Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winner Kij Johnson joins Gary to talk about learning to keep focused during odd times, taking comfort in Defoe, Laurence Sterne, and horror stories, and the perks of doing historical research for a novel-in-progress set in the American Midwest in 1913, and how her "Apartment Dweller’s Guide" series of stories really needs to be a book.

Books mentioned include:

The River Bank by Kij Johnson
A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
Short stories by Clark Ashton Smith
The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig' by William Hope Hodgson
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Episode 472: Ten Minutes with Kij Johnson