The Book Show

The Book Show | Karl Ove Knausgaard - The School of Night

Joe Donahue — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 20:00:00 +0000

Few contemporary writers have examined the inner life with the intensity and candor of Karl Ove Knausgaard. His latest is “The School of Night.” In it, he interrogates memory, identity, art, and the meaning we try to impose on our lives.

The Book Show | George Saunders - Vigil

Joe Donahue — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 20:00:00 +0000

George Saunders is one of the most original voices in American fiction. His new novel, “Vigil,” follows Jill “Doll” Blaine, an afterlife usher summoned to guide an unrepentant oil tycoon toward death. Over one wild night, Saunders confronts power, greed, climate reckoning, and mercy itself.

The Book Show | Patrick Ryan - Buckeye

Joe Donahue — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 20:00:00 +0000

In his newest novel, "Buckeye," Patrick Ryan explores the ways families hold together even as the past threatens to pull them apart. Moving between generations, Ryan explores how we inherit not just our parents’ habits and hopes, but their unfinished business.

The Book Show | Allison Russell - The Antidote [encore airing]

Joe Donahue — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Karen Russell's latest, “The Antidote,” is a dust bowl novel and a reckoning with a nation’s forgetting that enacts the settler amnesia and omissions passed down from generation to generation.

The Book Show | Ron Chernow - Mark Twain

Joe Donahue — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 20:00:00 +0000

In his latest biography, “Mark Twain,” Ron Chernow brings to life the man known as the father of American literature, Mark Twain. Chernow peels back the layers of this complex figure, showing us the man behind classics like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Innocents Abroad.”

The Book Show | Ann Packer - Some Bright Nowhere

Joe Donahue — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Ann Packer’s newest novel, “Some Bright Nowhere,” marks a profound return after a decade: it tells the story of Eliot and Claire, married nearly forty years in a quiet Connecticut town, facing the toughest chapter of their lives when Claire’s long-running illness draws toward its end.

The Book Show | Susan Orlean - Joyride

Joe Donahue — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 20:00:00 +0000

The Book Show | Michael Connelly - The Proving Ground

Joe Donahue — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Michael Connelly has long been a master at mapping the evolving landscape of crime and justice in America, and in his latest, "The Proving Ground," he turns his attention to one of the defining questions of the moment: what happens when artificial intelligence crosses dangerous ethical lines—and real people pay the price?

The Book Show | Chloe Dalton - Raising Hare

Joe Donahue — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 20:00:00 +0000

When Chloe Dalton, a city-dwelling professional with a high-pressure job, finds a newly born hare - endangered, alone and no bigger than her palm - she is compelled to give it a chance at survival. The new book, “Raising Hare,” is the story of their journey together.

The Book Show | John Iriving - Queen Esther

Joe Donahue — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 20:00:00 +0000

John Irving has long been one of America’s most distinctive and beloved novelists. With his new novel, “Queen Esther,” Irving once again returns to the questions that have animated his career: What shapes a life? How do we carry the burdens of the past? And how does love anchor us through the most unpredictable turns?

The Book Show | Jeffrey Archer - End Game

Joe Donahue — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Jeffrey Archer's novels have always balanced suspense with insight into the corridors of power. From “Cain and Abel” to “The Clifton Chronicles,” he investigates ambition, betrayal and redemption on an international scale. His latest, “End Game” is swift and elegant and full of moral complexity.

The Book Show | Dan Brown - The Secret of Secrets

Joe Donahue — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Dan Brown’s new novel, "The Secret of Secrets," marks the return of Robert Langdon, the Harvard symbologist. This time, Langdon’s journey takes him to Prague where a lecture on human consciousness quickly unravels into a mystery involving a vanished scientist, an ancient manuscript, and a secret with world-altering implications.

The Book Show | Mona Awad - We Love You, Bunny

Joe Donahue — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Mona Awad’s books walk the line between the surreal and the deeply human. Her latest novel, “We Love You, Bunny,” is a darkly glittering fable about love, obsession, and the masks we wear.

The Book Show | Dan Chaon - One of Us

Joe Donahue — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Author Dan Chaon’s latest, “One of Us,” carries readers into early twentieth-century America where a traveling carnival offers both wonder and menace. At its heart are orphaned twins whose bond is tested as they navigate a world filled with outsiders, performers, and predators.

The Book Show | Fannie Flagg - Something to Look Forward To: Fictions

Joe Donahue — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Fannie Flagg is probably best known as an actress, comedian and author of the classic novel, “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.” Her new book, “Something to Look Forward To: Fictions,” is an interconnected collection of stories. where we encounter voices that are funny, tender, mischievous, and wise.

The Book Show | Elizabeth Strout - Tell Me Everything [encore airing]

Joe Donahue — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elizabeth Strout’s latest, “Tell Me Everything,” returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, forge new friendships, make difficult decisions about love, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, “What does anyone’s life mean?”

The Book Show | Ken Follett - Circle of Days

Joe Donahue — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Author Ken Follett’s career has ranged from Cold War thrillers to sweeping historical sagas, making him one of the world’s most widely read novelists. His latest work, “Circle of Days,” takes us back thousands of years to when communities on the plains of England first attempted to shape the monumental stones we now call Stonehenge.

The Book Show | Sam Sussman - The Boy from the North Country

Joe Donahue — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Sam Sussman’s debut novel, “Boy From the North Country,” is a moving story of love, loss, and identity. When twenty-six-year-old Evan returns home to care for his dying mother, June, he begins to uncover long-kept secrets. Chief among them: the possibility that his father is Bob Dylan.

The Book Show - John Boyne - The Elements

Joe Donahue — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 19:00:00 +0000

John Boyne is one of Ireland’s most accomplished contemporary novelists, perhaps best known for “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.” His latest, “The Elements,” is structured around the four classical elements—Water, Earth, Fire, and Air—and presents four distinct yet thematically connected stories.

The Book Show | Stacey Abrams - Coded Justice

Joe Donahue — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Stacey Abrams is a nationally recognized political leader, voting rights advocate, and bestselling author whose new novel, “Coded Justice,” delivers a mix of legal investigation, political intrigue, and the high-stakes AI technology shaping our medical future.

The Book Show | Kate Russo - Until Alison

Joe Donahue — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Acclaimed author Kate Russo's latest, “Until Alison,” introduces us to Rachel Nardelli as she investigates the mysterious death of her childhood rival, Alison. As buried secrets resurface, Rachel is forced to confront their complicated past and her own unsettling memories.

The Book Show | Bruce Holsinger - Culpability

Joe Donahue — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Bruce Holsinger’s new novel, “Culpability,” is an emotionally charged story that asks some of the most pressing questions of our time: Who bears responsibility when tragedy strikes? How do guilt and accountability ripple through lives?

The Book Show | Jason Mott - People Like Us

Joe Donahue — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Jason Mott, National Book Award-winning author of “Hell of a Book,” returns with “People Like Us;” a book that confronts the invisible forces shaping our identities and our relationships. Mott now turns his lens to lives where truth is slippery, memory is contested, and the past refuses to stay buried.

