“It's about people following their passions, and it's about falling in love for the first time whether that love is romantic, or with a professional industry.” Anatomy: A Love Story is everything Noble Blood’s creator and host Dana Schwartz loves in a story: spooky and fast-paced with a dash of romance, a perfect mix for the BN YA Book Club, and our pick for February ‘22. Dana joins us on the show to talk about her love of story and her creative process, finding her voice, the books that inspire her, explain the delights of reading historical fiction, and more.   Featured books: Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood Little by Edward Carey Fingersmith by Sarah Waters   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

“If you aren't writing your story in America, your story is being written for you. And if you're not telling your story, your story is being told to you….I was able to create my own superhero origin story when I was 10 years old.” Left-handed, lactose intolerant, wisecracking Wajahat Ali joins us on the show to talk about his first book, Go Back to Where You Came From, growing up brown and Muslim in the Bay Area, his parents’ time in jail, trading his law degree for the writer’s life, becoming a playwright with help from Ishmael Reed (and what Toni Morrison said to him after Ishmael Reed introduced them) and more in this very funny and fast-moving episode. Featured Book: Go Back to Where You Came From by Wajahat Ali. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).   [1:40 PM] Miwa Messer Elani/Chris - just fixed a typo (follow us not follow up)  

“I want my readers to be entertained. And if possible, to take a look at that period of that century that was so fascinating, a time of violence, and change, and great steps forward for humanity…” Isabel Allende’s epic new novel, Violeta, is out now, and she joins us on the show to talk about memory and history and justice, love and freedom and family, her creative process (and what the date January 8th means to her) and much more. Featured books: Violeta, A Long Petal of the Sea, The Soul of a Woman and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang.  Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

"…I read every day. Reading feels like part of my identity…[it] feels essential as a writer to be reading always.” Imani Perry is the acclaimed author of Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry and Breathe: A Letter to My Sons among other books; her latest, South to America, is an extraordinary blend of personal memoir and American history, and she joins us on the show to talk about her travels around the American South, the people she spoke with and the friendships she made, her own mother’s story, and the writers she holds close, including Kiese Laymon, Jesmyn Ward, Sarah M. Broom, and Richard Wright. Featured Books: South to America by Imani Perry, The Yellow House by Sarah Broome, and Native Son by Richard Wright. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

“…Try reading it out loud. That's what I do. I read the whole book out loud, seven or eight times…four or five times… before it ever goes to edit. I believe that writing was made to be heard.” From the age of five, John Darnielle knew he was going to be a storyteller, and he joins us on the show to talk about the structure and the shifting perspectives of his new novel, Devil House, who has standing to tell a story, the difference between touring and performing as an author instead of a musician, the books he loved as a boy, why we should all be reading literature in translation and so much more. Featured Books: Devil House by John Darnielle, James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis, and No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays.)

“…So much of American media is, As long as we have each other, it doesn't matter what happens, we're going to be fine. I don't always think that's true. Circumstances can really tear families apart. But, you know, I'm not going to write Succession.” Weike Wang follows up her acclaimed debut novel, Chemistry, with the deadpan, darkly comic Joan is Okay. She joins us on the show to talk about how (and why) work becomes home for Joan, family and grief and William Faulkner, the horror of Mickey Rooney’s yellowface performance in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and much more.  Featured books: Joan is Okay and Chemistry by Weike Wang, Convenience Store Woman by Sayata Murata, The Stranger by Albert Camus, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, and The Art of Revision by Peter Ho Davies. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

“Well, this is the thing about being an overnight success after forty years.” Bernardine Evaristo made history when Girl, Woman, Other won the 2019 Booker Prize, for she is the first Black woman and the first Black British person to have won the coveted prize in its more than fifty-year history. Bernardine joins us on the show to talk about her fabulous memoir, Manifesto: On Never Giving Up, “overnight fame” (after decades of work in literature and the theater), her creative process, the writers who’ve inspired her work in the theater and on the page—and she even offers some advice for those who are stuck in their work and see no way through. Featured books: Manifesto: On Never Giving Up and Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo and For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

