Poured Over
Episodes
Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché on PROPHET
15 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What happens to reality when nostalgia and memory become weaponized? Part speculative thriller, part queer romance, all page-turning excitement and in...
Poured Over Double Shot: Esmeralda Santiago and Elizabeth Acevedo
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Las Madres follows a group of mothers and daughters between Puerto Rico and the U.S. as they face challenges of health, natural disaster and family ...
James McBride on THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE
08 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"People who love books, we're the last line of reason and discourse…" National Book Award winner James McBride's newest novel, The Heaven & Earth Gr...
Poured Over Double Shot: Khashayar J. Khabushani and Jamel Brinkley
05 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I Will Greet the Sun Again by Khashayar J. Khabushani is the story of a young Iranian American boy growing up in the San Fernando Valley with his bro...
Susan Casey on THE UNDERWORLD: JOURNEYS TO THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"My overarching goal is to enchant people the way I am enchanted." Explore the ocean and its wonders in Susan Casey's The Underworld: Journeys to th...
Poured Over Double Shot: Ann Patchett and Jimin Han
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett is a rich, multidimensional story of family, love and summer stock theater. Patchett joins us to talk about the wealth of in...
Colin Walsh on KALA
29 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"There's always this thing that makes you kind of gravitate towards an idea… that you just feel this kind of throb or this pulse that's there within...
Pierce Brown on LIGHT BRINGER
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"The fantastical worlds, the science fiction worlds offer a place where they can explore..." Light Bringer, the 6th installment in Pierce Brown's Red...
Richard Russo on SOMEBODY'S FOOL
25 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"If you're going to go to dark places… then you better go armed with humor." Pulitzer Prize Winner Richard Russo returns to upstate New York with ...
Christine Pride and Jo Piazza on YOU WERE ALWAYS MINE
22 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Writing duo Christine Pride and Jo Piazza return with You Were Always Mine, a timely, tender and thought-provoking novel about race, motherhood and fa...
David Lipsky on THE PARROT AND THE IGLOO
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I feel this book is really about America." David Lipsky's The Parrot and the Igloo is not the climate change story you might expect — with a dist...
Rachel Cargle on A RENAISSANCE OF OUR OWN
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"And I'm grateful for the times I got to ask questions. I got to be curious, I got to say, Hey, this looks different over there." A Renaissance of ...
Michael Finkel on THE ART THIEF
15 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Every reader can have a different opinion at the end between admiration and disgust and nobody's wrong." The Art Thief by Michael Finkel is the stra...
Beth Nguyen on OWNER OF A LONELY HEART
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"That to me is part of the joy … of memoir, which is — it is all about looking back." Beth Nguyen's Owner of a Lonely Heart is a memoir about mot...
Poured Over Double Shot: Caleb Azumah Nelson and Aaliyah Bilal
11 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson is a novel of family and freedom as one young man navigates coming of age as a Londoner born to Ghanian parents. ...
Patrick deWitt on THE LIBRARIANIST
08 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"... what is it like to live your life through the books you read?" The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt is a warm, introspective novel about a retire...
Adrienne Brodeur on LITTLE MONSTERS
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"What part of yourself is actually in each character?" Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur is a family drama set on the shores of Cape Cod, full of ...
Poured Over Double Shot: Danielle Trussoni and Ivy Pochoda
04 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Whether it's to 18th century Prague or present-day Los Angeles, you'll find yourself transported with these fast paced and thrilling reads and their c...
Jason Mraz on MYSTICAL MAGICAL RHYTHMICAL RADICAL RIDE
01 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"This whole life experience is just a ride, and occasionally we get to steer it." Jason Mraz's new album Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride ...
Henry Hoke and Jackson Howard on OPEN THROAT
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I didn't want to get sick of my work … let's write something that I'm going to enjoy." Open Throat by Henry Hoke is a novel unlike any other. This...
Caroline O'Donoghue on THE RACHEL INCIDENT
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"God, I was an idiot, but I had good legs." Caroline O'Donoghue's The Rachel Incident is a witty and emotional journey through friendships, first lo...
Elysha Chang and Sarah Jessica Parker on A QUITTER'S PARADISE
24 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Elysha Chang's debut, A Quitter's Paradise, is the story of one woman's journey through family secrets, grief and love told with humor and heart. Cha...
Jennifer Ackerman on WHAT AN OWL KNOWS
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I found in nature that kind of the same appeal that I find in books which is: … they're both filled with these rich particularities and they're als...
Lorrie Moore on I AM HOMELESS IF THIS IS NOT MY HOME
20 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Does one ever move on from someone they love dying?" Lorrie Moore's I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home is a story of love, family, life and death,...