The Book Show | Sue Halpern - What We Leave Behind

Joe Donahue — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 19:00:00 +0000

It's the perennial question: Are we a product of how we were raised or is our identity hard wired by our genetic inheritance? These questions are explored in Sue Halpern’s new novel “What We Leave Behind.” Halpern is the author of seven books of fiction and non-fiction and scholar in residence at Middlebury College.

The Book Show | Jess Walter - So Far Gone

Joe Donahue — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Jess Walter, the New York Times bestselling author of “Beautiful Ruins” and “The Cold Millions,” returns with “So Far Gone.” The novel centers on Rhys Kinnick, a reclusive journalist forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren and find his missing daughter.

The Book Show | Alison Bechdel - Spent

Joe Donahue — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Celebrated cartoonist and “Fun Home” author Alison Bechdel returns with “Spent: A Comic Novel,” a sharp, funny, and self-aware look at art, aging, and the absurdity of success. Set on a goat farm in Vermont, Bechdel (both author and character) grapples with writer’s block, late-stage capitalism, and the unintended consequences of cultural fame.

The Book Show | Gary Shteyngart - Vera, Or Faith

Joe Donahue — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Gary Shteyngart’s latest novel, “Vera, or Faith,” is set in a near-future America wrestling with authoritarian politics and cultural anxiety. The story is told through the eyes of 10-year-old Vera - a sharp, observant child navigating a fractured family and a society teetering on the edge.

The Book Show | Ron Chernow - Mark Twain

Joe Donahue — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0000

The Book Show | Wally Lamb - The River is Waiting

Joe Donahue — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0000

In his latest novel, “The River Is Waiting,” Wally Lamb gives us a story about one man’s fall and uncertain redemption. Corby Ledbetter, a married, father of twins, makes a tragic mistake that sends him to prison and shatters his family. Behind bars, he faces the consequences of addiction, grief, and guilt—while searching for a path to forgiveness.

The Book Show - Rick Atkinson - The Fate of the Day

Joe Donahue — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Rick Atkinson has just published the second volume of his American Revolution trilogy, "The Fate of the Day," covering the middle years of the war. Benjamin Franklin was wooing the French while George Washington was pleading with Congress to deliver the money, men, and material he needed to continue the fight.

The Book Show | Richard Russo - Life And Art

Joe Donahue — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo is known for books like “Empire Falls,” “Nobody’s Fool,” and “Straight Man,” having long chronicled working-class America with wit, empathy, and a sharp eye for character. His latest, “Life & Art,” is a thoughtful and very funny collection of essays that explore the deeply personal side of a writer’s life.

The Book Show | Chris Bohjalian - The Jackal's Mistress

Joe Donahue — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Set during the final stretch of the Civil War, author Chris Bohjalian’s “The Jackal’s Mistress” tells the story of Libby, a woman stuck in the South with a missing husband and a whole lot of moral questions. When she finds a nearly dead Union officer in the woods, she decides to save him. With war raging around them, Libby has to choose between loyalty and compassion.

The Book Show | Helen Phillips - Hum [encore]

Joe Donahue — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Helen Phillips is one of the most interesting and original writers working today. In her latest novel, “Hum,” she turns her eye to marriage, motherhood, and selfhood in a world compromised by global warming and artificial intelligence.

The Book Show | Miranda July - All Fours [encore]

Joe Donahue — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 07:00:00 +0000

“All Fours,” a new novel by Miranda July, tells the story of a semi-famous artist who announces her plan to drive cross-country on a one woman quest for a new kind of freedom. The book is part absurd entertainment and part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist.

The Book Show | Russell Shorto - Taking Manhattan

Joe Donahue — Tue, 27 May 2025 19:00:00 +0000

In 2004, Historian Russell Shorto published “The Island at the Center of the World,” a book about Manhattan and the role of the Dutch in making New York (and America) what it is today. His new book, “Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America,” continues the story.

The Book Show | Adrian McKinty - Hang On St. Christopher

Joe Donahue — Tue, 20 May 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Adrian McKinty’s latest novel, “Hang on St. Christopher,” brings readers to July 1992 when The Troubles in Northern Ireland are still grinding on after twenty-five years. McKinty’s character, Sean Duffy, is assigned to his most violent and dangerous case yet, and the future of the burgeoning “peace process” may depend on it.

The Book Show | Joy Harjo - Washing My Mother's Body

Joe Donahue — Tue, 06 May 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Poet Joy Harjo’s poems are described as musical, intimate, political and wise, intertwining ancestral memory and tribal histories with resilience and love. Her latest book, “Washing My Mother’s Body: A Ceremony for Grief,” explores the complexity of a daughter’s grief as she reflects on the joys and sorrows of her mother’s life.

The Book Show | Chris Hayes - The Sirens' Call

Joe Donahue — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Chris Hayes is the Emmy Award-winning host of MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes.” In his new book, “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource,” he writes about attention as a resource – one that is being drawn away from citizens in ways they don’t even realize. This episode of The Book Show was recorded at The Bardavon in Poughkeepsie, New York in an event presented by Oblong Books.

The Book Show | Emma Donoghue - The Paris Express

Joe Donahue — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 19:00:00 +0000

The Book Show | Karen Russell - The Antidote

Joe Donahue — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 19:00:40 +0000

Karen Russell's latest, “The Antidote,” is a dust bowl novel and a reckoning with a nation’s forgetting that enacts the settler amnesia and omissions passed down from generation to generation.

The Book Show | Colum McCann - Twist

Joe Donahue — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Colum McCann is the New York Times bestselling author of “Let the Great World Spin.” His new novel, “Twist,” tells a propulsive story of rupture and repair in the digital age, delving into a hidden world deep under the ocean.

The Book Show | Julia Alvarez - The Cemetery of Untold Stories [encore airing]

Joe Donahue — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Julia Alvarez, bestselling author of “In the Time of the Butterflies” and “How the García Girls Lost Their Accents,” returns with “The Cemetery of Untold Stories” - a novel about storytelling that reminds us that the events of our lives are never truly finished, even at the end.

The Book Show | Allegra Goodman - Isola

Joe Donahue — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 19:00:00 +0000

The Book Show | Charlotte Wood - Stone Yard Devotional

Joe Donahue — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Hailed by The Booker Prize judges as a “fierce and philosophical interrogation of human existence,” Charlotte Wood’s “Stone Yard Devotional” chronicles “one woman’s inward journey to make sense of the world and her life when conflicts and chaos are abundant in both realms.”

The Book Show | Robert Crais - The Big Empty

Joe Donahue — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike, race to find a terrifying, unidentified killer in "The Big Empty," the 20th Elvis Cole novel. Author Robert Crais delivers Cole and Pike's toughest case yet, testing their loyalty to their clients and themselves.

