Winter Reading Show
Guests Barbara Hoffert, Michael Dirda, and Marcela Valdes share their favorite reads this winter, including Andrew Graham-Dixon’s Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane, which traces origins of the dark artist’s genius and demons; and The Phantom Tollboth: 50th Anniversary Edition.
Winter Reading Show: Children’s Books
Guests Vicky Smith, Jane Gilchrist, and Jon Scieszka offer their suggestions for the best children’s books of 2011, including Chris Van Allsburg’s delightful (if dark) The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales / With an Introduction by Lemony Snicket; Irish author Oliver Jeffers’ latest lovely picture book, Stuck; and an unusual young adult ghost story, Tighter.
Winter Reading Show: Cookbooks
Guest Tanya Steel selected some tempting picks covering food from Texas-style to Moroccan. Steel also flagged a few food-related memoirs, including chef Gabrielle Hamilton’s riveting life story.
Summer Reading Show
Guests Barbara Hoffert, Alan Cheuse, Eileen McGervey, and Angela Dodson share their favorite reads from this summer’s lineup, including The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40” author Chris Adrian’s The Great Night, which borrows Titania’s woes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and transports them into a present-day San Francisco park with similarly grieving humans. Other picks include Pete Hamill’s Tabloid City and Alexandra Fuller’s Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness.
Summer Reading Show: Children’s Books
Micki Freeny, Director of Children and Youth Services at the D.C. Public Library, and Heidi Powell, Manager of the Children and Teens Department at Politics and Prose, share their picks for the best summer reads in children’s books.