The Avid Reader Show

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are lucky to have with us Matt Haig author of, his latest novel, How To Stop Time, published in February by Viking. Matt is the author of the bestselling memoir Reasons to Stay Alive, along with novels including The Humans and The Radleys as well as several award winning children’s books. Matt is lucky enough that...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. When last we spoke with Jojo, dear listener, it was more than five years ago and Me Before You had just come out. No thronging crowds at book signings, no billion-dollar movies with Deanery’s and Gayle, no After Me and of course no Still Me her latest and last featuring Louisa Clark. Now of course she has had three novels o...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Robin MacArthur author of Heart Spring Mountain published in January by Eco. Robin lives in Marlboro Vermont not far from where she was born and where the novel takes place. Her debut collection of short stories, Half Wild won the 2017 PEN New England award for fiction. She is also one half of the musical...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Robin MacArthur author of Heart Spring Mountain published in January by Eco. Robin lives in Marlboro Vermont not far from where she was born and where the novel takes place. Her debut collection of short stories, Half Wild won the 2017 PEN New England award for fiction. She is also one half of the musical...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Chandler Kling Smith author of The Sky is Yours, published this January by Hogarth. Chandler is a graduate of Bennington and the creative writing MFA program at Columbia. She has worked in book publishing and currently lives, teaches and tutors in New York City. The Sky is Yours is Chandler’s first novel...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Chandler Kling Smith author of The Sky is Yours, published this January by Hogarth. Chandler is a graduate of Bennington and the creative writing MFA program at Columbia. She has worked in book publishing and currently lives, teaches and tutors in New York City. The Sky is Yours is Chandler’s first novel...

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is John Bacon author of The Great Halifax explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism, published in November by William Morrow. Mr. Bacon has worked for the past two decades as a writer, public speaker and a college instructor. He has written for NYT and Time magazine. His...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Andy Weir, author of The Martian and most recently Artemis published by Crown just a month or so ago. Artemis is a story of the moon. Once again, as in The Martian Andy couples both hard science and a character driven plot, but this time it is coupled with a story of intrigue, murder and mystery. As many...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Andy Weir, author of The Martian and most recently Artemis published by Crown just a month or so ago. Artemis is a story of the moon. Once again, as in The Martian Andy couples both hard science and a character driven plot, but this time it is coupled with a story of intrigue, murder and mystery. As many...

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is John Bacon author of The Great Halifax explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism, published in November by William Morrow. Mr. Bacon has worked for the past two decades as a writer, public speaker and a college instructor. He has written for NYT and Time magazine. His...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv, published in November by Random House. Elizabeth was a registered nurse for over ten years before publishing her first novel, Durable Goods. She has since written maybe 25 books (neither of us can probably remember the exact count!) She’s been translat...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv, published in November by Random House. Elizabeth was a registered nurse for over ten years before publishing her first novel, Durable Goods. She has since written maybe 25 books (neither of us can probably remember the exact count!) She’s been translat...

Good Afternoon and welcome to another edition of the Avid Reader. Today our guest is Richard Thomas, author of Why Bob Dylan Matters, published by Dey Street Books in November of this year. Dr. Thomas is a professor of the classics at Harvard. He is also, curiously, a preeminent Dylan scholar who has published extensively about him and the literary tradition that surrounds him and in most cases pr...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Michael Meyer author of The Road to Sleeping Dragon: Learning China From The Ground Up, published in October by Bloomsbury. The book is the third in a trilogy of works by Mr. Meyer. The first two being The Last Days of Old Beijing and the second, In Manchuria. Michael’s writing has also appeared in the NY...

Mark Helprin is a man without a genre. He belongs to no literary school or movement. His books are not adventure stories or mysteries or thrillers or science fiction or fantasy or magical realism, yet elements of each of those can be found between the pages of his many novels. Which include A Dove of the East & Other Stories, Refiners Fire, Winters Tale (a classic), A Soldier of the Great War...

Mark Helprin is a man without a genre. He belongs to no literary school or movement. His books are not adventure stories or mysteries or thrillers or science fiction or fantasy or magical realism, yet elements of each of those can be found between the pages of his many novels. Which include A Dove of the East & Other Stories, Refiners Fire, Winters Tale (a classic), A Soldier of the Great War...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Annalee Newitz author of her first novel Autonomous published September 19th by Tor (tomorrow). Annalee’s career started 15 years back in San Francisco at the Guardian. Later she worked at Wired and then founded the super cool io9 at Gawker. She edited io9 for 7 years then became the editor in chief at Gi...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Annalee Newitz author of her first novel Autonomous published September 19th by Tor (tomorrow). Annalee’s career started 15 years back in San Francisco at the Guardian. Later she worked at Wired and then founded the super cool io9 at Gawker. She edited io9 for 7 years then became the editor in chief at Gi...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Gabriel Tallent, whose debut novel My Absolute Darling will be released tomorrow by Riverhead. Gabriel Received his BA from Williamette University. His stories have been published in Narrative and in the St. Petersburg Review. His thesis at Willamette was on the discursive construction of Pleasure in Samu...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Jill Bialosky author of Poetry Will Save Your Life published this month by Atria. Jill is the author of four acclaimed collections of poetry most recently The Players. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic and Best American Poetry. She is also the author of three novels...

Sam Hankin of the Avid Reader discussed "Eastman was Here" on the Avid Reader radio show. Alex will be appearing at the Wellington Square Bookshop for a reading, Q&A and signing on Monday, September 11th at 7:00pm.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guests are Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman. Jimmy has served as an editor at the New York Observer and the Washington Examiner and as managing editor of the Huffington Post. His work has appeared in Slate, the Atlantic and CNN. Rob has written for Slate, the Atlantic and his scholarly works have appeared in History of...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guests are Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman. Jimmy has served as an editor at the New York Observer and the Washington Examiner and as managing editor of the Huffington Post. His work has appeared in Slate, the Atlantic and CNN. Rob has written for Slate, the Atlantic and his scholarly works have appeared in History of...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are happy to have as our guest for the second time, Alex Gilvarry. Alex’s first book was From The Memoirs Of a Non-Enemy Combatant. Alex has been a Norman Mailer fellow and has taught at Wesleyan and Manhattanville College. His first book won numerous awards. Eastman Was Here is the story of an author whose fading...

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are happy to have as our guest for the second time, Alex Gilvarry. Alex’s first book was From The Memoirs Of a Non-Enemy Combatant. Alex has been a Norman Mailer fellow and has taught at Wesleyan and Manhattanville College. His first book won numerous awards. Eastman Was Here is the story of an author whose fading...