The Avid Reader Show

Episode 598: My Year Abroad. Chang-Rae Lee

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Tiller is an average American college student with a good heart but minimal aspirations. Pong Lou is a larger-than-life, wildly creative Chinese Ameri...

Episode 597: 1Q1A. My Year Abroad Chang-Rae Lee

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Tiller is an average American college student with a good heart but minimal aspirations. Pong Lou is a larger-than-life, wildly creative Chinese Ameri...

Episode 595: Luckenbooth. Jenni Fagan

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Luckenbooth, her third novel, about an Edinburgh tenement and the curse that haunts it, infecting the lives of all who live across the building's nine...

Episode 594: 1Q1A Luckenbooth. Jenni Fagan

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Luckenbooth, Jenni's third novel, about an Edinburgh tenement and the curse that haunts it, infects the lives of all who live across the building's ni...

Episode 593: Hurdy Gurdy. Christopher Wilson

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It is the year of our Lord 1349 and it is the season of the Plague.Novice friar Brother Diggory, now sixteen, has lived in the Monastery of the Order ...

Episode 592: 1Q1A. Hurdy Gurdy Christopher Wilson

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It is the year of our Lord 1349 and it is the season of the Plague.Novice friar Brother Diggory, now sixteen, has lived in the Monastery of the Order ...

Episode 591: The Love Proof Madeleine Henry

05 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sophie Jones is a physics prodigy on track to unlock the secrets of the universe. But when she meets Jake Kristopher during their first week at Yale t...

Episode 590: 1Q1A The Love Proof Madeleine Henry

05 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sophie Jones is a physics prodigy on track to unlock the secrets of the universe. But when she meets Jake Kristopher during their first week at Yale t...

Episode 589: Math Without Numbers

27 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The only numbers in this book are the page numbers.Math Without Numbers is a vivid, conversational, and wholly original guide to the three main branch...

Episode 588: 1Q1A Math Without Numbers. Milo Beckman

27 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The only numbers in this book are the page numbers.Math Without Numbers is a vivid, conversational, and wholly original guide to the three main branch...

Episode 587: The Ancient Hours Michael Bible

26 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Harmony, North Carolina is a typical town—full of saints and sinners you can’t tell apart... Its history echoes with lynchings and shootings; mob ...

Episode 586: Metazoa Peter Godfrey-Smith

12 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dip below the ocean’s surface and you are soon confronted by forms of life that could not seem more foreign to our own: sea sponges, soft corals, an...

Episode 585: In The Land Of The Cyclops. Karl Ove Knausgaard

04 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the Land of the Cyclops is Karl Ove Knausgaard's first collection of essays to be published in English. In these wide-ranging pieces, Knausgaard re...

Episode 584: 1Q1A. The Land Of The Cyclops. Karl Ove Knausgaard

04 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the Land of the Cyclops is Karl Ove Knausgaard's first collection of essays to be published in English. In these wide-ranging pieces, Knausgaard re...

Episode 583: Prisoners Of History Keith Lowe

31 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Humankind has always had the urge to memorialise, to make physical testaments to the past. There’s just one problem: when we carve a statue or put u...

Episode 582: Prisoners Of History Keith Lowe

31 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Humankind has always had the urge to memorialise, to make physical testaments to the past. There’s just one problem: when we carve a statue or put u...

Episode 581: Perestroika in Paris Jane Smiley

31 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animals--and a young boy-...

Episode 580: 1Q1A Perestroika in Paris Jane Smiley

31 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animals--and a young boy-...

Episode 579: Interior Chinatown Charles Yu

31 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental ...

Episode 579: 1Q1A Interior Chinatown Charles Yu

31 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental ...

Episode 578: Wild Thing Philip Norman

31 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A shattering new biography of rock music’s most outrageous―and tragic―genius.Over fifty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) is cel...

Episode 577: 1Q1A Wild Thing Philip Norman

31 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A shattering new biography of rock music’s most outrageous―and tragic―genius.Over fifty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) is cel...

Episode 576: Nights When Nothing Happened Simon Han

08 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From the outside, the Chengs seem like so-called model immigrants. Once Patty landed a tech job near Dallas, she and Liang grew secure enough to have ...

Episode 575: 1Q1A. Nights When Nothing Happened. Simon Han

08 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From the outside, the Chengs seem like so-called model immigrants. Once Patty landed a tech job near Dallas, she and Liang grew secure enough to have ...

The Orchard David Hopen

19 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ari Eden’s life has always been governed by strict rules. In ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn, his days are dedicated to intense study and religious rituals,...

Seven And a 1/2 Lessons About The Brain Lisa Feldman Barrett

19 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever wondered why you have a brain? Let renowned neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett demystify that big gray blob between your ears. In seven...

Money: The True Story Of A Made Up Thing. Jacob Goldstein

11 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The co-host of the popular NPR podcast Planet Money provides a well-researched, entertaining, somewhat irreverent look at how money is a made-up thing...

