WAMC Podcasts

The Book Show

Each week on The Book Show, host Joe Donahue interviews authors about their books, their lives and their craft. It is a celebration of both reading and writers.

As the son of a librarian, Joe has been part of the book world since childhood. His first job was as a library assistant, during college he was a clerk at an independent book store and for the past 25 years he has been interviewing authors about their books on the radio.

The Book Show #1783 – Joyce Carol Oates – Babysitter

The Book Show #1782 – Dan Brown

The Book Show #1781 – Abdulrazak Gurnah – Afterlives

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

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

The Book Show #1778 – Sarah Pearse – The Retreat

The Book Show #1777 – Elisa Albert – Human Blues

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

#1775 Ottessa Moshfegh – Lapvona | The Book Show

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

#1773 Tom Perotta – Tracy Flick Can’t Win | The Book Show

#1772 Geraldine Brooks – Horse | The Book Show

#1772 Geraldine Brooks “Horse” | The Book Show

#1771 Dan Chaon “Sleepwalk” | The Book Show

#1770 Jennifer Egan “The Candy House” | The Book Show

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

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

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

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

#1765 Stephen Harrigan “The Leopard is Loose” | The Book Show

#1764 Douglas Stuart “Young Mungo | The Book Show

#1763 Gregory Maguire “Cress Watercress”|The Book Show

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

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

#1760: Peter Heller’s “The Guide” | The Book Show

#1759 Stewart O’Nan “Ocean State”| The Book Show

#1758 Colm Tóibín “The Magician” | The Book Show

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

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

#1755: Isabel Allende “Violeta” | The Book Show

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

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

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

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

#1750: Lisa Napoli’s “Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie” | The Book Show

#1748: Alison Gaylin’s “The Collective” | The Book Show

#1747: Gary Shteyngart’s “Our Country Friends” | The Book Show

#1746: Jodi Picoult’s “Wish You Were Here” | The Book Show

#1745: Imbolo Mbue’s “How Beautiful We Were” | The Book Show

#1744: Maggie Shipstead’s “Great Circle” | The Book Show

#1743: Ruth Ozeki’s “The Book of Form and Emptiness”|The Book Show

#1742: Alan Cumming’s “Baggage: Tales of a Fully Packed Life” | The Book Show

#1741: Alison Bechdel’s “The Secret to Superhuman Strength” | The Book Show

#1740: Francine Prose’s ‘Vixen’ | The Book Show

#1739: Anthony Doerr – Cloud Cuckoo Land | The Book Show

#1738: Louise Erdrich’s “The Sentence” | The Book Show

#1737: Nathaniel Philbrick ‘Travels with George’ | The Book Show

#1736: Lauren Groff ‘Matrix’ | The Book Show

#1735: Richard Powers “Bewilderment” | The Book Show

#1734: Anita Hill “Believing” | The Book Show

#1733: Amitava Kumar “A Time Outside This Time” | The Book Show

#1732: Maggie Smith “Goldenrod” | The Book Show

#1731: Peter Heller “The Guide” | The Book Show

#1730: Paula Hawkins “A Slow Fire Burning” | The Book Show

#1729: Lisa Napoli “Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie” | The Book Show