The Book Show | Scott Turow - Presumed Guilty

Joe Donahue — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Scott Turow’s latest novel is “Presumed Guilty” - a sequel to “Presumed Innocent,” the #1 bestseller that redefined the legal thriller and is the basis for Apple TV+’s most-watched drama series ever. The book examines whether the system can ever provide true justice for those who are presumed guilty.

The Book Show | Adam Ross - Playworld

Joe Donahue — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 20:00:00 +0000

The Book Show | Sheila Heti - Alphabetical Diaries [encore airing]

Joe Donahue — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 20:00:00 +0000

“Alphabetical Diaries” by Sheila Heti contains a decade’s worth of thoughts, arranged in alphabetical order. The book is a chronicle of the self, of the fundamentals and idiosyncrasies of human experience, that plays out thrillingly in the space that Heti has staked out between life and art, reality and fiction.

The Book Show | Kaveh Akbar - Martyr! [Encore airing]

Joe Donahue — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Poet Kaveh Akbar joins us to discuss his first novel “Martyr!” which follows Cyrus Shams on a journey of introspection and discovery. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet. His obsession with martyrs and dealing with the death of his mother drives him to examine the mysteries of his past.

The Book Show | Pico Iyer - Aflame

Joe Donahue — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Pico Iyer is the acclaimed and bestselling author of more than a dozen books translated into twenty-three languages, most recently “The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise” and “The Art of Stillness.” His latest, “Aflame,” is an exploration of the abiding clarity and calm to be found in quiet retreat.

The Book Show | Tim Matheson - Damn Glad To Meet You

Joe Donahue — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 20:00:00 +0000

For the past seven decades, Tim Matheson has been an on-screen favorite in Hollywood. In his new memoir, "Damn Glad to Meet You," Matheson looks at his illustrious career, and reveals what it was like to learn from and work alongside the greats, including Lucille Ball, Dick Van Dyke, Steven Spielberg, and Aaron Sorkin.

The Book Show | Alafair Burke - The Note

Joe Donahue — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Alafair Burke is the Edgar-nominated, New York Times best-selling author of fourteen novels of suspense. Her latest page-turner is “The Note.” The book follows three longtime friends who, despite their best intentions, don’t always bring out the best in one another.

The Book Show | Percival Everett - James (encore airing)

Joe Donahue — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 20:00:00 +0000

“James,” by Percival Everett, is a reimagining of Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” told from the point of view of enslaved person, Jim. While many narrative set pieces of “Huckleberry Finn” remain in place, Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

The Book Show | 1901 - Kristin Hannah - The Women

Joe Donahue — Tue, 24 Dec 2024 20:00:00 +0000

“The Women,” a novel by Kristin Hannah, is set at a pivotal time in American history: the Vietnam era. It is an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous situation and an epic tale of a nation divided by war and broken by politics.

The Book Show | Mark Haddon - Dogs and Monsters

Joe Donahue — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Booker Prize finalist Mark Haddon, author of the internationally bestselling novel, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” returns with “Dogs and Monsters: Stories.” The story collection features eight mesmerizing tales exploring what ultimately makes us human.

The Book Show | Billy Collins - Water, Water

Joe Donahue — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Billy Collins is a former Poet Laureate of the United States and is the author of twelve collections of poetry. His latest is Water, Water: Poems. It is a collection of sixty new poems where Collins explores the subtle beauties and ironies of daily life.

The Book Show | Danzy Senna - Colored Television

Joe Donahue — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 20:00:00 +0000

“Colored Television” by Danzy Senna is a take on love and ambition, failure and reinvention, and the racial-identity-industrial complex. The book follows Jane, a novelist, as she struggles to create a picture-perfect life with her husband and kids. Jane learns being a writer is hard and working in Hollywood is even harder.

The Book Show | Richard Price - Lazarus Man

Joe Donahue — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 20:00:00 +0000

In his new novel, “Lazarus Man,” Richard Price presents a rich tapestry of lives intertwining and a portrait of a neighborhood in the midst of change.

The Book Show | Ian Rankin - Midnight and Blue

Joe Donahue — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Ian Rankin is the multimillion-copy worldwide bestseller of over thirty novels and creator of John Rebus. His latest, “Midnight and Blue,” is his 25th novel in the Rebus series.

The Book Show | Susan Minot - Don't Be a Stranger

Joe Donahue — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Susan Minot is an award-winning novelist, short-story writer, poet, and screenwriter. Her new novel, “Don't Be a Stranger,” centers on the relationship between a younger man and an older single mother. It is a story about erotic obsession, the hunger for intimacy, communication, and oblivion.

The Book Show | Edwidge Danticat - We're Alone: Essays

Joe Donahue — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Edwidge Danticat has enriched and enlarged American literature with her novels and short stories about Haiti. Her latest, “We’re Alone,” is an essay collection that explores her profound and enduring connection to Haiti, as well as a deep concern for her family, her beloved island and the world.

The Book Show | Liz Moore - The God of the Woods

Joe Donahue — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Author Liz Moore transports readers into a thrilling drama richly set against summertime in the Adirondacks in “The God of the Woods.” The novel follows the mysteries of a dynastic American family, the secrets of the summer camp nestled in their estate, the tragic history of a blue-collar community, and the disappearance of a young girl at the center of it all.

The Book Show | Roddy Doyle - The Women Behind the Door

Joe Donahue — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Roddy Doyle’s latest novel, The Women Behind the Door, is a powerful mother-daughter story. At sixty-six, Paula Spencer has finally started to live her life. That is until her eldest daughter turns up on the doorstep one day. She has left her family and come to stay.

The Book Show | Lauren Groff - The Vaster Wilds (encore airing)

Joe Donahue — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Lauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author. Her new novel, “The Vaster Wilds,” is at once an adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. It tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history.

The Book Show | Richard Powers - Playground

Joe Donahue — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Richard Powers’ bestselling novel, "The Overstory," won the Pulitzer Prize and has more than 1 million copies in print. His new novel, "Playground," captures the beauty and loss of the ocean, following four lives: a marine biologist, an artist, a schoolteacher, and an AI pioneer as they intersect on an island in French Polynesia.

The Book Show | Louise Erdrich - The Mighty Red

Joe Donahue — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 01:00:00 +0000

In her new novel, “The Mighty Red,” Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich tells a story of love, natural forces, spiritual yearnings, and the tragic impact of uncontrollable circumstances on ordinary people's lives.

The Book Show - Amor Towles

Joe Donahue — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Amor Towles is the author of New York Times bestsellers “Rules of Civility,” “A Gentleman in Moscow,” and “The Lincoln Highway.” The three novels have collectively sold more than five million copies. His latest is a collection of stories: “Table for Two: Fictions.” He is also editor of this year’s “The Best Short Stories 2024: The O. Henry Prize Winners.”

The Book Show | Elizabeth Strout - Tell Me Everything

Joe Donahue — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Book Show | Peter Heller - Burn

Joe Donahue — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Peter Heller is the best-selling author of "Burn," a novel about two men - friends since boyhood - who emerge from the woods of rural Maine to a dystopian country racked by bewildering violence.

