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| Roundtable Reads - Monthly Book Club |
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Attention Reading Rangers:
Here at the Roundtable we’re selecting a book each month for our
Roundtable Reads Book Club. We’ll be interviewing an author at the end
of each month, and at the end of the following month -after all of you
read the book- we’ll interview the author again, but, the second time,
you’ll have the chance to call in and join the discussion.
On the day of discussion call 1-800-34-TALK-1 (1-800-348-2551) to join in!
Scroll
to the bottom of the page to sign up for The Roundtable Reads
e-newsletter and feel free to e-mail questions and comments to
roundtable@wamc.org.
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May 2008
Loving Frank
by Nancy Horan
Ask the author!
Have the book read and your questions and comments ready for the May 29th discussion with Nancy Horan and The Roundtable hosts!
At 9:30 on the day of discussion call
1-800-34-TALK-1 (1-800-348-2551) to join in!
The novel belongs to the feminist genre not only in its depiction of a woman's conflicting desires for love and motherhood and a central role in society, but also through its sophisticated —and welcome— focus on the topic of feminism itself ... Loving Frank is a novel of impressive scope and ambition. Like her characters, Horan is going for something big and lasting here, and that is to be admired. In writing about tenderness between lovers or describing a physical setting, she uses prose that is knowing and natural. At other times, she allows us a glimpse of the hand of fact guiding the hand of art, taking it places where it might not necessarily have chosen to go. - Meg Wolitzer; The Washington Post
 Listen to Joe's preliminary interview with Nancy Horan.
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April 2008
World Made by Hand
by James Howard Kunstler
"This vision of life in upstate New York after the fall of civilization is poignant and personal compared with the main themes in other recent postapocalyptic novels-e.g., bare-knuckles survival in Cormac McCarthy's The Road, charismatic leadership in David Lozell Martin's Our American King, desperate migration in Jim Crace's The Pesthouse. Kunstler instead presents a detailed, granular perspective on the consequences that the breakdown of the government and the economy would have on everyday domestic living. He offers a real look at how people and communities would actually survive without the modern economic infrastructure upon which we rely." The Libary Journal
Listen to Joe's preliminary interview with James Howard Kunstler.
Listen to The Roundtable Reads discussion with James Howard Kunstler and listeners.
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March 2008
Monsters of Templeton
by Lauren Groff
As Willie puts her archaeological skills to work digging for the truth about her lineage, she discovers that her family's history runs deep. Through letters, editorials, and journal entries, dark secrets come to light, past and present blur, old mysteries are finally put to rest, and the surprising truth about more than one monster is revealed.
Listen to Joe's preliminary interview with Lauren Groff.
Listen to The Roundtable Reads discussion with Lauren Groff and listeners.
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February 2008
The Reserve
by Russell Banks
Vanessa Cole is a stunningly beautiful and wild heiress, her parents’ adopted only daughter. Twice-married, she has been scandalously linked to rich and famous men. On the night of July 4, 1936, inside the Cole family’s remote Adirondack Mountain enclave, known as the Reserve, Vanessa will lose her father to a heart attack–and meet Jordan Groves, a seductively carefree local artist whose leftist political loyalties to his working class neighbours are undercut by his wealth and his clientele. Jordan is easy prey for Vanessa’s electrifying charm. But the heiress carries a dark family secret. Unhinged by her father’s unexpected death, she begins to spin out of control, manipulating and destroying the lives of all who cross her path.
Moving from the secluded beauty of the Adirondacks to war-torn Spain and fascist Germany, filled with characters that pierce the heart, The Reserve is a passionately romantic novel of suspense and drama that adds a new dimension to this acclaimed author’s extraordinary repertoire.
Listen to part one of Joe's preliminary interview with Russell Banks.
Listen to part two of Joe's preliminary interview with Russell Banks.
Listen to the Roundtable Reads discussion with Rusell Banks.
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January 2008
The Air We Breathe
by Andrea Barrett
A novel of love during wartime from the National Book Award-winning author of Ship Fever.
In Fall 1916, Americans debate whether to enter the European war.
"Preparedness parades" march and headlines report German spies. But in
an isolated town in the Adirondacks, the danger is barely felt. At
Tamarack Lake the focus is on the sick. Wealthy tubercular patients
live in private cure cottages; charity patients, mainly immigrants,
fill the public sanatorium. For all, time stands still.
"The Air We Breathe, reads like an elegant ghost
story, narrated by a chorus of not-quite-innocent spectral
bystanders…Barrett's severe attention to the smallest routines gives us
a sense of what it would have been like to have hung suspended for
months and even years in a regime of institutionalized inertia that was
once the only cure for tuberculosis." Maureen Corrigan; The Washington Post
Listen to Joe's preliminary interview with Andrea Barrett.
Listen to the Roundtable Reads discussion with Joe, Julia, and Andrea Barrett and WAMC listeners.
