Book Club: Emily St. John Mandel On ‘The Glass Hotel’

Nerdette Recaps With Peter Sagal

WBEZ

Tv & Film, Books, Self, Improvement, Pop, Tv, Wbez, Culture, Technology, Society & Culture, Nerds, Nerd, Nerdette

4.6 • 924 Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Imagine you’ve written a new book, your first in six years. And your last book? It was a novel about the aftermath of a deadly pandemic. That’s Emily St. John Mandel, author of the award-winning 2014 novel Station Eleven. Her new book — released on March 24 and titled The Glass Hotel — is decidedly different; she called it “a ghost story with a Ponzi scheme and container shipping.”

We talk with Mandel about what it’s like to release a highly-anticipated novel during massive stay-at-home orders, what research for Station Eleven taught her to expect during a pandemic and why you shouldn’t read books you don’t like.

And be sure not to miss this episode of the Nerdette Book Club all about breaking down The Glass Hotel!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Natalie Moore. I fell in love with soap operas when I was just five years old, and I still
0:06.1	watch them. Their television's longest scripted series and have zero reruns. Now let me tell you,
0:12.7	soap operas aren't just some silly art form. They are significant. In this season of making,
0:18.0	Stories Without End from WBEZ Chicago, join me as i share how the genre began
0:22.7	their social impact and why these stories endure listen wherever you get your podcast you're gonna go
0:31.6	down for it now big hug oh what if it just doesn't work what if it just doesn't work like you just got to try with naps and if it doesn't work it what if it just doesn't work?
0:38.0	What if it just doesn't work?
0:38.9	You just got to try with naps.
0:40.3	And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
0:44.2	She's got to be a pretty great distraction right about now, huh?
0:47.0	She is, yeah.
0:48.3	Although, you know, getting work done while homeschooling a four-year-old is some kind of special challenge.
0:54.2	I mean, the thing about naps ises is always worth trying, am I right? From WBEZ Chicago, I'm Greta
0:59.8	Johnson, and this is another episode of the Nerdette Book Club. It's just like a normal
1:04.9	book club, except sometimes the author and her four-year-old daughter shows up too. So if you've never heard of Nerd at Book Club
1:12.3	before, here's the deal. We pick a book each month and we talk about it with a rotating panel.
1:17.3	Our March book was Emily St. John Mandel's fifth book. It's called The Glass Hotel. And last
1:22.0	week we heard from you listeners about what you thought about the book, but today we're going to
1:26.5	talk to Emily herself. We're going to talk to her about her life as the book. But today, we're going to talk to Emily herself.
1:28.5	We're going to talk to her about her life as a writer. But first, I just wanted you to hear
1:33.0	a little bit about her philosophy as a reader because I just think it's so good. There's that
1:38.4	formula that I came across years ago that you've probably heard where, you know, it's 100 pages
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WBEZ, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WBEZ and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.