130: Emily Nemens (THE CACTUS LEAGUE) and Anelise Chen's SO MANY OLYMPIC EXERTIONS

In This Episode:

Emily Nemens, author of The Cactus League and editor of The Paris Review, stops by The Damn Library and everyone gets to talk about all things baseball, including Emily's story of a harrowingly long game. Christopher makes a bonkers cocktail and gives a slight history lesson with his recipe. Plus, Emily goes into some of the best things involved with writing about/watching baseball, as well as cutting out 25,000 words in a single edit. Then (CW: suicide) we get into Anelise Chen's So Many Olympic Exertions, and we all talk about things that felt good to quit.

The Ep. 130 Bookshelf

THIS EPISODE'S BOOKS:

The Cactus League by Emily Nemens
So Many Olympic Exertions by Anelise Chen

WHAT'D YOU BUY?:

Drew: The Penguin Vitae Collection (Passing by Nella Larsen / The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman / The Awakening by Kate Chopin / Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas / Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde) // The Tor Essentials Collection (China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh / Three Californias by Kim Stanley Robinson)
Emily: Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump // The Best Team Money Can Buy by Molly Knight
Christopher: The Magical Language of Others by EJ Koh // Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

ALSO MENTIONED:

“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer
Peanut Butter-Infused Bourbon — via Saveur
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg
The Resisters by Gish Jen
On Boxing by Joyce Carol Oates
The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
Weather by Jenny Offill
Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash
A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall by Will Chancellor
Girls (2012 - 2017, created by Lena Dunham)
The Sopranos (1999 - 2007, created by David Chase)
The Brothers K by David James Duncan
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
Pafko at the Wall by Don DeLillo
Underworld by Don DeLillo
The Best American Sports Writing of the Century, edited by David Halberstam and Glenn Stout
The collected work of John McPhee
17776 by Jon Bois

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Emily: “The Unnatural” (The X-Files S06E19) // True Story by Kate Reed Petty
Drew: The Universal Baseball Association Inc., J. Robert Waugh, Prop. by Robert Coover // We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
Christopher: If I Never Get Back by Darryl Brock // “Rat Poison and Brandy” by Jon Bois

The Damn Bar