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Carolyn Ferrell on DEAR MISS METROPOLITAN Jul 22, 2021

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This is what we talk about when we talk about voice: Fern, Gwin and Jesenia are the heart of Carolyn Ferrell's acclaimed new novel, Dear Miss Metropolitan, and their voices are unforgettable. Their story is a story of trauma and grief and hope unlike any you've read before, though readers who love The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead won't want to miss this one. Carolyn joins us on the show to talk about her electrifying novel, the inspiration she draws from the work of Edward P. Jones, and more. Featured books: Dear Miss Metropolitan by Carolyn Ferrell, the short stories of Edward P. Jones, Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and Ill Will by Dan Chaon. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang.

Helen MacDonald on VESPER FLIGHTS Jul 20, 2021

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We've run out of superlatives to describe Helen Macdonald's memoir, H is For Hawk. She's followed her acclaimed bestseller — which showed many readers a new way of looking at the natural world — with a delightfully smart collection of essays in Vesper Flights, now out in paperback. Helen joins us on the show to talk about how birds' nests changed her understanding of home, writing in hotel rooms, and what the natural world can teach us about building community and more. Featured books: Vesper Flights and H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, Missionaries by Phil Klay, and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang.

Catherine Raven on FOX & I Jul 15, 2021

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Fox & I, Catherine Raven's tale of an intentional friendship with a wild red fox and how it changed her, is a kaleidoscopic meld of quiet observation, sharp reflection, wry humor and poetry. She joins us on the show to talk about empathy, what it means to be alone but not lonely, and other brilliant and surprising lessons she learned from her companion. Featured titles: Fox & I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven, The Little Prince and Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, and The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

Sam Kean on THE ICEPICK SURGEON Jul 13, 2021

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Sam Kean is an eclectic writer with an affinity for scientific subjects and their weird and darker paths, and he has an inimitable knack for transforming this passionate interest into astonishing story, punctuated with humor and rife with the absurd in his books The Disappearing Spoon, The Violinist's Thumb, Caesar's Last Breath, The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons and The Bastard Brigade. His latest book, The Icepick Surgeon, is a tale of scientists and doctors gone amok, crossing the line from experiment to crime, often wrong for all well-intentioned reasons, and what these stories reveal about historic times in which they took place. Sam Kean joins us on the show to talk about pirates, mad paleontologists, scientist-spies, and more. Featured books: The Icepick Surgeon by Sam Kean and Evolution Gone Wrong by Alex Bezzerides. Follow Us here for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.

Matt Haig on THE BOOK OF COMFORT Jul 08, 2021

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Readers LOVE Matt Haig's charming, full of heart, and genuinely unputdownable novels The Midnight Library and How to Stop Time and made both of them bestsellers. Like many of us, Matt spent much of 2020 feeling a little anxious, a little frazzled--and looking for comfort, the subject of his latest work, The Book of Comfort. He joins us on the show to talk about hope, change and the importance of weird thinking. Featured books: The Comfort Book, The Midnight Library and Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig, Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne and the 1812 version of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang.

S. A. Cosby on RAZORBLADE TEARS Jul 06, 2021

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We're huge fans of S.A. Cosby's pulse-pounding noir novels set in Red Hill County, VA—and we're not alone: Dennis Lehane, Walter Mosley, Lee Child, Stephen King and Laura Lippman are too. But Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears are more than action-packed thrill rides where the bad guys are very bad and the good guys are doing the best they can with what they have. S.A. Cosby joins us on the show to talk about redemption, family, writers he loves, and making up lies to find the truth. Featured books: Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby, A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, and The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollack. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang.

Ayad Akhtar on HOMELAND ELEGIES Jul 01, 2021

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Ayad Akhtar's plays—Disgraced (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama), The Who and the What, and Junk¬—and his novels, American Dervish and Homeland Elegies, are electrifying, unforgettable works of art that push audiences and readers to think about community and power, money and success, and what it means to be American. He joins us on the show to talk about the inspiration for the outrageous and wildly funny Homeland Elegies (now available in paperback), Shakespeare and more. Featured books: Homeland Elegies, American Dervish, Disgraced and Junk by Ayad Akhtar; Ravelstein and The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow; Hadji Murat by Leo Tolstoy; Henry IV Part One and Part Two and Coriolanus by William Shakespeare; and Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.

Casey McQuiston on RED, WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE Jun 29, 2021

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We're not the only readers who adore Casey McQuiston's super-fun, hilarious—and bestselling—love stories. She joins us on the show to talk about using astrology to help with character development (and more), writing rom-coms during the pandemic, the magical power of true love, Tik Tok and more. Featured titles: Red, White and Royal Blue and One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston, Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, She's Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard, How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole, The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo, Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Mary McNamara. Produced/Hosted by Elani Wilson and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.

Kiese Laymon on LONG DIVISION Jun 24, 2021

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Kiese Laymon — memoirist, essayist, novelist — is one of the most extraordinary and exciting writers working today. Best known for his acclaimed memoir Heavy, he recently bought back the rights to his first two books, the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourselves and Others in America and the picaresque coming-of-age novel, Long Division, so he could revise them and send them back into the world as they're meant to be. He joins us on the show to talk about language and memory, rewriting and rereading. Featured Books: Long Division, How to Slowly Kill Yourselves and Others in America and Heavy by Kiese Laymon, Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deeshaw Philyaw, Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara, and Corregidora by Gayl Jones, Sing, Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward and There There by Tommy Orange. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang.

Laura Lippman on DREAM GIRL Jun 22, 2021

Show notes

Writer Gerry Allen is trapped at home after a bad fall, isolated in his swank apartment high over Baltimore Harbor — and the strange calls and letters he's getting won't stop. Laura Lippman's killer new novel Dream Girl is a nod to a classic Agatha Christie locked-room mystery with a twisty plot, crackling dialogue, and lots of literary fun. Featured Books: Dream Girl, Lady in the Lake and My Life as a Villainess by Laura Lippman, Misery by Stephen King, Zuckerman Unbound by Philip Roth, Circe by Madeline Miller, Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch by Alexandra Jacobs, and What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.

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