#1728: Patricia Engel “Infinite Country” | The Book Show

#1727: Christopher Cox “The Deadline Effect” | The Book Show

#1726: Fannie Flagg “The Wonder Boy Of Whistle Stop” | The Book Show

#1725: Francine Prose “The Vixen” | The Book Show

#1724: Jim Shepard “Phase Six” | The Book Show

#1723: James Ellroy “Widespread Panic” | The Book Show

#1722: T.J. Newman “Falling” | The Book Show

#1721: Elizabeth Brundage “The Vanishing Point” | The Book Show

#1720: Megha Majumdar “A Burning” | The Book Show

#1718: Chris Matthews “This Country” | The Book Show

#1717: Maggie Shipstead “Great Circle” | The Book Show

#1716: Jake Tapper “The Devil May Dance” | The Book Show

#1715: Michael Lewis “The Premonition” | The Book Show

#1714: Andrew McCarthy “Brat: An 80’s Story”|The Book Show

#1713: Viet Thanh Nguyen “The Committed” | The Book Show

#1712 Alison Bechdel “The Secret To Superhuman Strength” | The Book Show

#1711: Flynn Berry “Northern Spy” | The Book Show

#1710: Amity Gaige “Sea Wife” | The Book Show

#1709: Sarah Conley “Landslide” | The Book Show

#1708: Russell Banks “Foregone” | The Book Show

#1707: Donna Leon “Transient Desires” | The Book Show

#1706: Imbolo Mbue “How Beautiful We Were” | The Book Show

#1705: Anne Lamott “Dusk, Night, Dawn” | The Book Show

#1704: Chang-rae Lee “My Year Abroad” | The Book Show

#1703: Elizabeth Kolbert “Under A White Sky” | The Book Show

#1702: Russell Shorto “Smalltime” | The Book Show

#1701: Kristin Hannah “The Four Winds” | The Book Show

#1700: Robert Jones Jr. “The Prophets” | The Book Show

#1699: Sam Winchester “Land” | The Book Show

#1698: Colum McCann “Apeirogon” | The Book Show

#1697: George Saunders “A Swim In A Pond In The Rain” | The Book Show

#1696: Jill McCorkle “Hieroglyphics” | The Book Show

#1695: Jane Smiley “Perestroika In Paris” | The Book Show

#1694: Emily St. John Mandel “The Glass Hotel” | The Book Show

#1693: Glennon Doyle “Untamed” | The Book Show

#1692: Anne Tyler “Redhead By The Side Of The Road” | The Book Show

#1691: Off-The-Shelf With James Patterson | The Book Show

#1690: Jo Nesbo “The Kingdom” | The Book Show

#1689: Fannie Flagg “The Wonder Boy Of Whistle Stop” | The Book Show

#1688: Lydia Davis “Essays One” | The Book Show

#1687: Roddy Doyle “Love” | The Book Show

#1686: Janis – Her Life And Music | The Book Show

#1685: Tana French “The Searcher” | The Book Show

#1684: Sue Miller “Monogamy” | The Book Show.

1683: Ayad Akhtar “Homeland Elegies” | The Book Show

#1681: Jonathan Alter “His Very Best” | The Book Show

#1680: Ken Follett “The Evening And The Morning” | The Book Show

#1679: Sigrid Nunez “What You Are Going Through” | The Book Show

#1678: Vanessa Veselka “The Great Offshore Grounds” | The Book Show

#1677: Carl Hiaasen “Squeeze Me” | The Book Show

#1676: Kurt Anderson “Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking Of America” | The Book Show

#1675: Jhumpa Lahiri “The Penguin Book Of Italian Short Stories” | The Book Show

#1674: Caroline Leavitt “With Or Without You” | The Book Show

#1673: Emma Donoghue “The Pull Of The Stars” | The Book Show

#1672: Chris Wallace “Countdown 1945” | The Book Show

#1671: Scott Spencer “An Ocean Without A Shore” | The Book Show

#1670: Kelly Braffet “The Unwilling” | The Book Show

#1669: Adam Goodman “The Deportation Machine” | The Book Show

#1668: Amity Gaige “Sea Wife” | The Book Show

#1667: John Dickerson “The Hardest Job In The World: The American Presidency” | The Book Show

#1666: Megha Majumdar “A Burning” | The Book Show

#1665: Lydia Millet “A Children’s Bible” | The Book Show

#1664: Ibram X. Kendi “How to Be An Antiracist” | The Book Show

#1663: Curtis Sittenfeld “Rodham” | The Book Show

#1662: Lawrence Wright “The End Of October” | The Book Show

#1661: Glennon Doyle’s “Untamed” | The Book Show

#1660: Emily St. John Mandel’s “The Glass Hotel” | The Book Show

#1659: Sue Monk Kidd’s “The Book of Longing” | The Book Show

#1658: Robert Reich’s “The System” | The Book Show

#1657: Anne Tyler’s “Redhead By The Side Of The Road” | The Book Show

#1656: Julia Alvarez’s “Afterlife” | The Book Show

#1655: Rahm Emanuel’s “The Nation City: Why Mayors Are Now Running the World” | The Book Show

#1654: James McBride’s “Deacon King Kong” | The Book Show

#1653: Jenny Offill’s “Weather” | The Book Show

#1652: Paul Krugman’s “Arguing With Zombies” | The Book Show

#1651: Patrick Radden Keefe’s “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” | The Book Show

#1650: Diane Rehm’s “When My Time Comes” | The Book Show

#1648: Tom Shachtman’s “The Founding Fortunes” | The Book Show

#1649: Erik Larson’s “The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz,” | The Book Show

#1647: Gish Jen’s “The Resisters” | The Book Show

#1646: Lydia Davis’ “Essays One” | The Book Show

#1645: T. C. Boyle’s “Outside Looking In” | The Book Show

#1644: Archer Mayor’s “Bomber’s Moon” | The Book Show

#1643: John Hodgman’s “Medallion Status” | The Book Show

#1642: Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s “Letters From An Astrophysicist” | The Book Show

#1641: Terry Tempest Williams’ “Erosion: Essays of Undoing” | The Book Show

#1640: Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous”

#1639: Sharon Olds’ “Arias”

#1638: Gail Collins’ “When Everything Changed” and “America’s Women”

#1637: Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive, Again”

#1636: Pulitzer Prize Winner, Rick Atkinson’s “The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777”

#1635: Sean Penn’s “Bob Honey Sings Jimmy Crack Corn”

#1634: Alice Hoffman’s “The World That We Knew”

#1631: Eliza Griswold’s “Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America”

#1630: Jacqueline Woodson’s “Red At The Bone”

#1629: Terry Tempest Williams “Erosion: Essays of Undoing”

#1628: Edwidge Danticat’s “Everything Inside”

#1627: Malcolm Gladwell’s New Book “Talking To Strangers”

#1625: Bob Berman’s New Book “Earth-Shattering”

#1624: Ibram X. Kendi’s “How To Be An Antiracist”

#1622: Sister Helen Prejean’s “River Of Fire

#1621: Author Louis Bayard’s “Courting Mr. Lincoln”

#1620: Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous”

#1619: Karen Russell’s “Vampires in the Lemon Grove”

#1618: T. C. Boyle’s “Outside Looking In”

#1617: Courtney Maum’s latest, “Costalegre”

#1616: Casey Cep’s “Furious Hours”

#1614: Journalist Ruth Reichl Discusses Latest Book “Save Me the Plums”

#1613: Rick Atkinson’s “The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777”

#1611: Author Dave Eggers’ Latest “The Parade: A Novel”

#1610: New York Times Bestselling Author David McCullough’s “The Pioneers”

