The Avid Reader on WCHE
By Samuel Hankin
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Podcast Description
The Avid Reader is a podcast for book lovers. Tune in for interviews, recommendations, and insider news from Sam Hankin, host and owner of independent bookstore Wellington Square Bookshop.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1 |
Ryan Boudinot author of Blueprints of the Afterlife | Sam talks with the "wickedly talented" (Boston Globe) and "darkly funny" (New York Times Book Review) Ryan Boudinot, on his new book Blueprints of the Afterlife. | 2/11/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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2 |
ExplicitJill McDevitt - Fighting The Crusade Against Sex | Take an attractive young blonde, a sex shop, a political candidate, and add a Catholic Church for good measure, and you have the recipe for a riveting controversy that riddled a wealthy Philadelphia suburb and divided a community. Follow the quandaries of Jill McDevitt, a determined recent college graduate with a degree in sexuality and a love of pushing the envelope. | 2/2/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
3 |
Alexis Smith author of Glaciers | Isabel is a single, twentysomething thrift-store shopper and collector of remnants, things cast off or left behind by others. Glaciers follows Isabel through a day in her life in which work with damaged books in the basement of a library, unrequited love for the former soldier who fixes her computer, and dreams of the perfect vintage dress move over a backdrop of deteriorating urban architecture and the imminent loss of the glaciers she knew as a young girl in Alaska. Glaciers unfolds internally, the action shaped by Isabel's sense of history, memory, and place, recalling the work of writers such as Jean Rhys, Marguerite Duras, and Virginia Woolf. For Isabel, the fleeting moments of one day can reveal an entire life. While she contemplates loss and the intricate fissures it creates in our lives, she accumulates the stories?the remnants?of those around her and she begins to tell her own story. | 2/1/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
4 |
American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar | What a pleasure to encounter a first novel as self-assured and effortlessly told as Ayad Akhtar’s “American Dervish.” Mr. Akhtar, a first-generation Pakistani-American, has written an immensely entertaining coming-of-age story set during the early 1980s among the Pakistanis in the author’s hometown, Milwaukee. | 1/26/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
5 |
Julia Scheeres, author of A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown | -- | 11/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
6 |
Diana Abu Jaber, author of Birds Of Paradise | -- | 11/3/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
7 |
Anne Enright, author of The Forgotten Waltz | -- | 11/3/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
8 |
Mitchell Zuckoff, author of Lost In Shangri La | -- | 10/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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9 |
James Reeves, author of The Road To Somewhere | -- | 10/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
10 |
Lisa Genova, author of Left Neglected | -- | 10/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
11 |
Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children | -- | 10/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
12 |
Michael Byers, author of Percival's Planet | -- | 10/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
13 |
Nina Burleigh, author of The Fatal Gift Of Beauty | -- | 9/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
14 |
Jerry Blavat, author of You Only Rock Once | -- | 8/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
15 |
Lev Grossman, author of The Magician King | Lev Grossman, author of The Magician King | 8/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
16 |
Amor Towles, author of "Rules Of Civility" | -- | 8/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
17 |
Stefan Merrill Block author of The Storm At The Door | -- | 8/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
18 |
Lily King | Sam talks to Lily King, author of Father of the Rain, a New York Times editor's choice book. | 7/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
19 |
Michael Sims | Michael Sims, whose new biography of E.B. White, The Story of Charlotte's Web, has been featured on NPR and in USA Today. Also, join us at Wellington Square Bookshop on Thursday, July 28th from 7:00-9:00PM for a signing by Michael Sims and a Charlotte's Web giveaway! | 7/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
20 |
Kate Christensen | Sam talks to Kate Christensen, author of The Astral (2011) and The Great Man, which won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner award. | 7/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
21 |
David J. Linden | On this edition of the Avid Reader, Sam talks with David J. Linden, professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He's the author of "The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning and Gambling Feel So Good." | 7/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
22 |
Craig Johnson | Listen in to the Avid Reader interview with Craig Johnson, author of Hell is Empty and six other Walt Longmire mysteries (coming soon to A&E!). | 6/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
23 |
Erik Larson | In 2003, Erik Larson published "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America" to an incredible response from critics and readers. His latest book, "In the Garden of Beasts," follows the first American ambassador to Nazi Germany. | 6/17/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
24 |
Geraldine Brooks | Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks joins Sam on this edition of the Avid Reader. Her newest novel, CALEB'S CROSSING, tells the story of the first Native American to graduate from Harvard University. | 6/13/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
25 |
Jean Thompson | Sam talks to Jean Thompson, whose newest novel, The Year We Left Home, follows an Iowa family over three decades. | 5/24/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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26 |
