Book Club Appetizer

Adam J. Kurtz is a designer, artist, and speaker. His previous books, PICK ME UP and THINGS ARE WHAT YOU MAKE OF THEM, have been published in more than a dozen languages. His latest book YOU ARE HERE FOR NOW is an honest and relatable guide to figuring out where you’re headed—and feeling okay in the meantime. This candid collection of essays and artwork is full of reflections, encouragement, and insights on the theme of personal transformation—realistic perspectives to help you move from “staying alive” to nurturing and celebrating the person you know you really are. Now let's join Adam in conversation with his friend and editor Marian Lizzi.

Jeffrey Kluger is editor at large for Time magazine and the author or coauthor of twelve books, including APOLLO 13. He has written more than forty cover stories for Time on topics ranging from space to human behavior to climate to medicine. He consulted on and appeared in the Tom Hanks movie APOLLO 13. His new novel HOLDOUT is a thrilling tale about what happens when evil forces are going unchecked on Earth, and a principled astronaut makes a spilt-second decision to seek justice in the only place she knows how—the International Space Station. Now let's join editor Stephen Morrow in conversation with author Jeffrey Kluger.

David Bell is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of novels such as THE REQUEST, LAYOVER, and SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER. In his latest thriller KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS, a student disappears and is presumed dead, and her professor passes off her manuscript as his own—only to find out it implicates him in an unsolved murder. This is a suspenseful, provocative novel about the sexual harassment that still runs rampant in academia—and the lengths those in power will go to cover it up. Now let's join editor Danielle Perez in conversation with author David Bell.

Zibby Owens is the creator and host of the award-winning podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books. Zibby, named “NYC’s Most Powerful Book-fluencer” by New York Magazine’s Vulture, conducts warm, inquisitive conversations with authors, making her show a top literary podcast as selected by Oprah.com in 2019 and 2020. In her quarantine anthology MOMS DON'T HAVE TIME TO, Zibby has compiled beautiful, original essays by dozens of bestselling and acclaimed authors speaking to the ever-increasing demands on our time. Now let's join Pat Stango in conversation with podcaster and author Zibby Owens.

EMMA BRODIE has worked in book publishing for a decade, most recently as an executive editor at Little, Brown’s Voracious imprint. Her debut novel SONGS IN URSA MAJOR is a transporting love story of music, stardom, heartbreak, and a gifted young singer-songwriter who must find her own voice. The book pulses with romantic longing and asks the question so many female artists must face: What are we willing to sacrifice for our dreams? Now let's join book editor Jennifer Jackson in conversation with author Emma Brodie.

Patrick Radden Keefe is the author of the New York Times bestseller SAY NOTHING which received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, and was selected as one of the ten best books of 2019 by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, and others. His latest book EMPIRE OF PAIN is a grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. It is a portrait of the excesses of America’s second Gilded Age and a relentless investigation of the naked greed and indifference to human suffering that built one of the world’s great fortunes. Now let's join Amy Brinker in conversation with author Patrick Radden Keefe.

MY TIME WILL COME is the inspiring story of activist and poet Ian Manuel, who at the age of fourteen was sentenced to life in prison. He survived eighteen years in solitary confinement—through his own determination and dedication to art—until he was freed as part of an incredible crusade by the Equal Justice Initiative. Full of unexpected twists and turns as it describes a struggle for redemption, MY TIME WILL COME shows the human capacity to transcend adversity through determination and art. Now let's join editor Erroll McDonald in conversation with author Ian Manuel.

Elizabeth Letts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE EIGHTY-DOLLAR CHAMPION and THE PERFECT HORSE. Her latest book THE RIDE OF HER LIFE tells the triumphant true story of a woman who rode her horse across America in the 1950s, fulfilling her dying wish to see the Pacific Ocean. In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, when television’s influence was expanding fast, when homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world. Now let's join Elizabeth Letts in conversation with fellow author Melanie Benjamin.

The New York Times has called Paul Rudnick “one of our preeminent humorists.” As a screenwriter and playwright his work ranges from ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES to JEFFREY, and his books include SOCIAL DISEASE and I'LL TAKE IT. His latest novel is PLAYING THE PALACE, a hilarious romantic comedy about a lonely American event planner who starts dating the gay Prince of Wales, and the royal uproar that ensues. It’s a match made on Valentine’s Day and in tabloid heaven. Now let's join Erin Leafe, and author Paul Rudnick in conversation.

Andy Weir is the author of the best-selling novels ARTEMIS and THE MARTIAN, upon which the blockbuster Matt Damon film was based. In his latest novel PROJECT HAIL MARY, the protagonist is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. Now let's join our own Abbe Wright in conversation with Andy Weir.