The Book Show | Rachel Kushner - Creation Lake

Joe Donahue — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 19:00:00 +0000

In “Creation Lake” by Rachel Kushner, Sadie Smith, a 34 year old American undercover agent of ruthless tactics is sent by her mysterious but powerful employers to a remote corner of France. Her mission: to infiltrate a commune of radical eco-activists.

The Book Show | Helen Phillips - Hum

Joe Donahue — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 19:00:00 +0000

The Book Show | Jodi Picoult - By Any Other Name

Joe Donahue — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Known for her incredible research bestselling author Jodi Picoult brings to life the incomparable Emilia Bassano, the real-life and “too little considered” English poet believed to have authored many of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. Picoult’s new novel is “By Any Other Name.”

The Book Show | Simon Rich - Glory Days

Joe Donahue — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Simon Rich is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. He has written for “Saturday Night Live,” Pixar, and “The Simpsons” and is the creator of the TV shows “Man Seeking Woman” and “Miracle Workers.” His latest story collection, “Glory Days,” mourns the death of youthful innocence and hails the beginning of something approximating wisdom.

The Book Show | Bret Anthony Johnston - We Burn Daylight

Joe Donahue — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 19:00:00 +0000

In 1993, in his hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas, Bret Anthony Johnston watched on live TV as flames engulfed a number of buildings in Waco – full of men, women, and children – during the FBI’s siege of the Branch Davidian compound. This time led to his writing the novel, “We Burn Daylight.”

The Book Show | Kevin Barry - The Heart in Winter

Joe Donahue — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 19:00:00 +0000

“The Heart in Winter” by Kevin Barry is a big-hearted, violent, hypnotic, and lovelorn epic set against the iconic genre of the American Western. If features an unforgettable female protagonist and tackling the dislocation and self-invention of the Irish immigrant experience.

The Book Show | Tana French - The Hunter

Joe Donahue — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 19:00:00 +0000

A mystery set in a rural village in the West of Ireland, “The Hunter” is the second novel by best-selling author Tana French novel set in mythical Ardnakelty. It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.

The Book Show| Doris Kearns Goodwin - An Unfinished Love Story - Part 2

Joe Donahue — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Doris Kearns Goodwin is one of America’s most beloved historians. She joins us to discuss her new book “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s,” where she artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history.

The Book Show | Doris Kearns Goodwin - An Unfinished Love Story (Part 1)

Joe Donahue — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 19:00:00 +0000

American historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s latest book is “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s.” The book shares the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked on in the last years of his life, as the couple examined a tumultuous decade in American history through the lens of their own personal involvement in public service.

The Book Show | Griffin Dunne - The Friday Afternoon Club

Joe Donahue — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 19:00:00 +0000

“The Friday Afternoon Club” by actor Griffin Dunne is a memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan. The book finds wicked humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances.

The Book Show | Jake Tapper - All the Demons are Here

Joe Donahue — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 19:00:00 +0000

CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent and New York Times best-selling author Jake Tapper’s third thriller, “All the Demons Are Here,” brings readers to the 1970s underground world of cults, celebrities, tabloid journalism, serial killers, disco, and UFOs.

The Book Show | Lorrie Moore - I

Joe Donahue — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Lorrie Moore is one of the most celebrated living writers in the United States. Her new novel, “I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home,” is her first in 14 years and is an exploration of love and death, passion and grief where a man takes a road trip with the corpse of his dead ex-lover. The book is now available in paperback.

The Book Show | Garrard Conley - All the World Beside

Joe Donahue — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Garrard Conley is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, “Boy Erased.” His debut novel, “All the World Beside,” is the story of two men in love caught between the demands of their families and societal pressures. Conley has coined it “The Queer Scarlet Letter.”

The Book Show | Caroline Leavitt - Days of Wonder

Joe Donahue — Tue, 28 May 2024 19:00:00 +0000

"Days of Wonder" by Caroline Leavitt centers a young mother who, incarcerated as a teenager, now forges a redemptive path forward. It features whirlwind romances old and new, and is a mother-daughter story, a striking testament to the resilience of their love.

The Book Show | Colm Tóibín - Long Island

Joe Donahue — Tue, 21 May 2024 19:00:00 +0000

New York Times bestselling author Colm Tóibín has written a novel of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love featuring Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of his 2009 novel “Brooklyn,” Tóibín’s most popular work. The new novel is “Long Island.”

The Book Show | Miranda July - All Fours

Joe Donahue — Tue, 14 May 2024 19:00:00 +0000

The Book Show | Chris Bohjalian - The Princess of Las Vegas

Joe Donahue — Tue, 07 May 2024 19:00:00 +0000

In "The Princess of Las Vegas," by best-selling author Chris Bohjalian, a Princess Diana impersonator and her estranged sister find themselves drawn into a dangerous game of money and murder in a twisting tale of organized crime, cryptocurrency, and family secrets on the Las Vegas strip.

The Book Show | Julia Alvarez - The Cemetery of Until Stories

Joe Donahue — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 19:00:00 +0000

The Book Show | Anne Lamott - Somehow: Thoughts on Love

Joe Donahue — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Anne Lamott’s new book “Somehow: Thoughts on Love” is her 20th book and published on her 70th birthday. In each chapter, Lamott refracts all the colors of the spectrum. She explores love and the power it has in our lives. The lessons she underscores are that love enlightens as it educates, comforts as it energizes, sustains as it surprises.

The Book Show | Percival Everett - James

Joe Donahue — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 19:00:00 +0000

The Book Show | Don Winslow - City in Ruins

Joe Donahue — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 19:00:00 +0000

“City on Fire” by Don Winslow launched an ambitious crime fiction trilogy that has transported readers from the gritty streets of Providence to the glittering screens of Hollywood to the golden casinos of Las Vegas as Danny Ryan, forges a dynasty. Winslow’s latest book is “City in Ruins.” It is also his last.

The Book Show | Tommy Orange - Wandering Stars

Joe Donahue — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 19:00:00 +0000

The new novel by Tommy Orange, “Wandering Stars,” traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through to the shattering aftermath of Orvil Redfeather’s shooting depicted in Orange’s best-selling debut, “There There.”

The Book Show | Anna Quindlen - After Annie

Joe Donahue — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Anna Quindlen puts her trademark wisdom on family, friendship, and the ties that bind us at the center her new novel, “After Annie.” When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her children, and her closest friend are left to find a way forward without the woman who has been the lynchpin of all of their lives.

The Book Show | Amitava Kumar - My Beloved Life

Joe Donahue — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 19:00:00 +0000

“My Beloved Life” by Amitava Kumar is a father-daughter story that widens into an Indian family saga. It tells the story of an ordinary life made exceptional by the fact that father has loved and has been loved in return. His daughter’s story recasts the past in a new light.

The Book Show | Kaveh Akbar - Martyr!

