It’s that time of year to reflect on “The List”: The Ten Best Of list, that is. This year was really tough (not unlike the 2008 best of list!), because there were so many show episodes I could have included. I was a bit chagrined that it was so dominated by men — I strive for gender balance in these lists — but so many of the guys wrote books of such heart and human compassion (Tracy Kidder, Abraham Verghese, Nicholsen Baker, Tyler Boudreau) that I just had to include them. Browse through the list and enjoy!
Tag Archives: Fiction
The Will To Resist
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“Unembedded journalist” Dahr Jamail tells us about the profound impact on veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — and how they are fighting back. We also talk with mystery novelist Lisa Kleinholz, cookbook author Lora Brody and journalism prof and blogger B.J. Roche — they’re all panelists on the upcoming Write Angles writers conference taking place Nov 21, 2009 at Mount Holyoke College. Continue reading
It’s Getting Spooky Out! The Halloween Show
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Irish mystery writer John Connolly tells us about his new spine-tingling and funny bone-tickling thriller for smart teens, THE GATES. And we air an archived interview with magician Alan Kronzek about THE SORCERER’S COMPANION, A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter. Continue reading
Are You Ready For Fire, Brimstone, Love And Writer’s Block?
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Nicholson Baker talks about his new novel, THE ANTHOLOGIST. His hero Paul Chowder is looking back over his whole life and wondering what it’s amounted to. He’s also facing the dreaded disease: writer’s block. And Susan Stinson is just finishing her new novel, SPIDER IN THE TREE. She tells us about her protagonist, the 18th century preacher Jonathan Edwards who preached fire and brimstone — and love. Continue reading
SO SEXY SO SOON, Jean Kilbourne & HOLD LOVE STRONG, Matthew Aaron Goodman
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Writers Voice host Francesca Rheannon talks with Dr. Jean Kilbourne about [amazon-product text=”SO SEXY SO SOON: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids” type=”text”]0345505077[/amazon-product]. Also this week, Francesca speaks with Matthew Aaron Goodman about his debut novel [amazon-product text=”HOLD LOVE STRONG” type=”text”]1416562036[/amazon-product].
Curious Garden & Arecelis Girmay
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Francesca Rheannon talks with children’s book author and illustrator Peter Brown about [amazon-product text=”THE CURIOUS GARDEN” type=”text”]0316015474[/amazon-product] and Katy Lorah of Friends of The High Line. Also, poet Arecelis Girmay talks with guest host, Christian MacEwen. Continue reading
Jacqueline Sheehan
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Jacqueline Sheehan talks about her new novel, NOW AND THEN. And host Francesca Rheannon talks with Sheehan about her previous novel, LOST AND FOUND in an archived interview from 2007.
Pandemic Flu, Thrity Umrigar, and Jeff Sharlet
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We talk with writer Howard Friel and Dr. Harvey Lederman in this rebroadcast of a 2006 interview about avian flu. Also, Thrity Umrigar on her new novel, THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN. And Jeff Sharlet talks about the crusade for a Christian military.
Verghese, CUTTING FOR STONE and Weil, Healthy Aging
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Physician and author Abraham Verghese tells us about CUTTING FOR STONE, his first novel after publishing two acclaimed memoirs. And Dr. Andrew Weil talks about how to age healthy and well. Continue reading
Family Secrets: Ben Binstock and Hallie Ephron
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Today’s theme is family secrets. We talk first with art historian Benjamin Binstock about VERMEER’S FAMILY SECRETS: Genius, Discovery and the Unknown Apprentice. Then, a poem by Constatijn Huygens. And mystery writer Hallie Ephron delves into another family’s secrets in her debut solo novel, NEVER TELL A LIE. Continue reading
Swerling’s CITY OF GOD and Michelson’s AS GOOD AS ANYBODY
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We talk to novelist Beverly Swerling about the latest in her historical series about Old New York, City of God: A Novel of Passion and Wonder in Old New York. Also, children’s book author Richard Michelson, tells us about his latest, AS GOOD AS ANYBODY: Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom. Continue reading
Best of 2008
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It was tough, but we did it: we winnowed down the list of wonderful guests and their books to the Ten Best Books featured on Writer’s Voice in 2008. This week’s show features excerpts from our interviews with four of them. In the fiction category, we talk with Kevin Patterson (CONSUMPTION) and Elizabeth Strout (OLIVE KITTREDGE). For nonfiction, we hear from Ron Suskind (THE WAY OF THE WORLD) and Terry Tempest Williams (MOSAIC).
Update: We also have our best guests of 2009 list online too.
H.G. Adler’s THE JOURNEY, Eating Tips for the Holidays, and a Thanksgiving story
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Award-winning translator Peter Filkins talks about THE JOURNEY, a lost masterpiece of Holocaust literature by acclaimed author and survivor H. G. Adler which Filkins translated. Food psychologist Brian Wansink gives us tips on how to keep the pounds off during the Holiday season; and Native American storyteller Marge Bruchac tells us what really happened during the first Thanksgiving.
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Peter Manseau, SONGS FOR THE BUTCHER’S DAUGHTER and E.H. Winthrop, DECEMBER
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Host Francesca Rheannon talks to Peter Manseau about his novel [amazon-product text=”SONGS FOR THE BUTCHERS DAUGHTER” type=”text”]1416538712[/amazon-product] and to Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop about her new novel, [amazon-product text=”DECEMBER” type=”text”]0307388573[/amazon-product]. Continue reading
Ron Suskind, THE WAY OF THE WORLD and ELIZABETH WINTHROP, COUNTING ON GRACE
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Francesca talks with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ron Suskind about [amazon-product text=”The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism” type=”text”]0061430633[/amazon-product]. Also, Elizabeth Winthrop on [amazon-product text=”COUNTING ON GRACE” type=”text”]0553487833[/amazon-product], the story of an 11-year old girl working in the textile mills of Vermont at the turn of the twentieth century. Continue reading