S14: Ep273 - The Mourner’s Bestiary with Guest Eiren Caffall + Old Dude Book Recommendations

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You can find Eiren Caffall at her website eirencaffall.com or on IG @eirencaffall

 

We chat this week with Eiren Caffall, a Chicago writer whose memoir, The Mourner’s Bestiary, sat on Carrie's shelf staring at her for a year until she finally made time to read it but she is so glad I did. In this creative nonfiction work, Eiren talks about her family’s long history with a chronic illness (specifically, polycystic kidney disease (PKD)) and connects that to the health of the waterways and living creatures in Maine. It is a master work that merges scientific writing with poetic language. We also talk about her novel, All the Water in the World, which came out less than six months after The Mourner’s Bestiary. It is also about water, but in a fictional dystopian setting where New York City has flooded due to the melting of the ice caps. If you enjoyed Station Eleven, you must give this novel a try.

 

And for our book recommendation section of the show, we are focusing on Old Dudes!!  Carrie has a soft spot in her heart for curmudgeonly and/ or cuddly elderly men, so we are giving you six ideas of books that feature crotchety (or not) male senior citizens.  We have a memoir, a children’s book series, a book translated from Swedish, novels featuring LGBTQ protagonists, and literary fiction.

 

Books Discussed in this Episode:

 

1- The Mourner's Bestiary by Eiren Caffall 

2- All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall 

3- Howards End by E.M. Forster 

4- Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius 

5- Ignition by MR O'Connor 

6- Hotshot: A Life on Fire by River Selby 

7- The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Story of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel James Brown 

8- The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann 

9- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones 

10- Queen Bee by Cierra Geraghty 

11- The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey

12- A Five Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover - In a Lonely Place by Dorothy Hughes 

13- The Very Long Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl by Bart Yates 

14- The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray by Walter Mosley 

15- The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku 

16- The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson 

17- The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain 

18- Mr. Putter and Tabby series by Cynthia Rylant

19- A Dark Room in Glitter Ball City: Murder, Secrets, and Scandal in Old Louisville by David Dominé

 

Media Mentioned:

1- 'Murder in Glitter Ball City' - https://www.wdrb.com/news/murder-in-glitter-ball-city-hbo-documentary-explores-2010-old-louisville-murder/article_1b4cc513-c22b-4543-b609-5b6267e1dce2.html

2- Our Episode with David Dominé - https://ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/season-5-episode-108-sex-drugs-and-true-crime-vibes-with-guest-david-domine-10-13-21/

3- True Detective Night Country (HBO Max, 2024)