Carla Malden: Playback (a novel)

Playback (A Novel) — Carla Malden — 9781644284872 — Hardcover — 216 pages — Rare Bird Books — Published August 12, 2025 — $28 — ebook versions available at lower prices

Time travel fiction is among my favorite literary genres. I’ve been reading time travel novels avidly since I was a kid. I am sure the first one I read was HG Wells’s Time Machine, probably before I was even 10 years old. And I’ve since read many more. Time and Again by Jack Finney and If I Never Get Back by Daryl Brock are two of the best books I have ever read, so good that I have read each of them more than once. Now I can add Carla Malden’s Playback to my running list of time travel favorites.

When I was offered this book to read, I had no idea of the subject. I wanted to read it simply because Carla and I have known each other since we were children, and long ago, our parents were friends. I’ve read Carla’s work in the past and knew that she is a terrific writer, but I did not know what this book would be like. As it turns Playback was a welcome treat. It’s a wonderful book.

I also did not realize that Playback is the sequel to Carla’s previous novel, Shine Until Tomorrow in which her main character, Mari Caldwell, finds herself time traveling from her modern life as an unhappy 17 year-old to San Francisco in 1967 and the extraordinary period of the Summer of Love. In that book, she becomes an influential figure in a nascent rock and roll band’s story of success.

Fortunately for me, one does not need to have read Shine before reading Playback in which Mari, now 34, travels back in time once more—this time to the fall of 1967, when in a whirlwind of activity, her life is changed again.

Previously, she experienced and believed in the idealism of the sixties but now she feels only disillusionment. She’s been divorced from what she thought would be a fulfilling marriage and she’s stuck doing photography work she does not care about. She’s disappointed in life and particularly does not feel she is doing right by her daughter. Playback takes Mari back to the Haight-Ashbury of 1967 at just the moment in her life when she needs it to be restarted. It’s an adventure story that unfolds her inner being in surprising and meaningful ways.

Playback captivated me, and brought me back to my own past in many ways. Carla’s characters are fully drawn, she deals well with the anomalies and intricacies of the concept of time and how changes in the past alter the future without making too big of a deal about it and distracting us from the emotional core of the book. I did not want it to end, and of course now I want her to write another book to finish Mari’s story and complete a trilogy.

It was great fun for me to talk to Carla about her book, her characters and the two novels that tell Mari’s story, and also to revisit the touchstone place and time that has meant so much to our cultural history. Whether you lived through the sixties or just have heard about it in stories and books, Playback will take you there and like Mari, you will find yourself torn between staying or returning to your own life, maybe changed for the better as she was.

Carla Malden was born and raised in Los Angeles. She worked in film production and development and then as a screenwriter. Working with her father, Academy Award winning actor Karl Malden, she co-authored his critically acclaimed memoir When Do I Start? Carla has written features for the Los Angeles Times, and her previous novels include Search Heartache, Shine Until Tomorrow, and My Two and Only. She is a member of the Board of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.

Author website.

Rare Bird (publisher) website.

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Helen Sheehy: Just Willa (a novel)

Just Willa (a novel)—Helen Sheehy—Cave Hollow Press—978-2-7342678-3-9—paperback—428 pages—$21.95—April 13, 2025—ebook versions available at varying lower prices

As many Writerscast listeners know, I only interview writers about books I like and enjoyed reading enough to want to share with my listeners. So every episode of this podcast does represent a certain “best of” approach to my reading, since you will never hear about the books I did not love, or could not bring myself to finish.

From among those many books I like, Helen Sheehy’s Just Willa is a special one – this is a flat out just a wonderful novel. It focuses entirely on the story of one woman and her family, Willa Hardesty, and her difficult farm life in dusty, dry Oklahoma. Her story follows seven decades of one woman’s life, a twentieth century family chronicle that focuses on the small struggles of daily life, a difficult husband, the challenges of raising children and the heartbreak that goes with a large family.

Willa is tough because her world requires her to be tough. She is the daughter of a homesteader who somehow manages to be a single mother in an era that provides almost no support, then marries a bootlegging cowboy who is never honest with her. Her seemingly “small” life is really a world that is far greater than it seems, and she lives it with indomitable strength despite all her hardships and struggles to understand who she really is.

Like most great fiction, we come to realize that this novel is entirely true.

I really enjoyed speaking with Helen about her book, her writing process, and her past work as a biographer. I think you will enjoy this conversation, and I hope it might spur you to read Just Willa yourself, and because she is a really fine writer, and this book is autobiographical fiction, perhaps you will be interested in reading her biographies as well.

