The Book Show on WAMC

Albany, NY – Host Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina talks with author Matt Haig about his new novel "The Dead Fathers Club," a new twist on Shakespeare's "Hamlet". Haig talks about his life as a writer and how he developed the characters and themes in his latest novel. Haig creatively reanimates themes from Hamlet with an 11-year old British protagonist who is commissioned to avenge his father's murder.

Albany, NY – This week on The Book Show, biographer extraordinaire Claire Tomalin talks about her new book, "Thomas Hardy," a life of the author of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" and "Return of the Native. Tomalin tells us what she learned about Thomas Hardy's life, his childhood, his relationship with his parents, his marriage and most importantly his writing.

Albany, NY – This week on The Book Show, Gretchen talks with scholar and poet William W. Cook. It's a discussion about the book Harlem Speaks: A Living History of the Harlem Renaissance and features selections from the accompanying CD. Cook talks about the Harlem Renaissance, what it was, where it came from and why it was important

Albany, NY – This week, Gretchen talks with National Geographic photographer Michael Nichols about the book "The Last Place on Earth." The book includes photographs taken by Nichols which document the wildlife living in one of the last uncharted African forests. Nichols describes how he used infrared camera traps, tree stands, and ingenuity to capture photographs of wild creatures, never before seen. The project led to the creation of 13 national parks, established to protect the wildlife documented by Nichols and environmentalist Michael Fay.

Albany, NY – This week, Gretchen talks with author Barbara Ehrenreich about her new book Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy, which explores ancient and more modern expressions of collective joy. Ehrenreich's book looks at the way we are innately social beings, impelled almost instinctively to share our joy.

Albany, NY – Tolstoy wrote that all happy families were alike, and only unhappy families differed. Rachel Kadish takes on this saying in her novel "Tolstoy Lied," which focuses on a 33 year old assistant professor, happily single and up for tenure, who's life gets derailed by a proposal of marriage.

Albany, NY – This week, Gretchen talks with author Deborah Cohen about her book "Household Gods: The British and their Possessions". The book chronicles one hundred years of British interiors and looks at the way the British developed their mania for interiors, furniture, and decoration. Cohen talks about the role of morality and religion in the way people think about their homes and their possessions, explores the current state of consumerism in America, and much more.

Albany, NY – This week, Gretchen's guest is novelist Sigrid Nunez, whose new novel "The Last of Her Kind" uses the story of two college roommates from the late 1960s to trace a path through that turbulent period in American history. One friend, raised in an affluent Connecticut family, becomes radically politicized and ends up serving a prison term for murdering a police officer, while the other friend, from a poor upstate New York town, narrates the tale of their freindship.

Albany, NY – On this weeks show, Gretchen talks with author Jennifer Egan about her new novel The Keep. The Keep is a modern take on the gothic novel. Jennifer talks about how she developed the books complex characters, settings, and themes.

Albany, NY – Author Victoria Glendinning's new biography, "Leonard Woolf: A Life," examines the man best known as the husband of troubled novelist Virginia Woolf. Glendinning talks to host Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina about Leonard Woolf's own distinguished life as a writer, publisher and political activist. Glendinning also shares her thoughts on how her subject was briefly mischaracterized by the early feminist movement and Woolf's familiarity with suicidal personalities.