Poured Over: T.J. Klune on Under The Whispering Door
“I love bookstores, with all of my heart for everything that they’ve done for me and my stories, but it is the booksellers that are at the front putting these books into the hands of readers, so they do absolutely deserve a majority, if not all of the credit.” Our booksellers will be the first to tell you that T.J. Klune writes charming, heartfelt must-reads—The House on the Cerulean Sea was one of our favorite monthly picks this year—and his newest book, Under the Whispering Door is our Speculative Fiction Book of the Year! T.J. joins us on the show to talk about his extraordinary world-building, being honest about grief, Buddy Holly, and more. Featured Books: The House on Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune and Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. Allyson Gavaletz guest hosts this episode, which was produced by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang.
Poured Over is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays.
From This Episode:
B&N: What books are you reading now, queer authors or otherwise?
T.J. Klune: So, I just I just said Ryka Aoki, her book, Light From Uncommon Stars. I got to read it last year, an early version of it, and I have never read anything quite like it before. If I was my blurb somehow ended up on the front cover of that. It’s true. I love that book. And I hope that everybody who reads it has the same wonderful experience that I got to have with it. Freya Marske, A Marvelous Light, a book about queer magicians and it is delightful, and it is funny and I am very jealous of the magic system that Miss Marske created in that book as it’s one of the most unique that I’ve ever read. I have an early copy of V.E. Schwab’s Gallant. I got to read this one this comes out next year. And it is, so far, so good. And one other book I do want to touch on that comes out next year, I believe it comes out in March, and it is by the author Anna-Marie McLemore. Who uses they/them pronouns, so that’s what I’m going to use. They wrote a book called Lakelore that they asked if I would read early, and I did, and it is a book about true trans boys, one with ADHD like I have, and the other one with dyslexia. I rarely get jealous of other authors when they write stories. But I was seething with jealousy over this book. But there’s nobody else other than Anna-Marie McLemore who could have written this book and it is it is a short novel, but I am in love with every single word that is written on this page. It is it is a marvel and I am so excited for everybody to read that book and that comes out next year is called Lakelore.
B&N: Do you have an all-time favorite book? I know that’s tough.
T.J. Klune: That is tough. Probably my favorite book of all time…I’m a very big horror and thriller reader. That’s typically what I read do I do try to try to read as much as I possibly can and everything I can. I’ll give you two my favorite nonfiction book is Lost City of Z by David Grann. And it is a book about a doomed journey into the Amazon to find a lost city by a commander named Percy Fawcett back in the early 1900s, who disappeared and never was seen from or heard from again, and the reporter that sets out to answer the mystery of what happened to him. I love, love that book. Best fiction book, it’s — I could go with the easy route and say something by Stephen King, because I’ve read everything that man has ever written. And I will continue to do so. And I can only hope to be as prolific as he, by the time I am in my 70s like he is, but it goes to Robert McCammon, his Boy’s Life is my favorite book of all time. I’ve read it at least a dozen times. And each time I read it, I get something new out of it. I’ve never had a book that instantly transported me from the very first page before like that, and I will continue to read it as much as I can. Because it is just wonderful.
B&N: That’s wonderful. I love books that do that, that you get more every time you read it. That’s the best.
T.J. Klune: I get for people who say no, I’ll never reread books. I’m like what I you know, there’s a lot of books out there to read. But when I find something I adore and love, I’ll reread that crap out of it.