The Riff

I don’t use affiliate links so you know my recommendations are true. I get zero bucks from any purchase you make. But if you want to throw dough my way — and get some cool perks — visit patreon.com/cnfpod. In some cases, space is limited!

The Books

I. No Friday Night Lights: Reservation Football on the Edge of America by John M. Glionna (Pod TK)

II. The Ancient Eight: College Football’s Ivy League and the Game They Play Today by John Feinstein. Over-under: How many books has John written? I’ll set it the line at 49.5. If you took the over … you’d be correct! This is his fiftieth book. Da fuq?! (Pod TK)

III. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. I know I bag on people (my former and, at times, current self, for caring about routines … “routine porn,” there you go, coined a new term, boom, nailed it.). Buuuuuuuut … I like this book. I like reading one or two profiles at the start of the day.

IV. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s Indigenous People’s History of the United States: A Graphic Interpretation, adapted by Paul Peart-Smith (Pod TK with Roxanne and Paul). If you haven’t read Roxanne’s master source text — An Indigenous People’s History of the United States — let this beautiful, poignant graphic presentation be your gateway in.

The Other Stuff

V. I’m scrubbing many old blog posts from my website because, One, so many are dumb and banal, the musings of a pathetic, desperate thirty-two-year-old person; Two, in the event that there’s anything insensitive, best to delete that. But I came across an interview I did with Jonathan Evison, one of my favorite novelists. It’s worth keeping.

VI. Should you just give up?

VII. Ann Patchett regrets email. And she has a point.

VIII. Sure, it’s content marketing, but it’s a fine little interview with the novelist Robert Brighton. Plus, I’m addicted to Blackwing pencils.

IX. Leah Sottile and Ryan Haas teamed up for another incredible podcast. This called “Hush.”

X. Eva Holland, a past guest of the pod, has a new, indie-published collection of her best journalism, No Sleep ‘til Fairbanks. You can help it out by visiting her Indiegogo link. If you can afford to, you should. She’s one of the good ones.

XI. Lee Child talks about some pretty great writing insights from more than twenty Jack Reacher series.

ICYMI: October on CNF Pod

Episode 432: Betsy Golden Kellem, Scholar of the Unusual, Close Historian, Atavist Writer

Episode 433: The Perils of Playing it Safe with Chase Jarvis

Episode 434: Mirin Fader on Notebooks, Finding the Breakthrough, Biography, and “Dream”

Episode 435: Seth Godin Travels at the Speed of Trust with ‘This is Strategy’ (a bonus link good for authors: https://seths.blog/2024/10/five-lessons-from-week-one-of-this-is-strategy/)