#1609 – Anna Quindlen

#1608 – Nathan Englander

#1607 – James Lasdun

#1606 – Bill McKibben

#1605 – Richard Powers

#1604 – Dave Eggers

#1603 – David McCraw

#1602 – Frances Mayes

#1601 – Sarah McColl

#1600 – Roger McNamee

#1599 – Susan Orlean

#1598 – Akiko Busch

#1597 – Christopher Castellani

#1596 – Madeleine Kunin

#1595 – Chloe Benjamin

#1594 – Brendan Mathews

#1593 – Jon Ward

#1591 – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

#1592 – Helen Klein Ross

#1590 – Anne Lamott

#1589 – Tara Westover

#1588 – Tommy Orange

#1587 – Andre Dubus III

#1586 – David Baldacci

#1585 Olivia Laing

#1584 – Elliot Ackerman

#1583 – Sigrid Nunez

#1582 – Jill Lepore

#1581 – Andy Mientus

#1580 – Garry Trudeau

#1579 – Walter Mosley

#1543 – Colson Whitehead

#1577 – Doris Kearns Goodwin

#1576 – Gary Shteyngart

#1575 – Amy Bloom

#1574 – Miriam Pawel

#1573 – Peter Biskind

#1572 – Ann Hood

#1571 – Nancy Pearl

#1570 – Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar

#1569 – Stephen Greenblatt

#1568 – Joselin Linder

#1567 – Amitava Kumar

#1566 – Natalie Goldberg

#1565 – Simon Winchester

#1564 – Stephen McCauley

#1563 – Brendan Mathews

#1562 – Dave Itzkoff

#1561 – Tommy Orange

#1560 – Curtis Sittenfeld

#1559 – Rachel Kadish

#1558 – Jake Tapper

#1557 – Kirk Wallace Johnson

#1556 – Sue Halpern

#1555 – Richard Powers

#1554 – Andrea Buchanan

#1553 – Larry Ruhl

#1552 – Tara Westover

#1551 – Charles Frazier

#1550 – Amy Bloom

#1549 – Stefan Merrill Block

#1548 – Sigrid Nunez

#1547 – Kristin Hannah

#1546 – Gish Jen

#1545 – Chloe Benjamin

#1544 – Tayari Jones

#1543 – Colson Whitehead

#1542 – Tom Perrotta

#1541 – Nick Harkaway

#1540 – Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner

#1539 – Madeleine Thien & Peter Ho Davies

#1538 – Roz Chast

#1537 – Alexandra Fuller

#1536 – Arundhati Roy

#1535 – Andy Weir

#1534 – Ann Hood

#1533 – Matt Taibbi

#1532 – Jennifer Egan

#1531 – George Saunders

#1530 – Marvin Kalb

#1529 – Tyehimba Jess

#1528 – Nancy Pearl

#1527 – Kurt Andersen

#1526 – Sebastian Barry

#1525 – Brian Platzer

#1524 – Adam Gopnik

#1523 – Brendan Mathews

#1522 – Salman Rushdie

#1521 – Atul Gawande

#1520 – Caroline Leavitt

#1519 – Rachel Kadish

#1518 – Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

#1517 – Tom Perrotta

#1516 – Robert Thurman

#1515 – Alexandra Fuller

#1514 – Arundhati Roy

#1513 – Courtney Maum

#1512 – Colm Tóibín

#1511 – Nathaniel Philbrick

#1510 – Jim Shepard

#1509 – John Grisham

#1508 – Al Franken

#1507 – Carl Hiaasen

#1506 – Min Jin Lee

#1505 – Jonathan Lethem

#1504 – Lisa Scottoline

#1503 – Anita Shreve

#1502 – Dan Chaon

#1501 – Calvin Trillin

#1500 – Anne Lamott

#1499 – Harlan Coben

#1497 – Louis Begley

#1496 – Helene Cooper

#1495 – Robert Coover

#1494 – George Saunders

#1493 – Ian Rankin

#1492 – Neil Gaiman

#1491 – Sebastian Barry

#1489 – Tracy Chevalier

#1488 – Stéphane Gerson

#1487 – Caroline Leavitt

#1486 – Alice Hoffman

#1485 – Wally Lamb

#1484 – Annie Proulx

#1483 – Fannie Flagg

#1482 – Michael Chabon

#1481 – Tracy Kidder

#1480 – Howard Frank Mosher

#1479 – Elizabeth Strout

#1478 – Imbolo Mbue

#1477 – Jonathan Safran Foer

#1476 – Garry Trudeau

#1475 – Alan Cumming

#1474 – B. A. Shapiro

#1473 – Amor Towles

#1472 – Elizabeth Lesser

#1471 – Joyce Carol Oates

#1470 – Jeffrey Toobin

#1469 – Carl Hiaasen

#1468 – Jack Kelly

#1467 – Caleb Carr

#1466 – Terry Tempest Williams

#1465 – Jay McInerney

#1464 – Daniel Silva

#1463 – Liz Moore

#1462 – Emily Barton

#1461 – Russell Banks

#1460 – Joshua Cohen

#1459 – Nathaniel Philbrick

#1458 – Colm Tóibín

#1457 – Annie Proulx

#1456 – Joseph Luzzi

#1455 – Jim Shepard

#1454 – Anna Quindlen

#1453 – Siddhartha Mukherjee

#1452 – Richard Russo

#1451 – Steve Berry

#1450 – Louis Begley

#1449 – Augusten Burroughs

#1448 – Mark Leyner

#1447 – Charles Duhigg

#1446 – Tracy Chevalier

#1445 – Ethan Canin

#1444 – Jon Krakauer

#1443 – Debbie Macomber

#1442 – Elizabeth Brundage

#1441 – Irvine Welsh

#1440 – Elizabeth Strout

#1439 – Carol Goodman

#1438 – Elisa Albert

#1437 – Ernest Cline

#1436 – Samantha Hunt

#1435 – B. A. Shapiro

#1434 – Gloria Steinem

#1433 – Ian Toll

#1432 – Tina Packer

#1431 – Jane Smiley

#1430 – David Pietrusza

#1429 – Simon Winchester

#1428 – Margaret Atwood

#1427 – Sara Gruen

#1426 – Ted Koppel

#1425 – Malcolm Gladwell

#1424 – Adam Johnson

#1423 – John Lahr

#1422 – Ron Rash

#1421 – Abigail Thomas

#1420 – Richard Price