The Book Show on WAMC

Albany, NY – This week, writer and master of American letters Gore Vidal talks to Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina about his new memoir, "Point to Point Navigation." Vidal shares his thoughts on the decline of the novelist in American culture and the childhood experiences that led to his brushes with politics. He also talks about why movies made from novels usually fail and the trouble with America today.

Albany, NY – Writer Jonathan Harr's followup to his bestseller "A Civil Action" was many years in the making, and inspired by an article Harr read in the New York Times about the discovery of a long-missing painting by Michelangelo Caravaggio. The non-fiction book, "The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece," follows the modern-day search for a painting depicting Judas's betrayal of Jesus, while intertwining that story with details about the artist who painted it.

Albany, NY – Alison Lurie, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1984 novel "Foreign Affairs," has written a new novel about a middle-aged couple dealing with the effects of the husband's severe back injury. The comic novel explores the dynamics of middle-aged marriages and imploding relationships, themes Lurie discusses with Gretchen in this often funny interview.

Albany, NY – Physicist and novelist are not professions usually found in the same individual, but Janna Levin manages to embody both identities with what some have called a "rock-star" quality. In this interview, Gretchen talks to Janna Levin about her new novel "A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines," which uses real-life mathematicians and codebreakers Alan Turing and Kurt Godel to explore how brilliant minds can have trouble coping with real life.

Albany, NY – Theoretical physicist and novelist are not professions usually thought of together, but Janna Levin combines them with a hip, rock-and-roll aplomb. In this interview with host Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, Levin talks about her latest book "A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines." The book follows the lives of two real-life mathematicians, Kurt Godel and Alan Turing, brilliant scientists who found themselves confounded by normal life.

Albany, NY – Historian Martha Hodes talks to host Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina about her new book "The Sea Captain's Wife," the true story of a white, working-class New England widow who remarries a black mariner from the West Indies, ironically raising her social status by doing so. Hodes talks about how the story illustrates racial attitudes of the 19th century, both in America and the West Indies.

Albany, NY – Bill Bryson, whose humorous book on science "A Short History of Nearly Everything" was an award-winning success, talks to Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina about his newest book, a memoir about his childhood in 1950's Iowa. "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" covers Bryson's early years in Des Moines and uses them to provide profound insights on the ways in which times have changed in the United States.

Albany, NY – Novelist Kate Atkinson doesn't think of her newest novel "One Good Turn" as a crime thriller, but admits that it does have an awful lot of dead bodies littering its pages in this interview with Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina. Atkinson talks about the book's Edinburgh setting and the advantages of writing about your hometown. She also explores the characters that populate this darkly humorous novel.

Albany, NY – Michael Cox's novel "The Meaning of Night" mixes historical fiction with murder mystery to tell the story of a Victorian-era man who discovers that he may be the heir to an English title and the secrets behind his heritage. Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina talks with the author about the themes of identity and self that weave throughout the book's complex plot, and about the narrative quirks the writer uses in presenting it.

Albany, NY – Alexander McCall Smith sets his latest novel "The Right Attitude to Rain" in his home town of Edinburgh, Scotland. Smith, the author of "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" novels, talks about why he focuses on female protagonists and the power of certain primal emotions in storytelling. He also discusses his part in a recent collection of retold myths from around the world.