Transcript / LoLT: The Joy of Lying on the Floor and Two New Books — 21 March 2025

This is a transcription of LoLT: The Joy of Lying on the Floor and Two New Books — 21 March 2025

[cheerful music]

Melissa: Coming up, the story of a surreal train crash in 1895 Paris.

David: WORDS.

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

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

Melissa: The Irish author Emma Donoghue is best known for her 2010 novel ‘Room.’ That story is told from the perspective of a five-year-old boy being held captive in a small room along with his mom. It was adapted into a movie in 2015, starring Brie Larson. She won a slew of awards for her portrayal of the mom, including the BAFTA, the Golden Globe, and the Oscar.

Melissa: But when I think of Emma Donoghue, I remember the book ‘The Pull of the Stars.’ I recommended it in our Ireland episode. That one is historical fiction set in Dublin, at a special pregnancy ward for women afflicted with the Spanish flu. I hear the words as I’m saying them, and I recognize that doesn’t sound like a great read. But! the story focuses on amazing women. Brave, funny, smart, flawed. It’s historical fiction that reads like a thriller — I didn’t expect a story about flu and pregnant ladies to be an emotional page-turner, but I loved it.

Melissa: Emma Donoghue has a new book out, and it’s set on a train! It’s called ‘The Paris Express,’ and it’s based on a real-life train disaster. In 1895, the Granville-Paris Express train derailed and crashed through Montparnasse station. This book tells the story of that day though the voices of a handful of passengers from all over the world. There are members of Parliament, a medical student, a secretary trying to convince her boss that moving pictures are the future, train crew members, and — this is the best part — the train engine itself.

Melissa: The other thing I find appealing is that the entire story takes place in just one day. The chapters are named for times and stops along the route, counting down to the crash. So the first chapter is ‘8:30 a.m. Embark Granville.’ Then later, ‘11:10 a.m. [unscheduled] Halt Briouze.’ The penultimate chapter is called ‘4:00 p.m. Arrive Paris-Montparnasse,’ and the last is simply ‘4:01 p.m.’ Just talking about that made me feel a little tense. I love it.

Melissa: On her website, Donoghue said: ‘This novel was written with great pleasure over the course of a year in Montparnasse, and I’ve put into it everything I love about the multicultural dazzle that is Paris… For a long time I’ve been wanting to write a story about a disaster - dozens of strangers brought together by the fluke of being at a certain spot at the wrong moment… I’ve tried to give the novel both the social range and the unstoppable momentum of a runaway train.’

Melissa: That’s ‘The Paris Express’ by Emma Donoghue, and it’s out now.

David: You might know author Karen Russell from her debut novel, 2011’s “Swamplandia!” That is a coming-of-age novel set in family-run alligator-wrestling theme park that’s falling on hard times. That book wove together magical realism, family drama, and the spooky beauty of the swampland. It did well for itself. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and had a spot on the New York Time’s “10 Best Books of the Year.”

David: Russell has a new book out. It once again blends the surreal with the human. It is also set in a location you might not expect. It’s called ‘The Antidote.’ It’s set in the 1930s, in a ravaged Dust Bowl town in Nebraska.

David: There are five central characters in this book. There’s a Prairie Witch, who can absorb and store people’s unwanted memories. If you have something you don’t want to remember, you can just give it to her. There’s a photographer who has a camera that captures images of things that are not yet there or perhaps have already passed. And there’s a scarecrow – an actual scarecrow – who is somehow mysteriously awake and alive and carrying the memories of others inside him.

David: This book has things to say about the times we live in now. One reviewed called it, ‘Timely and urgent.’ If you like her other work, or if you enjoyed ‘The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay’ by Michael Chabon or ‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ by George Saunders, I suspect you will love this.

David: It just came out last week. It’s ‘The Antidote’ by Karen Russell.

David: Magical realism meets the 1930s Dust Bowl.

David: And now our Distraction of the Week.

Melissa: I have a theory about yoga. My theory is this. All the things you do in a yoga class: setting up you mat, the little story the teacher tells at the beginning, the poses, the deliberate breathing — all of those things are designed to eventually get you to the final pose. Savasana. The corpse pose. Where you lie flat on the floor, relax, and let the earth take the full weight of your body. The whole class is like a local train with stops along the way to distract you to that final destination of… aaaaah.

