Podcast appearances and mentions of elisabeth egan

  Thank you for tuning in to Episode 296 of the Down Cellar Studio Podcast. Full show notes with photos can be found on my website. This week's segments included:   Off the Needles, Hook or Bobbins On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins Brainstorming From the Armchair Knitting in Passing KAL News Events Life in Focus On a Happy Note Quote of the Week   Thank you to this episode's sponsors: Stitched by Jessalu (2nd Episode of the Month)   Off the Needles, Hook or Bobbins   Pop Tart Pattern: None Yarn: Knit Picks Brava & Joann Big Twist Value Solids in Natural Colorway + variegated yarn (fingering weight held double) Hook:C (2.75 mm) Ravelry Project Page Made for Eme's birthday as a cute something to open. Gifted with a box of edible poptarts.   Cold Goat Farm Spinning Project Fiber: Cold Goats Farm; believe it is a merino/mohair batt (8oz) in a natural, undyed cream color Ravelry Project Page Twist direction: singles = Z plied = S This means when I'm spinning, my wheel is spinning clockwise and when plying my wheel is moving counter-clockwise. Progress: All of the spinning of the singles is done- finally.   David... Fold in the cheese socks Yarn: Legacy Fiber Artz in the David...Fold in the cheese!!!! colorway (with cream/gray mini skein) Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page About the yarn- cream, pink and blue to match rose apron David wears in this episode of Schitt's Creek. I did a shorter than usual leg- 5.25 inches and 9.5 inch foot. The first sock 28 grams, using CC for toe and cuff, so I should have enough for a second pair of socks with this yarn.   On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins   Hot pink spinning Fiber: Mountain Vewe Coopworths Fiber in hot pink (no specific colorway name)- three 4oz bumps Ravelry Project Page Twist direction: singles = Z plied = S This means when I'm spinning, my wheel is spinning clockwise and when plying my wheel is moving counter-clockwise. Progress: ~1/2 way through first bump. 1st bobbin nearly full.   Granny Square Tan Top Yarn: MC- Cloudbourn Fibers Wool Fingering Twist in Natural (1 skeins), Advent Mini Skeins from Legacy Fiber Artz (Steel Toes Base) & Fibernymph Dye Works (Bounce Base)- both from 2024. Hook: D (3.25 mm) Pattern: none Ravelry Project Page 3 round granny squares: Round 1= more tonal color, Round 2= speckled, Round 3= natural Yarn organization: I put 2 sets of colors in each mostly clear zippered pouch from my Yarnable Subscription kits. It keeps the yarn from the mini skeins from getting tangled. Progress: Squares to date: 25 squares.   Boss A$$ B|tc# Socks Yarn: Woolens & Nosh Superwash Targhee Fingering in the Boss A$$ B|tc# Colorway (purposely not spelled out here, though it is on the label) Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page 90g of yarn to start About the Yarn: Self striping with yellow, tan, peach, pink, light aqua, teal & navy Progress: cast on 1st sock. Finished cuff and an inch or two into leg.   Dinosaur T-Rex and Pterodactyl Pattern: Dinosaur T-Rex and Pterodactyl by Anita Suriaa- $5.99 crochet pattern on Ravelry Yarn: Knit Picks Brava Worsted Hook: 2.5 mm Progress: I've made T-Rex head and body. Thought I'd run out the yarn for the body (25g mini).   Brainstorming Advent brainstorm- Granny Wrap available on Ravelry. Kristina- foryouandyarn- reminded me that I love Ali's Starryeyesali's Ravelry Project Page.   From the Armchair The Crow Trap by Ann Cleves.  Amazon Affiliate Link. A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan. Amazon Affiliate Link. Annie Bot by Sierra Greer.  Amazon Affiliate Link.   Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases.   Knitting in Passing My cousin Ava knit the Storm Sweater by Petite Knit for her boyfriend Luke. Pattern available on Ravelry & the Petite Knit Website (~$8 knitting pattern)   KAL News The Splash Pad Party celebrates its 10th year and officially opens on June 1st. Save the date for some fun kick off events that day! Interested in sponsoring? Check out this link for details.   Events New Hampshire Sheep and Wool:  May 10-11 in Deerfield, NH Webs Tent Sale: May 16-17 in Northhampton, MA Sheep & Wool Festival at Coggeshall Farm: May 17 in Bristol, RI Massachusetts Sheep & Wool: May 24 & 25- Cummington, MA Flock Fiber Festival in Seattle, WA August 8-10     Life in Focus I shared an update on my Word of the Year for 2025: Welcome & some 25 in 2025 list.   25 in 2025 list 1) Donate Blood at least 4 times (January, March) 4) Go camping (scheduled for June) 10) Record 2-5 things I'm grateful for each day before bed (more days than not counts) 13) Get at least 2 massages at Oasis (1 in April) 17) Crochet at least 5 toys (1: hedgehog 2&3: Love Bugs, 4 pop-tart, 5 butterfly. WIPs-Another butterfly & TRex) 18) Use my spinning wheel at least once a month (Done monthly so far) 23) Buy a firebox and put important papers inside (working with Dan on list of things to put in it) https://www.thenokbox.com (Debbie, deafelis recommended) 25) Purge at least 20 items of clothing/accessories/shoes Probably have at least this much done   On a Happy Note Shucked musical. We had dinner at Democracy Brewing beforehand. Delicious tacos and good beer. Celebrating April Birthdays Decorating for Easter with Dad, Millie and Garret Celebrating Easter with the family! The Pulse on Netflix- my cousin Michael William Freeman was in the last few episodes. I survived tech week and had the forethought to take off Friday before opening weekend. Laura came in from NYC for my show. Opening of Kiss Me Kate!   Quote of the Week “Because the birdsong might be pretty, But it's not for you they sing, And if you think my winter is too cold, You don't deserve my spring.” ― Erin Hanson   ------   Contact Information: Check out the Down Cellar Studio Patreon! Ravelry: BostonJen & Down Cellar Studio Podcast Ravelry Group Instagram: BostonJen1 YouTube: Down Cellar Studio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/downcellarstudio Sign up for my email newsletter to get the latest on everything happening in the Down Cellar Studio Check out my Down Cellar Studio YouTube Channel Knit Picks Affiliate Link Bookshop Affiliate Link Yarnable Subscription Box Affiliate Link FearLESS Living Fund to benefit the Blind Center of Nevada Music -"Soft Orange Glow" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/ Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases.  