Helen Sheehy grew up on farms in Oklahoma and Kansas, although she’s lived in Connecticut most of her life. She’s been a dramaturg at Hartford Stage Company and written biographies of theatre pioneers; Margo Jones, Eva Le Gallienne, and Eleonora Duse.

Sheehy taught theatre and English in high schools in Kansas and Connecticut, which was the basis of her first book, a textbook titled All About Theatre. She was Adjunct Professor of Theatre at Southern Connecticut State University for over twenty years. Sheehy has also taught acting and improvisation to inmates in a maximum security prison in Connecticut.

She lives in Hamden, Connecticut. Just Willa is her first novel.

“Helen Sheehy’s masterful prose immerses you in Willa Hardesty’s world with such rich detail and emotional depth that you feel the dust of the Oklahoma plains and the quiet strength it takes to hold a family together. It’s a powerful reminder that even the women who shape our lives can hold truths we only come to understand with time. This book is for anyone who has ever known their mother—or thought they did.”—Michael Sucsy, Emmy-winning writer/director of Grey Gardens

Author website.
Buy the book on Bookshop.org

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Annalee Newitz: Automatic Noodle

Automatic Noodle – Annalee Newitz – Tordotcom – 9781250357465 – Hardcover – 176 pages – August 5, 2025 – $24.99 – ebook versions available at lower prices

Annalee Newitz is one of the best and most original science fiction writers I have read in a long time. I read their last novel, The Future of Another Timeline (it’s brilliant!) and couldn’t wait to read their next book. Automatic Noodle is simultaneously hilariously funny, sneakily political, and highly original. It’s pretty hard to resist and aside from the fact that it is a short book that leaves you wanting much more, it is one of my favorite books I have read in a long time. Newitz takes us into a future that is recognizable, and while it is as scary as any future looking book must be in our dystopian present, while positing that our future includes a bloody and destructive civil war, the book is somehow optmimistic and hopeful.

Automatic Noodle takes place in Annalee’s favorite city, San Francisco, in the near enough future that it is a recognizable place. California has fought a bloody, destructive, technologically advanced civil war to free itself from the United States. In its newfound freedom, robots have limited rights and must struggle to find their way in a new society. If that sounds eerily reminiscent of the 1870s, it’s not accidental. Annalee weaves together a set of wonderfully humane characters, all of whom are seeking to build new identities in a strange new world. It’s a wonderful story that makes you think and also feel. Great fun carrying along some really important ideas about humanity and freedom.

I really enjoyed talking to Annalee and hope you will not only enjoy our conversation, but go out and buy the book at once – then let me know if you like it as much as I do.

Annalee Newitz writes science fiction and nonfiction. They are the nationally bestselling author of the books Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age and Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind, as well as the novels The Terraformers, The Future of Another Timeline (winner of the Sidewise Award), and Autonomous (winner of a Lambda Literary Award). As a science journalist, they are a writer for the New York Times and have a monthly column in New Scientist. They have published in The Washington Post, Slate, Popular Science, Ars Technica, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among others. They are also the co-host of the three-time Hugo Award-winning podcast Our Opinions Are Correct.

“This is a story—about building community despite adversity, fighting for your rights and individuality, and creating art that you want to see in the world—that I didn’t know I needed right now. And it was so much fun to read!”—Martha Wells, author of The Murderbot Diaries and Witch King

Author website.

Buy the book.

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Iris Jamahl Dunkle: Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb

Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb — Iris Jamahl Dunkle — University of California Press — Hardcover — 9780520395442 — 416 pages — $27.95 — October 15, 2024 — ebook versions available at lower prices.

“The new history is coming, if you dig through the archives with a new gaze.”—Iris Jamahl Dunkle

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Abraham Chang: 888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers

888 Love and the Divine Burden Numbers: A Novel — Abraham Chang — Flatiron Books — Hardcover — 978-1-250-91078-3 — 400 pages — $29.99 — ebook $14.99 — May 7, 2024

“You are obsessed with Robert Smith and company, Morrissey and Marr, and Gahan, and Gore. You spend hours ruminating on their obtuse Anglo references and overanalyzing their overly clever lyrics –how these pasty British men sing of a life through jangly guitars with jutted-jaw irony, and someone manage to reflect your preferred, parallel worldview: repressed, depressed, well-dressed. The chimes in ‘Pictures of You’ give you chills.”