The Sun Collective. Charles Baxter

11 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Once a promising actor, Tim Brettigan has gone missing. His father thinks he may have seen him among some homeless people. And though she knows he lef...

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue V.E. Schwab

05 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever—and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets...

We Keep The Dead Close Becky Cooper

28 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

1969: the height of counterculture and the year universities would seek to curb the unruly spectacle of student protest; the winter that Harvard Unive...

A Golden Fury Samantha Cohoe

28 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone―...

What's Left of Me Is Yours. Stephanie Scott

22 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Japan, a covert industry has grown up around the "wakaresaseya" (literally "breaker-upper"), a person hired by one spouse to seduce the other in or...

Footprints: In search of future fossils

22 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What will the world look like in ten thousand years―or ten million? What kinds of stories will be told about us?In Footprints: In Search of Future F...

A World Beneath The Sands Toby Wilkinson

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From the decipherment of hieroglyphics in 1822 to the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon a hundred years later, the...

White Ivy Susie Yang

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ivy Lin is a thief and a liar—but you’d never know it by looking at her.Raised outside of Boston, Ivy’s immigrant grandmother relies on Ivy’s ...

The Memory Monster. Yishai Sarid

07 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Written as a report to the chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, our unnamed narrator recounts his own undoing....

Bestiary. K-Ming Chang

07 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

One evening, Mother tells Daughter a story about a tiger spirit who lived in a woman’s body. She was called Hu Gu Po, and she hungered to eat childr...

Missionaries. Phil Klay

07 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A group of Colombian soldiers prepares to raid a drug lord's safe house on the Venezuelan border. They're watching him with an American-made drone, ab...

Monogamy Sue Miller

24 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Graham and Annie have been married for nearly thirty years. A golden couple, their seemingly effortless devotion has long been the envy of their circl...

Leave It As It Is David Gessner

24 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

“Leave it as it is,” Theodore Roosevelt announced while viewing the Grand Canyon for the first time. “The ages have been at work on it and man c...

Set My Heart To Five Simon Stephenson

24 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Set in a 2054 where humans have locked themselves out of the internet and Elon Musk has incinerated the moon, Set My Heart to Five is the hilarious ye...

The Motion Of The Body Through Space Lionel Shriver

24 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

After an ignominious early retirement, Remington announces to his wife Serenata that he’s decided to run a marathon. This from a sedentary man in hi...

Private Means Cree LeFavour

09 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A deliciously compulsive first novel from New York Times Editor’s Choice author of Lights On, Rats Out, Cree LeFavour’s Private Means captures the...

The Innovation Delusion

09 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It’s hard to avoid innovation these days. Nearly every product gets marketed as being disruptive, whether it’s genuinely a new invention or just a...

Can't Even HelenAnn Petersen

09 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Do you feel like your life is an endless to-do list? Do you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through Instagram because you’re too exhausted to pic...

How To Astronaut. Terry Virts

25 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ride shotgun on a trip to space with astronaut Terry Virts. A born stroyteller with a gift for the surprising turn of phrase and eye for the perfect y...

Our Lady Of Perpetual Hunger. Lisa Donovan

25 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Renowned southern pastry chef Lisa Donovan's memoir of cooking, survival, and the incredible power in reclaiming the stories of womenNoted chef and Ja...

The Exiles Christina Baker Kline

25 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train returns with an ambitious, emotionally resonant novel that captures the hardship, oppressi...

The Lions Of Fifth Avenue. Fiona Davis

05 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It's 1913, and on the surface, Laura Lyons couldn't ask for more out of life—her husband is the superintendent of the New York Public Library, allow...

Want Lynn Steger Strong

30 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth is tired. Years after coming to New York to try to build a life, she has found herself with two kids, a husband, two jobs, a PhD—and now t...

Bronte's Mistress Finola Austin

30 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This dazzling debut novel for fans of Mrs. Poe and Longbourn explores the scandalous historical love affair between Branwell Brontë and Lydia Robinso...

Migrations Charlotte McConaghy

22 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Young adult novelist McConaghy (the Chronicles of Kaya series) makes her adult debut with the clunky chronicle of Franny Stone, a troubled woman who f...

Oona Out Of Order Margarita Montimore

15 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead pr...

How Much Of These Hills Is Gold C. Pam Zhang

15 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ba dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existenc...

How To Pronounce Knife Souvankham Thammavongsa

15 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A New York Times Editors' Choice, this revelatory debut story collection from O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa honors characters struggli...

Breath James Nestor

15 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly.There is not...

The Oppenheimer Alternative Robert Sawyer

15 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Writing with “a sense of wonder that hasn’t prevailed since the days of Heinlein” (Books in Canada), best-novel Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Rob...

Tyll Daniel Kehlmann

08 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From the internationally best-selling author of You Should Have Left, Measuring the World, and F, a transfixing retelling of the German myth of Tyll U...

The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes

08 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for ...

The Oppenheimer Alternative Robert Sawyer

08 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Writing with “a sense of wonder that hasn’t prevailed since the days of Heinlein” (Books in Canada), best-novel Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Rob...

