Bookreporter Talks To

Laura  Dave talks to Carol Fitzgerald about her latest novel, THE NIGHT WE LOST HIM, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. At the heart of this story is a secret that has been hidden for years — one that may have caused the death of Liam Noone, a successful hotel magnate. Nora, his daughter from one of his marriages, is convinced by Sam, his son from another marriage, to join together to see...

Chris Whitaker joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about his  New York Times bestseller, ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. Chris explains how he developed the book by spending a year writing just dialogue to get a feel for his characters, Patch and Saint. Once he had a good grasp of their voices, he could write around that. Chris went through trauma in his youth tha...

T.J. Newman joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about WORST CASE SCENARIO, her third thriller to be a Bookreporter Bets On selection (following FALLING and DROWNING). T.J. shares how she came up with the idea for this book and the research that was required (including a detail that Carol saw to be totally plausible). She discusses her character development and why she feels Joe Morton is the perfect na...

Dawn  Tripp joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about her book, JACKIE, a Bookreporter Bets On pick that novelizes the life of the legendary Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. A rare photograph, which became the cover of the book, inspired  Dawn 's writing as much as the reading that she did. Along with books about Jackie, she read books that had been some of Jackie's favorites. Carol and Dawn  point...

Amy   Neff  joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss THE DAYS I LOVED YOU MOST, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection.  Amy  talks about her 10-year journey to write this beautiful debut novel and the influences that she had for it. She expounds upon why she chose the time frame that she did for the storyline and what she changed along the way. Amy also shares the story behind the artwork on the stun...

Beatriz Williams joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her new novel, HUSBANDS & LOVERS, which is a Bookreporter Bets On pick. Here, for the first time, she sets one of her story threads in the present day, while the other takes place in 1950s Cairo. Beatriz loves reading about history and actually began developing the older storyline before moving over to the later one. Readers of THE SUMMER WIVES wi...

Caro Carver joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her debut thriller, BAD TOURISTS, which is a Bookreporter Bets On pick. Her inspiration for the book came from a trip to the Maldives. It seems like an idyllic setting, but one where a lot more nefarious things might happen. Caro talks about her three characters, who are bound together by a past event, and why she chose a "divorce trip" as the reason f...

Marjan Kamali joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about her latest novel, THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. We are told the genesis of the story and how Marjan built on it from there. She delves into her personal history coming to the US as a child and what it means to be a "lion woman." We learn about how class and culture mattered in the relationship between Ellie a...

We wrapped up our early 2024 "Bookaccino Live" Book Group programming with William Kent Krueger as our guest. He discussed his  New York Times bestseller and Edgar Award-nominated book, THE RIVER WE REMEMBER. Readers joined to ask questions, which covered a myriad of topics. Kent also gave us a preview of his new Cork O'Connor mystery, SPIRIT CROSSING, which will be available on August 20th, and t...

Lisa Wingate joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about her latest work of historical fiction, SHELTERWOOD, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. She explains the origin of the story, a piece she found about a woman named Kate Barnard that sent her down a rabbit hole of learning more about the children known as "elf children" who lived in trees. They typically were Native American children who were...

Ruth  Reichl joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about THE PARIS NOVEL, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. The concept for this book was born from a section in SAVE ME THE PLUMS,  Ruth 's 2019 memoir, which prompted her longtime editor, Susan Kamil, to ask for a novel with that as a starting-off point.  Ruth  talks about why she set the book in the 1980s, as travel then was so different from wh...

Ann Napolitano joined us for May's "Bookaccino Live" Book Group event. She talked about her  New York Times bestseller, HELLO BEAUTIFUL (which was Oprah's 100th Book Club selection), and her newly re-released 2004 debut novel, WITHIN ARM'S REACH. There also was a peek inside her writing process, which includes nine months of musing before putting pen to paper, and she shared a hint of what her nex...

Genevieve "Gwen" Kingston joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her memoir, DID I EVER TELL YOU?, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. When Gwen was three years old, her mother, Kristina, was diagnosed with breast cancer; she passed away when Gwen was 11. When Kristina realized that her cancer was terminal, she created a box filled with individual presents for each year through Gwen's 30th birth...