Poured Over Double Shot: Celia Bell and Claudia Cravens
17 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Two authors take on historical fiction with these novels featuring queer love, heartbreak, coming of age and agency with rich settings and vibrant cas...
Poured Over Double Shot: Keziah Weir and Katie Williams
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
These two new novels ask a crucial question: who gets to tell our stories? Keziah Weir's The Mythmakers follows one young journalist as she seeks a...
Poured Over Double Shot: Tania James and Julia Fine
13 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
These two novels transport readers into rich, vivid historical settings — whether it's a journey from colonial India to Europe, or through the canal...
Poured Over Double Shot: Juno Dawson and Emma Törzs
10 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Powerful women, families of all kinds, fantastical adventures and so much more unite these two spellbinding tales. Juno Dawson's The Shadow Cabinet i...
Elif Batuman on EITHER/OR
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Either/Or, Elif Batuman's sequel to Pulitzer Prize finalist The Idiot, is the humorous and relatable ongoing story of a Turkish American surviving co...
Barbara Kingsolver on DEMON COPPERHEAD
06 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"This is the place; this is the right place for me, it's home." Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver's Pulitzer Prize-winning return to Appalachia, i...
Ramona Ausubel on THE LAST ANIMAL
03 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"What if we could do anything? Should we do it? What are the consequences?" Ramona Ausubel's new novel The Last Animal asks big questions about mothe...
Poured Over Double Shot: Héctor Tobar and Jonathan Eig
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
These two authors tackle important subjects with new research and keen insight. Héctor Tobar's Our Migrant Souls delves into the "Latino" identity w...
Poured Over Double Shot: Luis Alberto Urrea and Rita Chang-Eppig
30 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Starring strong female characters in rich, captivating, historical settings, we can't wait for you to dive into these two new novels we love. Our June...
Tom Hanks on THE MAKING OF ANOTHER MOTION PICTURE MASTERPIECE
27 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tom Hanks (yes, that Tom Hanks) returns to the world of fiction with The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece — a loving look at what...
R.F. Kuang on YELLOWFACE
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I've become increasingly cynical about the industry's ability to change itself and how it deals with representation and marginalization." R.F. Kuang'...
Brandon Taylor on THE LATE AMERICANS
23 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I am a firm believer in consequences." Brandon Taylor's new novel, The Late Americans, finds a group of young people at a crossroads and follows as ...
Katy Hessel on THE STORY OF ART WITHOUT MEN
20 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"In 1649, Artemisia Gentileschi wrote, 'I'll show you what a woman can do.'" In The Story of Art Without Men, Katy Hessel recounts the legacy of th...
Samantha Irby on QUIETLY HOSTILE
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Few people are as funny as Samantha Irby, and her new collection of essays, Quietly Hostile, proves it. Irby joins us to talk about representation in...
Emma Cline on THE GUEST
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Emma Cline, author of the The Girls, returns with her propulsive new novel, The Guest. This is the story of a singular young woman — a con artist d...
Mary Beth Keane on THE HALF MOON
13 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Beth Keane's new novel, The Half Moon, follows a small-town couple navigating the uncertainties of marriage and starting a family. Keane joins us...
Ramona Emerson on SHUTTER
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"When I was working forensics, I always thought, we do this work for the people who need us to do this work — it's not always the easiest thing." ...
Brinda Charry on THE EAST INDIAN
09 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I have to transport myself, and only then I can transport my reader." Brinda Charry's novel, The East Indian, transports readers to Colonial Virgini...
John Wray on GONE TO THE WOLVES
06 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"It's more than responsibility. It's fear of just sucking — I don't want to write some garbage that people are going to dismiss." John Wray's new no...
Abraham Verghese on THE COVENANT OF WATER
04 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I loved that sense of the slow evolution of a community and watching it happen under your eyes." Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone, retur...
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah on CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS
02 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"…A big part of the journey with this book is realizing that people's humanity shouldn't be negotiable." Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's debut novel C...
Double Shot: Christina Sharpe and Ava Chin
29 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
These riveting works of nonfiction by two incredible women have powerful narratives on family, race, and the way we get to tell our stories. Ordinary ...
David Grann on THE WAGER: A TALE OF SHIPWRECK, MUTINY AND MURDER
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"We all shape our stories in some way, we all try to emerge as the hero of them…" Author of Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann, takes on muti...
Dennis Lehane on SMALL MERCIES
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dennis Lehane, prolific author for both the page and the screen, returns with Small Mercies, a thriller set against the time of desegregation of publ...
Maggie Smith on YOU COULD MAKE THIS PLACE BEAUTIFUL
22 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I leave that book feeling less alone, because I've been welcomed into somebody else's humanity, and I feel like they've shared part of themselves wit...
Victor LaValle on LONE WOMEN
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"All of them, in my mind… were wrestling with the same question, which is — what do I do with either the burden of family or what do I do with the...