“I think bookstores are really magical places, and not to be too idealistic about it, I really think that they're so important, they're cornerstones to communities, and they are treasures and we need to keep them alive.” Jami Attenberg, author of St. Mazie and The Middlesteins, among other novels, joins us on the show to talk about her first memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing My Way Home, as well as the difference between loneliness and solitude, managing anxiety, her life as a writer, the books her book club has convinced her to read, her #1000wordsofsummer project, and more. (If writing a book is one of your goals for ’22, you don’t want to miss this episode.) Featured books: I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home, St. Maizie and The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg, Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell, the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Intimacies by Katie Kitamura. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

“This is not just for us to say, ‘How interesting’ now we know three more people, it's for us to say, ‘What can we do now that we know their stories?’" Anna Malaika Tubbs delves into the stories of Alberta King, Louise Little and Berdis Baldwin in our January Nonfiction Pick, The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation. Anna joins us on the show to talk about the importance of reclaiming Black women’s stories, motherhood and the lives women lead before they have children, the moments of joy she found writing this book, and much more. Featured Books: The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs, Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, and In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens by Alice Walker. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes Saturdays.

“And when you are lucky enough as a writer to have your book be found, and then have it be a source of someone's passion, someone who is not normally spoken to by the book publishing industry, who then with generosity and real passion, finds a way to tell other people about it, you cannot get luckier than that.” Hanya Yanagihara’s second novel, A Little Life was already a word-of-mouth must read, a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award and winner of the Kirkus Prize when #Booktok introduced Jude & Co. to a new set of readers and kicked the book’s sales into the stratosphere. Hanya’s following up her massive hit with To Paradise, a story of love and ambition, loneliness and freedom, that cuts across time and reimagined Americas. Hanya joins us on the show to talk about Hawaii and New York, her admiration for the novels of Kazuo Ishiguro, what paradise means for her characters, the helix of history, and more. Featured Books: To Paradise and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Hours by Michael Cunningham, and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus eps on Saturdays).

“You know, there's something that we don't talk about, which I think is like the underside of success and ambition, which is that for every step that we take towards something, it's a step away from something. And the more that we have these rarefied experiences, the more isolating they can be…” Olga Dies Dreaming is one of 2022’s most anticipated debuts and our January Discover pick; Xochitl Gonzales joins us on the show to talk about her fabulous new novel and unforgettable protagonist, what it means to be part of a community (or leave one behind), heading to the Iowa Writers Workshop and earning an MFA in her forties, the books and writers who inspire her, and more. Featured books: Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzales, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The World According to Garp by John Irving, and Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episode Saturdays).   New episodes of Poured Over land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus eps on Saturdays) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and wherever you listen to podcasts.

“One thing that I was interested in doing is making literal the surveillance that parents feel every day, because there is the sense that you're being watched and judged and shamed all the time.” Jessamine Chan joins us on the show to talk about her debut novel, The School for Good Mothers (think The Handmaid’s Tale meets Klara and the Sun), writing a Chinese American main character that she wanted to read, making sure her satire is laced with humor, how a self-proclaimed Luddite came to write a book like this one, and more. Featured Books: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan, Plainwater by Anne Carson, Karate Chop by Dorothe Nors, Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls, Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell, The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado and How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus eps Saturday).

“I describe it as a fantasy novel about the real world we live in, or a realistic novel about the fantasy world we live in.” Anthem is Noah Hawley’s terrific, page-turning sixth novel, and his first after his Edgar Award-winning bestseller, Before The Fall—it’s also our January 2022 Barnes & Noble Book Club pick. Noah joins us on the show for a wide-ranging, spoiler-free conversation about breaking the fourth wall, the death of satire, how we can use fiction to help us make sense of a nonsensical world (even when our brains are working overtime “to maintain the illusion we believe in.”), writing for the screen vs. writing for the page, and more, including the ways Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings inspired Anthem. Featured books: Anthem by Noah Hawley, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, White Noise by Don DeLillo, and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.   Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (and occasional bonus eps on Saturdays).