Joe Donahue — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

The Book Show | Danielle Trussoni - The Puzzle Master

Joe Donahue — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Novelist Danielle Trussoni is the author of the bestsellers “Angelology” and “Angelopolis.” She gives readers a thrilling ride with her latest, “The Puzzle Master.” Reality and the supernatural collide when an expert puzzle maker is thrust into an ancient mystery - one with explosive consequences for the fate of humanity.

The Book Show | Kristin Hannah - The Women

Joe Donahue — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 20:00:00 +0000

“The Women,” a new novel by Kristin Hannah, is set at a pivotal time in American history: the Vietnam era. It is an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous situation and an epic tale of a nation divided by war and broken by politics.

The Book Show | Ann Napolitano - Hello Beautiful

Joe Donahue — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Ann Napolitano took the literary world by storm with her tear-jerker of a novel “Dear Edward.” Her latest, “Hello Beautiful,” is an homage to Louisa May Alcott’s classic, “Little Women.” “Hello Beautiful” is a portrait of what is possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.

The Book Show | Karl Marlantes - Cold Victory

Joe Donahue — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 20:00:00 +0000

In his new novel, “Cold Victory,” New York Times bestselling author Karl Marlantes delivers a sweeping tale of Cold War intrigue set in post-war Finland in which loyalty, friendship, and love are put to the ultimate test. The book is layered with action, historical detail, and a keen eye for the way totalitarianism and loss of truth and privacy threatens love and friendship.

The Book Show | Sheila Heti - Alphabetical Diaries

Joe Donahue — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 20:00:00 +0000

The Book Show | Paul Murray - The Bee Sting

Joe Donahue — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 20:00:00 +0000

“The Bee Sting,” a novel by Paul Murray, is about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person at the end of the world.

The Book Show | Paul Lynch - Prophet Song

Joe Donahue — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 20:00:00 +0000

The winner of the Booker Prize 2023, “Prophet Song” by Paul Lynch, presents a terrifying and shocking vision of a country sliding into authoritarianism and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.

The Book Show | Tim O'Brien - America Fantastica

Joe Donahue — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Best-selling author of “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien, is on The Book Show this week to discuss his first new novel in two decades. “America Fantastica” is a propulsive caper chock full of O’Brien’s commentary on the state of American politics and culture.

The Book Show - Carl Hiaasen - Wrecker

Joe Donahue — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 20:00:00 +0000

As a prolific novelist of books for adults and kids, Carl Hiaasen has a subject: Florida. It is his beat. In “Wrecker,” Hiaasen’s new novel for Young Readers, Valdez Jones VIII needs to deal with smugglers, grave robbers, and pooping iguanas -- just as soon as he finishes Zoom school.

The Book Show - Ann Patchett - Tom Lake

Joe Donahue — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Ann Patchett is the author of nine novels, including “Bel Canto,” “State of Wonder,” “Commonwealth” and “The Dutch House,” a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her latest, “Tom Lake,” is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born.

The Book Show - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - Chain-Gang All-Stars

Joe Donahue — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Bestselling author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the author of the debut novel, "Chain-Gang All-Stars," the story of two top women gladiators fighting for their freedom within a depraved private prison system.

Book Show | Michael Cunningham - Day

Joe Donahue — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 20:00:00 +0000

“Day” is the first novel in a decade from Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham. It’s a family saga set in New York City before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and takes place on three separate days in April, one each in the years 2019-2021.

The Book Show | Jake Tapper - All the Demons are Here

Joe Donahue — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 20:00:00 +0000

CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent and New York Times best-selling author Jake Tapper has written a third thriller. “All the Demons are Here,” brings readers to the 1970s underground world of cults, celebrities, tabloid journalism, serial killers, disco, and UFOs.

The Book Show - Sigrid Nunez - The Vulnerables

Joe Donahue — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 20:00:00 +0000

“Elegy plus comedy is the only way to express how we live in the world today,” says a character in “The Vulnerables,” the ninth novel by National Book Award winner Sigrid Nunez. “The Vulnerables” offers a meditation on our contemporary era, asking how present reality affects the way a person looks back on their past.

The Book Show - Alice McDermott - Absolution

Joe Donahue — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 20:00:00 +0000

“Absolution,” by National Book Award-winning author Alice McDermott, is the riveting account of women’s lives on the margins of the Vietnam War. American women and wives have been mostly minor characters in the literature of the Vietnam War, but in “Absolution” they take center stage.

The Book Show - Jane Smiley - A Dangerous Business

Joe Donahue — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels including “A Thousand Acres,” which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the “Last Hundred Years Trilogy.” Her latest, “A Dangerous Business,” tells the remarkable story of the California gold rush and a pair of sex-worker sleuths who track down the culprit behind a series of disappearances.

The Book Show - Jonathan Lethem - Brooklyn Crime Novel

Joe Donahue — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Jonathan Lethem is the bestselling author of twelve novels, including “The Fortress of Solitude” and “Motherless Brooklyn,” and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. His newest is “Brooklyn Crime Novel,” a sweeping story of community, crime, and gentrification, tracing more than fifty years of life in one Brooklyn neighborhood.

The Book Show - Ayana Mathis - The Unsettled

Joe Donahue — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 20:00:00 +0000

The new novel, “The Unsettled,” by Ayana Mathis is set in the 1980s and follows three generations of a family divided by a painful past. Ava lives in racially and politically turbulent Philadelphia, struggling to care for her son, Toussaint. Her mother, Dutchess, remains in her historically Black hometown of Bonaparte, Alabama, fighting to save her land.

The Book Show - Joe Nesbø - The Night House

Joe Donahue — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Joe Nesbø is an internationally best-selling author best known for his mystery series featuring his protagonist, Harry Hole. His latest is a twisted, multi-layered, mind-bending spin on the classic horror novel, “The Night House.” By page 8 – a phone has eaten a guy and things get stranger along the way.

The Book Show - Nathan Hill - Wellness

Joe Donahue — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 19:00:00 +0000

“Wellness,” by Nathan Hill, is a poignant and witty novel about marriage, the often-baffling pursuit of health and happiness, and the stories that bind us together. The book brings us from the gritty '90s Chicago art scene to a suburbia of detox diets and home-renovation hysteria.

The Book Show - George Saunders - Liberation Day

Joe Donahue — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 19:00:00 +0000

George Saunders is an American great, a writer who continues to astound, evolve and get deeper. His new book, “Liberation Day,” is his first collection of stories since his National Book Award finalist “Tenth of December” was published nine years ago. This is an encore airing. "Liberation Day" is now out in paperback.

The Book Show - Anne Enright - The Wren, The Wren

Joe Donahue — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 19:00:00 +0000

The Times calls Booker Prize winning writer Anne Enright one of our greatest living novelists. Her latest, “The Wren, The Wren” is about a dead poet’s daughter and granddaughter coming to terms with his troubling legacy. Enright’s novel about language and connection explores the inheritance of trauma, wonder, and love across three generations of women.

