Domenica Ruta is the guest. Her new memoir, With or Without You, is now available from Spiegel & Grau. Entertainment Weekly calls it “Stunning . . . comes across as a bleaker, funnier, R-rated version of The Glass Castle and marks the arrival of a blazing new voice in literature.” And The New York Times Book Review calls it “A luminous, layered accomplishment.” Also this episode: a brief conversation with Jessica Anya Blau, whose new novel, The Wonder Bread Summer, is now available from Harper Perennial. Monologue topics: the sun's lethal nature, worrying about people not being worried about me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.