The life of the title character in Joshua Ferris’ A Calling for Charlie Barnes is not going well. He wants out and into the American dream. As his hopes dwindle, something goes right, and he’s granted a second act. But it calls for a sacrifice that redounds with selflessness and love. Moderated by writers Whitney […]
In 2034: A Novel of the Next World War, the work of co-authors Elliot Ackerman and retired Admiral James Stavridis, two seemingly unconnected events – one on the edge of Iranian airspace, the other in the South China Sea – leaves America's military preeminence in tatters, and renders U.S. ships and planes defenseless.
In Victoria Mas’ The Mad Women’s Ball: A Novel, the dazzling displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad and cast from society in 1885 Paris' Salpêtrière Asylum hide a wicked truth – these women are not sick, just inconvenient. Among them is 19-year-old protagonist Eugenie, who is determined to escape from the […]
In Talk to Me: A Novel by T.C. Boyle, an animal behaviorist teaches Sam, his young chimp, to speak in sign language. But in time, this raises more questions: What if it were possible to talk to members of another species and exchange ideas, and have a meeting of minds? Moderated by author Brad Thor.
In The Joy and Light Bus Company, the latest installment of Alexander McCall Smith’s the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi must move on two fronts at once, protecting Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni while solving an inheritance case. Moderated by Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus novels.
Erik Larson’s No One Goes Alone: A Novel (Random House Audio) is a ghost story grounded in history. It’s 1905, and psychologist William James leads an expedition to a remote isle in search of answers after a family inexplicably vanishes. Were there paranormal forces at work? Soon, the investigators are unsure whether they can trust […]
In Larry Baker’s novel Wyman and the Florida Knights, Peter Wyman, the most famous portrait painter in America, just wants to go into hiding and disappear. Then a cashier in St. Augustine tells him about Knightville. “Ex-boyfriend of mine came from there and told me it was full of crazies,” she said. Which sounds just […]
Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi is set in a dreamlike alternative reality, where the house inhabited by its namesake protagonist is no ordinary building: Within its infinite labyrinth of halls, an ocean is imprisoned. And as Piranesi explores his dwelling, a terrible truth begins to unravel. Moderated by Madeline Miller, author of Circe.
In Dream Girl: A Novel, Laura Lippman shares the story of writer Gerry Andersen, injured in a freak fall and confined to a hospital bed in his high-rise apartment. Then late one night, the phone rings – and the caller claims to be the “real” Aubrey, the title character from Andersen's most successful novel, Dream […]
Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir is Ashley C. Ford's powerful debut work, a story of growing up a poor Black girl in Indiana battling her body and her environment, within a family fragmented by incarceration. For Celestial and Roy, the couple at the center of Tayari Jones‘ An American Marriage: A Novel, the American dream in […]
Mina Simpson, the narrator of Rabih Alameddine’s The Wrong End of the Telescope: A Novel, is a transgender Lebanese doctor volunteering in the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece. As she deals with her own losses and displacement, Mina’s story offers a rare view into the many layers of the refugee crisis. Moderated by author […]