The Weekly Reader

Joan Didion died in 2021, but interest in her life and work has only increased since then.

We can inherit so many things from our ancestors: physical traits, like hair and eye color, a quick temper, musical talent, a bunch of money, maybe even a big old house.

Joni Mitchell gets the biographical treatment in a pair of books as unconventional as the artist herself.

We love Short Stories, and we're going to make you love them, too.

Who hasn’t dreamed of running away, leaving it all behind, totally reinventing yourself?

Great art is often created in the wake of terrible tragedy – think Guernica, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, The Vietnam Memorial.

Great art is often created in the wake of terrible tragedy – think Guernica, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, The Vietnam Memorial.

Remember the 1980s? Remember college? Even if you weren’t alive, or never attended university, you’ll feel like you’ve gone back in time with this week’s picks.

Coming of age can be a challenge, no matter where, or when, you do it.

Immigration is and always has been such a complex issue, you may not even realize how much it touches your everyday life.

Our Evenings, by Alan Hollinghurst, and Pony Confidential, by Chrstina Lynch

On this edition of The Weekly Reader, we'd like to turn your attention to a pair of local authors whose work reflects and illuminates the world around us: The Play’s the Thing, by James Magruder, and Behind You Is the Sea, Susan Muaddi Darraj

On this edition of The Weekly Reader, we review a pair of  high-profile memoirs that reveal the complex lives of two vastly different, widely influential people: Patriot , by Alexei Navalny, and Cher: The Memoir, Part One , by Cher.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ah, December! On this edition of  The Weekly Reader , we review two new novels to help get you in the mood to celebrate the season, however, and whatever, you choose: Time of the Child , by Niall Williams, and Love You A Latke , by Amanda Elliot.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this edition of The Weekly Reader , we review a unique collaboration involving the celebrated poet Naomi Shahib Nye, Ann Alejandro, and our own Marion Winik: "I Know About a Thousand Things: The Writings of Ann Alejandro of Uvalde, Texas." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this edition of The Weekly Reader, we review two new novels about the complicated ways we share our lives, and love, with others: Intermezzo , by Sallie Rooney, and The Wildes , by Louis Bayard. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this edition of The Weekly Reader, we review two new novels that prove, once again, that sometimes, you just need a good road trip to sort yourself out:  Goyhood , by Reuven Fenton, and How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund? by Anna Montague. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this edition of our series about celebrity memoirs, we review four more superstar tell-all's that are well worth your time, whether you enjoy them on the page or listen to the audiobooks:  Connie , by Connie Chung,  Taste by Stanley Tucci, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, and Sonny Boy , by Al Pacino.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this edition of The Weekly Reader we review two new engaging memoirs from the entertainment industry: From Here to the Great Unknown , by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough, All I Ever Wanted , by Kathy Valentine.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this edition of The Weekly Reader, we review two new novels about female practitioners of folk remedies and herbal medicine and the special roll they play in many cultures: The Waters , by Bonnie Jo Campbell, and The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern , by Lydia Cohen Loigman.   All titles available at your favorite local bookstore and online at bookshop.org. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy i...

On this edition of The Weekly Reader, we review two new books about changing times, changing attitudes, and changing lives: Mona of the Manor , by Armistead Maupin, and Frighten the Horses , by Oliver Radclyffe. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this edition of The Weekly Reader , we review two books, one a new novel and the other a re-issue of a somewhat overlooked classic about some of the larger issues facing the denizens of small town America: The Mighty Red , by Louise Erdrich, and Broke Heart Blues , by Joyce Carol Oates. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To the casual outside observer, middle class suburbia can look like a fairly boring place, but what’s really going on behind those well-tended gardens, long driveways and screened porches?  I’m Lisa Morgan and today on The Weekly Reader, our book critic Marion Winik reviews two new novels, each with a unique take on sex and drugs and rock-n-roll. But mostly, sex: We Were the Universe , by Kimberly...

On this edition of The Weekly Reader we review two new novels that blur the lines between what's real and what's not: Colored Television , by Danzy Senna, and Small Rain , by Garth Greenwell.      See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this edition of The Weekly Reader, we review two new novels about the powerful, mysterious bonds we form with others throughout our lives and the ways they influence the people we become: Mina's Matchbox , by Yoko Ogawa, and Tell Me Everything , by Elizabeth Strout. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.