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December 2007
The Family Diamond
by Edward Schwarzschild
"In The Family Diamond ... Edward Schwarzschild
squarely faces obdurate aspects of life—illness, aging and death— with
curiosity, respect and humor. He is the sort of fiction writer whose
prose is so lucid, psychology so convincing, characters and action so
surprising and intriguing, you forget you're reading." — Donna Seaman, The Chicago Tribune
"This collection provides real emotional, intellectual, and aesthetic
nourishment, never offering simplistic resolutions to complex
situations. ... Nothing is so difficult to write well as a realistic
story about ordinary people. Schwarzschild creates nine such stories
here. He does it without trickery. He doesn't need fancy narrative
footwork. No smoke. No mirrors. Nothing up the writer's sleeve. Nothing
on his sleeve, either, except for his heart." —Hollis Seamon, Chronogram
The Family Diamond was chosen as a Barnes and Noble Discover
Great New Writers pick for the Holiday season (November, December, and
January), and here's their description of the collection:
"A family's love is like no other. The Family Diamond
is not a neat and tidy bundle of stories, and it doesn't celebrate
people with clear, uncomplicated lives. What it does is weave together
stories of humanity ... Schwarzschild's portraits of life ring true,
their messiness and dysfunction a testament to the human spirit, their
commitment to moving forward a regular leap of faith. The common thread
that joins them is love: romantic love, enduring love, familial love.
... A truly remarkable collection, The Family Diamond ably reminds us
that our journey is what defines us, and it is often our
less-than-perfect family that gives us the strength and character to
carry on."
Listen to Edward Schwarzchild on The Roundtable.
Listen to The Roundtable Reads discussion with Edward Schwarzschild |
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November 2007
The Abstinence Teacher
by Tom Perrotta
The rich new novel by the bestselling author of Little Children, Joe College, and Election.
Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America: the strong, silent type on paper . . . " - The New York Times Book Review - Liesl Schillinger
"Tom Perrotta knows his suburbia, and in The Abstinence Teacherhe
carves out an even larger chunk of his distinct terrain. Set in the
northeastern suburb of Stonewood Heights, Perrotta's sixth book takes
on the war between the liberals and the evangelists." Publisher's Weekly
Listen to Joe's interview with Tom Perrotta
Listen to The Roundtable Reads discussion about The Abstinence Teacher
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October 2007
Bridge of Sighs
by Richard Russo
Six years after the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize—winning Empire Falls, Richard Russo returns with a novel that expands even further his widely heralded achievement.
"Some
of this book's most memorable moments take the form of sharp, funny
storytelling. Some emerge more amorphously through intuitive visions.
And each of the main characters has a Bridge of Sighs lodged somewhere
in his or her consciousness. Robert Noonan's arrives, unbidden, on one
of his canvases. Sarah's also manifests itself through art. And Lucy's
exists in the state of semiconsciousness into which he has crept
fearfully since that childhood disturbance. It tempts him to get out of
Thomaston. Even more persuasively, Mr. Russo tempts his readers to come
in." - The New York Times
Listen to Joe's interview with Richard Russo.
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September 2007
On Kingdom Mountain
by Howard Frank Mosher Abounding
with Howard Frank Mosher's trademark action scenes, from daring bank
robberies to outrageous comedy to a passionate and surprising love
affair, On Kingdom Mountain is rooted deeply in Mosher's own family
history, in one of America's last frontiers, and in a way of life on
the brink of extinction.
"Mosher's passionate geographical
hyperbole is both justifiable and charming, producing a wonderfully
intriguing sense of place." The Washington Post
"Mosher weaves homespun humor, a provincial New England setting and eccentric characters to create a satisfying, unique novel." Publisher's Weekly
Listen to Joe's interview with Howard Frank Mosher.
Listen to the Roundtable Reads discussion with Howard Frank Mosher.
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August 2007
The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
by James Lee Burke Perhaps
no living author is more associated with New Orleans and Southern
Louisiana than James Lee Burke. After more than 20-years of writing
about the region, he has captured the heartbreak and chaos wrought by
Hurricane Katrina in his new novel. The Tin Roof Blowdown is
the latest in his Dave Robicheaux series. In this story, Robicheaux is
called into New Orleans as a relief worker immediately following the
devastation of Katrina. Before long he is pulled into a mystery
surrounding the death of looters who were shot during the anarchy of
the flooding.
Joe spoke with James Lee Burke about how he came to write this novel.
Listen to Joe Donahue's interview with James Lee Burke
Listen to the Roundtable Reads book club discussion with Joe, Julia, Neil Novik of The Odyssey Bookshop, and James Lee Burke. |
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July 2007
North River: A Novel
by Pete Hamill Dr.
James Delaney tends to his hurt, sick, and poor neighbors, who include
gangsters, day laborers, prostitutes, and housewives. If they can't
pay, he treats them anyway. But in his own life, Delaney is emotionally
numb, haunted by the slaughters of the Great War.
Recreating
1930s New York with the vibrancy and rich detail that are his
trademarks, Pete Hamill weaves a story of honor, family, and one man's
simple courage that no reader will soon forget.
Joe spoke with Pete Hamill about how this is his 10th novel and it never gets easier . . .
Listen to Joe Donahue's interview with Pete Hamill
Listen to the Roundtable discussion with Pete Hamill and Susan Taylor of Market Block Books. |
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June 2007
A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hosseini After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner
shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and
haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important
literary writers today.
Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns
is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history
and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the
salvation to be found in love.
Joe began his conversation with
Hosseini by asking what is was like to follow-up such a successful
novel like The Kite Runner . . .
Listen to Joe Donahue's Interview with Khaled Hosseini
Listen to the maiden voyage of the Roundtable Reads book club discussion. Margie Skinner -of The Bookhouse- and Selma Kaplan join Joe and Julia to discuss A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. | | |
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