Nick Medina on SISTERS OF THE LOST NATION
18 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"You get to learn a bit about the social issue of Native women and girls going missing and that's really what I hope a lot of people will take away fr...
Curtis Sittenfeld on ROMANTIC COMEDY
13 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I can even still have my festively neurotic characters, but they can be working their way toward a happy ending, instead of working their way towards...
Charles Frazier on THE TRACKERS
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I never start a book out with ideas. I always start a book out with people in places, and what could happen here." Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mo...
Nicole Chung on A LIVING REMEDY
08 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"It was going to be a story about American instability, and precarity, and what happens when we aren't able to access the things that we need — and ...
Gina Chung on SEA CHANGE
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Loneliness is such a universal experience for so many of us — and I do hope that the book is a balm for that and helps make readers feel less alone...
Jeannette Walls on HANG THE MOON
04 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"We all want the same thing; we want respect and security and to be loved — and that's what storytelling does, it connects the similarities that we ...
Jacqueline Holland on THE GOD OF ENDINGS
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I live on art. I'm an art vampire, that's how I sustain myself." Jacqueline Holland's debut novel The God of Endings weaves together themes of mot...
Rachel Heng on THE GREAT RECLAMATION
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"As a kid, you don't know any of that. You're just like, wow, this sounds magical, like, how could this be the sea? How could this be land? How can th...
Katherine May on ENCHANTMENT: AWAKENING WONDER IN AN ANXIOUS AGE
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I'm so interested in the moment when the reader takes over … I wanted it to be a book that feels like I'm walking alongside the reader, learning as...
Matthew Desmond on POVERTY, BY AMERICA
21 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Look at all the advances we've made in the last 50 years, look at the way that culture and medicine and technology and science have advanced since th...
Poured Over Double Shot: Claire Jiménez and Elaine Hsieh Chou
18 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Who gets to tell our stories? Two debut authors use their powerful voices to show strong female characters navigating family, race and colonialism wit...
Poured Over Double Shot: Alice Winn and Madelaine Lucas
16 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From the trenches of WWI to the coast of Australia, these two debut novels depict the ubiquity of coming of age, even when the circumstances are drast...
Poured Over Double Shot: Jenny Jackson and Ann Napolitano
14 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Family dynamics, for better or worse, are front and center in these two novels from two striking voices in fiction. Jenny Jackson's debut, Pineapple ...
Jenny Odell on SAVING TIME: DISCOVERING A LIFE BEYOND THE CLOCK
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I'm also trying to make use of how innate I think curiosity is for people, because curiosity is kind of a way towards hope… it's in that direction....
Eleanor Catton on BIRNAM WOOD
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I'm interested in how deceptions can make you feel more of yourself or can unlock something in you that you didn't know you had." Eleanor Catton, Boo...
Will Schwalbe on WE SHOULD NOT BE FRIENDS: THE STORY OF A FRIENDSHIP
04 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"How do you spot a 'we should not be friends' friendship? It's when someone shows you who they are, and you like it." Will Schwalbe, author of The End...
Eloghosa Osunde on VAGABONDS!
02 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Each time I wrote a story that belonged in this book… It held some pain. It held some love. It held some hope, some longing..." Eloghosa Osunde's...
Samantha Shannon on A DAY OF FALLEN NIGHT
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I feel like we're in a real golden age of fantasy that's exploring diversity from lots of different perspectives, and telling lots of stories that ne...
Asale Angel-Ajani on A COUNTRY YOU CAN LEAVE
25 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"When you've been disappointed for that long in your life — what kind of people are you? What do you become?" A Country You Can Leave, the debut no...
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ on A SPELL OF GOOD THINGS
23 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I'm one of those writers that … I think I know the story I want to write when I'm going in with a novel … but by the time I get into the middle o...
Rebecca Makkai on I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU
21 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"It's a literary, feminist, boarding school murder mystery — everyone's favorite genre." I Have Some Questions for You is the thrilling and inven...
Kevin Jared Hosein on HUNGRY GHOSTS
16 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"No one in this cast believes that they have a home — they have houses, but they don't have homes. They were born into this country, they were born ...
Isabel Wilkerson on CASTE: THE ORIGINS OF OUR DISCONTENTS
14 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I wouldn't have written the book if I were not hopeful. I mean, the act of writing this book was a prayer for our country — it's making the case...
Rachel Joyce on MAUREEN: A HAROLD FRY NOVEL
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Maureen's journey is about going to the dark — and when you go right into the dark, you then find the light and the kind of renewal — and of all ...
Stephen Graham Jones on DON'T FEAR THE REAPER
07 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"For us, horror stories are a long, dark, scary tunnel. You hear sounds you don't want to hear; you see things that are going to stick in your head. B...