“And so we wouldn't be here without Natalie Portman, which isn't a sentence I was expecting to say this evening. But if you ever watched this, Natalie, thank you. Really thank you.” That’s novelist and screenwriter David Mitchell explaining the genesis of his friendships and working relationships with Lana Wachowski and Aleksandar Hemon—which includes screenplay credits on Sense8 and now, The Matrix Resurrections. David and Aleksandar join us on the show to talk about creativity and collaboration, their writing partnership, how language changes from page to screen, envisioning the future, and much more. Featured books: Cloud Atlas, Utopia Avenue, The Bone Clocks and Black Swan Green by David Mitchell and My Parents: An Introduction/This Does Not Belong to You, Love & Obstacles and The Lazarus Man by Aleksandar Hemon. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. (P.S. We’re taking a little break for the rest of this year and returning with a new episode on 1/4/22.) Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“And imagine what did it feel like to think this was new? Their life, all kinds of different images as time goes on, and people in the Renaissance and later want to recreate for themselves, particularly in painting, but not always in painting….what it is to create a likeness of someone who's been dead for a millennium or more?” Historian and bestselling author Mary Beard (SPQR, Women & Power, Confronting the Classics) joins us on the show to talk about her new book, Twelve Caesars, what it means to make a likeness if you’ve never met your subject, power and representation and propaganda, trying to help us see under-appreciated museum displays (tapestries and coins to start) with fresh eyes, and more. Featured book: Twelve Caesars by Mary Beard. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“I went running in Fort Tryon Park in the northern reaches of Manhattan. And it was snowing. And during that run, I had this vision of a hunter lost in the snow…” Beasts of a Little Land is a remarkable debut novel about love and redemption, covering five tumultuous decades of Korean history. Juhea Kim joins us on the show to talk about writing and rewriting an epic novel with a large cast of characters, caring for her antagonists, Anna Karenina and more. Featured books: Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“But at the end of the day, so many people have lost a loved one. This story is about mothers and daughters. It's about parents and children. It's about a different culture and relating to it. It's about food. It's about grief. It's about loss. It's about family.” Two-time GRAMMY nominee Michelle Zauner joins us on the show to talk about her bestselling memoir Crying in H-Mart, one of the finalists for our B&N Book of the Year, as well as her literary influences, what she leaned about her mom (and herself), how rewrites helped her in unexpected ways, and more. Featured books: Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, and Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“Making connections with people has often been quite difficult for me, you know, this can be really isolating, but it's so incredible to make this book that so many people are interested in reading and enjoying, and they look at it, and they're like, Oh, this feels really relatable.” More than 5.4 million people follow Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus on Webtoons, and now she’s adapted the first 25 chapters of her retelling of the myth of Persephone into a fabulous book. Rachel joins us on the show to talk about the inspiration behind her relatable story and unforgettable art; her favorite books and writers, including The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett; color theory and the joys of brainstorming, and more. (She even shares a little advice for comics creators at the start of their career.) Produces/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"We're going to have to learn to be cartographers in our own lives." Brené Brown is the author of five number one New York Times bestsellers, including Dare to Lead, Daring Greatly, and Rising Strong; co-editor with Tarana Burke of You Are Your Best Thing; The host of two podcasts, Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead. Her Netflix documentary, The Call to Courage, is a huge hit—and her 2010 TED talk, The Power of Vulnerability, the one that launched her career as we know it, it is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world. Brené joins us on the show to talk about her new book, Atlas of the Heart, including how language shapes how we feel, how to become great story stewards for ourselves and others, plus nostalgia, hopefulness, and more. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“I'm constantly surprised by the books. Because I think about books a lot before I start writing them, I don't write structure and a formal outline. But I carry a notebook around with me for about a year before I start writing and I write down quotes and thoughts and ideas and snippets of overheard conversations and things from the newspaper…some of them are used later and some just are never used, but eventually a pattern forms and that becomes then the idea for the book…” Who hasn’t thought of moving to Three Pines after reading one of Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels? Louise joins us on the show to talk about the story behind the 17th book in the series, The Madness of Crowds, choosing kindness, the evolution of Gamache, Agatha Christie’s relationship to Poirot, and more. Featured book: The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“…And I had arrived at McDowell, with about 200 pages in the summer of 2018…And the great thing about these writing retreats is that they give you a chance to do nothing but just think about your work. And that was a real gift to me, because it was both time and peace and quiet, to just think about this book. And to be really honest with myself about what was doing well and what it wasn't doing well at all….” Jung Yun had our attention from the very first page of her debut novel, Shelter, and we’ve been waiting for her terrific new novel, O Beautiful, set during the North Dakota oil boom. Jung joins us on the show to talk about The American Dream, shame (and hope), when it’s time to scrap a draft that just isn’t working, and more. Featured books: O Beautiful and Shelter by Jun Yung. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“I love bookstores, with all of my heart for everything that they've done for me and my stories, but it is the booksellers that are at the front putting these books into the hands of readers, so they do absolutely deserve a majority, if not all of the credit.”  