Joe Donahue

John Irving has long been one of America’s most distinctive and beloved novelists. With his new novel, “Queen Esther,” Irving once again returns to the questions that have animated his career: What shapes a life? How do we carry the burdens of the past? And how does love anchor us through the most unpredictable turns?

This week's Book Picks comes from Connie Brooks and Suzanne Kulick from Battenkill Books in Cambridge, NY.

Greg Cope White’s memoir “The Pink Marine” is the inspiration for Netflix breakout hit “Boots.” “Boots” tells the story of an 18-year-old closeted gay teenager who enlists in the Marines with his straight best friend. Greg is not only the real-life inspiration he’s also one of the show’s writers and co-executive producer.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Chief of Staff and Vice President for Strategy and Policy at Bard College Malia DuMont, Acting Department Head of Cognitive Science, Tetherless World Senior Constellation Professor of Computer, Web and Cognitive Science Jim Hendler, and The Empire Report’s JP Miller.

In the new book “Selected Letters of John Updike” editor James Schiff offers readers a window into that private world drawing from decades of correspondence. Schiff presents a portrait of Updike is both craftsman and confidante, generous, witty, and endlessly reflective about writing and life.

Back for its 37th year, the Fall Festival of Shakespeare includes nearly 500 students from 10 schools in Massachusetts and New York, supported by a cadre of 20 Shakespeare & Company directors, six costume designers, and five production designers.Also, Shakespeare & Company’s family-friendly Winter Show returns December 12 – 14th with Sense and Sensibility: a fast-paced, staged reading wherein the wit and romance of Jane Austen’s classic tale come to life.

The newly released book "Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses" uses the history of the 26th Amendment and the ongoing fight to promote and defend youth voting rights as a prism through which to teach the history of the struggle for the fundamental right to vote in the United States.Jonathan Becker is Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Politics at Bard College where he is also the Director of the Center for Civic Engagement. He has published extensively on student voting rights.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Bard College Vice Chancellor of Global Higher Education Alliance for the XXIst Century, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director of the Center for Civic Engagement Jonathan Becker, UAlbany Lecturer in Africana Studies Jennifer Burns, and Senior Fellow, Bard Center for Civic Engagement Jim Ketterer.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon is considered “the most significant English-language poet born since the second World War.”His most recent book, “Scanty Plot of Ground: A Book of Sonnets,” is a new anthology of beloved classics, hidden treasures and standout contemporary examples of this ever-vital and enthralling verse form. His latest poetry collection, “Joy in Service on Rue Tagore,” is now out in paperback.

Susan Orlean's latest, “Joyride,” is a memoir of finding her creative calling and purpose that invites to approach life with wonder, curiosity, and an irrepressible sense of delight. She will be in conversation with Joe Donahue at Skidmore College on 11/17 in an event presented by Northshire Bookstore and WAMC on the Road.