Terah Shelton Harris joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about her second novel, LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. Terah explains what heir property is and the research she did about it to inform her story. She talks about developing the plot from four different points of view and her inspiration for that. Terah always knows how a book will end when she begins writing,...

Ann Hood joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about her latest work of historical fiction, THE STOLEN CHILD, which is a Bookreporter Bets On pick. Ann loves the World War I time period and has researched it through the years. She talks about her travels to World War I battle sites and how her son shares her passion for this history. Her thoughts about the tears she has shed inspired one thread of the st...

Mary Kay Andrews returns to "Bookreporter Talks To" to discuss her latest book, SUMMERS AT THE SAINT, with Carol Fitzgerald.  She talks about the resort that she modeled The Saint after and how she conducted research there while spending time with a friend. She also touches on the many storylines that are woven so well into this Bookreporter Bets On selection and points out that the novel original...

Kate Morton joined us for April's "Bookaccino Live" Book Group event to talk about her latest novel, HOMECOMING, a Bookreporter Bets On pick and one of Carol Fitzgerald's top three books of 2023. At the start of the pandemic, Kate was working on another book in London. When she and her family went to Australia for what was planned as a spring break trip, COVID restrictions led to their living on a...

Simone Gorrindo, whose debut memoir, THE WIVES, is a Bookreporter Bets On selection, joins Carol Fitzgerald on this episode of "Bookreporter Talks To." Simone explains how she found her way to writing this book when her husband, an Army Special Ops team member, was assigned to a base in Columbus, Georgia. There she found herself with a group of women who had followed their husbands to this area. H...

Megan Miranda returns to "Bookreporter Talks To" to talk about her new thriller, DAUGHTER OF MINE, a Bookreporter Bets On selection with Carol Fitzgerald. She shares her inspiration for the book, as well as insight into her creative process. They talk about how she laid out the twists that make the book so special. She loves the narrator for the audio edition Ines del Castillo - -- she feels that...

Anna Quindlen joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her latest novel, AFTER ANNIE. The idea for the opening of the book came to Anna in a moment, which she explains. She thought for a while about just writing from the point of view of Ali, Annie's 13-year-old daughter, but she changed her mind as she realized that she could not see the complete purview of a person that age. Instead, she layered in Ann...

Tamron  Hall, the Emmy Award-winning host and executive producer of the syndicated talk show  " Tamron   Hall" and the bestselling author of the Jordan Manning series, joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her latest thriller, WATCH WHERE THEY HIDE.  Tamron shares the genesis of the plot for this second book in the series and why it is set in 2009. She also talks about how she crafts her story, her wr...

Kristin Hannah was our guest for a very special "Bookreporter Talks To" program. She was in conversation with Bookreporter readers and Carol Fitzgerald about her #1 bestseller, THE WOMEN, which is a Bookreporter Bets On pick. A lot of ground was covered, including Kristin's inspiration for writing the book, why she felt that now was the right time to tell this story, and how she researched the tim...

Shelby Van Pelt, author of REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES, joins us for February's "Bookaccino Live" Book Group event. She explains how a short piece that she had written for a writing class became the start of her  New York Times bestseller, how growing up with her Swedish grandmother influenced her character, Tova, and why it worked for Marcellus to have his voice in the first person. Shelby shares...

Hank Phillippi Ryan joins Carol Fitzgerald to discuss her latest thriller, ONE WRONG WORD, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. The idea for this book came from something that happened to Hank when she was 19. She talks about crafting the characters and how she tries to keep readers on top of the action by introducing the characters as chapter titles where they are speaking. Hank always writ...

For our first "Bookaccino Live" Book Group of 2024, Lisa See talks about her most recent book, LADY TAN'S CIRCLE OF WOMEN, with Carol Fitzgerald. She explains how she came to discover Tan Yunxian, a female physician from 15th-century China, and why she decided to write a novel based on her extraordinary life.   Two readers, Debbie and Michelle, appeared on camera to ask Lisa about her interest in...