Our booksellers will be the first to tell you that T.J. Klune writes charming, heartfelt must-reads—The House on the Cerulean Sea was one of our favorite Monthly Picks this year—and his newest book, Under the Whispering Door is our Speculative Fiction Book of the Year! T.J. joins us on the show to talk about his extraordinary world-building, being honest about grief, Buddy Holly, and more. Featured Books: The House on Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune and Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. Allyson Gavaletz guest hosts this episode, which was produced by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“But we all want to see ourselves in a story of our country. And we call this a new origin story, not the origin story for reason. There are many origin stories; every person wants to feel a part of the narrative of our country.” Nikole Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship (a.k.a. The Genius Grant), the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University, and the driving force behind the revelatory, necessary 1619 Project. She joins us on the show to talk about the evolution of The 1619 Project from The New York Times magazine to book form; the book’s extraordinary contributors, a veritable who’s who of historians, poets, novelists, cultural critics, filmmakers, activists, playwrights, academics, and journalists; the conversations we can’t have on Twitter, and more. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“I don't remember my dreams a lot. But when I remember them, I stand up and pay attention.” Both of Natashia Deon’s novels, NAACP Image Award nominee Grace, and her latest, The Perishing, started with dreams she couldn’t forget. Natashia joins us on the show to talk about her new novel—think N.K. Jemisin and Octavia Butler—1930s Los Angeles, love and justice, life and death, what it means to truly live in the present moment and more. Featured books: The Perishing and Grace by Natashia Deon. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“I'd always wanted to write a ghost story. And I always wanted to write about what it was like to be haunted, because I feel that so many of us are.” Louise Erdrich’s new novel, The Sentence—her first after The Night Watchman, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction—is a funny, big-hearted and profound story of second chances and ghosts, books and bookselling, and the messy love between spouses and parents and children. Louise joins us on the show to talk about hauntings, perfect short novels, the joys of bookselling, the power of names and more. Featured books: The Sentence by Louise Erdrich and Euphoria by Lily King. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“One of the comments that I've often gotten from parents who say, my son read Scythe, or my daughter read, Unwind, and made me read it, because they wanted to talk to me about it. And then we discussed it. And then the parent would say, I never knew my kid thought that deeply. You know, I think when we write things that ask the reader to rise to the level of the writing, and the level of the ideas behind the writing, they will do it, and they will appreciate not being talked down to.” Acclaimed, prize-winning author Neal Shusterman continues to thrill readers of all ages with his series books like Scythe and Unwind, and standalones. He’s co-written his latest novel, Roxy, with his son, Jarrod Shusterman, and they join us on the show to talk about collaborating with family, connecting with their readers through story, creating unforgettable characters and more. Featured book: Roxy by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“I wanted to tell my story in a way that made you feel like you were having a beer with me. And…even though I delve into things like identity and politics and family history and things that things that I'm really excited to share with everybody, I want it to be accessible to people who might disagree with me or might not have experience with the things that I have experiences with.” From the Hollywood to the White House, Kal Penn’s careers have been anything but boring; he’s just published a very funny and honest memoir called You Can’t Be Serious, which covers the work and the people he loves and the lessons he’s learned. He joins us on the show to talk about growing up South Asian, stereotyping and that accent, Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction and more. Featured books: You Can’t Be Serious by Kal Penn and Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake, both by Jhumpa Lahiri. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“I'm here to have a dialogue with a person. And if I'm just gonna sit there and look down at my lap, well, speaking profoundly into my lap. That's not enough for me, I need to speak out--and entertain.” Gary Shteyngart’s new novel, Our Country Friends, is our November B&N Book Club pick, and it’s a charming (and provocative) story of friendship and the family we make. Gary joins us on the show to talk about how friendships evolve (or don’t), societal scorecards and lost paradises, why he wrote a memoir in his late thirties, the writers who’ve influenced him, from Chekhov to Chang-rae Lee, and more. Featured books: Our Country Friends, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan and Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“And so, what was to me a relatively — at least in terms of storytelling — a tidy story of me collapsing and having my wife and my co-workers save my life and be getting up and getting out of the hospital and getting to write again, was a bit more involved than that.” In his new book, The Night the Lights Went Out, Defector columnist Drew Magary delivers a darkly comic and deeply honest story about his recovery from the traumatic brain injury that almost killed him. Drew joins us on the show to talk about what happened the night he almost died, what came later (including his deafness and cochlear implant), why he writes (and what he learned self-publishing a novel), the books and writers he loves to read, and more. Featured book: The Night the Lights Went Out by Drew Magary. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"And I had a great, great professor named Albert Guerard when I was starting out, and he said to me, 'Some people will tell you to write what you know. But I'm going to tell you write what you can imagine.' And that was such a gift." Words are magic (and truth and love and power) in Alice Hoffman's newest novel, The Book of Magic. It's the fourth in a series that started with Practical Magic in 1995, and features three generations of the fabulous (and sometimes prickly) Owens family, as it cuts between Essex, Massachusetts and Essex, England. The Book of Magic delivers a truly satisfying, emotional read about familial love, and Alice Hoffman joins us on the show for a spoiler-free conversation about turning a beloved stand-alone novel into a series, writing about sisters and mothers, her favorite books of all time, Amelia Bassano (and those rumors), and more. Featured books: The Book of Magic, The Rules of Magic, Magic Lessons, Practical Magic, The Dove Keepers and The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Frankenstein by Mary Shelly and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

“I love it, when, as a reader, I am surprised by the way people behave, you know that you're aghast and shocked and standing back a little bit. And I love it even more when I'm writing it, when I have tapped into a sense that I'm not in control of this guy, either.” We’ve been fans of Joshua Ferris since his very funny and acclaimed 2007 debut, Then We Came to the End — and he had us howling with laughter as we read his latest, A Calling for Charlie Barnes. Joshua joins us on the show to talk about second chances and whether or not people can change, family mythology, writing comedy without losing sight of his characters, and more. Featured books: A Calling for Charlie Barnes and Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris and To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang.  Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“I'm so interested in people. I have been fascinated by people since I was just my first memory. I just think people are, for me, they are the most interesting things in the world.” No one captures the nuances of complicated lives quite like Elizabeth Strout, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author who likes to return to her characters and their communities in sometimes surprising ways, as she does in her new novel, Oh William! Elizabeth joins us on the show to talk about the world of Lucy Barton and her first husband William, writing with her readers in mind and reading with an open heart, William Trevor’s short stories and more. Featured books: Oh William!, My Name is Lucy Barton and Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“Because for every kid who makes it out, there are thousands more who are just as capable, who don't. And I think we need to shift the conversation away from what was it that helped that one kid make it out to why are all these other kids not?” Andrea Elliott’s Invisible Child belongs on the shelf next to Evicted by Matthew Desmond and Alex Kotlowitz’s books There are No Children Here and An American Summer. She joins us on the show to talk about eleven-year-old Dasani and her family, how systems feed the poverty cycle, why we need to challenge our love of success stories, and more. Featured book: Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“I'm so grateful to be part of the world of books. And that's what makes me work so hard on them because it's possibly the greatest privilege I've been afforded.” Nick Offerman’s fifth book, Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, is charming, earnest and a little pointed, and, of course, very funny. It opens with Nick gallivanting in Glacier National Park with pals George Saunders and Jeff Tweedy, sees him repairing a stone wall and buying a livestock with his buddy James Rebanks, and roadtripping with his wife, Megan Mullally and her excellent audiobook recommendations. Nick joins us on the show to talk about how the fun’s really an excuse to ask big questions about our place in the wider world, offer some thoughts on where we need to go and some nuanced ideas for how we might get there, and more. Featured titles: Where the Deer and the Antelope Play by Nick Offerman, Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawaii Strong Washburn and Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

America’s opioid crisis shows no signs of slowing down, and if you want to know how we got where we are, Beth Macy’s 2018 bestseller Dopesick is coming to Hulu as a limited series on October 13th, produced by Danny Strong (Game Change and Recall), Warren Littlefield (The Handmaid’s Tale), director Barry Levinson, actor Michael Keaton and Beth herself, among others. Beth joins us on the show to talk about the screen adaptation of her powerful book—and what she learned writing for the screen for the first time—how the community she’s covered is responding, and more, including a sneak peak of her next book, Raising Lazarus: Hope and Justice in the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis. Featured books: Dopesick by Beth Macy, Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, The Urge: Our History of Addiction by Carl Erik Fisher and Unsettled: How the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Failed the Victims of the American Overdose Crisis by Ryan Hampton. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“Suffragettes, but witches.” That was the three-word pitch that Alix E. Harrow used to sell her very fun and very smart second novel, The Once and Future Witches, our newest Monthly Speculative Fiction pick. Alix joins us on the show to talk about portal fantasy, our fascination with fairy tales (and why we keep returning to them), being a messy reader and more. Featured books: The Once and Future Witches, The Ten Thousand Doors of January and A Spindle Splintered, all by Alix Harrow, Ammonite and Spear by Nicola Griffith, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“One of the ways you make magic work is by believing it’s going to work.” Readers love Naomi Novik’s series set at the mysterious (and deadly) Scholomance. Volume two, The Last Graduate, has just landed, and our favorite prickly heroine Galadriel (El) is back, along with her gang of friends, and, of course, Orion Lake, who El might just hate a little less these days. Naomi Novik joins on the show for a spoiler-free conversation about worldbuilding, El’s evolution, Ursula Leguin’s story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, and more. Featured books: The Last Graduate and A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. Produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“You never know what’s going to happen in a bookstore.” Wiley Cash joins us on the show to talk about the story about a too-big aircraft and a too-short runway that inspired his new novel, When Ghosts Come Home; tell us why he had to set the book in the 1980s; and how excited he is by the current rise of the Rural South in literary fiction. He also delivers a couple of reading lists you’ll want to add to your TBR pile now. Featured books: When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash, Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby, Hell of a Book by Jason Mott, Aftershocks by Nadia Owasu, and Writers and Lovers by Lily King. Produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes ever Tuesday and Thursday.

“I was honing my writing voice before anyone knew anything or cared about me as a writer.” Phoebe Robinson’s a force of nature with her standup shows, podcasts, TV shows and books. And now she’s adding publisher to her list of accomplishments with her new imprint, Tiny Reparations Books. Phoebe joins us on the show to talk about her newest book, Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes, her new imprint and the incredible debut authors she’s publishing, black hair, performative allyship and more. Featured books: Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson, What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris, Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li, Queenie by Candace Carty-Williams, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid and Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson. Produced/Hosted by Elani Wilson and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“But if you say today, I'm just working on this little monologue by this one character, you can trick yourself into making something bigger…” Anthony Doerr joins us on the show to talk about his epic new novel-about-everything, Cloud Cuckoo Land, his first since his Pulitzer Prize-winning All the Light We Cannot See. Featured books: Cloud Cuckoo Land , All the Light We Cannot See, and Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Platero and I by Juan Ramón Jiménez, and Annals of the Formal World by John McPhee. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Ruth Ozeki’s new novel, The Book of Form and Emptiness, is a beautiful story about books and libraries, life and love. Ruth joins us on the show for a lively conversation about hearing voices, the connections between her last bestseller A Tale for the Time Being, and her latest, the relationship between her writing practice and her meditation practice, her very funny debut novel My Year of Meats, and more. Featured books: The Book of Form and Emptiness, A Tale for the Time Being, My Year of Meats, and The Face, all by Ruth Ozeki. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Brendan Kiely’s an award-winning author of YA fiction, including All-American Boys, which he co-wrote with Jason Reynolds. His fifth book is a bit of a departure for him; The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege is a nonfiction book that asks us to consider where we are in the world today and how we start and sustain necessary conversations about race and whiteness with young people and ourselves. Brendan joins us on the show to talk about his own experience growing up white in a Boston suburb, his days as a teacher, and what he’s learned from talking with and listening  to students from middle school through college. Featured books: The Other Talk by Brendan Kiely, All-American Boys by Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Richard Powers is the author of 13 novels, including The Overstory, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. His new novel, Bewilderment, shortlisted for The Booker Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction, is an intimate story of two lost boys—father and son—and it’s a bit of a departure from his earlier books. Richard joins us on the show for a charming conversation about where the title came from, why he used a first-person narrative for this book, the connection between writing fiction and computer code, writing about grief, and more. Produces/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We've seen what death and dying do to the human body and we've investigated the afterlife thanks to Mary Roach. We've gone to space and to war with her. We've learned more than a little about taste and our digestive tracts, and, well, bonking--all thanks to Mary and her very, very funny books, her seventh book Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law has just landed. And as with all of her earlier books, we're pretty sure like us, you're going to feel smarter after you've read it. Mary joins us on the show to talk about her new book and more. Featured books: Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang.   Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Two Pulitzers, a National Book Award, and a MacArthur Genius Grant: Colson Whitehead is one of the greatest novelists working today. From The Intuitionist to The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, his incredible body of work is driven by sharp insight and brilliant sentences. Harlem Shuffle is his newest novel, a character study, a caper flick, and an absolute thrill to read. Colson joins us on the show to talk about his love of 1970s heist flicks, walking aimlessly around Harlem, messy internet searches, and more. Featured Books: Harlem Shuffle and The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead, Richard Stark’s Parker novels, and The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Produced/hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Qian Julie Wang’s unforgettable memoir, Beautiful Country, belongs on the shelf next to modern classics like Educated by Tara Westover, When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Qian Julie joins us on the show to talk about capturing the universality of childhood (no matter how difficult the details), facing down shame in order to tell the truth and more. Featured books: Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters and Middlemarch by George Elliott. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“My ears were bent for stories.” Poet Warrior is the indelible new memoir by Joy Harjo, Poet Laureate of the United States. Joy joins us on the show to talk about her family’s stories, making music, Emily Dickinson’s poetry, how reading work out loud helps with the editing process, and more. Featured Books: Poet Warrior and An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo. Produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Folow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

A new book from Lauren Groff is always a hit with us, from her early novels, The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia, to her massive 2015 bestseller, Fates and Furies, and her story collections, Delicate Edible Birds and Florida. We can’t get enough of her gorgeous sentences, evocative details, and the worlds she conjures. We’ll follow Lauren anywhere, and now that includes a 12th Century Abbey; her fabulous new novel, Matrix, is out today, and it’s our September Barnes & Noble Book Club selection. Lauren joins us on the show to talk about how the past and present collide in Matrix, her love of research, the joy of reading, and more. Featured books: Matrix by Lauren Groff, Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen, Middlemarch by George Elliott and Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Featured poets and writers: Emily Dickinson, Anne Carson, James Salter, Dennis Johnson, Grace Paley and Alice Munro. Produced/Hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.