Concavity Show Matt Bucher & Dave Laird

It's our favorite annual episode on the show, when we get to look back at the best of our year in reading with someone else who has read cool stuff. This time it's with Ben Diamond, a very keen listener and patron from London, who for three years running has sent us an annual best of his year recording, always full of interesting books, shows, music, and films. We had an awesome conversation with Ben that we hope you'll enjoy. 
 
Stay tuned for the Patreon bonus episode in two weeks that covers all other things we liked this year in pop-culture.
 
As always, this episode comes with a playlist of our favorite songs of 2023:
Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/best-of-2023/pl.u-yZyVDNACYq2akv
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Uq1526MP5mLBVI4zM0e5j?si=59d0bc52f08e41aa
 
Quick reference Top Fives
Ben: 
1. The Instructions by Adam Levin
2. Something Happened by Joseph Heller 
3. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
4. Porn: An Oral History by Polly Barton
5. Anything that Moves by Jamie Stewart
 
Dave: 
1. THE MANIAC by Benjamín Labatut
2. The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen
3. The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
4. Magnetic Fields by Ron Loewinsohn
5. The Passenger & Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy
 
Matt:
1. Dayswork by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel
2. Chaotic Good by Lee Klein

3. Diana: My Graphic Obsession by Sivan Piatigorsky-Roth
4. The Deluge by Stephen Markley
5. America Fantastica by Tim O'Brien

 
 
Contact Ben Diamond: ben.diamond@gmail.com
 
Contact Dave & Matt: 
Email - concavityshow@gmail.com
Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow
Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/

In Episode 75 we welcome poet Diego Báez back onto the show, to discuss his fantastic forthcoming book of poetry, Yaguareté White, which releases from University of Arizona Press on February 20, 2024. 
You can pre-order it directly from the publisher
or from Bookshop.org
 
Follow Diego on Twitter
 
Contact Dave & Matt: 
Email - concavityshow@gmail.com
Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow
Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/
 
 
 

In this episode with speak with bestselling writer and journalist David Lipsky. To David Foster Wallace fans, Lipsky is, of course, familiar as the author of Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself which was the basis of the 2015 film The End of the Tour.
David Lipsky is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Magazine Writing, The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, and many others. He contributes to NPR's All Things Considered, and is the recipient of a Lambert Fellowship, a Media Award from GLAAD, and a National Magazine Award. He's the author of the novel The Art Fair; a collection, Three Thousand Dollars; and the bestselling nonfiction book Absolutely American, which was a Time magazine Best Book of the Year.
His new book,  The Parrot and the Igloo: Climate and the Science of Denial is out now from Norton. The book examines the roots of climate change in popular thought, reaching back to the invention of electricity and the global impacts of technology. Lipsky profiles the scientists and characters who have taken up climate science and those who work to deny the effects of carbon and warming.
The New York Times described the book, saying Lipsky "spins top-flight climate literature into cliffhanger entertainment."
The extensive notes to the book, which he mentions in this episode, can be found at https://www.theparrotandtheigloo.com/
 
(Thank you to Kory Hill for technical assistance.)

BONUS: What do you think David Foster Wallace was really like in a tennis match? You are invited to listen to a tennis commentary of a fictional match played between David Foster Wallace and Martin Amis.

In Episode 73, Dave welcomes special guest Matt Bucher on the show to discuss his debut novel, The Belan Deck. 
Buy Matt's book here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-belan-deck-matt-bucher/19943822?ean=9798888623428
Biblioklept review: https://biblioklept.org/2023/06/02/matt-buchers-the-belan-deck-is-an-unexpectedly-moving-argument-for-humanity-and-serious-triviality/
The Belan Deck on Goodreads (featuring reviews by many of our amazing listeners, like Phillip Freedenberg, Jack Waters, and Richie Speiser): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128126023-the-belan-deck
Erick Eckel review: https://erikeckel.com/2023/06/18/the-belan-deck-hints-of-microserfs-in-an-ai-age/
Jay Innis Murray review/interview: https://www.thevisionarycompany.net/blog/the-afterlife-of-anecdotes-a-review-of-the-belan-deck-by-matt-bucher
 
Contact Dave & Matt: 
Email - concavityshow@gmail.com
Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow
Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/

In Episode 72, we welcome friend of the show, Edith Wharton scholar, accordion/bagpiper extraordinaire, and prolific writer, Sheila Liming on to talk about her new book Hanging Out, delving into the myriad ways that unstructured hang time is a radical, life-affirming act that resists capitalist commodification. 
The New York Times article on Sheila and the book: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/style/sheila-liming-hanging-out-interview.html
Sheila on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/seeshespeak
Buy the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717263/hanging-out-by-sheila-liming/ and here https://bookshop.org/p/books/hanging-out-the-radical-power-of-killing-time-sheila-liming/18462992?ean=9781685890056
 
Information about the 2023 DFW Conference in Gettysburg, June 22-24: https://dfwsociety.org/conference/
 
Contact Matt and Dave:
Email - concavityshow@gmail.com
Twitter - https://twitter.com/ConcavityShow
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/concavityshow/
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/concavityshow
Threadless Merch Store - https://concavityshow.threadless.com/