The Book Show - John Irving - The Chairlift (encore airing)

Joe Donahue — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 19:00:00 +0000

John Irving has written some of the most acclaimed books of our time, among them: “The World According to Garp,” “A Widow for One Year,” “A Prayer for Owen Meany” and “The Cider House Rules.” He now returns with his first novel in seven years “The Last Chairlift.”

The Book Show - Esmeralda Santiago - Las Madres

Joe Donahue — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Esmeralda Santiago is the award-winning, best-selling author of “When I Was Puerto Rican.” Her latest, “Las Madres,” is a powerful novel of family, race, faith, sex, and disaster that moves between Puerto Rico and the Bronx, revealing the lives and loves of five women and the secret that binds them together.

The Book Show - James McBride - The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: A Novel

Joe Donahue — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 19:00:00 +0000

National Book Award Winner James McBride’s new novel is “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.” It is rooted in small-town secrets as the residents of rundown Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania live with compassion on the margins of society.

Book Show - Lauren Groff - The Vaster Wilds

Joe Donahue — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 19:00:00 +0000

The Book Show - Ana Reyes - The House in the Pines

Joe Donahue — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 19:00:00 +0000

“The House in the Pines” is a new psychological thriller from Ana Reyes. In it, we follow Maya, a young woman who only has hazy memories about the most traumatic moment in her life – witnessing the mysterious death of her best friend – and feels the desperation to hide from and eventually fight for long-buried answers.

The Book Show - Peter Heller - The Last Ranger

Joe Donahue — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Best-selling author and naturalist Peter Heller’s new novel, “The Last Ranger,” tells of an enforcement ranger in Yellowstone National Park who likes wolves better than most people. When a clandestine range war threatens his closest friend, he must shake off his own losses and act swiftly to discover the truth and stay alive.

1831 - Lorrie Moore - I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home | 1831

Joe Donahue — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 19:00:00 +0000

1830 - Richard Russo - Somebody's Fool | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Pulitzer-Prize winning author Richard Russo’s new novel, “Somebody's Fool,” returns to North Bath in upstate New York and to the characters that captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of readers in his beloved best sellers “Nobody’s Fool” and “Everybody’s Fool.”

1829 - Ann Patchett - Tom Lake | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 19:00:00 +0000

1828 - Simon Winchster - Knowing What We Know |The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Award winning writer Simon Winchester’s latest book is “Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic.” It explores how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds.

1827 – Sadeqa Johnson - The House of Eve | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Sadeqa Johnson is the award-winning author of four novels, including “Yellow Wife.” Her latest, “The House of Eve,” is a Reese’s Book Club Pick and an instant New York Times Bestseller. With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, we meet Ruby and Eleanor who both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.

1826 - Danielle Trussoni - The Puzzle Master | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 19:00:00 +0000

1825 - Luis Alberto Urrea - Good Night, Irene | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Taking as inspiration his mother’s own Red Cross service, novelist Luis Alberto Urrea has delivered an overlooked story of women’s heroism in World War II. With its portrait of friendship and valor in harrowing circumstances, Good Night, Irene, explores the "Donut Dollies," an all-women volunteer group launched by the Red Cross during WWII.

1824 – Ottessa Moshfegh – Lapvona | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel “Lapvona” brings us to a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters where a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test.

1823 - Elliot Ackerman - Halcyon: A Novel | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Set in an alternate version of America’s recent past, Elliot Ackerman’s latest, “Halcyon,” is a chilling novel about two self-made men confronting a world that seems to be moving on without them. It grapples with what history means, who is affected by it, and how the complexities of our shared future rest on the dual foundations of remembering and forgetting.

1822 - Steven Wright - Harold | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Steven Wright is one of the most significant and influential stand-up comedians in history. His first novel, “Harold,” documents the meandering, surreal, often hilarious, stream-of-consciousness ruminations of the title character during a single day in class.

1821 - Susanna Moore - The Lost Wife | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Novelist Susanna Moore’s eighth novel, “The Lost Wife,” is an immersive story about a seminal and shameful moment in America’s conquest of the West. Drawing partly from a true story, it brings to life a devastating Native American revolt and the woman caught in the middle of the conflict.

1820 - Dennis Lehane - Small Mercies | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane’s latest, “Small Mercies,” is a brutal depiction of criminality and power and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. Mary Pat Fennessey, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched.

1819 - Ann Napolitano - Hello Beautiful | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 30 May 2023 19:00:00 +0000

1818 - Abraham Verghese - The Covenant of Water | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 23 May 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Abraham Verghese is The New York Times-bestselling author of “Cutting for Stone.” His latest, “The Covenant of Water,” is a stunning epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret known as “the condition.”

1817 - Susanna Hoffs - This Bird has Flown |The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 16 May 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Susanna Hoffs co-founded the pop-rock band The Bangles in 1981 before embarking on a critically acclaimed solo career. Now, she has written a rock and roll rom-com novel entitled “This Bird Has Flown.”

1816 – Bonnie Garmus - Lessons in Chemistry | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 09 May 2023 19:00:00 +0000

1815 - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - Chain Gang All Stars | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 02 May 2023 19:00:00 +0000

1814 – Charles Frazier – The Tracker | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 19:00:00 +0000

1812 - John Sayles - Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade’s Journey | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Oscar nominated filmmaker and author John Sayles’s new novel, “Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade’s Journey,” spans 13 years, two continents, several wars, and many smoldering, blood-soaked battlefields.

1811 - Owen King - The Curator | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Owen King’s “The Curator” is a fantasy of illusion and mystery set in an unnamed city in the midst of a revolution where nothing and nobody is as it seems. “The Curator” is an exploration of power, revolution, ghosts, cats, and more.

1810 - Rebecca Makkai - I Have Some Questions for You | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 19:00:00 +0000

1809 - Thomas Mallon - Up With the Sun | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Thomas Mallon’s new novel, "Up with The Sun," mixes murder mystery and showbiz history to tell the fictionalized account of the life and untimely death of Dick Kallman.

1808 - Deepti Kapoor - Age of Vice | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 18:00:00 +0000

1807 - Scott Turow - Suspect | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Scott Turow, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of "Presumed Innocent" and "The Last Trial," returns with "Suspect" a riveting legal thriller in which a reckless private detective is embroiled in a fraught police scandal where the Police Chief is accused by three male police officers of soliciting sex in exchange for promotions to higher ranks.

1806 - Paul Harding - This Other Eden | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Harding’s new novel “This Other Eden” is inspired by the true story of Malaga Island, an isolated island off the coast of Maine that became one of the first racially integrated towns in the Northeast. Harding is the author of “Tinkers” and “Enon.”

1805 - Lydia Millet - Dinosaurs | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Lydia Millet’s previous novel, “A Children’s Bible,” was a National Book Award Finalist. Her follow-up is “Dinosaurs” is deadpan funny and yet deals with the important themes of extinction and climate change.