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Karl Marlantes: Cold Victory, a Novel

Cold Victory: A Novel — Karl Marlantes — Atlantic Monthly Press – 978-0-8021-6142-0 – Hardcover — 352 pages — $28.00 — January 9, 2024 — ebook versions available at lower prices

I have to confess at the outset that Karl Marlantes has become one of my favorite authors of recent times and his latest book Cold Victory, is yet another outstanding novel from this author, whose first novel, Matterhorn, was published in 2010 after a full thirty years of effort. I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of interviewing Karl for all three of his previous books, each of them very different in subject matter and approach. A characteristic that is common to all of this author’s books is his extraordinary ability to create believable, wonderful characters that truly come to life on the page.

Cold Victory is related Karl’s 2019 novel Deep River, through a single common character. Deep River is set in the Northwestern United States in the early twentieth century, while this new book takes place in Finland right after the close of World War II. It’s safe to guess that most readers, like me, will be unaware of Finland’s complex role in that war, allying first with Germany to fight the Soviet Union to keep the latter from taking over its much smaller neighbor, and then allied itself with the Allies to fight Germany. Basically, Finland fought anyone and everyone to maintain its independence. In the aftermath of WWII, Finland was forced to pay reparations to the Soviets and gave up 10% of its land to the USSR.

In Cold Victory, the main characters are American and Russian, but the countries and the people of Finland have equal importance to the story. The American and Russian protagonists are two couples of similar age, but with such different life experiences that they must relate to each other on what they do share — honor, and love of soldiering for the men, commitment to their children and friendship for the women.

In the early parts of the novel, Marlantes sets the scene – his knowledge and appreciation for Finland, its culture and history, is palpable, and he uses his extensive knowledge to build a solid background for what develops into a riveting story that is sometimes extremely uplifting and often painful, as the tragedy at the center of the book unfolds. Marlantes’ story telling is vivid and powerful, the energy of his words always pulling us forward.

And I have to note that Karl has mastered his material – the descriptions of cross country skiing through bitter cold Finland are brilliantly portrayed. Be prepared to feel the cold in your soul.

This is another terrific novel from an outstanding writer whose skills are constantly evolving. And Karl is always a pleasure to speak with. Please enjoy our conversation and I hope you will pick up this book.

“For the history lesson alone, Cold Victory is memorable.”—Mark Steve’s, NY Journal of Books

Karl Marlantes graduated from Yale University and then was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, before serving as a Marine in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals. He lives in Washington State.

Interview about Deep River

Interview about Matterhorn

Interview about What It Is Like to Go to War

Buy Cold Victory

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Beatrice Hitchman: All of You Every Single One

All of You Every Single One: A Novel – Beatrice Hitchman – Overlook Press – 978-1-4197-5693-1 – Hardcover – 320 pages – $26 – January 4, 2022 – ebook editions available at lower prices

This novel is an absolutely riveting book I truly enjoyed. And happily, it introduced me to the work of Beatrice Hitchman, who is a wonderful writer. Her story begins in 1910 with Julia Lindqvist, who is unhappily married to a well known Swedish playwright. She leaves him after falling passionately in love with a captivating Austrian woman, a tailor named Eve. Together, they escape to the much less restrictive environment of Vienna, where the story unfolds over the course of 35 years, against the backdrop of the progressive period between the wars, the couple’s close-knit group of unusual friends, Julia’s analysis by Freud, and then later, the difficult period leading up to and including World War II.

Julia and Eve create a lifelong partnership and live as a couple. With the help of their friend, Frau Berndt, they form a network of supportive friends and neighbors. The narrative shifts between Julia, Eve, and the other key people in their network.

I felt that the beginning of the book does not prepare us for all that will follow, and there were times when I could not keep track of all the characters and the storyline. And I’d say that the ending is perhaps the weakest part of the novel. But the author’s language carried me forward, and her characters have stayed with me still. This book will reward you with its depth throughout.

This is Beatrice Hitchman’s second novel. Her first, Petite Mort, was published in 2013 by Serpent’s Tail. She was born in London and has lived in Hong Kong, Edinburgh and Paris. Beatrice is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Brighton. Her research focuses on contemporary queer fiction, the ethics of historical fiction, writing the remote past, and the endings/closure events of novels (which certainly comes through in this novel!)

You can visit her website here.  Buy her book here.

I loved talking to Beatrice about her novel and hope you will enjoy hearing our conversation.

