The Book Show on WAMC

Albany, NY – This week on The Book Show, host Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina talks with first time novelist Marish Pessel. Pessel talks about the success of her debut novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics, a clever murder mystery about a high school student who lives with her rambling professor father - that culminates with a final exam.

Albany, NY – This week on the book show, author Hermione Lee talks about her biography Edith Wharton. Lee talks about how Edith Wharton defied societal expectations for a woman of her upper class New York heritage by becoming an intellectual, a divorcee, and one of America's finest writers.

Albany, NY – This week on The Book Show, Gretchen talks with author Elise Blackwell about her new novel, The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish. In the novel an accomplished scientist looks back in old age at the pivotal summer in 1927 when, as a teenager in southern Louisiana, floods threatened to inundate the towns along the Mississippi.

Albany, NY – This week on The Book Show, Getchen talks with author Jack Larkin about his book Where We Lived: Discovering the Places We Once Called Home . In his new book, Larkin revisits the architecture of America from 1775 to 1840 and shows how each part of the nation created its own landscape as people adapted their old traditions to their new climate and terrain.

Albany, NY – Author Matthew Sharpe talks about his new novel Jamestown on this edition of The Book Show. His darkly comical novel is set in the not too distant future where a post-apocalyptic world has descend into chaos

Albany, NY – Tracy Chevalier, best known for her novel "Girl With a Pearl Earring," takes on the story of poet and visionary William Blake in her newest novel, "Burning Bright."

Albany, NY – This week on the Book Show, Gretchen talks with historian Michael Wallis about his fascinating book "Billy the Kid, the Endless Ride." Wallis sifts through the fact and fiction and explains why "the kid" has remained one of our most popular and most mythologized folk heros.

Albany, NY – This week on The Book Show, Gretchen talks with Adam Sisman about his new book "The Friendship: Wordsworth and Coleridge" which looks at the relationship between two of England's most famous and influential poets, William Wordsworth and Taylor Coleridge. Sisman talks about their lives in 1790's Europe, their writing, their friendship, the events that led to their falling out and what made their collaboration so special.

Albany, NY – This week on The Book Show, Gretchen talks with Laila Halaby about her new book, "Once in a Promised Land." Her novel tells the story of a Jordanian couple living in Arizona who face their own disintegrating marriage, personal tragedy, and public recrimination in the wake of 9/11. Halaby talks about her novel and her own life in a changing America.

Albany, NY – This week on The Book Show, author Chris Bohjalian talks about his novel The Double Bind. Bohjalin describes his latest novel as a literary thriller. It follows a young social worker who survives a brutal attack and her obsession with uncovering a dark secret.