1804 - Tracy Kidder and Dr. Jim O'Connell - Rough Sleepers (Part 2) | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Tracy Kidders new book, “Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell's Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People” shines a spotlight on Jim O’Connell, a Harvard-trained doctor who has spent 40 years caring for unhoused individuals in Boston, the “Rough Sleepers.”

We talk with both Tracy Kidder and Dr. Jim O’Connell on this week’s Book Show.

1803 - Tracy Kidder - Rough Sleepers (Part 1) | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Tracy Kidders new book, “Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell's Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People,” tells the story of Dr. Jim O’Connell – a man who invented ways to create a community of care for a city’s unhoused population – the “rough sleepers.”

1802 - Jane Smiley - A Dangerous Business

Joe Donahue — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:00:00 +0000

1801 - Emma Donoghue - Haven | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 20:00:00 +0000

In bestselling author Emma Donoghue’s novel “Haven,” three men vow to leave the world behind them as they set out in a small boat for an island their leader has seen in a dream.

1800 - Andrew Sean Greer - Less is Lost | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 20:00:00 +0000

In the follow-up to the best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning "Less: A Novel," the awkward and lovable Arthur Less returns in an unforgettable road trip in Andrew Sean Greer’s new novel, "Less is Lost," where he accepts a series of literary gigs that sends him on a zigzagging adventure across the U.S.

1799 - Billy Collins - Musical Tables | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins has taken up the unique poetic style of the “small poem” and has gathered more than 125 of his own into a beautiful new collection entitled “Musical Tables.”

1798 - Geraldine Brooks - Horse: A Novel | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 20:00:00 +0000

A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history. In her new novel, "Horse," Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Geraldine Brooks braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.

1797 - Emily St. John Mandel - Sea of Tranquility | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Emily St. John Mandel is the award-winning, best-selling author of “Station Eleven” and “The Glass Hotel” She returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon 500-years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space. Her new book is “Sea of Tranquility.”

1796 - Nick Hornby - Dickens and Prince | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Bestselling author Nick Hornby is an icon in American pop culture and his latest brings his signature wit and appeal to his first nonfiction book in many years, "Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius" where he studies the cosmic link between these two unlikely creative geniuses.

1795 - John Banville - The Singularities | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Booker Prize-winning author John Banville’s new novel "The Singularities" is a playful, multilayered novel of nostalgia, life and death, and quantum theory, which opens with the return of one of his most celebrated characters as he is released from prison.

1794 – Sheila Heti – Pure Colour | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold. In her latest, “Pure Colour,” she presents a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and an absurdly funny guide to the great (and terrible) things about being alive.

1793 - John Grisham - The Boys from Biloxi - The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 20:00:00 +0000

#1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham returns to Mississippi for his latest legal thriller “The Boys from Biloxi,” The story of two sons of immigrant families who grow up as friends but ultimately find themselves on opposite sides of the law.

1792 - Jennifer Egan - The Candy House - The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 20:00:00 +0000

1791 - Celeste Ng - Our Missing Hearts - The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Celeste Ng is the bestselling author of “Little Fires Everywhere.” Her new novel, “Our Missing Hearts,” is about a mother’s unbreakable love in a world consumed by fear. Bird’s mother was a Chinese American poet who disappeared. When Bird is 12, he embarks on a journey to put together the pieces, aided by an underground network of librarians.

1790 - John Iriving - The Last Chairlift - The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 20:00:00 +0000

1789 - Barbara Kingsolver - Demon Copperhead | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Pulitzer Prize-finalist and best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver’s new novel, “Demon Copperhead” re-imagines Charles Dicken’s “David Copperfield” set in West Virginian Appalachia at the beginning of the opioid epidemic.

1787 - Andrea Barrett - Natural History: Stories | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Andrea Barrett, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, is the author of the new book Natural History: Stories - a collection of interconnected stories that complete and connect the lives of the family of scientists, teachers and innovators that she has woven into her books.

The Book Show #1785 - T.C. Boyle - I Walk Between the Raindrops

Joe Donahue — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 19:00:00 +0000

During this month – and for a quartet of programs – we will be celebrating the form of the short story and those who write them. This week - T.C. Boyle, one of our country’s most beloved practitioners of the short story, joins us to discuss his new collection, "I Walk Between the Raindrops" - characterized by Boyle’s trademark biting satire and resonant wit.

The Book Show #1784 - Julian Barnes - Elizabeth Finch

Joe Donahue — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Best-selling, award-winning author Julian Barnes’ new novel, “Elizabeth Finch,” is a magnetic tale that centers on the presence of a vivid and particular woman, whose loss becomes the occasion for a man’s deeper examination of love, friendship, and biography.

The Book Show #1783 - Joyce Carol Oates - Babysitter

Joe Donahue — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Legendary author Joyce Carol Oates’ latest book, "Babysitter" is an engrossing thriller, with a bit of true crime, set against a backdrop of child murders in the affluent suburbs of 1970s Detroit. Oates rooted the novel in the real, unsolved case of the “Babysitter Killer,” who struck in Oakland County, Michigan.

The Book Show #1782 - Dan Brown

Joe Donahue — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Dan Brown is the author of numerous #1 bestselling novels including “The Da Vinci Code” which has become one of the best-selling novels of all time as well as the subject of intellectual debate among readers and scholars. “The Da Vinci Code” is one of five novels featuring his symbology professor protagonist, Robert Langdon.

The Book Show #1782 - Abdulrazak Gurnah - Afterlives

Joe Donahue — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Abdulrazak Gurnah attained a new level of global prominence last year when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Gurnah’s new novel “Afterlives” spotlights the devastating German colonial rule of early 20th century East Africa and its aftermath.

#1780 - The Book Show - Susan Orlean - On Animals

Joe Donahue — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 19:00:00 +0000

New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean gathers a lifetime of musings, meditations, and in-depth profiles about animals in her new collection, “On Animals.” Orlean has been hailed as “a national treasure” by The Washington Post and is the author of the New York Times bestseller “The Library Book.”

#1779 - The Book Show - Stephen Lloyd - Friend of the Devil

Joe Donahue — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Acclaimed TV writer and the executive producer of award-winning shows such as “Modern Family” and “How I Met Your Mother,” Stephen Lloyd’s new novel debut, “Friend of the Devil,” is a horror/noir mash-up set at an elite boarding school harboring secrets.

The Book Show #1778 - Sarah Pearse - The Retreat

Joe Donahue — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 19:00:00 +0000

With the publication of “The Sanatorium” last year, Sarah Pearse had one of the most stunning crime-fiction debuts in recent memory. It was an instant New York Times and international bestseller as well as a Reese's Book Club selection. Now, detective Elin Warner is back in Pearse's second novel, “The Retreat.”

The Book Show #1777 - Elisa Albert - Human Blues

Joe Donahue — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 19:00:00 +0000

In Elisa Albert’s highly-anticipated new novel, “Human Blues,” musician Aviva Rosner’s course cracks and crumbles the harder she pounds the pavement. Aviva wants to have a child. But, she wants to conceive on her own terms – though those terms become increasingly irrelevant with each missed opportunity.