Author photo by Sara Lee       

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Lan Samantha Chang: The Family Chao (A Novel)

The Family Chao – Lan Samantha Chang – W.W. Norton – 9780393868074 – 320 pages – Hardcover – $29.00 – February 1, 2022. eBook versions available at lower prices.

This is a beautifully written and thoughtfully composed novel about three brothers in a Chinese American family living somewhat awkwardly in a small town in Wisconsin. It has elements of the picaresque, the humorous and a great deal of sadness and pain that suffuses all.

At the heart of the novel are the three sons of the family patriarch, Leo Chao, who with his wife established and operated the Fine Chao restaurant in this small heartland community for over thirty years. The mother and father are almost mythological characters, he being the large appetite materialist and she being the spiritual – almost mystical – counterpoint to his outsized public persona.

When he dies, he is presumed to have been a murder victim by the residents of Haven, Wisconsin, and consequently unwanted attention is turned toward the brothers, each of whom has attempted to carve out an individual identity separate from their parents. Each of them is suspect in their formerly quiet community – Dagou, now the restaurant’s boisterous chef; Ming, financially successful but emotionally stunted; and James, the youngest, who is a dreamy college student not at all suited to the family tradition.

The book is a wonderful homage, well crafted by this very talented writer to The Brothers Karamazov. Each of the sons must struggle to understand and cope with what happened to his father, and one becomes the public scapegoat in the story. Chang is never heavy handed in her approach, and you don’t have to remember your Dostoyevsky to appreciate The Family Chao completely.

This is a complex and compelling story of what it is like to be an immigrant family in the heart of the heartland. It is also an American story, and very much a universal one at that. I  enjoyed Chang’s writing and her storytelling, the many intriguing characters so finely portrayed, and the mystery in the novel that is unveiled unexpectedly that quite deftly ties together the entirety of the family Chao. Lan Samantha Chang is a terrific novelist and we had an equally terrific conversation about this book, her writing and her sense of the world at large.

Lan Samantha Chang is the Director of the Iowa Writers Workshop and Elizabeth M. Stanley Professor in the Arts at the University of Iowa. She is the author of a collection of short fiction and two novels and one book of nonfiction, All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost. She has received creative writing fellowships from Stanford University, Princeton University, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Author website is here.

Buy the book here.

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Peter Quinn: Banished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New York

Banished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New York – Peter Quinn – Empire State Editions (Fordham University Press) – 978-08232-9408-4 – 612 pages – paperback – $17.95 (eBook version is not available for this title)

Historical novels based in New York City have always appealed to me. I am not sure why. Maybe it has something to do with the time I spent with my grandparents, who lived in New York City, took me frequently to the Museum of the City of New York, and showed me many of the historical sites of the city. Maybe it is simply because so much of American history is the history of that great city.

I picked this book to read while browsing a bookstore for the first time since the pandemic began. Book discovery is a wonderful thing, and something many of us have missed. There are occasions when a book seems to jump off the shelf and into your hands, drawn there by some mysterious bookstore magic. Sometimes those discoveries are serendipitous and that was definitely the case with this novel. It was not the only book I bought that day, but it jumped my queue and I devoured the book in a way that reminded me of my youthful nights under the covers reading by flashlight.

Banished Children of Eve is one of those longish historical novels that is a joy to immerse oneself in. It is a great story about a dramatic time and place, with terrific well-drawn characters and a great story unfolding in multiple voices. And even the minor characters are brought to life by Quinn’s sympathetic descriptions.

The story takes place in 1863 when the Civil War is its third bloody year and the Union, having exhausted its volunteer army, has been forced to impose the first military draft. In New York City, where this book is set, that is a fateful decision, one that will set off the worst urban riot in American history. The cast of characters created by author Quinn represents every element of New York’s cultural community including an Irish-American hustler, a dishonest Yankee stockbroker, a young immigrant serving girl, a beautiful mixed-race actress and her white lover (a struggling minstrel). Surrounding these main characters are a number of historical, real-life characters we recognize, including the Union General George McClellan, Archbishop “Dagger John” Hughes and even the songwriter Stephen Foster.

All come together in the emerging disaster of the Draft Riots, bringing to life a period in American history that is certainly less well-known to most Americans than the more often told stories of battles and national politics of our war-torn country.

William Kennedy’s description of Peter Quinn pretty much sums up how I feel about this book: “Peter Quinn takes history by the throat and makes it confess.” That is perhaps one of the greatest book blurbs ever, by the way.

Quinn is a natural storyteller, and if you are not familiar with this incredible period in American history, I recommend you get a copy of this book immediately and dive in. You will be amazed and thrilled to read this book.

