Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Today Jonathan spends ten minutes with bestselling, multiple award-winning author of Space Opera, Catherynne M. Valente, who joins him from an island of the northeastern coast of America, to talk about reading, writing and working during these strange times and trying to do so with an infant in the house, the work of Hank Green and Jenny Slate, her love of Dune, her upcoming short fiction, the return of Tetley Abdnego, and much more.

Books mentioned include:

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

A Perfect Host by Catherynne M. Valente

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green

Little Weirds by Jenny Slate

Station Eleven by Hilary St. John Mandel

Dune by Frank Herbert

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang

Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes