Night Came With Many Stars (Godine 2021) ebbs and flows with people who only take or destroy, balanced by those who give or heal. And everything centers on a family. A Kentucky father treats Carol, his thirteen-year-old motherless daughter like a servant up to the moment he loses her in a poker game. It’s 1933, and Carol’s aching heart begins a novel of stor ... Show More
Jan 31
Princess Joy L. Perry, "This Here Is Love" (W.W. Norton, 2025)
Three people—two enslaved, one indentured—living beside each other, struggling against their circumstances, trying to bend destiny. As the seventeenth century burns to a close in Tidewater, Virginia, America’s character is wrought in the fires of wealth, race, and freedom. Young ... Show More
53m 2s
Jan 25
Lesley Chamberlain, "The Mozhaisk Road" (Austin Macauley, 2025)
In The Mozhaisk Road (Austin Macauley, 2025) the time is 1978 and Moscow is still the capital of a Communist country. The political police continues to suppress the protests of dissident leader Alexander Razumovsky and his tiny group of supporters. Western observers Howard Wi ... Show More
1h 1m
Jan 20
Linda Wilgus, "The Sea Child" (Ballantine, 2026)
Cornwall, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, was best known for its smuggling. The combination of an insular and impoverished countryside, a rugged coastline characterized by numerous inlets and coves, and price hikes caused by the ongoing wars between Britain and France ... Show More
36m 6s
Jul 2021
A Heartbreaking Novel About Mothers, Daughters and Secrets
<p>The latest pick for Group Text, our monthly column for readers and book clubs, is Esther Freud's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/books/i-couldnt-love-you-more-esther-freud-group-text.html" target="_blank">“I Couldn’t Love You More,”</a> a novel about three generati ... Show More
56m 44s
Aug 2016
Magic Lessons Ep. 205: “Call Your Real Life By Its True Name” featuring Gary Shteyngart
This week on Magic Lessons, Elizabeth Gilbert advises Colleen, an advertising executive in New York City, who dreams of being a storyteller but fears it's a frivolous pursuit. Colleen hopes to create a one-woman show, mining stories from her childhood growing up in an Irish Catho ... Show More
1h 18m
Oct 2022
452 Charles and Mary Lamb | A Letter To My Transgender Daughter (with Carolyn Hays)
In this episode, Jacke takes a look at two topics. First, the story of Charles and Mary Lamb, whose children's book Tales from Shakespeare (1807) was published more than two hundred years ago and has never been out of print. Part of the literary circle that included Romantic-era ... Show More
59m 50s
May 2023
511 Annie Ernaux, Winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature (with Alison Strayer) | My Last Book with Bob Blaisdell
Jacke talks to Alison Strayer, translator of several books by French author Annie Ernaux, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2022. PLUS he talks to author and Chekhov expert Bob Blaisdell about his choice for the last book he will ever read.
ANNIE ERNAUX (The Years, Gettin ... Show More
41m 47s
Nov 2021
Marla Frazee Draws A Delightful Childhood
<p>(Recorded July 2021) Marla Frazee’s an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator. She also the genius behind Boss Baby, the business-suit-wearing, hard-charging infant who changed Alec’s life. Marla Frazee says she tackles serious topics such as babies, birthday cak ... Show More
41m 29s
Jul 2022
A Novel About Brilliant Young Game Designers
<p>Gabrielle Zevin’s new novel, “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” is set in the world of video game design, and follows two friends named Sadie and Sam as they collaborate on what becomes a very successful game.</p><p>“A friend of mine described the book as being what it’s ... Show More
49m 24s