Nerdette Book Club: Idra Novey on ‘Take What You Need’

Nerdette

WBEZ

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

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Our May book club pick is ‘Take What You Need’ by Idra Novey. The story opens with Leah, who has just learned that her estranged stepmother Jean died falling off a ladder while making a giant, metal sculpture. The book alternates points of view between Leah in the novel’s present day, and Jean before she died. It explores messy familial relationships, creativity, and the changing American cultural landscape. Idra joined us for this spoiler-free conversation. Book club will be back the last Tuesday of the month and you are invited to join in! Record a voice memo with your reaction to the book, plus where you're calling from. Then, email that file to NerdettePodcast at Gmail dot com. You may just hear yourself on our next book club episode!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Talent that hasn't been seen ever before.
0:03.0	She had the talent.
0:04.0	It was evident that she had major talent.
0:08.0	I already knew this guy was talented and hilarious,
0:10.0	but that's like another wing of the Smithsonian inside of him.
0:17.0	The greatest talent in history dissected.
0:20.0	Here are the origin stories of iconic figures on making
0:23.0	from WBEZ Chicago.
0:25.0	Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
0:30.0	From WBEZ Chicago, I'm Greta Johnson.
0:36.0	And this is the Nerdet Book Club.
0:38.0	It's just like a regular book club,
0:40.0	except sometimes the author stops by.
0:42.0	It is somehow the month of May,
0:45.0	and our pick this month is Edra Novi's third novel,
0:48.0	Take What You Need.
0:49.0	The story opens with Leah,
0:51.0	who has just learned that her estranged stepmother Jean died,
0:55.0	falling off a ladder while making a giant metal sculpture.
1:00.0	The book alternates points of view between Leah
1:02.0	in the novel's present day and Jean before she died.
1:05.0	It is full of really interesting themes around chosen family,
	...

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.