In this episode of the Watchung Booksellers Podcast, author David Moldawer discusses ghostwriting with Elisabeth Egan of the New York Times Book Review.David Moldawer is a bestselling book collaborator specializing in business, personal development, and other practical nonfiction. Before his freelance career, he was an editor at book publishers including St. Martin's Press, McGraw-Hill, and Portfolio. Elisabeth Egan is a writer at the New York Times Book Review and the author of A Window Opens.Books:A full list of the books and authors mentioned in this episode is available here. Register for Upcoming Events.The Watchung Booksellers Podcast is produced by Kathryn Counsell and Marni Jessup and is recorded at Silver Stream Studio in Montclair, NJ. The show is edited by Kathryn Counsell and Bree Testa. Special thanks to Timmy Kellenyi and Derek Mattheiss. Original music is composed and performed by Violet Mujica. Art & design and social media by Evelyn Moulton. Research and show notes by Caroline Shurtleff. Thanks to all the staff at Watchung Booksellers and The Kids' Room! If you liked our episode please like, follow, and share! Stay in touch!Email: wbpodcast@watchungbooksellers.comSocial: @watchungbooksellersSign up for our newsletter to get the latest on our shows, events, and book recommendations!

Summer is upon us and you're going to need a few books to read. Book Review editors Elisabeth Egan and Joumana Khatib join host Gilbert Cruz to talk through a few titles they're looking forward to over the next several months.Books discussed in this episode:"Farewell Amethystine," by Walter Mosley"The Cliffs," by J. Courtney Sullivan"Horror Story," by Paul Tremblay"Liars," by Sarah Manguso"The God of the Woods," by Liz Moore"The Bright Sword," by Lev Grossman"Pearl," by Sian Hughes"Sandwich," by Catherine Newman"The Future Was Now," by Christopher Nashawaty"An Honest Woman: A Memoir of Love and Sex Work," by Charlotte Shane

Welcome to the Watchung Booksellers Podcast! In this episode, Margot Sage-EL, former owner of Watchung Booksellers, sits down with Liz Egan of the New York Times Book Review to discuss the store's history and future.  From a mail-order catalogue to the brick and mortar store she's run for 28 years, Margot and Liz recount the hurdles this indie has survived, the unpredicable nature of publishing, and the incredible talent and vibrant local community in Montclair.  Guest bios:Elisabeth Egan is an editor and writer at the New York Times Book Review. She writes the Inside the List weekly column that features stories about recent bestsellers and edits both fiction and nonfiction reviews. She is the author of the novel A Window Opens.Margot Sage-EL is now bookseller emeritus of Watchung Booksellers. She continues to help with the stellar author event program and pitches in where needed. Margot started Great Owl Books in ‘94, bought Watchung Booksellers in ‘96 and with the help of fabulous booksellers and devoted readers, cultivated a bookstore that reflected and nurtured this wonderful community. Books:A full list of the books and authors mentioned in this episode is available on our website.Local Interest:da PepoRaymond's Register for Upcoming EventsThe Watchung Booksellers Podcast is produced by Kathryn Counsell and Marni Jessup. Recording and editing by Timmy Kellenyi, Bree Testa, and Derek Mattheiss at Silver Stream Studio in Montclair, NJ. Original music is composed and performed by Violet Mujica. Art & design and social media by Evelyn Moulton. Research and show notes by Caroline Shurtleff. Thank you to the staff at Watchung Booksellers and The Kids' Room for their hard work and love of books! If you liked our episode please like, follow, and share! Stay in touch!Email: wbpodcast@watchungbooksellers.comSocial: @watchungbooksellersSign up for our newsletter to get the latest on our shows, events, and book recommendations!