#1776 – Séamas O'Reilly - Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Writer Séamas O’Reilly’s mother died when he was five, leaving him, his ten brothers and sisters, and their beloved father in their sprawling bungalow in rural Derry. It was the 1990s; the Troubles were a background rumble. He tells the story in his memoir: “Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?”

#1775 Ottessa Moshfegh - Lapvona | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Ottessa Moshfegh’s new novel “Lapvona” brings us to a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters where a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test.

#1774 Emma Straub “This Time Tomorrow” | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 19:00:00 +0000

What if you could take a vacation to your past? With her humor, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestselling author Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes and a different kind of love story in her new novel “This Time Tomorrow.”

#1773 Tom Perotta - Tracy Flick Can't Win | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Tracy Flick, the iconic protagonist of Tom Perrotta’s novel “Election,” is back and determined to, once again, take high school politics by storm. Tom Perrotta’s new sequel is “Tracy Flick Can’t Win.”

#1772 Geraldine Brooks "Horse" | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 19:25:00 +0000

#1771 Dan Chaon “Sleepwalk” | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 19:18:00 +0000

Dan Chaon’s latest thriller, “Sleepwalk,” is a high speed and darkly comic road trip through a near future America with a big-hearted mercenary. The novel examines where we’ve been and where we’re going and the connections that bind us, no matter how far we travel to dodge them or how cleverly we hide.

#1770 Jennifer Egan "The Candy House" | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 19:19:00 +0000

#1769 Bill McKibben “The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon” | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 19:15:00 +0000

Author and Environmentalist Bill McKibben is the author of more than a dozen books, including The End of Nature, which was the first book to warn the general public about the climate crisis. Bill McKibben’s latest is “The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.”

#1768 Nathaniel Philbrick “Travels with George” | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 19:19:00 +0000

Does George Washington still matter? Bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick argues for Washington's unique contribution to the forging of America by retracing his journey as a new president through all thirteen former colonies. His book is "Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy."

#1767 Emily St. John Mandel “Sea of Tranquility” | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 31 May 2022 19:18:00 +0000

Emily St. John Mandel is the award-winning, best-selling author of “Station Eleven” and “The Glass Hotel.” She returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon 500-years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space. Her new book is “Sea of Tranquility.”

#1766 Julianna Margulies “Sunshine Girl” | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 24 May 2022 19:40:00 +0000

Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild award winner, Julianna Margulies has achieved success in television, theater, and film and starred in two classic series: “ER” and “The Good Wife.” As a bubbly child, Julianna was bestowed with the family nickname “Sunshine Girl,” also the title of her new memoir.

#1765 Stephen Harrigan "The Leopard is Loose" | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 17 May 2022 19:38:00 +0000

The fragile, 1952 postwar tranquility of a young boy’s world explodes one summer day when a leopard escapes from the Oklahoma City Zoo, throwing all the local residents into dangerous excitement, in Stephen Harrigan’s story of a child’s confrontation with his deepest fears. His new novel is “The Leopard is Loose.”

#1764 Douglas Stuart "Young Mungo | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 10 May 2022 19:24:00 +0000

Douglas Stuart’s debut novel "Shuggie Bain" was awarded the 2020 Booker Prize and his new second novel, "Young Mungo" is a portrayal of working-class life and a moving and suspenseful story of the dangerous first love of two young men: Mungo and James - who should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all.

#1763 Gregory Maguire "Cress Watercress"|The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 03 May 2022 19:59:00 +0000

Gregory Maguire, the imagination behind "Wicked," turns his trademark wit and wisdom to an animal adventure about growing up, moving on, and finding community. "Cress Watercress" is a lavishly illustrated woodland tale with a classic sensibility and modern flair.

#1762 Amy Bloom “In Love”| The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 19:21:00 +0000

Amy Bloom’s memoir, "In Love," asks: what are you willing to do for the one you love? And what is our own right to die? Bloom describes the events that took place from the time of her husband’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s, until his death by “accompanied suicide” with Dignitas in Zurich.

#1761 Sheila Heti “Pure Colour”| The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 19:35:00 +0000

#1760: Peter Heller's "The Guide" | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 19:28:00 +0000

Peter Heller’s novel, “The Guide,” takes place against the backdrop of his home state of Colorado. It follows a young man, Jack, who accepts a job as a fishing guide at an elite resort in the wilds of Colorado. What begins as an idyllic experience soon takes a dark turn.

Photo courtesy of Knopf. This episode originally aired as episode #1731.

#1759 Stewart O'Nan "Ocean State"| The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 19:47:00 +0000

Stewart O’Nan’s latest novel “Ocean State” is a compelling story about sisters, mothers, and daughters, and the terrible things love makes us do.

#1758 Colm Tóibín "The Magician" | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 15:50:00 +0000

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Colm Tóibín's "The Magician" is an intimate portrait of one of the 20th century's most intriguing literary figures, Thomas Mann.

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#1757: Susan Orlean “On Animals” | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 19:22:00 +0000

#1756: Roddy Doyle "Life Without Children" | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 19:57:00 +0000

Booker Prize–winning author Roddy Doyle’s latest is "Life Without Children." The book is a warm and witty portrait of our pandemic lives told in ten heartrending short stories. Love and marriage. Children and family. Death and grief. Life touches everyone the same. But living under lockdown? That changes us alone.

#1755: Isabel Allende "Violeta" | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 20:13:00 +0000

Isabel Allende’s new novel “Violeta” is a sweeping epic that tells the story of a woman whose life spans one hundred years from 1920–2020 as she bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century. Allende won worldwide acclaim in 1982 with the publication of her first novel, “The House of the Spirits.”

#1754: Elizabeth George's “Something to Hide” | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 20:14:00 +0000

1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George and Thomas Lynley, the protagonist in her Lynley mystery series, have a long history together. The publication of George’s new novel, "Something to Hide," marks the twenty-first novel in the series.

#1753: Brendan Slocumb’s “The Violin Conspiracy” | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 20:24:00 +0000

Brendan Slocumb’s debut thriller, “The Violin Conspiracy,” is a page-turner about a Black classical musician’s desperate quest to recover his lost family heirloom violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world.

#1752: Noah Hawley’s “Anthem” | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 20:17:00 +0000

Noah Hawley is the award-winning creator of shows like “Fargo” and “Legion” and the bestselling author of “Before the Fall.” His new novel, “Anthem,” is a thriller set where America is right now in which a band of unlikely heroes set out on a quest to save one innocent life and might end up saving us all.

#1751: Jason Mott’s "Hell of a Book" | The Book Show

Joe Donahue — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 20:42:00 +0000

Jason Mott’s “Hell of a Book” won The National Book Award in 2021. It is an astounding work of fiction where a Black author sets out on a publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. The book – always deeply honest, at times electrically funny — goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans and America as a whole.