The Avid Reader Show

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Ian Urbina, author of The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across The Last Untamed Frontier, published this month by Knopf. Ian is an investigative reporter who usually writes for the NYT and is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and contributes to The National Geographic as well He has received the Pulitz...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Casey Cep author of Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, published by Knopf in May, her first book. Reverend Willie Maxwell was a man who loved life insurance. He loved it so much that in the 70s he took out, I guess, scores of policies inuring him to the benefits of the payouts...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Ian Urbina, author of The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across The Last Untamed Frontier, published this month by Knopf. Ian is an investigative reporter who usually writes for the NYT and is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and contributes to The National Geographic as well He has received the Pulitz...

Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had, Published in June by Doubleday. This is Claire’s first novel and debuted on The NYT best seller list. Her short fiction has appeared in Barrelhouse, Little Fiction and Longform amongst others. She is not a woodwind musician. But then again, either am I...

Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had, Published in June by Doubleday. This is Claire’s first novel and debuted on The NYT best seller list. Her short fiction has appeared in Barrelhouse, Little Fiction and Longform amongst others. She is not a woodwind musician. But then again, either am I...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Casey Cep author of Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, published by Knopf in May, her first book. Reverend Willie Maxwell was a man who loved life insurance. He loved it so much that in the 70s he took out, I guess, scores of policies inuring him to the benefits of the payouts...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Arkady Martine, a speculative fiction writer and in her secret identity as Dr. Anna Linden Weller, she is an historian of the Byzantine Empire and a city planner. She writes about border politics, rhetoric, propaganda and the edges of the world, and coincidentally all of this is wrapped into her first nov...

Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to another addition of the avid reader. Today our guest is Xuan Juliana Wang, Author of Home Remedies - her first collection of short stories, published in May by Hogarth. Xuan’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Plowshares, Pushcart, and The Best American Non-Required Reading Anthologies. She is a fiction editor at Fence. She moved to Los Angeles around 7...

Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to another addition of the avid reader. Today our guest is Xuan Juliana Wang, Author of Home Remedies - her first collection of short stories, published in May by Hogarth. Xuan’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Plowshares, Pushcart, and The Best American Non-Required Reading Anthologies. She is a fiction editor at Fence. She moved to Los Angeles around 7...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Casey Cep author of Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, published by Knopf in May, her first book. Reverend Willie Maxwell was a man who loved life insurance. He loved it so much that in the 70s he took out, I guess, scores of policies inuring him to the benefits of the payouts...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Arkady Martine, a speculative fiction writer and in her secret identity as Dr. Anna Linden Weller, she is an historian of the Byzantine Empire and a city planner. She writes about border politics, rhetoric, propaganda and the edges of the world, and coincidentally all of this is wrapped into her first nov...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Katherine Eban author of Bottle Of Lies, The Inside Story Of The Generic Drug Boom, published in May by Ecco. Katherine’s resume is too long to recite here, but I’ll give it a go. Katherine is an investigative journalist, a Fortune Magazine contributor and an Andrew Carnegie Fellow as well as a Rhodes sch...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Mona Awad author of Bunny, published June 11th by Viking. Mona is also author of the acclaimed 13 Ways Of Looking At A Fat Girl. Her writing has appeared in Time, Vice, Electric Literature, McSweeney’s,The LA Times and other publications. Bunny gives us the story of Samantha, a student at a prestigious Un...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Mona Awad author of Bunny, published June 11th by Viking. Mona is also author of the acclaimed 13 Ways Of Looking At A Fat Girl. Her writing has appeared in Time, Vice, Electric Literature, McSweeney’s,The LA Times and other publications. Bunny gives us the story of Samantha, a student at a prestigious Un...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Julie Orringer. Her latest novel, if it is a novel, is The Flight Portfolio published on May 7th by Knopf. Julie is the winner of many literary prizes to0 numerous to mention. Her stories have appeared in the Paris Review, McSweeneys, Ploughshare, the Pushcart Prize Anthology and tons others. She’s has wr...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Julie Orringer. Her latest novel, if it is a novel, is The Flight Portfolio published on May 7th by Knopf. Julie is the winner of many literary prizes to0 numerous to mention. Her stories have appeared in the Paris Review, McSweeneys, Ploughshare, the Pushcart Prize Anthology and tons others. She’s has wr...

Good afternoon and welcome to another editor of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Anne Beattie, author of A Wonderful Stroke of Luck, the next in her series of many novels and short story collections. Published in April by Viking. Anne is incredibly prolific and after 40 years remains as relevant as she was in 1976. She’s had tons of short stories in The New Yorker, has won many awards including...

Good afternoon and welcome to another editor of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Anne Beattie, author of A Wonderful Stroke of Luck, the next in her series of many novels and short story collections. Published in April by Viking. Anne is incredibly prolific and after 40 years remains as relevant as she was in 1976. She’s had tons of short stories in The New Yorker, has won many awards including...

The Paper Wasp is about two women, one beautiful, one plain, one insecure and one quite confident (at different times). It’s about a rekindled relationship in which power shifts, spirituality is embraced or given lip service and plans are made, by both women, plans that sometimes work and sometimes don’t. My point, somehow made in an extremely disjointed fashion, is that it’s hard to know who’s su...

The Paper Wasp is about two women, one beautiful, one plain, one insecure and one quite confident (at different times). It’s about a rekindled relationship in which power shifts, spirituality is embraced or given lip service and plans are made, by both women, plans that sometimes work and sometimes don’t. My point, somehow made in an extremely disjointed fashion, is that it’s hard to know who’s su...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Damian Barr, author of You Will Be Safe Here, his first novel, published in May by Bloomsbury. Damian is an award winning writer and columnist. Maggie And Me, his memoir won several prestigious awards. Damian writes columns for BigIssue and High Life. He is the creator and host of his own Literary Salon t...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Damian Barr, author of You Will Be Safe Here, his first novel, published in May by Bloomsbury. Damian is an award winning writer and columnist. Maggie And Me, his memoir won several prestigious awards. Damian writes columns for BigIssue and High Life. He is the creator and host of his own Literary Salon t...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Namwali Serpell author of The Old Drift, her first novel, published in March by Hogarth. Namwali has won many prizes in literature. Her writing has appeared in the NYer, Tin House, McSweeneys, the Guardian and in numerous short story anthologies, including Best American Short Stories. Oh and her first boo...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Namwali Serpell author of The Old Drift, her first novel, published in March by Hogarth. Namwali has won many prizes in literature. Her writing has appeared in the NYer, Tin House, McSweeneys, the Guardian and in numerous short story anthologies, including Best American Short Stories. Oh and her first boo...

Good afternoon and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Janny Scott, author of The Beneficiary: Fortune, Misfortune, And The Story of My Father, published by Riverhead in April. Janny is a journalist and the author of A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother. She was a reporter for the NYT and a member of the Times reporting team that won the Pulitze...