Vroman's Podcast 2: Julie Klam

Regular readers of this blog know that I love Julie Klam's memoir Please Excuse My Daughter. It so perfectly captures what it's like to be smart and cool and young, and yet somehow unable to find your way. It's a book that's consistently funny throughout but never at the expense of real emotion. Everybody should buy it (from Vroman's) and then buy it again for their friends.

And now Julie Klam is the subject of our second podcast (or, as I'm tentatively calling it, "The Inquisition with Patrick Brown"). In our interview, we discuss balancing writing and parenting, David Letterman, Titlepage, the Kindle, Goodreads, and much, much more. The running time is roughly 45 minutes.

Again, there's no music (still working on that), and if you notice a few edits, it's because I had to edit out a section where we talked about AP tests and the movie Diner for about twenty minutes ("Oh, Modell, my blood is boiling!"). Anyway, thanks to Julie for putting up with my slightly amateurish interviewing style, and thanks to all of you for listening.

Click here to download the podcast to your computer.

A Few Things

• This interview with Gore Vidal in the New York Times is pure reading enjoyment:

How did you feel when you heard that Buckley died this year? I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred.

Do you read a lot of contemporary fiction these days? Like everyone else, no, I don’t.

• Bookgasm is a fun site that reviews fun books, books like Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow and Kill Whitey, by Brian Keene. (Thanks to Anne for both of these links!)

• Joseph O'Neill at Vroman's last night:

We have several signed first edition copies of O'Neill's Netherland in stock. They didn't do a huge print run of this, so these first editions are actually pretty rare (They're already on the third printing). Email me if you want to order a signed first.

Collectors are crazy about his book, and after last night's reading, I can see why. He read a beautiful passage describing a rooftop party during the blackout of 2003. The Millions is running dueling reviews of O'Neill's book. Be sure to read the comments on Kevin Hartnett's review.