This Is Not the Foe You're Looking For
The Librarian Is In
The New York Public Library
4.7 • 595 Ratings
🗓️ 18 October 2018
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Gwen and Frank tackle a near-future dystopian novel about space colonization and a sobering work of journalism about the fallacy of modern philanthropy. Plus: why pho is objectively the best food ever.
Frank and Gwen's Recommendations
Haaaave you read "The Yellow Wallpaper" yet? Try the Insta Novel!
Frank's old favorites: Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith, Pure Hollywood and Other Stories by Christine Schutt, I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
Foe by Iain Reid
Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas, and his recent conversation with Joy-Ann Reid
His previous book, The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas, which won NYPL's Bernstein Award in 2015
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, everybody. Welcome to the librarian is in the New York Public Libraries podcast about books, culture, and what to read next? I'm Gwen. |
| 0:16.9 | I'm Frank. And today we are here to talk to you about books and book recommendations. |
| 0:22.1 | And before we start, I have to confess, I'm not doing that great today. |
| 0:26.1 | The last couple of weeks have been really rough. |
| 0:29.1 | Really? |
| 0:29.6 | Yeah. |
| 0:30.4 | Tell us off. |
| 0:32.4 | Spill it. |
| 0:33.5 | Just a hard time to be a woman in America, I think. |
| 0:36.7 | Online confessional. That's what everyone turns into, right, a woman in America, I think. Online confessional. |
| 0:37.9 | That's what everyone turns into, right, a therapy session. |
| 0:41.0 | Yeah, just, I think this is just a tough time to be a woman in America |
| 0:44.0 | and learn to deal with a lot of anger and rage that many of us who are very privileged and |
| 0:51.4 | very lucky are not used to dealing with on a daily basis like this. |
| 0:55.0 | I hear you. |
| 0:57.0 | And one of the things that it's doing two things for me, the state of the world and things like |
| 1:02.7 | that, is on one hand, not escapism, but today, like I'll talk about a book that I just |
| 1:09.3 | picked up that sort of I soaked in, like, as a sort of comfort book. |
| 1:15.3 | That's good. |
| 1:16.1 | And also, the other hand, is a desperate, desperate search for truth. |
| 1:23.7 | I mean, is sort of a key, a real quest to find out what's happening and why. |
| 1:32.8 | Really, for sure. I mean, as far as truth can be, to find out what it is about issues and things like that, really, a real sincere need to do that. |
... |
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