Jessica George on MAAME
02 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"That was only three years ago, where I read a protagonist I could relate to on a deeper level, for the first time. Subconsciously, it gave me the ide...
Poured Over Double Shot: Matthew Salesses and Kashana Cauley
31 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
These two novels explore the gulf between expectation and reality, ambition and opportunity, and what happens when life veers off from your carefully ...
Paul Harding on THIS OTHER EDEN
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I love finishing reading a book and thinking, I feel privileged to have read that, I feel dignified. I feel like that book sort of thought of me as s...
Aleksandar Hemon on THE WORLD AND ALL THAT IT HOLDS
24 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"At any given time, there's a choir of ideas and nagging voices in my head — chatter that I had to contend with I guess — in the end it ends up wi...
Poured Over Double Shot: Colm Tóibín and Tom Crewe
21 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This Double Shot episode features two authors, one familiar and one who soon will be, each tackling similar themes. Through fiction and essays these a...
Grady Hendrix on HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE
19 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I wanted to spend time with a family and haunted house books are always about families." Grady Hendrix's bone-chilling novels The Final Girl Support ...
Poured Over Double Shot: Monica Heisey and Laura Zigman
17 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Two witty novels, two funny women, and two engaging interviews await you in this Double Shot episode of Poured Over. This pair of authors and their st...
Margo Price on STRAYS
14 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"That's one of those epiphanies - I realized if I wanted to be taken seriously, I needed representation. And who better than to do it than a man who d...
Oindrila Mukherjee on THE DREAM BUILDERS
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I remember being in an English class in high school (12th grade actually). We were reading The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, and I announced ...
Leigh Bardugo on HELL BENT
10 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"And I always tend to start a book with a very popcorn sensibility, like, oh, well, this'll be fun, we're gonna have a little romp. And then to tell ...
Deepti Kapoor on AGE OF VICE
05 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"But now, with the rise of new money, it's like there's this moment in India, when new money was eclipsing old money. And that's the moment that I bas...
Poured Over Double Shot: Tracey Rose Peyton and Parini Shroff
03 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our January Discover and B&N Book Club picks have lots in common: both are debut novels with indelible characters and an unforgettable story, both a...
Poured Over: All the Pretty Books and Beautiful Things
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We're closing out 2022 with something new: A Poured Over Double Shot with host Miwa Messer. Cormac McCarthy doesn't really do interviews — If you...
Maggie O'Farrell on THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"They have traveled for most of the day using what little daylight the season offers leaving Ferrara Dawn and riding out to what he had told her was a...
Alison L. Strayer and Dan Simon on Nobel Laureate Annie Ernaux
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"It is an amazing, amazing translation experience….But it took a long time to get to the point where the language started moving because you have to...
Jane Smiley on A DANGEROUS BUSINESS
06 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"One of my favorite places to take a little walk around is the public cemetery, which is on a little hill that overlooks the bay. And you know, if you...
Lauren Graham on HAVE I TOLD YOU THIS ALREADY?: STORIES I DON'T WANT TO FORGET TO REMEMBER
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"Storytelling can just be you understanding yourself, but it turns into something else when it's a shared piece — so much of anything in life is pra...
Nick Hornby on DICKENS AND PRINCE: A PARTICULAR KIND OF GENIUS
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"I loved it more than everybody. And afterwards, I thought for the first time, whatever I do, I've got to get as close to that as I can. Not the nois...
Matthew Quick on WE ARE THE LIGHT
26 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"I grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood. And you know, nobody was expected to be a novelist — that was not a thing, that was not a choice in my nei...
Adam Hochschild on AMERICAN MIDNIGHT: THE GREAT WAR, A VIOLENT PEACE, AND DEMOCRACY'S FORGOTTEN CRISIS
24 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"One of the ways you can get into my cast of characters is by leaving a very detailed written record. Because that's what we historians have to work f...
Erika T. Wurth on WHITE HORSE
22 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"When I was a kid, I was super, super geeky, it was so nerdy. And all I read was dragon books, or ghost books, or elf books…someone tried to give me...
Sue Lynn Tan on HEART OF THE SUN WARRIOR
19 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"They're rooted in our culture as well. And because of all that, I think they feel a little bit more real, even though they are fantastical magical re...
Jerry Saltz on ART IS LIFE
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"We are writing our stories to the world, as opposed to just reading the old stories. And somehow, some way accidentally, intentionally, desperately o...
Patti Smith on A BOOK OF DAYS
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"I'm really driven by poetry. I'm really driven by language. But also, I'm driven by a desire to connect with the people. So I could have been a teach...
Kevin Wilson on NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PANIC
12 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"It's hard to be funny, you can't really plan on — you don't know what will land with people…. absurdity just exists constantly in the world that ...