Talking to Peter was great fun for me. We certainly could have gone on for hours. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

Quinn was the chief speechwriter for Time, Inc. and retired as corporate editorial director for Time Warner at the end of 2007. He received a B.A. from Manhattan College, an M.A. in history from Fordham University and completed all the requirements for a doctorate except the dissertation. He was awarded a Ph.D., honoris causa, by Manhattan College in 2002.

In 1979, Quinn was appointed to the staff of Governor Hugh Carey as chief speechwriter. He continued in that role under Governor Mario Cuomo.

Originally published in 1994, Banished Children of Eve won a 1995 American Book Award. Hour of the Cat, set in Berlin and New York on the eve of WWII, was published in 2005, a nonfiction collection, Looking for Jimmy: In Search of Irish America was published in February 2007. His third novel, The Man Who Never Returned is based on the still-unsolved 1930 disappearance of NYS Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater, published in 2010.

Quinn co-wrote the script for the 1987 television documentary McSorley’s New York, for which he won an Emmy. He appeared in several PBS documentaries, including The Irish in America, New York: A Documentary Film, and The Life and Times of Stephen Foster, as well as the dramatic film, The Passion of Sister Rose. Quinn was an advisor on Martin Scorcese’s film Gangs of New York, the story of which precedes and in some ways underpins Banished Children of Eve.

Quinn was the editor of The Recorder: The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society from 1986 to 1993 and has published articles and reviews in the New York Times, Commonweal, America, American Heritage, the Catholic Historical Review, the Philadelphia Enquirer, the L.A. Times, Eiré-Ireland, and other newspapers and journals.

Quinn is also president and co-founder of Irish American Writers & Artists.

Author’s website is here.

You can buy Banished Children of Eve at Bookshop.org

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Geoff Rodkey: Lights Out in Lincolnwood (A Novel)

Lights Out in Lincolnwood – A Novel – Geoff Rodkey – HarperCollins – 9780063065925 – Paperback – 544 pages – $16.99 – ebook versions available at lower prices

I have to admit that I did not expect to really like this book anywhere near as much as I did. I’ve certainly read my share of suburban based stories that wittily poke fun at modern life. But Geoff Rodkey surprised me with Lights Out in Lincolnwood and I found myself reading it every day in big chunks – the kind of book that is dangerous to my sleep as I can’t stop reading. Like eating dried fruit. Except that I did not regret it later.

Today’s world seems to encourage writers to imagine the worst about our future – this book does that for sure. But Rodkey keeps us from getting depressed with humor, even as he tells us the truth about ourselves and our illusions we like to carry around about how we would act under pressure.

And there is not much more pressure one can imagine than the story Rodkey tells here, as an unexplained collapse of our infrastructure suddenly happens. By focusing on a single family and its community, Rodkey is able to bring the whole story down to a practical level, as his characters, whom we readily recognize, go through an almost Marxian (that’s Marx Brothers by the way) experience that readers can’t help laugh at and simultaneously shudder about. It is frighteningly close to home.

How do we survive calamity when we have no idea how to do anything that is needed to survive and the tools we need don’t work and the neighbors we thought we knew turn into completely different people – or maybe reveal themselves for whom they really are, at last.

The entire book takes place during an action packed and tension filled four days – chaos, change, fear, hysteria, and perhaps even joy mark the struggle of the Altman family as they try to determine how to live in a world without technology. They struggle with getting food and water, their modern past-times and addictions, neighbors who become militaristic and brutal, and the town’s looting of the local Whole Foods is the least of the craziness they have to contend with as they try to figure out just what is going on and how they will manage to get through a worldwide catastrophe.

It’s impossible to not be captivated by this book. It was fun to read and to talk to Geoff, and I know it made a difference as its story line and characters have stayed with me long after I finished reading the book. We had a terrific time talking for Writerscast about this book and Geoff’s work as a writer in various media.

Geoff Rodkey is the New York Times best-selling author of ten children’s books, including the Tapper Twins and Chronicles of Egg series; We’re Not From Here; and Marcus Makes a Movie, a collaboration with actor Kevin Hart. He’s also the Emmy-nominated screenwriter of Daddy Day Care and RV, among other films. Geoff lives in New York City with his family.

In particular, We’re Not From Here, A sci-fi comedy for middle grade readers about a family of humans who immigrate to an alien planet after Earth is destroyed (written for middle grade readers) looks like another fun Rodkey story.

Author website here.

Buy the book here.

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