iRead Books Radio: Recent Episodes
iRead Books Radio
When Brad Sorenson crossed paths with Zoe O’Loughlin at a high school graduation party, the connection was undeniable. He noticed her when no one else did; she inspired him to want more out of life. But it would be years before they’d meet again…and in the most unlikely of places.
The Heavenly Table tells the story of two hardworking men, Pearl Jewett and Ellsworth Fiddler, whose paths collide on a surprising, unforgettable, and violent trajectory.
Set on the high plains of Colorado, a young couple find their love and – and everything they know to be true – threatened by the arrival of an unwelcome stranger. A story of awakening, Lions is an exquisite novel that explores ambition and the responsibilities we have to ourselves and each other.
Santos reads from and discusses her book The Fire Line: The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots and One of the Deadliest Days in American Firefighting about one of the deadliest fires in American history and the twenty men of the Granite Mountain Hotshots who sprang into action to fight it.
Brad Thor, the New York Times bestselling author of Full Black and Blowback, reads from and discusses Foreign Agent, his brilliant new thriller as current as tomorrow’s headlines.
Journalist Amy Haimerl and her husband were priced out of their Brooklyn neighborhood. Seeing this as a great opportunity to start over again, they decided to cash in their savings and buy an abandoned house for $35,000 in Detroit, the largest city in the United States to declare bankruptcy.
Lawyer and debut author Elizabeth Church was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Her father, a research chemist, was drafted out of Carnegie Mellon University, and was sent to join other scientists working in secret on the Manhattan Project. Church’s mother, a biologist, eventually joined her husband in Los Alamos. Church discusses her sweeping, beautiful novel The Atomic Weight of Love, the story of many of the women who sacrificed their careers so that their husbands could pursue unique opportunities in scientific research.
Perry discusses his hilarious new book Available: A Memoir of Heartbreak, Hookups, Love and Brunch, a real-life romantic comedy about an unexpected break-up, one self-imposed year of being single, and how a nice guy survived dating in the twenty-first century.
Riveting to the final sentence, Security is fierce, wry, and impossible to put down. With a deep bow to the literary tradition of Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, and Daphne du Maurier, Wohlsdorf’s razor-wire prose blitzes readers with quick twists, sharp turns, and gasp-inducing terror.
Governor Hickenlooper reads from and discusses his new memoir The Opposite of Woe: My Life in Beer & Politics, his candid, and very funny story, from early loss to college on the ten-year plan, to remarkable business and political success.
J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan working for the U.S. State Department in some of the most dangerous frontline locations. Upon his return home, while traveling the country to pay respect to the dead and wounded, he began to ask himself many questions about the costs and legacies of the wars.
Anna Newell Jones, creator of the popular blog AndThenWeSaved.com, reads from and discusses her helpful, timely new guidebook.
Told with sincerity, humor, and wit, Trespassing Across America is both a fascinating account of one man’s remarkable journey along the Keystone XL pipeline and a meditation on climate change, the beauty of the natural world, and the extremes to which we can push ourselves both physically and mentally.
In his book The Wilderness Warrior, Brinkley celebrated Theodore Roosevelt’s spirit of outdoor exploration and bold vision to protect 234 million acres of wild America. Now, in Rightful Heritage, he turns his attention to another indefatigable environmental leader, Theodore’s distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to chronicle his essential yet undersung legacy as the founder of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the premier protector of America’s public lands.
“A fresh cautionary tale classic, depicting an America newly shaped by scarcity of our most vital resource. The pages practically turn themselves in a tense, taut plot of crosses and double-crosses, given added depth by riveting characters. This brutal near-future thriller seems so plausible in the world it depicts that you will want to stock up on bottled water.” — Library Journal, starred review
A historic energy revolution is underway in the United States. Wind, sunlight, and other sustainable resources are now the fastest growing sources of energy in the U.S. and worldwide. Governor Ritter’s book discusses the forces behind the energy revolution, the new ways we must think about energy, and the future of fossil and renewable fuels.
“A hugely informative, completely hilarious, and desperately necessary guide to marijuana-written by one of the funniest guys I’ve ever known, who just so happens to be the person who got me high for the first time. Required reading for longtime potheads and new users alike.” – Dan Savage
This provocative, complex, and relentlessly gripping novel contains a story about emotional seduction and betrayal, asking: Where do the boundaries of friendship lie? And at what point does generosity become a form of deadly manipulation?
