We’re joined today by Lara Ehrlich, a writer, editor, and longtime friend (she and Tom go back 20 years, which seems impossible). Her first story collection, Animal Wife, was published by Red Hen Press back in 2020, and her first novel, Bind Me Tighter Still, will publish in 2025, also from Red Hen. She also hosts a conversation series, Writer Moth…

We’re joined today by Mark Haber of Coffee House Press (formerly of Brazos Bookstore in Houston). Mark is the author of two novels, Reinhardt’s Garden and Saint Sebastian’s Abyss, and the forthcoming novel Lesser Ruins, as well as a forthcoming novella, Ada. We chat about his work as well as Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald, translated by Anthea Bell. A q…

Today Spencer Ruchti of Third Place Books joins to chat about The Tanners by Robert Walser, translated by Susan Bernofsky. We actually recorded this back in November and are glad to get it out into the world. Early on Spencer dips out momentarily due to an alarm in the store, but all ended up being right with the world. At least in that instant. Th…

Kicking off 2024 we welcome Tara Cheesman to the podcast with her recommendation, Being Here Is Everything: The Life and Times of Paula Modersohn-Becker by Marie Darriussecq, translated by Penny Hueston. Tara is a freelance critic, former judge of the Best Translated Book Award, and she brings us our first work of nonfiction. We have an absolutely …

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is upon us and it does not disappoint. Too much to say about this one and, as always, we could have gone an hour longer and still not covered it all. An absolutely fantastic novel and one that certainly lives up to the hype and praise that surrounds it. Titles/authors mentioned: The Secret History by Donna Tartt O Cale…

We stand on the precipice, one episode away from THE PRIME! Before that, though, we discuss The Bachelors, a fantastic novel chock full of some of the strangest characters Spark has written, which is really saying something. Mediums, epileptics, blackmail, criminality, and much, much more abound in this one. And one of the funniest scenes yet invol…

We’re edging closer to THE PRIME, but today we chat about The Ballad of Peckham Rye. Spark’s novels are incredibly fun, but this might be the wildest, featuring an incredible character name (Dougal Douglas), a lot of absenteeism, a textile factory, a Nun Tunnel, and dancing. Lots of dancing. Click here to subscribe to our Substack and find us on th…

This week we discuss Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants, an absolutely wonderful gem of a novel from French author Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell. In 150ish pages Énard recreates the Constantinople of the early 16th Century and the brief time Michelangelo resided there to build a grand bridge. If you’ve not read Énard before…

This week we discuss Memento Mori, Spark’s third novel and, as we’ve come to expect, it’s a really fun ride. This go-round she brings us into the lives of septuagenarians and octogenarians as they fume, backbite, explore their sexual proclivities, and all come to terms (or not) with their impending deaths. And, of course, it’s very, very funny. Cli…

Episode 5 of Season 2: we get to chat with Robin McLean about Ceremony by Leslie Marion Silko. And, yeah, this is probably our best episode so far, which isn’t shocking because we’re talking about talking with Robin McLean. So, all that aside, it’s a great conversation and one that could have gone on for hours and hours yet. We could have gone deep…

In Episode 4 of Season 2 we dig into Muriel Spark’s sophomore effort, Robinson. Gotta say: it’s incredible and we couldn’t be more excited to keep on keeping on with her work. This time around we trade London (mostly) for a lonely island in the Atlantic and a story that is funny, tense, clever, whimsical, and just an all-around masterclass in write…

Having sorted some annoying technical issues, herewith Episode 3 of Season 2 (our way of apologizing for the delay in uploading this episode) in which we discuss The Conqueror by Jan Kjærstad, translated by Barbara Haveland and published by Open Letter Books. And to kick off our series of guest hosts, Chad Post of Open Letter Books (and Dalkey Arch…

We kick off our season-long read of Muriel Spark's novels this week and what a start! The Comforters is Spark's debut, published in 1956, and is, quite simply, magnificent. Lori and Tom wax heavily on how impressive this novel is and how incredibly fun it is, too! It's going to be quite a great season judging by this title alone. Click here to subs…

And we’re back! Welcome to Season Two of Lost in Redonda. We kick things off with a backlist conversation on Chronicle of the Murdered House by Lucio Cardoso, translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson, published by Open Letter Books. It’s probably one of the fastest moving 600 page sagas of a Brazilian family you’re likely to encounter.…

Join me in learning from my lessons learned on this first ever trip to Montana! My friend, Mandy and I, have been saving for this trip for almost a year, and we finally made it happen! From terraine to birds themselves, we had a lot to learn!! Hopefully you take something away from this to save you some time on your next or first trip! Join us on a…

Here it is, folks, our final episode on Your Face Tomorrow and the last part of our Marías project. It's a longer one, but very worth it if we do say so ourselves. Our next season and new project will kick off in a couple weeks' time, but before that a thank you for listening along. It's a fun project and one we hope folks are getting as much out o…

This week is the second half of my interview with Mandy, where we dive into the lessons and growth of new shotgun shooters, and a deep dive into our recent shooting lessons with our favorite instructor, Tracy Wright of Dark Horse Shooting. Join us on a HerUpland hunting camp at HerUpland.com\events The Bird Hunter Diaries is part of the HerUpland P…

