta. There’s a recipe for bread pudding made with dark beer and rye bread. And all of them come with memories and stories built in.

Melissa: I’m dipping in and out of its pages between reading books for Strong Sense of Place. It’s like visiting with a well-traveled foodie friend.

Melissa: If you know what it’s like to feel affection for a particular food or daydream about traveling to a far-flung place to try something you read about once, I think you’ll love this book. It’s ‘Cold Kitchen’ by Caroline Eden.

David: Nnedi Okorafor has a new book out. She’s a science fiction and fantasy author. You might know her from ‘Akata Witch’ and ‘Akata Warrior’ — or the ‘Binti’ trilogy, which won a Nebula and a Hugo. Her latest is called ‘Death of the Author.’

David: When our book starts, we meet the main character, Zelu. She’s a disabled Nigerian writer whose life is going poorly. She’s just been fired from her teaching post. Her latest book has been rejected. Her family is a mess.

David: While she’s at her sister’s wedding, she sort of self-indulges a bit and writes the book she wants to read. It’s a science-fiction book. An epic story of androids and AI in the ruins of a post-apocalyptic world.

David: The book I’m talking about — ‘Death of the Author’ — contains these two stories side-by-side. We get a literary fiction story about a writer, and chapters of her science-fiction book. And you read back and forth between the two. It’s not immediately evident, but they start informing each other.

David: Along the way, we get a lot of story. There’s dysfunctional family drama with a bunch of high-achieving siblings. There’s what it’s like to create a successful novel and how it changes the author’s world. And also doesn’t. There’s a romance in here. Some of the book is in the form of interviews with Zelu’s family.

David: Reviewers have said that the main character is fun to be around, although not always likable, you’re still rooting for her. She’s imaginative, abrasive, loving; she swears a lot; she’s feisty.

David: If you like meta-fiction, or you’re just curious about the trials of a disabled science fiction author as she tries to get through her life and her work, you’ll probably enjoy this.

David: It came out last week. It’s ‘Death of the Author’ by Nnedi Okorafor.

David: And now our Distraction of the Week.

David: The Grammy Awards will be awarded on Sunday. Now, the Grammys and I have never really gotten along. It’s not a feud or anything. It’s just — they’ve never given me an award, which, you know, rude. And I don’t really care for their taste.

David: We continue to peacefully coexist. But, you know, no love lost. No holiday cards.

David: I do like looking at their nomination list from time to time. Sometimes, there’s an artist or a new work that I’m curious about. But as the years go by, that’s happening less and less. Which I’m sure is devastating for the Recording Academy.

David: But! There is one category that I thought might be interesting to us. And that is Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording.

David: I wanted to quickly tell you about the five nominations there because maybe you need a new audiobook or two. And these all sound pretty great.

David: Jimmy Carter leads the nominations. I was surprised that Jimmy Carter has already won three Grammys. By that measure, he’s a more successful recording artist than Marvin Gaye. Marvin only has two.

David: Jimmy is up for ‘Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration.’ Those are recordings of his last Sunday school lessons at his church in Plains. He talks about personal responsibility and duty to others. Remember when we had leaders who were interested in personal responsibility and duty to others? Like Dave Chapelle said on SNL about Carter: ‘I don’t know if that’s a good president but that right there — I am sure — is a great man.’ The recording is interspersed with music from Keb Mo, LeeAnn Rimes, Jon Batiste, and others. It runs for about an hour.

David: Next up is Barbra Streisand. She reads her autobiography, ‘My Name is Barbra.’ If you’re into Barbra, you’ll get a lot of her. The book she wrote is 992 pages. She reads the whole thing. Unabridged. The audiobook is 48 hours long. She talks about her entire life — from her childhood to her decades of superstardom — seemingly in real-time.

David: Then we’ve got George Clinton — Dr. Funkenstein, the leader of the band Parliment-Funkadelic. His recording is called ‘…And Your Ass Will Follow.’ He talks about starting out as a member of a doo-wop group and a counterfeiter. His recording has tracks of his music, and his storytelling skills are strong. The title is from a lyric of his: ‘Free your mind, and your ass will follow.’ You might remember when En Vogue made that into their own song. ‘…And Your Ass Will Follow’ runs about an hour and twenty minutes.

David: Our fourth nomination is ‘All You Need is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words.’ This is based on a book by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines that came out in September. Those guys know some things about the Beatles. Peter Brown was on the Beatles’ management team. He was the best man at John’s wedding to Yoko. He was name-dropped in one of the last Beatles singles. Steven Gaines has written about the Beatles with Peter Brown for over 40 years. The book is a collection of interviews that happened before 1980 – which is significant, because that’s when John was assassinated. A central thread through the book is: why did you guys break up, and why are you so angry with each other now? To do the audiobook version, they introduced a cast of actors to play the different musicians and the people in their circle. If you’re curious about the Beatles, this will offer insight into where they were after they broke up. I hear there’s a ton of intrigue and drama. The audiobook is a little under ten hours long.

David: So, we’ve got four strong contenders. Jimmy Carter, Barbra Streisand, George Clinton, and the Beatles. Who — WHO — will walk into this arena last? Who could offer a challenge to these four titans of popular culture?

David: Ladies and gentlemen! In this corner. Wearing the most fabulous, sequinned leotard you have ever seen in your entire life. From a one-room cabin on the banks of Little Pigeon River, Tennessee! It’s DOLLY PARTON.

David: Yeah. So Dolly released a book this year. It’s called ‘Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones.’ It is a long walk through her life in fashion. It’s got many, many photographs and stories from her costume archive, including her shoes, wigs, and makeup. There’s everything from the clothes her mother sewed out of feed sacks to costumes from her movies to what she’s wearing today.

David: Now. How did the producers make an audiobook out of that? They had Dolly come in, and they watched her as she went off-script. So you get her talking about her clothes as she remembers them. The Washington Post called the audiobook, ‘fast-talking, exuberant, effervescent and magnificently outrageous.’

David: If you’re interested, you will want both: the book so you can see all the clothes, and the audiobook to hear Dolly talking about them.

David: And that’s it! Those are the five nominees for Best Audiobook at the Grammys. Congratulations to all the nominees. May this notice bring them future success.

Melissa: Visit strongsenseofplace.com/library for more on the books we talked about today and the best audiobooks to put into your ears.

David: Thanks for joining us on the library of last time. Remember to visit your local library and your independent bookstore to lose some time yourself.

Melissa: Stay curious. We’ll talk to you soon.

[cheerful music]