Episode 23 - Genre Promiscuous with Nina Li Coomes

On this episode, Nina Li Coomes, who was once described as genre promiscuous by a professor, discusses her traumatic early reading experiences, and how her identity as a writer has developed. We also discuss some shared favorites, how much she loves a hate-read, and why it can be good to read books you might not like.    Click here to support Eman Alhaj Ali, the writer in Palestine that Nina has been working to support.    Books mentioned in this episode:    What Betsy’s reading:  Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliot Trust by Hernan Diaz  My Friends by Hisham Matar  Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías, trans. Heather Cleary   Books Highlighted by Nina: How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee  Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones  Earthlings by Sayaka Murata The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka A Play for the Living in the Time of Extinction by Miranda Rose Hall The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick    All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.   Other books mentioned in this episode: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas  Grimm’s Fairytales by Grimm Jacob and Wilhelm  The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee  The Searcher by Tana French In the Woods by Tana French  The Best Possible Experience: Stories by Nishanth Injam  The Aeneid by Virgil  The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka  When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka  Moby-Dick by Herman Melville  Outlander by Diana Gabaldon  The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood  Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood  Homeland: Dungeons & Dragons: Book 1 by R. A. Salvatore  The Magicians by Lev Grossman  The Duke and I: Bridgerton by Julia Quinn  Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple  The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly