The Book Case

The Book Case is largely about talking to authors, yes, but we believe that reading is critical for everyone. We believe it is most important for kids, that raising readers is one of the most important duties a parent can perform. But we read a study recently that said boys reading scores are lower than girls. And not just in the US, boys reading scores are lower internationally as well. Why? What...

We are going full Ireland on this show.  First, we talk to the incredible Tana French about her newest, The Keeper.  Set in rural Ireland it combines great mystery writing with the classic American Western. Does that sound like it is a long shot? Not with Tana’s talent. We then go from a fascinating conversation with a great author to Hodges and Figgis, our first international bookseller, smack in...

Jenny Lawson is Kate’s all time favorite humor author. Obsessed since her first book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Kate saw she had a new one out, How to be Okay When Nothing is Okay, and she actually whooped. Loudly. In this book, Jenny shares the different tools and tricks that she uses to try to right the ship, when she is sinking in depression. But this is not your average advice book. I...

Louise Erdrich is one of the most important writers of our time. Her award-winning words have created modern classics such as Love Medicine, The Night Watchman and The Sentence. Her newest release, Python’s Kiss, is a collection of short stories, illustrated by Aza Erdrich Abe, her daughter. Each one speaks to turning points…moments that change us and shape us. Louise talks about how her writing s...

It’s a TRIPLE header on the Book Case podcast. First, our main guest is Elizabeth Berg, whose newest, Life: A Love Story is a beautifully woven tale of a woman reflecting on what objects she has saved throughout her life and why. Look around your room…are there things in there that means something to you but no one else? Elizabeth Berg writes so deftly that you will want to write your own autobiog...

Joan Lunden has been a part of the Gibson family for a long time. Her newest memoir, Joan, is an attempt to look back upon the moments of her life, her life that she has lived at an almost breakneck speed.  How did she hold down one of the toughest jobs in journalism, raise a bunch of kids and write a bunch of books?  What is life like after GMA?  She answers all those questions and gets a chance...

We have been broadcasting long enough to have what we think of as “authors we always love to talk to” and Anna is one of those.  She is a stunning talent and has thoughts about writing that always knock us out.  So sit down with us to discuss Anna’s latest, More Than Enough, and stay tuned for a great interview with Prologue Books in Ohio. Happy Spring! Find books mentioned on The Book Case: https...

Tayari Jones is one of the country’s most gifted writers, and her newest, Kin, is sure to get everyone talking. Beautiful, wrenching and compelling, this is a period piece that takes place in the South around the 1950’s and 60’s. This is a book that will move you, and almost every sentence is a work of art. Finely crafted, Kin is one of our favorites this year and we were so pleased Tayari agreed...

Allegra Goodman’s latest, This is Not About Us is a treasure.  Centered around the Rubenstein family, each chapter examines the Rubensteins from a different lens, a different perspective.  The stories are funny, messy, heartbreaking, captivating; all adjectives that describe complex families.  You will laugh, you will be moved, and you will be left with some brilliant tableaus of an American famil...

Belle Burden’s Strangers is not your everyday memoir about divorce.  After three kids, two decades and two homes, her husband was caught having an affair.  When confronted, he walked out, saying that marriage and family were not “for him”. It was not about the other woman nor was it about a long bout with depression, it seemed as if he just woke up and decided to begin anew.  Belle is left to sear...

This week we dedicate our show to a documentary that we think is important.  We have promised our listeners to keep the podcast non-political (no shouting talking heads, no books with a political agenda).  But there are some issues that are vitally important that we also believe are non-political.  Book banning is first and foremost among these.  Next week on February 9th, The Librarians documenta...

Roger Rosenblatt wrote a column for the NY Times called Before You Toss that Book… We already loved Roger’s books, and this column moved us to reach out to him. We asked if he would come on our show to read the column for our audience and to talk to us about what makes books so important, what keeping books can do to grow your love for the written word. Roger is a national treasure and this conver...

Susan Orlean, one of the best journalists of our generation, has written a memoir, along with some great advice about writing.  Beyond writing, she has thoughts on the importance of curiosity in these trying times.  Curiosity can break down barriers, and create beautiful stories out of the ordinary.  And Susan does it brilliantly in all of her writing, and especially in her new memoir, Joyride. It...

Janice Page’s The Year of the Water Horse is a funny memoir. At times, laugh out loud funny. But it is also about why we tell stories, what we make important in our lives, what we protect and what we share. Full of thoughtful reflection, this is a book that will have you looking at your own life, wondering where the magic is in your story. Janice Page has created magic out of her story through her...

Paula McLain’s Skylark is the GMA book club pick this month and we are so pleased she sat down with us too. This book is a beautifully written, touching and suspenseful story centered around the meaning of freedom, and the prices we pay to attain it.  Paralleling two stories in Paris, one in the 17th century, the other on the dawn of WWII, each story takes us into the depths of the Paris undergrou...

Grab a pen and pencil so you can write down what are some of our absolute favorite reads of 2025.  There is something for everyone, fiction, non fiction, romance, marooned sea travelers, epistolary greatness, fictionalized examinations of climate change….you name it.  Get yourself a glass of wine or a cup of tea and take a journey with Kate and Charlie through 2025.  We know you will find one of y...

We have devoted several podcasts to the issue of how parents get children to read - off screens and into pages.  We talk about it - others DO something about it.  You might not expect to find Stephen Curry, the great pro basketball player, to be among that group.  However, Stephen and his wife Ayesha have a foundation - Eat. Learn. Play - and over the past few years they’ve given books every Chris...

Our next installment in the Book Case Classics series comes from listeners like you.  Many of you asked for Austen…you wanted it?  You got it!  We sat down with two of the world’s foremost Austen Scholars, Claudia L. Johnson, Murray Professor of English at Princeton and Devoney Looser, Regents Professor at Arizona State University (both of which have great Austen books on the market) to discuss th...

Abir Mukherjee was a revelation to us, even if he is already an international bestseller. The Burning Grounds, the sixth of the Wyndham and Banerjee mystery series will keep readers guessing while dazzling them with terrific writing. His series takes place during turn of the century in Imperialist India, and he exposes the good, bad and ugly, from both a British and native perspective.  He knocked...

We are so pleased that our Writer in Residence, J. Ryan Stradal, has sold his newest to Atria Publishing. He is here this week to tell us how he did it, and how Atria became his new home (and it apparently involved an auction). We are also joined by the husband and wife team behind Bound and Vine, a brand new bookstore in Fayetteville, North Carolina that brings military families together to share...

Megha Majumdar was on the short list for the National Book Award, and we were rooting hard for her to win. She may not have won THIS year, but her talent and her world building skills had us clamoring for more, so we have no doubt you will see her name on the list again. A Guardian and a Thief is a novel that asks (and not didactically) what you would do, what morals would you compromise, to survi...

We DO love talking to John Irving.  In our winding, wandering and wonderful conversation we cover it all from his newest, Queen Esther, the art of writing backwards, skiing in Vienna and the eccentricities of bike pump usage.  If this description doesn’t entice you to listen, we don’t know what will. John Irving is one of the most masterful writers of our time.  Sit down with us for our third conv...

Catherine Newman’s latest, Wreck, is a beautiful meditation on the act of motherhood. Revisiting the family from Sandwich as they enter a new phase of familial life. We all know that successful parents raise kids just to lose them to the world, and that this launch into independence is something we all desperately hope for and deeply dread. Funny, touching and compulsively readable this is a novel...

It’s Halloween…so who better to follow up our conversations about middle school reading than R.L. Stine? With over 400 titles to his name (the latest being The Last Sleepover In the Goosebumps House of Shiver series) this man has been scaring kids for decades and decades. And oh wow, are his stories worth the price of admission?! Join us as we talk to Bob (what he asked we call him) about what mak...

We knew that reading levels were in fluctuation, but we had no idea there was a Middle School reading crisis.  According to the NWEA (The Northwest Evaluation Association which measures academic and student standards) only 30% of 8th graders are reading at grade level or above.  Why?  How did we get here and how do we get back on track raising great readers who love literature?  We are joined by M...