How Much Of These Hills Is Gold C. Pam Zhang

20 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

An electric debut novel set against the twilight of the American gold rush, two siblings are on the run in an unforgiving landscape—trying not just ...

How To Pronounce Knife Souvankham Thammavongsa

20 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Named one of The New York Times' "7 New Books to Watch Out for in April," this revelatory debut story collection from O. Henry Award winner Souvankham...

Red Dress In Black And White. Elliot Ackerman

20 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From the widely acclaimed author of Waiting for Eden: a stirring, timely new novel that unfolds over the course of a single day in Istanbul: the story...

Oona Out Of Order. Margarita Montimore

02 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in the moment, even if those moments are out of order.It’s New Year’...

Galileo's Error Philip Goff

02 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Philip Goff, whose latest book, his second, is Galileos...

The Book Of Longings. Sue Monk Kidd

21 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by O, the Oprah Magazine, Good Morning America/ABC-TV, Good Housekeeping, Bustle, TIME, Marie Claire and The Mil...

American Harvest Marie Mutsuki Mockett

17 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

An epic story of the American wheat harvest, the politics of food, and the culture of the Great PlainsFor over one hundred years, the Mockett family h...

Wine Girl Victoria James

17 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

An affecting memoir from the country’s youngest sommelier, tracing her path through the glamorous but famously toxic restaurant world At just twenty...

What It's Like To Be A Bird David Sibley

17 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The bird book for birders and nonbirders alike that will excite and inspire by providing a new and deeper understanding of what common, mostly backyar...

Dark Towers David Enrich

01 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

"In Dark Towers, David Enrich tells the story of how one of the world's mightiest banks careened off the rails, threatening everything from our financ...

The Case Against Reality Donald Hoffman

01 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Challenging leading scientific theories that claim that our senses report back objective reality, cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman argues that while...

Followers Megan Angelo

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Megan Angelo, author of Followers, her first novel.Mega...

1Q1A Followers Megan Angelo

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Megan Angelo, author of Followers, her first novel.Mega...

Night Theater Vikram Paralkar

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Vikram Paralkar author of Night Theater, his second nov...

1Q1A Night Theater Vikram Paralkar

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Vikram Paralkar author of Night Theater, his second nov...

The Body Double Emily Beyda

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Emily Beyda, author of this, her first novel The Body D...

1Q1A The Body Double Emily Beyda

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Emily Beyda, author of this, her first novel The Body D...

Writers and Lovers Lily King

26 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Lily King (which is a lovely name) author of Writers &a...

1Q1A Writers and Lovers Lily King

26 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Lily King (which is a lovely name) author of Writers &a...

American Sherlock Kate Winkler Dawson

26 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Kate Winkler Dawson author of American Sherlock: Murder...

1Q1A American Sherlock Kate Winkler Dawson

26 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Kate Winkler Dawson author of American Sherlock: Murder...

The Revisioners Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

17 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader.Today our guest is Margaret Wilkerson Sexton author of this, her second nove...

1Q1A The Revisioners Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

17 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader.Today our guest is Margaret Wilkerson Sexton author of this, her second nove...

Run Me To Earth

17 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Paul Soon author of Run Me To Earth, published this mon...

1Q1A Run Me To Earth Paul Moon

17 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Paul Soon author of Run Me To Earth, published this mon...

Moving Forward Karine Jean-Pierre

03 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Karine Jean-Pierre, author of this her first book, a me...

1Q1A Moving Forward Karine Jean-Pierre

03 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Karine Jean-Pierre, author of this her first book, a me...

Wild Life Keena Roberts

02 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Keena Roberts. Her new memoir is Wild Life: Dispatches from a C...

Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen Dexter Palmer

02 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Dexter Palmer, author of Mary Toft or The Rabbit Queen....

1Q1A Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen Dexter Palmer

02 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Dexter Palmer, author of Mary Toft or The Rabbit Queen....

Such A Fun Age Kiley Reid

02 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Kiley Reid, author of her debut novel Such A Fun Age, j...

1Q1A Such A Fun Age

02 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Kiley Reid, author of her debut novel Such A Fun Age, j...

Long Bright River Liz Moore

02 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is our old friend Liz Moore whose fourth novel Long Bright...

1Q1A Long Bright River Liz Moore

02 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is our old friend Liz Moore whose fourth novel Long Bright...

Rethinking Consciousness Michael Graziano

02 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Michael Graziano, author of Rethinking Consciousness: A...

1Q1A Rethinking Consciousness Michael Graziano

02 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Michael Graziano, author of Rethinking Consciousness: A...

Beverly Right Here

16 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Kate DiCamillo, author of her latest, Beverly Right Her...

1Q1A Beverly right Here Kate DiCamillo

16 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Kate DiCamillo, author of her latest, Beverly Right Her...

The Education of Brett Kavanaugh Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly

16 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader.Today our guests are Robin POGrebin and Kate Kelly, authors of The Education...

1Q1A The Education of Brett Kavanaugh Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly

16 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader.Today our guests are Robin POGrebin and Kate Kelly, authors of The Education...