In episode 8 of New & Used: Book Talk, Tim, Tony, and Janet talk to Damian Rogers about her beautiful and devasting memoir An Alphabet for Joanna. Damian also fills us in on her project If It’s Alive, Feed It (writing through the TAROT deck one card at a time) and how tarot has shaped her life and how this project has shaped her past year. 

Tony discusses Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan that has been shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and examines how big a little novel can be.

Damian tells us about one of her favourite poets Hoa Nguyen and her book A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure that was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry 2021. 

Janet discusses Helen Oyeyemi’s first book The Icarus Girl and poses the question, is the main character has the worst imaginary friend ever, possessed, or having mental health issues or both. 

Here is some more information regarding the books discussed.

An Alphabet for Joanna - A gripping memoir from acclaimed poet Damian Rogers about being raised by a loving but erratic single mother who is today diagnosed with a rare form of frontal-lobe dementia. In the vein of Plum Johnson's They Left Us Everything, Leanne Shapton's Swimming Studies, Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle and Susannah Cahalan's Brain on Fire.

Small Things Like These - Small Things Like These is award-winning author Claire Keegan's landmark new novel, a tale of one man's courage and a remarkable portrait of love and family.

A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure - A collection inspired by Hoa’s mother, a stunt motorcyclist in an all-woman Vietnamese circus troupe, is verse meditation on Vietnam’s diaspora.

The Icarus Girl - A story of twins and ghosts, of a little girl growing up between cultures and colors, this book heralds the arrival of a remarkable new talent.

An interview with Helen Oyeyemi: https://www.npr.org/2014/03/07/282065410/the-professionally-haunted-life-of-helen-oyeyemi

Yoruba and twins: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6687030/