Laura Hankin is a comedian, musician, and author of HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT. Her latest novel is A SPECIAL PLACE FOR WOMEN, which takes a comedic look at an exclusive, women-only social club where the elite tastemakers of NYC meet. The deeper our protagonist gets into this new world—where billionaire “girlbosses” mingle with occult-obsessed Bohemians—the more she learns that bad things happen to those who dare to question the club’s motives—or giggle at its outlandish rituals. Now let's join Pat Stango in conversation with Laura Hankin.

 Lorenzo Carcaterra is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of SLEEPERS and a former writer/producer for Law & Order. In his new memoir THREE DREAMERS Lorenzo offers a heartfelt homage to the women who taught him courage, kindness, and the power of storytelling: his mother, his grandmother, and his late wife. Let's join editor Anne Speyer in conversation with author Lorenzo Carcaterra.

Michelle Zauner is best known as a singer and guitarist who creates dreamy, shoegaze-inspired indie pop under the name Japanese Breakfast. CRYING IN H MART is her unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity. Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Now let's join editor Jordan Pavlin in conversation with Michelle Zauner.

Jesse Q Sutanto grew up shuttling back and forth between Indonesia, Singapore, and Oxford, and considers all three places her home. When she’s not writing, she’s gaming with her husband, or making a mess in the kitchen with her two daughters. Her new romantic comedy novel DIAL A FOR AUNTIES asks the question: What happens when you mix one accidental murder with two-thousand wedding guests, and then toss in a possible curse on three generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family? You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue! Now let's join Penguin editor Cindy Hwang in conversation with author Jesse Sutanto.

Joshua Chaplinsky is the author on KANYE WEST: REANIMATOR and the short story collection WHISPERS IN THE EAR OF A DREAMING APE. His new novel THE PARADOX TWINS features estranged twin brothers who reunite at their father’s funeral to discover they no longer look alike. The result is an experimental, sci-fi ghost story about the scariest, most unknowable quantity there is—family. Let's join Clayton Gumbert in conversation with Joshua Chaplinsky.

Rebecca Makkai is the Chicago-based author of the novels THE HUNDRED-YEAR HOUSE and THE BORROWER. Her latest book THE GREAT BELIEVERS is a dazzling novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss, set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris. It was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist and a New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year. Now let's join our own Abbe Wright in conversation with author Rebecca Makkai.

Firoozeh Dumas is the acclaimed author of FUNNY IN FARSI, which was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. In her memoir LAUGHING WITHOUT AN ACCENT she shares stories both tender and humorous on being a citizen of the world, on her well-meaning family, and on amusing cultural conundrums. Malaka Gharib is an artist, journalist, and writer. Her graphic memoir I WAS THEIR AMERICAN DREAM is at once a coming-of-age story and a reminder of the thousands of immigrants who come to America in search for a better life for themselves and their children. Now let's join these two authors in conversation with one another.

Melanie Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of THE AVIATOR'S WIFE, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MRS. TOM THUMB, and ALICE I HAVE BEEN. Her latest novel THE CHILDREN'S BLIZZARD is a story of courage on the prairie, inspired by the devastating storm that struck the Great Plains in 1888, threatening the lives of hundreds of immigrant homesteaders, especially schoolchildren. This is a story of courage, of children forced to grow up too soon, tied to the land because of their parents’ choices. Now let's join Abbe Wright in conversation with author Melanie Benjamin.

Jen Spyra is a comedy writer and performer who has worked as a staff writer on THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT and headed the video department for THE ONION. In her uproarious short story collection BIG TIME, Jen takes a culture that seems almost beyond parody and holds it up to a funhouse mirror, immersing the reader in a world of prehistoric influencers, woodland creatures plagued by millennial neuroses, and an all-out birthday bash determined to be the most lavish celebration of all time, by any means necessary. Now let's join Pat Stango in conversation with author Jen Spyra.

Don Bentley spent a decade as an Army Apache helicopter pilot, and while deployed in Afghanistan was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal with “V” device for valor. He is the author of novels such as THE OUTSIDE MAN and WITHOUT SANCTION, and the new Jack Ryan Jr. thriller TOM CLANCY TARGET ACQUIRED. In the book Jack helps a woman and her young son, and finds himself the target of trained killers. Alone and outgunned, Jack will have to use his skills to protect the life of a child. In THE OUTSIDE MAN the fight for freedom has sent Matt Drake to some of the world’s most dangerous spots. This time the war is coming to his front door. Now let's join editor Tom Colgan in conversation with author Don Bentley.