Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Book reviews and concert previews brought to you by Betsy Burton, co-owner of The King's English Bookshop, and Austen Diamond, producer of 13% Salt. Books & Beats airs Saturdays at 7:35 a.m. and 9:35 a.m. during NPR's Weekend Edition.

Books & Beats: August 15, 2015

Courtesy of the Artist
Flying Lotus co-headlines the next Twilight Concert on Thursday, August 20th.

Ivan Doig’s final novel Last Bus to Wisdom (Riverside) finds a young boy on the lam with an illegal German immigrant in post-World War II America.  Betsy Burton says, “Chockfull of rollicking humor, blissfully good storytelling and characters so alive on the page they live on in the reader’s mind, Doig’s last book is a paean to this country as it existed half a century ago.”  A celebration of Doig’s life and work will be held at the King’s English on Tuesday, August 18th, at 7:00pm.

Then, Austen Diamond says Flying Lotus’s fifth album You’re Dead is a masterpiece that confronts universal mortality.  Flying Lotus co-headlines this week’s Twilight Concert with Run the Jewels on Thursday, August 20th.

Guitar virtuosos Rodrigo y Gabrela play at Red Butte Garden on Monday, August 17th.

Finally, catch The Brother’s Comatose Friday, August 21st, at the Ogden Valley Roots & Blues Festival.

Music heard on this week’s Books & Beats:

1: “Never Catch Me (feat. Kendrick Lamar)” by Flying Lotus

2: “The Soundmaker” by Rodrigo Y Gabriela

3: “Morning Time (feat. Nicki Bluhm)” by The Brothers Comatose  

KUER is listener-supported public radio. Support this work by making a donation today.