The Book Show

Mar 04 2025 100 ep. 27 mins 242
The Book Show Podcast artwork

Each week on The Book Show, host Joe Donahue interviews authors about their books, their lives and their craft. It is a celebration of both reading and writers.

  Arts
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


The Book Show | Charlotte Wood – Stone Yard Devotional

Mar 04 2025 27 mins  
Hailed by The Booker Prize judges as a “fierce and philosophical interrogation of human existence,” Charlotte Wood’s “Stone Yard Devotional” chronicles “one woman’s inward journey to make sense of the world and her life when conflicts and chaos are abundant in both realms.”

The Book Show | Robert Crais – The Big Empty

Feb 25 2025 27 mins  
Private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike, race to find a terrifying, unidentified killer in "The Big Empty," the 20th Elvis Cole novel. Author Robert Crais delivers Cole and Pike's toughest case yet, testing their loyalty to their clients and themselves.

The Book Show | Scott Turow – Presumed Guilty

Feb 19 2025 27 mins  
Scott Turow’s latest novel is “Presumed Guilty” - a sequel to “Presumed Innocent,” the #1 bestseller that redefined the legal thriller and is the basis for Apple TV+’s most-watched drama series ever. The book examines whether the system can ever provide true justice for those who are presumed guilty.

The Book Show | Adam Ross – Playworld

Feb 11 2025 27 mins  

The Book Show | Sheila Heti – Alphabetical Diaries [encore airing]

Feb 03 2025 27 mins  
“Alphabetical Diaries” by Sheila Heti contains a decade’s worth of thoughts, arranged in alphabetical order. The book is a chronicle of the self, of the fundamentals and idiosyncrasies of human experience, that plays out thrillingly in the space that Heti has staked out between life and art, reality and fiction.

The Book Show | Kaveh Akbar – Martyr! [Encore airing]

Jan 28 2025 27 mins  
Poet Kaveh Akbar joins us to discuss his first novel “Martyr!” which follows Cyrus Shams on a journey of introspection and discovery. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet. His obsession with martyrs and dealing with the death of his mother drives him to examine the mysteries of his past.

The Book Show | Pico Iyer – Aflame

Jan 21 2025 27 mins  
Pico Iyer is the acclaimed and bestselling author of more than a dozen books translated into twenty-three languages, most recently “The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise” and “The Art of Stillness.” His latest, “Aflame,” is an exploration of the abiding clarity and calm to be found in quiet retreat.

The Book Show | Tim Matheson – Damn Glad To Meet You

Jan 14 2025 27 mins  
For the past seven decades, Tim Matheson has been an on-screen favorite in Hollywood. In his new memoir, "Damn Glad to Meet You," Matheson looks at his illustrious career, and reveals what it was like to learn from and work alongside the greats, including Lucille Ball, Dick Van Dyke, Steven Spielberg, and Aaron Sorkin.

The Book Show | Alafair Burke – The Note

Jan 07 2025 27 mins  
Alafair Burke is the Edgar-nominated, New York Times best-selling author of fourteen novels of suspense. Her latest page-turner is “The Note.” The book follows three longtime friends who, despite their best intentions, don’t always bring out the best in one another.

The Book Show | Percival Everett – James (encore airing)

Dec 31 2024 27 mins  
“James,” by Percival Everett, is a reimagining of Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” told from the point of view of enslaved person, Jim. While many narrative set pieces of “Huckleberry Finn” remain in place, Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.