Holiday reading list from 2013 TED Speakers

TED Blog

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Your holiday reading list: Great novels by 2013 TED speakers Posted: 20 Dec 2013 07:08 PM PST Packing up for your holiday trip home? For the downtime from eggnog, food and family, consider bringing a couple of these excellent novels from TED speakers whose talks were published this year. 1.       Karen Thompson Walker’s debut novel, The Age of Miracles, quickly took off when it was published last year. Walker imagines a world in which the rotation of the earth progressively slows down, with serious consequences. In her TED Talk, Walker discusses the creative potential that fear holds. After all, what is The Age of Miracles if not a beautifully written nightmare? . 2.       Babyji, by Abha Dawesar, is a coming-of-age story that follows Anamika Sharma, a student in 1980s Delhi. The 2005 novel, which won the Barbara Gittings Prize in Literature/Stonewall Award from the American Library Association and a Lambda Literary Prize, “achieves an impressive balance between moral inquiry and decadent pleasure,” Publisher’s Weekly declared. Watch Dawesar’s talk on how technology has fractured our experience of time. . 3.       When Pico Iyer published his first novel, Cuba and the Night, in 1996, he’d already written three travel books. Set in Havana, this novel shows the depth of his travel-writing experience, offering what The New York Times called “atmospheric and haunting glimpses of life in the Cuban countryside.” Watch Iyer’s talk on the meaning of home. . 4.       Korean novelist Young-ha Kim’s latest book, Black Flower, follows Korean emigrants forced into slave labor in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula in 1905. Watch Kim’s talk on why we should all make art right now, and read excerpts from Black Flower and Kim’s other works. . 5.       For family reading, turn to Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s Lunch Lady series. The graphic novel series follows the adventurous, crime-fighting double life of a school lunch lady. In his TED talk, Krosoczka describes his journey to becoming a children’s book author and illustrator. . 6.       Canadian spoken-word artist Shane Koyczan’s novel in verse, Stickboy, tells the story of a bullied child who becomes a bully himself. Watch Koyczan perform his poem “To This Day” with violin accompaniment on the TED stage. . 7.       Software developer-cum-novelist Daniel Suarez’s newest cyberthriller, Kill Decision, pushes the reality of our technological war efforts a little bit further than reality. In his talk, Suarez describes the dangers of autonomous robotic weapons. . 8.      By day, Andrew Fitzgerald works with journalists and news organizations at Twitter; by night, he’s a novelist and journalist himself. The Collective is his 2010 novel. In his talk, Fitzgerald draws from both lives in an exploration of Twitter fiction.

Diana Nyad shares the epic playlist that kept her motivated on her swim from Cuba to Florida Posted: 20 Dec 2013 07:09 PM PST Diana Nyad brought down the house at TEDWomen, telling the story of how she completed a record-breaking swim at age 64. Photo: Marla Aufmuth Diana Nyad swam 110 miles from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, a journey that took her just under 53 hours last September. In today’s talk, Nyad gives a vivid account of what it was like to be out in the water, making her fifth attempt at this swim — one she first tried in 1978 when she was 28 years old. So how did she make it through the jellyfish, the unpredictable currents and the darkness “like you’ve never seen?” Diana Nyad: Never, ever give upThe answer, as Nyad reveals in today’s talk: a deep belief in perseverance, and some really good songs. Nyad says that singing a playlist to herself over and over again — anchored by John Lennon’s “Imagine” played more than 100 times — helped tremendously. We asked Nyad to share the motivational playlist that propelled her through the swim and all the training it required. She obliged. As she sets it up: “Here’s a list of 120 songs … I sang in my head to ease the long hours, to connect with the infinitude of the majestic ocean. Some I know well and would sing all the way through, including humming the musical interludes. Others I would only use the chorus or maybe a first or second stanza — whatever moved me and gave me pleasure out there.” Her playlist is divided into two parts—first, a Spotify playlist of artists ranging from Otis Redding to k.d. lang, and then a list of Beatles songs (not available on Spotify), as they are Nyad’s favorite. And now, her Beatles picks: § “Day Tripper“ § “Run For Your Life“ § “I Should Have Known Better“ § “Hello Little Girl“ § “You Can’t Do That“ § “No Reply“ § “Paperback Writer“ § “Norwegian Wood“ § “A Hard Day’s Night“ § “In My Life“ § “I Feel Fine“ § “Eleanor Rigby“ § “Help!“ § “Nowhere Man“ § “Mean Mr Mustard“ § “Here Comes the Sun“ § “Because“ § “Get Back“ § “Let It Be“ § “I’m Looking Through You“ § “Polythene Pam“ § “Oh! Darling“ § “Sun King“

 

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