KCRW's Bookworm
A must for the serious reader, "Bookworm" showcases writers of fiction and poetry - the established, new or emerging - all interviewed with insight and precision by the show's host and guiding spirit, Michael Silverblatt.
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David Shields
The thing about life is that one day you’ll be dead (Knopf)David Shields wrote this book to relieve his terrible fear of death. He compares this fear with his ninety-something-year-old father's vigor and confidence. Although the book is full of facts about aging and death, it has the odd effect of m …
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Jim Krusoe
Girl Factory (Tin House)In Jim Krusoe's strange and funny new novel, six women are being preserved in acidophilus in the basement of a frozen yogurt shop. The innocent hero's attempts to save these kidnapped beauties are disastrous.
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Peter Carey
His Illegal Self (Knopf)The excitement of Peter Carey's new novel is rendered through a specific stylistic choice: He integrates two wildly different voices into the sentences, creating a vibrant stereo-effect. The result is amazing--the novel's action seems to be taking place about six inches f …
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Ariana Reines
Coeur de Lion (Mal-o-mar); The Cow (Fence Books) This astonishing young poet???still in her twenties???is surely destined to be one of the crucial voices of her generation.
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Colm Toibin
Mothers and Sons: Stories (Scribner) Colm T??ib??n candidly describes the inspirations for the stories in his first collection. Sometimes a landscape is enough to trigger a story, sometimes an anecdote or a bit of family lore.
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Anne Enright
The Gathering (Grove) In Anne Enright's Booker Prize-winning novel about a family wake, the narrator remembers, lies, invents and imagines with equal ardor.
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Arnon Grunberg
The Jewish Messiah (Penguin) Unsettling, profane and goofy, Arnon Grunberg takes politically incorrect risks with contemporary Jewish culture.
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William T. Vollman
Riding Toward Everywhere (Ecco)William Vollman decided to spend as much time as possible viewing the stars from the flatbed of a moving train. He???s a not a hobo, and he movingly describes his need to find freedom by hopping a train???without any destination in mind.
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David Rieff
Swimming in a Sea of Death: A Son's Memoir (Simon & Schuster)David Rieff accompanied his mother, Susan Sontag, through the medical ordeals that led to her death. We explore the death of this great writer, a woman who resisted consolation and maintained???to her last days???an enormous appetite f …
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Geraldine Brooks
People of the Book (Viking)The art of detection unravels the secrets of the Sarajevo Haggadah. What does the miraculous survival of this medieval codex tell us about the survival of both culture and history?
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Lewis Hyde
The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World (Vintage)How does the creative person function in a market culture? In the 25 years since The Gift was first published, this question has become increasingly more difficult to answer.
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Eileen Myles and Maggie Nelson
Sorry, Tree (Wave Books) and Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press) and Women, The New York School, and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa Press) Critic David Lehman has called the New York School of Poetry "the Last Avant Garde." Poet and critic Maggie Nelson suggests it might b …
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Robert Hass
Time and Materials: Poems 1997???2005 (Ecco) If it can still be said that a poet can have a humanizing influence on his culture, Robert Hass is such a poet. Here, as we discuss the poems in his National Book Award-winning collection, the beautiful, moving humanity of Hass' voice emerges, making us …
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Ariana Reines
Coeur de Lion (Mal-o-mar); The Cow (Fence Books) This astonishing young poet---still in her twenties---is surely destined to be one of the crucial voices of her generation.
-
Colm Toibin
Mothers and Sons: Stories (Scribner) Colm T--ib--n candidly describes the inspirations for the stories in his first collection. Sometimes a landscape is enough to trigger a story, sometimes an anecdote or a bit of family lore.
-
Anne Enright
The Gathering (Grove) In Anne Enright's Booker Prize-winning novel about a family wake, the narrator remembers, lies, invents and imagines with equal ardor.
-
Arnon Grunberg
The Jewish Messiah (Penguin) Unsettling, profane and goofy, Arnon Grunberg---s novel takes politically incorrect risks with contemporary Jewish culture.
-
William T. Vollman
Riding Toward Everywhere (Ecco)William Vollman decided to spend as much time as possible viewing the stars from the flatbed of a moving train. He---s a ---fauxbo--- not a hobo, and he movingly describes his need to find freedom by hopping a train---without any destination in mind.
-
David Rieff
Swimming in a Sea of Death: A Son's Memoir (Simon & Schuster)David Rieff accompanied his mother, Susan Sontag, through the medical ordeals that led to her death. We explore the death of this great writer, a woman who resisted consolation and maintained---to her last days---an enormous appetite f …
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Geraldine Brooks
People of the Book (Viking)The art of detection unravels the secrets of the Sarajevo Haggadah. What does the miraculous survival of this medieval codex tell us about the survival of both culture and history.
KCRW's Bookworm
