Ep. 146: Katie Williams (Author of My Murder) + Book Recommendations

Sarah's Bookshelves Live

Sarah Dickinson

Bookrecommendations, Bookpodcasts, Sarahsbookshelvespodcast, Sarahsbookshelveslivepodcast, Sarahsbookshelveslive, Bookpodcast, Literarypodcast, Whatshouldiread, Arts, Bookreviewpodcast, Reading, Readingpodcast, Books, Sarahsbookshelves

4.9 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2023

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today’s podcast episode, Katie Williams and I delve into the complex questions surrounding motherhood, marriage, and society’s fixation on a certain type of murder victim that she explores in My Murder. We discuss the romanticization of white female victims, serial killers and guilt, and the integration of video games and virtual reality into this story. As a bonus, Katie also gives us a sneak peek into her upcoming horror comedy and shares her books recommendations.

This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).

Highlights

Katie shares a spoiler-free summary of My Murder.
How the narrator of My Murder (Lou) subverts the public’s fascination with the murder of white women.
Katie’s take on whether she’d want to come back as a clone after her death.
The romanticization of this type of death and victim.
Lou’s ambivalence about her life before her death and the complex way she examines this after returning as a clone.
Katie’s research on motherhood and her process that shaped her nuanced approach.
The integration of video games and virtual reality into her novel.
Pulling together the experience of guilt and serial killers.
How Katie crafted her surprising, but earned, ending.
Riding the line between writing by the seat of her pants (pantser) and planning everything out ahead of time (planner).
A little bit about Katie’s next book — a horror comedy!

Katie’s Book Recommendations [27:36]

Two OLD Books She Loves

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone | Amazon | Bookshop.org [27:50]
A Study in Scarlet Women (The Lady Sherlock Series, Book 1) by Sherry Thomas | Amazon | Bookshop.org [30:34]
Other Books Mentioned:
- A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle [30:58]

Two NEW Books She Loves

Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott | Amazon | Bookshop.org [33:30]
Killingly by Katharine Beutner | Amazon | Bookshop.org [37:24]
Other Books Mentioned:
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia [35:12]
- The Turnout by Megan Abbott [35:27]

NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About

Family Meal by Bryan Washington (October 10, 2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [40:50]
Other Books Mentioned:
- Memorial by Bryan Washington [41:01]

Last 5-Star Book Katie Read

Lone Women by Victor LaValle | Amazon | Bookshop.org [43:57]

Other Books Mentioned

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin [21:04]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm Sarah of Sarah's Bookshelves. Each week, I talk with a bookish
0:15.4	guest about two old books they love, two new books they love, one book they do not love, and one new release
0:22.0	they're excited about. We're going to get real and sometimes a bit snarky about all things,
0:26.8	books. If you like the show, I'd love it if you follow the show in your podcast player,
0:31.7	spread the word to your reader friends, post about it on your social media, or support the show
0:37.4	on Patreon at patreon.com slash
0:41.2	Sarah's bookshelves. Supporting the show on Patreon gets you access to bonus podcast episodes and
0:46.6	lots of other goodies. There's also a link in the show notes and in my Instagram bio. Let's get
0:52.2	rolling. I talked about my murder, a speculative crime novel
0:56.3	in the summer book preview that came out in May, but I had not read it at the time. I have now
1:01.3	read it and I absolutely loved this grounded sci-fi story about five female victims of a serial
1:07.1	killer who get brought back as clones by a government committee.
1:17.6	There's a great WTF is going on vibe in the first half of the book, and the story really takes off in the second half.
1:26.5	This story asks interesting questions about motherhood, marriage, and the right type of murder victim that gets the general public motivated to fight back.
1:29.4	So I am thrilled to welcome Katie Williams,
1:35.0	author of My Murder to the podcast today. Katie is the author of the novel Tell the Machine Goodnight,
1:40.0	which was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and Young Adult Novels, The Space Between Trees, and absent. Her short fiction has appeared in the Atlantic, American short fiction, Prairie Schooner,
1:46.0	and elsewhere. Katie earned her MFA from the Mishner Center for Writers at the University of Texas
1:50.9	at Austin, and she is an assistant professor at Emerson College in Boston. Welcome, Katie.
1:56.5	Hey there, Sarah. Thanks so much for having me. Thank you so much for being here. Your book is getting
2:02.4	lots of talk in my Patreon Facebook group. Everyone has been loving how unique it is and there's
2:09.4	lots of crime fiction out there. And this is a very unique take on the crime fiction genre. It's
	...

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