In this new blockbuster thriller, forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme, and his colleague Amelia Sachs find themselves up against one of their most formidable opponents ever: a brilliant killer who turns common products into murder weapons. As the body count threatens to grow, Sachs and Rhyme must race against the clock to unmask his identity – and discover his mission.
Love, music, and heartbreak take the stage in this critically-acclaimed second novel. Told as an interview with the band after they reach the pinnacle of success, readers will hear from Cheyenne, Harry, and Richie as they discover the ups and downs of being rock musicians, complete with meltdowns on stage and fights that test the limits of the band.
In this sequel to his acclaimed debut novel, Finn Fancy Necromancy, Finn Gramaraye is settling back into the real world after his twenty-five-year-long imprisonment in the otherworld of the Fey. But trouble always seems to follow Finn, and the present is no different!
X-Games champion snowmobile racer Colton Moore reads from and discusses his memoir Catching the Sky, a transcendent story about risk and the pursuit of happiness, family, and the bond between brothers.
Same-sex marriage, #BlackLivesMatter, the DREAM Act, the People’s Climate March, End the New Jim Crow, Occupy Wall Street, the fight for a $15 minimum wage – these are just a few of the remarkable movements that have blossomed in the past decade, a most fertile and productive era of activism. Now, in a visually rich and deeply inspiring book, the leaders and activists of these and other movements distill their wisdom, sharing lessons of what makes – and what hinders – transformative social change.
The median age for starting a family has climbed, and Tom LaMarr is the reason. The Geezer Dad author was nearly 48 when he met his daughter, which makes him even older now. The story of one man’s transformation from career-minded guy who wasn’t completely sure he wanted children to age-impaired dad pulling out reading glasses in the supermarket’s baby aisle, Geezer Dad will resonate with older first-time parents and parents-to-be, as well as those still contemplating the journey.
O’Nan reads from and discusses the new paperback edition of his bestselling novel West of Sunset, his graceful, subtle, and and haunting novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last years in Hollywood.
Amy Cuddy is a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School who studies how nonverbal behavior and snap judgments affect people. Her research has been published in top academic journals and covered by NPR, New York Times, Wired, Fast Company, and more.
Denver author Juan Thompson, who grew up in Woody Creek, Colorado with his father, Hunter S. Thompson, reads from and discusses his new memoir Stories I Tell Myself: Growing Up with Hunter S. Thompson.
“A good man’s momentary moral lapse plunges his happy, prosperous life into a nightmare of murderous gangsters and remorseless sex traffickers. Bohjalian’s deftness as a storyteller is on full display here, as he couples the urgency of a compulsively readable crime thriller with a quiet meditation on the meaning of family and relationships; the painstaking, quotidian, essential business of how we win love, and how swiftly we can lose it.” – Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winning author of March
A white New Englander from the country-club scene, Tom Hudner passed up Harvard to fly fighters for his country. An African American sharecropper’s son from Mississippi, Jesse Brown became the navy’s first black carrier pilot, defending a nation that wouldn’t even serve him in a bar. While much of America remained divided by segregation, Jesse and Tom joined forces as wingmen in Fighter Squadron 32, and when one of the duo was shot down behind enemy lines and pinned in his burning plane, the other faced an unthinkable choice: watch his friend die or attempt history’s most audacious one-man rescue mission.
An incredible hockey talent who was instrumental in changing the very art of goaltending, Patrick Roy’s success was driven as much by determination and perseverance as by talent. Patrick Roy: Winning. Nothing Else brings to life Roy’s phenomenal career and unmasks his more mysterious personal side – taking us behind the scenes and into the family life of one of the greatest goaltenders of all time.
Hancock discusses Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth’s Lost Civilization, his sequel to his seminal work, filled with completely new, scientific and archaeological evidence, which has only recently come to light.
In this magisterial biography, Stiles paints a portrait of Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored. He demolishes Custer’s historical caricature, revealing a volatile, contradictory, intense person capable yet insecure, intelligent yet bigoted, passionate yet self-destructive, a romantic individualist at odds with the institution of the military.
Cannabis is one of the hottest ingredients to hit the culinary world, and cannabis-infused food is an evolving art and science. In The Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook, home cooks will learn how to safely prepare and imbibe organic, sustainably grown cannabis for health and wellbeing.
Marissa Meyer, author of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, which includes Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, reads from and discusses the eagerly anticipated, epic conclusion to the series, Winter.
A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.
