The Coode Street Podcast

As we move through the first week of December and into day nine of the Advent Calendar series, Gary spends some time chatting with the incredible Rachel Swirsky about what she's been reading, what she'd recommend, what she reads on the holidays, what work she has coming out, and her fabulous science fiction novella January Fifteenth (Tordotcom), which looks at how universal basic income might affect some of us. As always, our thanks to Rachel for making the time to talk to us. We hope you enjoy the episode!

For the eighth day of the Coode Street Advent Calendar, Jonathan called Tamsyn Muir, author of the New York Time Bestselling 'Locked Tomb' series, to talk about her somewhat unexpected novel Nona the Ninth, what she's been reading lately, what she'd recommend, and her thoughts on holiday reads. As always, we would like to thank Tamsyn for taking the time to chat with us and hope you enjoy the episode.

Earlier this year we talked to the fabulous Kate Heartfield about her novel, The Embroidered Book. Now, for day seven of the Coode Street Advent Calendar, Gary chats with Kate about what she's been reading, what she'd recommend, and her favourite holiday reads.  As always, our thanks to Kate. We hope you enjoy the episode!

Day six of the Coode Street Advent Calendar sees Jonathan chatting with the incredible Sequoia Nagamatsu about what he's been reading, what he'd recommend, what he might recommend for the holidays, and his fabulous debut novel, How High We Go in the Dark. As always, our thanks to Sequoia and we hope you enjoy the conversation.  

The Coode Street Advent Calendar rolls into the fifth day, and this time Gary takes a little time to chat with the wonderful Sam J. Miller about his new novella, Kid Wolf and Kraken Boy, and his short story collection, Boys, Beasts & Men. There's also, no doubt, some holiday chat with books and such being recommended. As always, our thanks to Sam and we hope you enjoy the episode!

For the fourth instalment of the Coode Street Advent Calendar, Jonathan called New Orleans to talk to exciting debut author Alex Jennings about how he was still envious about not having made it to the World Fantasy Convention there. The conversation also touched on what Alex had been reading, what they have coming out, and their fabulous first novel, The Ballad of Perilous Graves, which Alex describes as "a Blaxploitation Pippi Longstocking adventure"!!! As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation.

The third day of the Coode Street Advent Calendar sees Gary talking to long-time podcast favourite Aliette de Bodard about their year in reading and writing, their new novella,  Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances, and the first ever Xuya universe novel,  The Red Scholar’s Wake. As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation!

For the second day of the Coode Street Advent Calendar, Jonathan sits down to chat with the delightful Kelly Barnhill, whose novels When Women Were Dragons and The Ogress and the Orphans came out this year. Both are highly recommended. Enjoy!

The end of the year is fast approaching, and this year the Coode Street Podcast is doing something a little different. We've invited 24 creators of some of this year’s best and most interesting books to join us for ten minutes or so to talk about what they're reading now, their favourite holiday reads, what they had out this year, and what they’ve got coming out in the year ahead. It’s a Coode Street Advent Calendar if that’s your thing, or just a run-up to December 24 for book lovers. Today's guest is the wonderful Nicola Griffith, the multiple award-winning author of Ammonite, Slow River, Hild, and many more. Her brilliant queer recasting of the Arthurian story, Spear, was published earlier this year.

With the end of the year almost upon us, Coode Street was looking for a way to celebrate the books we read and loved during 2022. We also wanted to help you find something great to read for yourself or for someone close to you. And so the 2022 Coode Street Advent Calendar was born! Here are twenty-eight books that we loved and that we think you might love too. Space operas and epic fantasies, horror stories and comedies. Six-hundred page immersive tomes and light-footed short story collections.  A little bit of everything! To make this more than just a list, though, we're going to do something else. Every day between now and December 25 we're chatting with the wonderful creators of these books and asking them about what they've been reading, what holiday story they'd recommend, their own books for this year, and the ones they might have coming in 2023. Kelly Barnhill and When Women Were Dragons & The Ogress and the Orphans Richard Buttner and The Adventurists C.S.E Cooney and Saint Death's Daughter Aliette de Bodard and Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances & The Red Scholar's Wake Stephanie Feldman and Saturnalia Nicola Griffith and Spear Elizabeth Hand and Hokuloa Road Alix E. Harrow and A Mirror Mended Kate Heartfield and The Embroidered Book N.K. Jemisin and The World We Make Alex Jennings and The Ballad of Perilous Graves Guy Gavriel Kay and All the Seas of the World Paul McAuley and Beyond the Burn Line Sam J. Miller and Kid Wolf and Kraken Boy & Boys, Beasts & Men Tamsyn Muir and Nona the Ninth Sequoia Nagamatsu and How High We Go in the Dark Tochi Onyebuchi and Goliath M. Rickert and Lucky Girl: How I Became a Horror Writer Kelly Robson and High Times in the Low Parliament Christopher Rowe and These Prisoning Hills Rachel Swirsky and January Fifteenth Lavie Tidhar and Neom Nghi Vo and Siren Queen & Into the Riverlands Liz Williams and Embertide Neon Yang and The Genesis of Misery The sharp-eyed among you will notice that there aren't quite 28 entries in our Advent Calendar. You're right! We're still to record a few, but they should all be in place before this is done. But keep your eyes peeled for more. What else did we do? Well, it's Coode Street, so we rambled about books of the year, short story collections and more. Hope you enjoy it!