Melissa: But here’s the thing. You can lie on the floor anytime. You don’t need to commit to a yoga class to do it. The floor is just there, all the time. Waiting for you. You can just lie on the floor.

Melissa: And now is a great time to start lying on the floor.

Melissa: I’m a big fan. After I finish my yoga in the morning — shout out to Yoga with Adriene! — I leave my mat unrolled on the floor next to my desk as a reminder that I can stretch out any time. I like to think of it as the adult version of nap time at nursery school — just a few moments to take a time-out from the day.

Melissa: According to an article in the New York Times called ‘Are You a Floor Person?’ there are millions of views on TikTok of the hastag floortime. One of the TikTokers said, ‘I am a floor person to my core. Meeting just ended? Floor. Home from the gym? Floor. Want to take a nap? Floor.’ I relate to that so much.

Melissa: Lying on the floor is nice all the time, but it’s especially useful if you’re feeling stressed or tired or distracted or overstimulated. When you feel anxious, your autonomic nervous system gets fired up. That’s the part of your nervous system that handles unconscious activities like heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and digestion.

Melissa: I think everyone has probably heard of the fight-or-flight response. That’s what happens when your autonomic nervous system is firing on all cylinders. Being in that charged up state beats you up physically and emotionally.

Melissa: To counteract it, you want to say hey-o to your parasympathetic nervous system. That’s the one that relaxes your body after stress or exertion. To activate the parasympathetic nervous system, it helps to get grounded — and lying on the floor is a fast, easy, always-available way to do that.

Melissa: When you lie on the floor, you can surrender to gravity in a way that you don’t in a chair or even on the bed. On the floor, you can feel which parts of your body are in contact with the ground and where you might be clenching a muscle. If you sit at a desk for chunks of the day, stretching out on the floor is like unfurling your spine. It’s easier to take deep breaths and relax every part of your body.

Melissa: And it doesn’t have to be precious. You don’t have to think about meditation or the physical benefits, you can just lie on the floor.

Melissa: I’ve started lying on the floor to do stuff I usually do sitting up. Talking on the phone. Listening to an audiobook. Filing my fingernails. If it can be done in a chair, odds are pretty good it can be done flat on the floor.

Melissa: Also, if you’re lucky, sometimes a pet or a person will join you on the floor. There is nothing like the feeling of triumph that I get when I feel our cat Smudge snuggle into my ribs when I’m lying on the floor. And one time, I made Dave lie on the floor, too. It was great!

Melissa: If you want to make lying on the floor a thing in your life, and I encourage you to give it a try, here are some tips:

Melissa: Tip #1: If you have hard floors, you might want to put down a yoga mat or a blanket. When I’m very wound up, I do the yoga mat only. If I’m not agitated, but I’m feeling like I want to surrender to a chill moment, I fold a blanket and put it on the yoga mat to make it soft and cozy. Paradoxically, the more stressed I am, the better the hard floor feels against my back.

Melissa: Tip #2: If you want to get a little fancy, you can add ‘legs up the wall’ pose. For that, you scooch your butt until it’s touching the base of the wall, and extend your legs straight up against the wall so your body is like a capital L. I’ll put a link in the show notes so you can see what that looks like. Legs up the wall pose is like yoga dessert, so sweet and yummy.

Melissa: Tip #3: Lie in different spots. I usually have my yoga mat next to my desk. But one night, I was throwing a mental tantrum about needing to make dinner, and I just plonked right down in front of the fridge. It was glorious. The whole thing was so ridiculous, it instantly melted my agitation away. I sprawled out flat for a few minutes then got up and made dinner.

Melissa: There’s a reason we give toddlers and dogs a time out, and as adults, I think we forget that option is available to us. Give yourself a time out! Lie on the floor. You’ll love it. I promise.

Melissa: Visit strongsenseofplace.com/library for more on the books we talked about today and links to help you become a floor person.

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]

Top image courtesy of Getty Images/Unsplash+.