Bookreporter Talks To

Lisa Ridzén joined us from Sweden for a "Bookaccino Live" Book Group event about her internationally bestselling debut novel, WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTH, which also was the Swedish Book of the Year and a Bookreporter Bets On pick. This was a very special program with smart questions from our readers. Lisa was completely engaged and brilliantly shared her inspiration for writing the book. She also t...

Jane Harper joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her sixth novel, LAST ONE OUT, which is set in Carralon Ridge, a dying rural Australian mining town that has become a shadow of its former self due to an industrial mining operation. It follows Ro Crowley as she returns annually to investigate her son Sam's disappearance on the eve of his 21st birthday five years earlier. This is Harper's first book wi...

Devi S. Laskar joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her third novel, MIDNIGHT, AT THE WAR, which is primarily set in the years after 9/11. The protagonist, Rita Das, is a journalist inspired by Christiane Amanpour and Sylvia Poggioli, who planted themselves in conflict zones for their reporting. The book explores both personal and professional challenges faced by Rita, who is running from conflicts i...

Allison Pataki joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her latest novel, IT GIRL, which is a  USA Today  bestseller and a Bookreporter Bets On selection. Allison shares that her inspiration for the book was Evelyn Nesbit, one of the Gibson Girls of the early 20th century, who became America's first self-made female celebrity and "It Girl," rising from poverty in Pittsburgh to Broadway stardom. The story...

Patrick Ryan joined us for March's "Bookaccino Live" Book Group. We had a brilliant conversation about his debut novel, BUCKEYE, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. Readers from across the country shared their questions about the plot, the characters, the cover, the audiobook --- and so much more. Patrick noted that the book took six years to write and two years to edit. He discussed his in...

Patricia Finn joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her novel, THE GOLDEN BOY, a complex, non-linear narrative about marriage, friendship and redemption that spans multiple timelines. The book explores themes of memory, identity, exile and atonement through the lives of Stafford and Agnes, a wealthy couple who are living on Maui when readers first meet them. The novel's structure consists of three par...

Lily King joined us for February's "Bookaccino Live" Book Group to discuss her most recent novel, HEART THE LOVER, which is an instant  New York Times  bestseller and a Bookreporter Bets On selection. Eight readers joined us on camera to ask Lily questions about the plot and its various twists (spoilers ARE included), as well as character development, her writing process, the book's title and cove...

Sadeqa Johnson joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her latest novel, KEEPER OF LOST CHILDREN. Like her earlier two works of historical fiction, it is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. Sadeqa shares that she found a piece about the Brown Babies when she was doing research for THE HOUSE OF EVE. The story was calling to her, but she put it aside to finish that book. She learned more about the Brown Bab...

Wendy Walker joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her new thriller, BLADE, a Bookreporter Bets On selection that is set in the world of competitive figure skating. The novel, which draws from Wendy's personal experience as a competitive figure skater (she trained in Colorado from ages 13 to 16), features alternating timelines that follow attorney Ana Robbins, who returns to her former skating facilit...

Ashley Elston joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about her  New York Times bestseller, ANATOMY OF AN ALIBI, which also is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. Ashley reveals that she rewrote the book three times, changing structure, timeline and point of view. She shares the character she began with, and how the others evolved, as well as what stayed the same from the very start. Ashley was thinking abou...

Paula McLain joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her latest novel, SKYLARK. Paula has been enthralled with Paris since her 2011 bestseller, THE PARIS WIFE. Her new book features dual timelines set in Paris --- one in 1664 and the other in the 1940s during the Nazi occupation. The characters face parallel struggles across different time periods. Both storylines address how people find meaning and hop...

Allen Levi joined us for January's "Bookaccino Live" Book Group to discuss his  New York Times  bestselling debut novel, THEO OF GOLDEN. The audience clearly was mesmerized by the insight he gave into the characters and setting. Allen talked about his inspiration for writing the book and expressed his appreciation for how it has resonated with so many people. He thoughtfully responded to a number...

Belle  Burden joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her memoir, STRANGERS, which details how her husband abruptly left their marriage during the early days of the pandemic. The book, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection, chronicles  Belle 's journey from shock and grief to rebuilding her life as a writer and single mother. Belle  started writing about her experience after her divorce was finalize...

Rebecca Armitage joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her debut novel, THE HEIR APPARENT, which was a Reese's Book Club pick and a Bookreporter Bets On selection. Rebecca describes the book as a modern-day fairy tale. Lexi, who is living in Tasmania and training to be a doctor, is summoned home after a skiing accident kills her father and critically injures her brother. Her grandmother is the Queen o...

Carol Fitzgerald shares commentary about her 42 Bookreporter Bets On selections from 2025. These are books that she is betting Bookreporter readers will love! (* means a video/podcast interview with that author is available.)   Fiction Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall * The Correspondent by Virginia Evans * The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb Heart the Lover by Lily King * Buckeye by Patrick Rya...

Carol Fitzgerald and Tom Donadio talked to eight Bookreporter reviewers about two of their favorite books of 2025. Our guests were Sarah Rachel Egelman, Megan Elliott, Harvey Freedenberg, Pamela Kramer, Bronwyn Miller, Rebecca Munro, Norah Piehl and Stuart Shiffman. Kate Ayers and Ray Palen, who have appeared on previous programs, were not able to join us live. But we showed Ray's presentation on...

Vicky Nguyen joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her memoir, BOAT BABY, which is about her experience as a Vietnamese refugee who came to America as an eight-month-old "boat baby" in 1979. She talks about the challenges of growing up as a child of immigrants, navigating cultural differences, and her path to becoming an NBC News correspondent. The interview includes honest conversation about multi-ge...

Clare Leslie Hall joined us for November's "Bookaccino Live" Book Group to discuss her  New York Times  bestseller, BROKEN COUNTRY, a Bookreporter Bets On selection that has received numerous "Best Of 2025" accolades. Clare talks about her inspiration for the novel, as well as the different paths that she took to writing it. She shares details on the development of her characters and explains how...

Brisa Carleton joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about her debut novel, LAST CALL AT THE SAVOY, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. The inspiration for the book came when Brisa was visiting The Savoy Hotel in London more than a decade ago. She saw a footnote about Ada Coleman in a cocktail menu and was surprised that so little information existed about her. Ada was a prominent mixologist at th...

Alex DeMille joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss THE TIN MEN, the third installment in the Scott Brodie & Maggie Taylor series, which he wrote with his father, Nelson DeMille. Set at a fictional military base in the Mojave Desert, the book explores autonomous weapons and AI in warfare. Alex explains what drew him to set a thriller in the American Southwest and fills us in on the research trip that h...

Paula Hawkins joined us for October's "Bookaccino Live" Book Group to discuss her most recent thriller, THE BLUE HOUR, a Bookreporter Bets On selection that is now available in paperback. Readers asked questions before and during the program, and we covered a lot of details, including the meaning of the book's title. Paula shares her love of art and how much she enjoys visiting museums as she trav...

Lily King joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her latest novel, the instant  New York Times bestseller HEART THE LOVER, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. Lily shares that she was working on a political murder mystery that came to a grinding halt when she got a manuscript from Ann Patchett, which led her to write college scenes that were the start of HEART THE LOVER. She talks about a signif...

Amy Neff joined us for September's "Bookaccino Live" Book Group to discuss her debut novel, THE DAYS I LOVED YOU MOST, a Bookreporter Bets On selection that is now available in paperback. Amy worked on this book for more than a decade, starting with writing in a notebook in Central Park when she was in her 20s. She talks about her own extended family and how their beach vacations (where picnics we...

Virginia Evans joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about her debut novel, THE CORRESPONDENT. Virginia always saw the book as having an epistolary format, and she wrote it as readers are seeing it, with one letter after another. Carol thought this style worked for the storytelling as it allowed for pacing and for different aspects of Sybil's life, and the world as she knows it now, to be explored. Virgi...

Hank Phillippi Ryan joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about her latest thriller, ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS. This Bookreporter Bets On selection follows Tessa Calloway, a debut author on a book tour who discovers she may have a stalker. The idea for the book came from Hank's own experiences on book tours, including the realization that her public schedule and locations potentially could be misused for h...