Stradal reads from and discusses his bestselling debut novel Kitchens of the Great Midwest, the story of a young woman with a once-in-a-generation palate who becomes the iconic chef behind the country’s most coveted dinner reservation. By turns quirky, hilarious, and vividly sensory, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is an unexpected mother-daughter story about the bittersweet nature of life, its missed opportunities, and its joyful surprises.
Rolling Stone contributing editor Steve Knopper reads from and discusses MJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson, his ultimate critical biography of the King of Pop: a panoramic, vivid, and incisive portrait of Michael Jackson that explores and celebrates his influence in music, dance, and popular culture, drawing on 400 interviews.
Named by the Guardian as one of our top ten writers of rural noir, Campbell is a keen observer of life and trouble in rural America, and her working-class protagonists can be at once vulnerable, wise, cruel, and funny. The strong but flawed women of Mothers, Tell Your Daughters must negotiate a sexually charged atmosphere as they love, honor, and betray one another against the backdrop of all the men in their world.
Lunden discusses her new book Had I Known: A Memoir of Survival, in which the mother of seven, and grandmother of two, speaks candidly about her very recent battle against breast cancer, her quest to learn about it and teach others, and the transformative effect it has had on her life.
Kennedy Odede is one of Africa’s best-known community organizers and social entrepreneurs, and among the first from Kibera, a Kenyan slum, to get a degree from an elite American university, Wesleyan University. Jessica Posner is a nationally recognized, award-winning social entrepreneur and activist and is the cofounder, with Kennedy, and chief operating officer of Shining Hope for Communities, which provides a school for girls in Kibera, as well as clean water, health care, and more for over seventy-thousand people.
With The Alloy of Law, Sanderson surprised readers with a bestselling spinoff of his Mistborn books, set after the action of the trilogy in a period corresponding to late 19th-century America. Now Sanderson reads from and discusses Shadows of Self, the next eagerly anticipated book in the series.
Jonathan Evison, whose previous works include the award-winning novels All About Lulu, West of Here, and The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving (currently in development for a film starring Paul Rudd), reads from and discusses his new novel This is Your Life, Harriet Chance!, an irresistible, inventive novel, filled with racing, breathless, and vibrant prose.
John Lahr discusses his new book Joy Ride: Show People and Their Shows, a collection of biographical detail and critical analysis which explores with insight and panache not only the lives of the theatricals but the liveliness of the stage worlds they have created.
With everything Drizzt’s fans crave – action, adventure, characters that resonate with equal measures of warrior spirit and deep compassion, and no shortage of wicked dark elves – Archmage is another exciting addition to Salvatore’s bestselling series.
Playwright, director, and former bicycle messenger Travis Hugh Culley, author of the acclaimed memoir The Immortal Class, reads from and discusses his powerful new book A Comedy & A Tragedy: A Memoir of Learning How to Read and Write, in which he recounts his difficult journey to literacy.
Eli Gottlieb, author of several critically acclaimed novels, including the 2008 Indie Next pick Now You See Him, reads from and discusses his new novel Best Boy, a September, 2015, Indie Next pick. Written astonishingly in the first-person voice of an autistic adult man, Best Boy is a piercing, achingly funny, shattering novel no reader will forget.
Jena Lee Nardella, accompanied by Dan Haseltine, the lead singer of the Grammy Award-winning band Jars of Clay, discusses her memoir One Thousand Wells: How an Audacious Goal Taught Me to Love the World Instead of Save It, in which she shares how her passion for saving the world grew into a humbler long-term calling of loving the world in all its brokenness.
Alex, the storyteller in Forget Me Not unfurls the multicolored banner that is his family history. In vivid and rich narration, from his grandfather’s bull fighting ranch in Mexico and his father’s chiropractic education in Iowa, to his own search for self and the women he cannot forget, Alejandro is both guide and lost soul. Through three generations and across four continents, this tale of yearning, searching, loss and forgiveness grabs the reader on every level and yanks you through turmoil, depravity, tenderness and awakening.
Acclaimed for his satire, humor, and surprisingly deep characters, Christopher Moore is the author of fifteen novels, including the international bestsellers Lamb, A Dirty Job and You Suck. Moore discuss his new novel Secondhand Souls, the eagerly anticipated sequel to A Dirty Job.
Scott Ian discuss his new book I’m the Man: The Story of That Guy from Anthrax, his fast-paced, humorous, and revealing memoir of the band that proved to the masses that brutality and fun didn’t have to be mutually exclusive. I’m the Man is a blistering hard rock memoir, one that is astonishing in its candor and deftly told by the man who’s kept the institution of Anthrax alive for more than thirty years.