Poured Over

Poured Over Double Shot: Bryan Washington and Curtis Chin

14 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Family Meal by Bryan Washington features the importance of food, friends and connection with a cast of characters working through the transitions in ...

Jean Kwok on THE LEFTOVER WOMAN

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"I want people to read it with joy, just for the story. But I do hope that they'll pick up something else along the way about … deeper things." The...

Justin Torres on BLACKOUTS

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"I wanted it to feel like stepping off the world..." Blackouts by Justin Torres explores love, loss and the stories we leave behind with inventive an...

Pauls Toutonghi on THE REFUGEE OCEAN

07 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our October Discover Pick is The Refugee Ocean by Pauls Toutonghi, featuring musical prose and interwoven stories that cross generations and countrie...

Safiya Sinclair on HOW TO SAY BABYLON

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Language doesn't just exist on the page … It's about how you embody it."  How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair is a poetic memoir about growing ...

Poured Over Double Shot: Jonathan Lethem and Benjamín Labatut

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Lethem's Brooklyn Crime Novel brings readers to New York in the 70s and the cast of characters it contains. Lethem joins us to talk about cr...

V.E. Schwab on THE FRAGILE THREADS OF POWER

30 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"My biggest goal was to convert people who said they don't like fantasy." V.E. Schwab's Shades of Magic series has enchanted us with wit, wonder and a...

Ayana Mathis on THE UNSETTLED

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Unsettled by Ayana Mathis follows a family through generations from small town Alabama to Philadelphia in the 80s as they struggle, succeed and l...

C Pam Zhang on LAND OF MILK AND HONEY

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"It really illuminates these questions of privilege and pleasure, and what kind of joy we can look forward to in the human experience as things contin...

Lauren Groff on THE VASTER WILDS

23 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"This book is the most personal because it is what I feel about the world itself." The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff is a beautiful and propulsive sur...

Poured Over Double Shot: Daniel Mason and Paul Murray

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Mason's North Woods follows one house in the woods of New England as it passes through families (with inhabitants both human and not) and endu...

Poured Over Double Shot: Nathan Hill and Ben Fountain

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Wellness by Nathan Hill follows a marriage over decades through a variety of successes, challenges and surprises. Hill joins us to talk about how lon...

Andrew Leland on THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND

16 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"I feel like I could actually follow you through this journey and come out of it changed rather than abused by my ignorance."  The Country of the ...

Poured Over Double Shot: Claudia Dey and Sheena Patel

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Claudia Dey's novel Daughter is a stark and beautiful portrait of the complicated dynamic between a young artist and her father. Dey joins us to talk...

Mona Awad on ROUGE

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"… this was a book about beauty, and I wanted it to be very honest."  In Mona Awad's Rouge, gothic family-drama meets fairy tale (with a hint of h...

Emma Donoghue on LEARNED BY HEART

09 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"My specialty is digging up obscure stories where there are just enough facts to really stimulate the imagination."  Emma Donoghue's newest novel, L...

Maria Bamford on SURE, I'LL JOIN YOUR CULT: A MEMOIR OF MENTAL ILLNESS AND THE QUEST TO BELONG ANYWHERE

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Maria Bamford's hilarious memoir Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and a Quest to Belong Anywhere blends the honesty and compassi...

Zadie Smith on THE FRAUD

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"There's no higher version of historical fiction to me than that, the feeling of being transported." Zadie Smith's The Fraud brings all the excitemen...

Joanna Moorhead on SURREAL SPACES: THE LIFE AND ART OF LEONORA CARRINGTON

02 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"I think that she would have given — to anyone who had been lucky enough to spend time with her — was just this thirst for curiosity."  Surreal ...

Isabel Cañas on VAMPIRES OF EL NORTE

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"I've been asked, why do you blend genres so much? And the simple answer is that it's what I want to read." Horror meets romance meets historical fict...

Poured Over Double Shot: Angie Kim and John Manuel Arias

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Angie Kim's Happiness Falls is a family drama with an unconventional cast of characters centered around a missing persons case. Kim joins us to talk ...

Alice Carrière on EVERYTHING/NOTHING/SOMEONE

26 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"I wrote this very simply to stay alive."  Alice Carrière's beautiful and intense memoir of her unconventional childhood, her mental health journ...

Jill Lepore on THE DEADLINE

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Having that store of memories that history can be, if done well, is a really tremendous form of solace." Jill Lepore, historian and author of These T...

Prachi Gupta on THEY CALLED US EXCEPTIONAL: AND OTHER LIES THAT RAISED US

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"My book is really an attempt to change that conversation and begin to dismantle some of these pressures so that we don't have to be upheld to these s...

Adrian McKinty on THE DETECTIVE UP LATE

19 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Detective Up Late is the newest installment in the Sean Duffy series by Adrian McKinty following a detective solving his final case in Northern I...

Kai Bird on AMERICAN PROMETHEUS: THE TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY OF J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Dr. Oppenheimer, Dr. Oppenheimer. I've been waiting decades to meet you!" The inspiration for the new movie Oppenheimer, Kai Bird's incredible biogra...

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 ...