New Books Network
Literature
The Common Magazine February 26, 2021

Weeds and Flowers

Bina Shah

Hosted by Emily Everett
Bina Shah speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her short story “Weeds and Flowers,” which appears in Issue 19 of The Common magazine. In this conversation, Shah talks about …

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Science Fiction February 25, 2021

The Phlebotomist

Chris Panatier

Hosted by Rob Wolf
Humans have found many ways to divide and stratify—by skin color, ancestry, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, health status, body type or size, and so on. The list is …
Literature February 23, 2021

The Good Luck Stone

A Novel

Heather Bell Adams

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
Heather Bell Adams’ first novel, Maranatha Road (West Virginia University Press 2017), won the gold medal for the Southeast region in the Independent Publisher Book Awards and was selected for …
History February 19, 2021

The Way of Bach

Three Years with the Man, the Music, and the Piano

Dan Moller

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
A tale of passion and obsession from a philosophy professor who learns to play Bach on the piano as an adult. Dan Moller grew up listening to heavy metal in the …
Literature February 16, 2021

The Lost Shtetl

A Novel

Max Gross

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
Today I spoke with Max Gross about his book The Lost Shtetl (HarperCollins, 2020). Imagine a Jewish village hidden in the forests of Poland that somehow escapes the Holocaust. Eighty years …
The Common Magazine February 12, 2021

Translations from Portuguese

Jethro Soutar

Hosted by Emily Everett
Translator Jethro Soutar speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about three pieces he translated from Portuguese for Issue 20 of The Common magazine. These pieces appear in a special portfolio …
German Studies February 11, 2021

Berlin

Jason Lutes

Hosted by Michael O'Sullivan
In his pathbreaking graphic novel, Berlin (Drawn and Quarterly, 2018), Jason Lutes creates a multifaceted exploration of urban life during the Weimar Republic.  The book contains a variety of mostly fictional …
Historical Fiction February 9, 2021

Vindicated

A Novel of Mary Shelley

Kathleen Williams Renk

Hosted by C. P. Lesley
Mary Godwin Shelley had yet to reach her nineteenth birthday when she had the dream that gave rise to the classic Gothic horror tale Frankenstein. The daughter of a dissenting …
Latin American Studies February 8, 2021

Magdalena, River of Dreams

A Story of Colombia

Wade Davis

Hosted by Akash Ondaatje
Travelers often become enchanted with the first country that captures their hearts and gives them license to be free. For Wade Davis, it was Colombia. In his new book Magdalena, River …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight February 4, 2021

Arias

Sharon Olds

Hosted by Dan Hill
This episode covers a range of topics from Old’s use of line breaks (enjambment that runs contrary to the tedious, end-stopped rhyming lines of hymnals) to the degree to which …
Science Fiction February 4, 2021

The Light Years

R. W. W. Greene

Hosted by Rob Wolf
Arranged marriages have been around for centuries, and in The Light Years (Angry Robot, 2020), R.W.W. Greene imagines they’ll be around for centuries more. With the addition of speed-of-light travel, Greene’s …
Literature February 2, 2021

The Merciful

Jon Sealy

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
In The Merciful (Haywire Books, 2021) by Jon Sealy nineteen-year-old Samantha James is killed while riding her bike home from work in a small coastal town one dark summer night in South …
Fantasy February 2, 2021

We Could Be Heroes

Mike Chen

Hosted by Gabrielle Mathieu
This quirky, offbeat novel introduces us to two people, Zoe and Jamie, who both have amnesia and super-powers. While Jamie is a criminal who holds up banks, Zoe is a …
The Common Magazine February 1, 2021

Brother Love

Tanya Coke

Hosted by Emily Everett
Tanya Coke is a lawyer, writer, and philanthropy executive at the Ford Foundation. She speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about “Brother Love,” her essay from Issue 19 of The …
Asian Review of Books January 21, 2021

These Violent Delights

Chloe Gong

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
“These violent delights have violent ends. And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which as they kiss, consume.” These Violent Delights (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020) is the …
Psychoanalysis January 20, 2021

Memory's Eyes

A New York Oedipus Novel

Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau

Hosted by Philip Lance
Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau's Memory’s Eyes is a contemporary New York Oedipus novel. It is written for readers who enjoy playing with concepts and storylines, here namely the classical Oedipus myth, Sophocles’ three …
Literature January 20, 2021

I'll Go

War, Religion, and Coming Home, From Cairo to Kansas City

Alexs Thompson

Hosted by Eric LeMay
Today I interview Alexs Thompson about his new memoir, I'll Go: War, Religion, and Coming Home, from Cairo to Kansas City (2020). Let me begin with a moment of honesty …
Literature January 19, 2021

Song of the Sisters

Songs of Steppe and Forest 3

Five Directions Press

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
Everywhere young Russian noblewoman Darya Sheremeteva turns, someone in her circle of family and friends reminds her that she exists to serve a single purpose: to marry a powerful man …
The Common Magazine January 15, 2021

Stories from Sudan in Translation

Elisabeth Jaquette

Hosted by Emily Everett
Translator Elisabeth Jaquette speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about four stories she translated from Arabic for Issue 19 of The Common magazine. These stories appear in a special portfolio …
Science Fiction January 14, 2021

Black Sun

Rebecca Roanhorse

Hosted by Rob Wolf
The first chapter of Rebecca Roanhorse’s new novel, Black Sun (Gallery/Saga Press, 2020), features a mother and child sharing a tender moment that takes an unexpected turn, ending in violence. It’s …