It's very strange to be this close to the end of our Marías focus, but that's rather how time moves, ever forward (unless you're Marías and can make time a rather fungible thing in your novels...). This is a fun episode, touching on East End gangsters, Spandau Ballet, the Spanish Civil War, swordplay, and more. And a couple of characters from the p…

And now we enter the homestretch. Over the next few episodes we'll tackle Marías' masterpiece, Your Face Tomorrow. Starting, of course, with the first volume, Fever and Spear. Once we wrap up the Marías project we're going to take a week or so off and then we'll be back with more backlist dives and a new author whose work we'll spend some time digg…

Join me this week on an adventure through the chukar hills with my friend, Mandy. Mandy lives out in NV, and we met in 2022 at the HerUpland mountain grouse camp. We've since become great adventure buddies, and enjoy sharing our stories and time together chasing these crazy bird dogs. Join us on a HerUpland hunting camp at HerUpland.com\events The …

This week we dive into Christian Kracht's Imperium, and boy do we ever go deep (sorry/not sorry). It's an incredible piece of historical fiction (one of Tom's favorites and, now, one of Lori's) that follows one man's attempts to manifest his destiny to live in the tropics and subsist only on the noble coconut. And walk around nude. In the German So…

A fun discussion this week of two novels published almost 30 years apart in The Infatuations and The Man of Feeling. We walk down some interesting paths and may get ourselves into a moral quandary or two (wouldn't be a discussion of Marías without some moral murkiness, now would it?). These are the last two Marías novels we discuss before wrapping …

We're going weekly! As the episodes have grown longer we've decided to split them up so instead of discussing two titles per episode (and delivering a 2+ hour podcast) every other week we're switching to one title every week. A guide to the next few episodes will be up on the Substack shortly. This week we dig into Marie NDiaye's My Heart Hemmed In…

Leslie is a man of many trades; Falconer, Father, Husband, Singer, Actor, Business Man, Construction Worker, and all around nice guy. We explore how falconry fits into his family life, time and stories in the field with his hawk, Maiden, his new golden eagle rehab project, and how we can all help make falconry a more friendly place. You can find al…

In our sixth episode we discuss Gob’s Grief by Chris Adrian for our backlist deep dive. In the Marías portion we dig into Thus Bad Begins (spoiler alert: it’s phenomenal). This is a doozy of an episode, so stay hydrated and do be a hero: listen to the whole 2+ hours in one go! Books mentioned in this episode: Names on the Land: A Historical Account…

In this second of a two part episode with Jamaica smith, we will expand on her experiences hawking off of horse back, the various raptors she has seen or experienced hunting quail with, and discuss an amazing and potentially life saving method for splinting high leg breaks in raptors. If you are a falconer, this is a tool you do NOT want your rapto…

In this first of a two part episode with Jamaica smith, we explore her time hunting gambles quail in Arizona, how she got into hunting and into falconry, her experiences with the Hungarian Wirehair Vizslas, and her time spent with and learning from Harry McElroy. At the end of the episode, I referenced an awesome podcast recently published on Falco…

This week, we tell the story of my lovingly named, "Disaster Dog", Thelma. Learns a few lessons from my story if you are looking to acquire someone else's bird dog, or just shake your head as you hear the many mistakes I made along the way. This podcast is brought to you by OnX, and Boss Shotshells. Part of the HerUpland Podcast Network.…

We all start somewhere. For many of us, that place was not as a hunter. This is the story of what took me, a non-hunter, to being a full fledged huntress, bird dog lover, and conservationist. From trying to find game for my falcons, to starting to train bird dogs, it evolved rather quickly, as these things tend to do. Thank you to our sponsors! OnX…

Lori and Tom discuss Marías' final novel, Tomás Nevinson, just published in the US on May 23rd. A warning that spoilers do occur, especially after the 37 minute mark, so listener beware. Next episode we will return to discussing backlist in addition to our Marías deep-dives. Click here to subscribe to our Substack and do follow us on the socials, @…

Welcome to the Bird Hunter Diaries! Whether you prefer to pursue the uplands with a shotgun, or a raptor, there is something for everyone who loves to chase bird dogs here. A HerUpland Network Podcast.

To mark the publication of Marías final novel, Tomás Nevinson, we're spending this episode and our next episode diving into the twinned works of Berta Isla and Tomás Nevinson. On this episode we dive deep into Berta (warning: we do rather go into the plot in a more significant manner than we have with other titles discussed thus far). And in two we…

Welcome back! In our third episode we discuss House of Splendid Isolation by Edna O’Brien for the backlist deep dive. In the Marías portion we dig into Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me and A Heart So White. We really hit it out of the park in both sections, if we do say so ourselves. Books mentioned in this episode: The works of Edna O’Brien, spe…

Welcome back! In this second episode we discuss some literary news, specifically the passing of Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe and the US/Canada edition of the Republic of Consciousness Prize (chaired by our Lori Feathers) before moving onto a conversation on Tristan Egolf’s Kornwolf. In the Marías portion we chat some more about Redonda and dive into…

Welcome to Lost in Redonda from Lori Feathers and Tom Flynn. Over the course of this podcast we will explore backlist gems and discuss the career of the late Spanish novelist Javier Marías, King of Redonda. In this introductory episode we say hello, spend a good while chatting about Marlon James' debut novel, John Crow's Devil, and begin our discus…

Today we speak with a special guest about our high's and low's of middle school!