Alice Ozma | When Alice Ozma was in fourth grade, she and her father made a pact: he would read aloud to her every night for 100 nights. 100 nights quickly turned into 1000, and when they saw no reason to stop their tradition, the reading streak continued for nine years-- until Ozma left home for college. Alice talks to Sam about her journey through L. Frank Baum's Oz series, Shakespeare, J.K. Rowling, and Dickens. Sickness, sleepovers and teenage rebellion threaten to break the streak, but Alice and her father are up for the challenge. | 5/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
27 |
Adam Haslett | In his novel Union Atlantic Adam Haslett describes a global economic crisis similar to our own. He and Sam discuss writing and economics in novels on this edition of the Avid Reader. | 5/12/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
28 |
Peter Mountford | Sam talks to Peter Mountford, author of A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism. | 4/27/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
29 |
Arthur Phillips | Arthur Phillips, author of Prague and The Tragedy of Arthur, joins Sam on the Avid Reader Show. | 4/27/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
30 |
Lionel Shriver | On this edition of the Avid Reader, Sam talks Lionel Shriver, whose newest novel So Much for That is now available in paperback. In 2005, Shriver was awarded the Orange Prize for her eighth novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin. She shares her thoughts on writing, social novels, and questionable book covers assigned to female authors. | 4/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
31 |
Jonathan Evison | Jonathan Evison joins Sam to talk about West of Here, his epic novel of the Pacific Northwest. | 4/6/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
32 |
David Halperin | David Halperin talks about his coming-of-age novel Journal of a UFO Investigator. It's a story of aliens, alienation and imagination set in the 1960s. | 4/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
33 |
Bradford Morrow | Sam talks to Bradford Morrow, author of the Diviner's Tale and editor of Conjunctions literary magazine. | 3/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
34 |
Justin Kramon | Justin Kramon talks to Sam about his debut novel Finny, a coming-of-age tale set at a Maryland boarding school and featuring a "Dickensian coterie" of secondary characters. | 3/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
35 |
Téa Obreht | An interview with Téa Obreht, whose debut novel "The Tiger's Wife" has been receiving rave reviews. She's also the youngest member of the New Yorker's list of the 20 best writers under 40! | 3/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
36 |
Open Mic Night: Zak Theis and Jeff Mastroberti | Two regulars from Wellington Square Bookshop's eclectic monthly open mic stop by: Jeff Mastroberti, local poet and Zak Theis, the host of Open Mic and a talented guitarist. | 3/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
37 |
Karen Russell | Karen Russell talks to Sam about her first novel, Swamplandia!, a family tale set at a shabby tourist attraction in the Everglades. | 2/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
38 |
Kim Edwards | The author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter joins Sam on this edition of the Avid Reader to talk about her new book, The Lake of Dreams. | 2/21/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
39 |
Michael Sims | Sam Hankin is joined by Michael Sims, the author of "Adam's Naval," "Natural And Cultural History Of The Human Form," and "Apollo's Fire: A Day On Earth." He's the editor of "The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime," a new anthology of stories featuring fearless, witty women with a knack for exposing injustice. | 2/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
40 |
Tracy Kidder | The Avid Reader talks to Tracy Kidder, prolific author of literary non-fiction, about his books Strength in What Remains and Mountains Beyond Mountains. | 2/2/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
41 |
Charles Yu | Charles Yu, author of How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, talks to Sam about time travel and more. | 2/2/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
42 |
Thrity Umrigar | Sam interviews Thrity Umrigar, bestselling author of THE SPACE BETWEEN US and THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN. | 1/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
43 |
Chris Cleave | Sam talks with Chris Cleave, author of LITTLE BEE and INCENDIARY. | 1/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
44 |
The Bicycle Diaries: A Chapter from the Audio Book | We listen to a chapter from David Byrne's travel memoir the Bicycle Diaries. | 1/17/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
45 |
Susan Weidener, author of Again in a Heartbeat | Sam talks to Susan Weidener about memoirs, writing groups, and her book Again in a Heartbeat. | 1/4/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
46 |
An Interview with Helen Simonson | Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, talks to Sam about her novel. It's also our book club pick for January! | 12/24/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
47 |
An Interview with Paul Harding | Paul Harding, 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner for Tinkers, chats with Sam about writing, belief, and the father-son relationship at the heart of his novel. | 12/7/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
48 |
An Interview With Jen Bryant | Sam talks with Jen Bryant, Caldecott Award Honoree for River of Words and author of young adult novel The Fortune of Carmen Navarro. | 12/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
49 |
Tatiana de Rosnay | The best-selling author and book club favorite talks to the Avid Reader about her novels Sarah's Key and A Secret Kept. | 12/2/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 49 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
best author interviewer period
sam hankin is the best interviewer of authors period. his ability to ask questions that cross beyond the surface of the book is simply amazing. before and after i read any book i always look to this pod cast to hear the interview. great job and if you have a chance to visit mr hankin's bookstore outside of philadelphia you must. its one of a kind.
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