The Book Show on WAMC

By Joe Donahue

Albany, NY – William Gibson has long been recognized as a literary pioneer with an eye for technological movements and social change. His most recent New York Times-bestselling trilogy, Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History, earned international acclaim as "the god of speculative fiction" (New York Magazine.)

By Joe Donahue

Albany, NY – Thirty years ago, mystery writer Sara Paretsky published her first novel starring intrepid Chicago P.I. V.I. Warshawski. Her latest in the popular series is: Breakdown. The plot mixes the mania for vampire and supernatural novels, especially among tweens, tabloid journalism, xenophobia and dirty politics.

By Joe Donahue

Albany, NY – Called one "of the best historians in the United States" and "the undisputed champion of chronicling American Presidential campaigns," David Pietrusza has produced a number of critically-acclaimed works concerning 20th century American history.

By Joe Donahue

Albany, NY – In Tom Perrotta's new novel, The Leftovers, he asks the question: What if a Rapture-like event actually happened and millions of people around the globe simply vanished in one quick unexplained moment? Perrotta is the author of The Abstinence Teacher, Little Children, Joe College, and Election.

By Joe Donahue

Albany, NY – Colson Whitehead won a following with stories that explore a world that's both familiar and a little skewed - or a lot. His new book, Zone One, is, Whitehead says, "about a guy just trying to make it to the next day without being killed. So it's about New Yorkers." Zone One is the story of the human survivors who are clearing the undead from Lower Manhattan.

By Joe Donahue

Albany, NY – "When she woke, she was red," begins Hillary Jordan's novel of a woman who has lost not only her place in society, but her faith as well. Hannah Payne has been sentenced to monochroming for the crime of abortion. It is the tale told in When She Woke by the author of Mudbound.

Hillary Jordan's Website
Music: New York Philharmonic - Serenade

By Joe Donahue

Albany, NY – Chuck Klosterman is a culture guru - whose new novel is The Visible Man - which explores the consequence of culture, the influence of media, the complexity of voyeurism, and the existential contradiction of normalcy.

Chuck's Website
Music: Alice in Chains - Your Decision

By Joe Donahue

Albany, NY – It's been nearly a decade since Jeffrey Eugenides released his Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling novel Middlesex. The writer - also known for his debut novel, The Virgin Suicides - has just released his highly anticipated new novel, The Marriage Plot. We will welcome Jeffrey Eugenidies to talk about it on this week's Book Show.

By Joe Donahue

Albany, NY – Jonathan Franzen, one of America's most famous and feted literary novelists, is the author of the 2001 international best-selling novel The Corrections, which won the National Book Award, and last year's literary blockbuster Freedom.

About Jonathan Franzen
Music: Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
 

By Joe Donahue

Albany, NY – Baroness Ruth Rendell has written an astounding 59 novels. All are reason to rejoice, but her 60th, The Vault, starring Reginald Wexford, is simply brilliant. The now retired Chief Inspector Wexford is called upon to aid the police in an investigation that has them stumped.