Barbara Kingsolver's novel “Demon Copperhead,” a riff on “David Copperfield” that moves Charles Dickens's story to contemporary Appalachia and grapples engagingly with topics from poverty to ambition to opioid addiction, was one of the Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2022. And — unlike an actual copperhead — “Demon Copperhead” has legs: Many readers have told us it was their favorite book in 2023 as well.In this week's spoiler-filled episode, MJ Franklin talks with Elisabeth Egan (an editor at the Book Review) and Anna Dubenko, the Times's newsroom audience director, about their reactions to Kingsolver's novel and why it has exerted such a lasting appeal.

James McBride's novel “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” was one of the most celebrated books of 2023 — a critical darling and a New York Times best seller. In their piece for the Book Review, Danez Smith called it “a murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel” and praised its “precision, magnitude and necessary messiness.”On this week's episode, the Book Review editors MJ Franklin, Joumana Khatib and Elisabeth Egan convene for a discussion about the book, McBride, and what you might want to read next.

Gilbert Cruz is joined by fellow editors from the Book Review to revisit some of the most popular and most acclaimed books of 2023 to date. First up, Tina Jordan and Elisabeth Egan discuss the year's biggest books, from “Spare” to “Birnam Wood.” Then Joumana Khatib, MJ Franklin and Sadie Stein recommend their personal favorites of the year so far.Books discussed on this week's episode:“Spare,” by Prince Harry“I Have Some Questions for You,” by Rebecca Makkai“Pineapple Street,” by Jenny Jackson“Romantic Comedy,” by Curtis Sittenfeld“You Could Make This Place Beautiful,” by Maggie Smith“The Wager,” by David Grann“Master, Slave, Husband, Wife,” by Ilyon Woo“King: A Life,” by Jonathan Eig“Birnam Wood,” by Eleanor Catton“Hello Beautiful,” by Ann Napolitano“Enter Ghost,” by Isabella Hammad“Y/N,” by Esther Yi“The Sullivanians,” by Alexander Stille“My Search for Warren Harding,” by Robert Plunket“In Memoriam,” by Alice Winn“Don't Look at Me Like That,” by Diana Athill

The editors of The Book Review talk about the nitty gritty of literary translation. And then, a conversation about the legacy of the novel “Bridget Jones's Diary."What makes translation an art? How does a translator's personality affect their work? Why do we see so many translations from some countries and almost none from others? These are just some of the questions addressed in a recent translation issue of the Book Review, which Gilbert Cruz breaks down with the editors Juliana Barbassa and Gregory Cowles.Also on this week's episode, Elisabeth Egan and Tina Jordan discuss “Bridget Jones's Diary,” published in the U.S. 25 years ago this summer. “I discovered, looking back at back into Bridget's life on the eve of my 50th birthday, she was not as funny to me as she used to be,” says Egan, who wrote an essay about the novel called “Bridget Jones Deserved Better. We All Did.”

It's been more than 50 years since the publication of Judy Blume's middle-grade novel “Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret,” a coming-of-age tale that has become a classic for its frank discussion of everything from puberty to religious identity to life in the New Jersey suburbs. Despite its grip on generations of readers, though, the book has never been adapted for film — until now, in a screenplay written by the director Kelly Fremon Craig and opening for wide release on April 28. To mark the occasion, our editor Elisabeth Egan appears on this week's podcast and talks with the host Gilbert Cruz about the novel's importance to her own 1980s New Jersey girlhood.“For me, Judy Blume was one of those writers — and I know that all readers have them — who just explained the world and talked about things that we did not talk about in my family,” Egan says. “I loved her constant theme of moving to New Jersey, as my family did when I was 6 years old. Most of all, I really loved her books for young adolescents, especially ‘Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.' It's one of those books that I remember where I was sitting when I read it, and it kind of had a profound effect on my life.”Also on this week's episode, Miguel Salazar talks about the Nobel-winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, and offers his list of essential books for readers who are eager to approach García Márquez's work but unsure where to start.“He is a mammoth figure, not just across Colombia but across Latin America. He was the face of the boom in literature in Latin America in the mid- and late 20th century,” Salazar says. “García Márquez still today remains today kind of the point of reference for American readers, and a lot of readers across Latin America, to understand their region. I think he's most people's first author when they turn to the region to understand it through literature.”We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

At a time when public libraries and librarians are facing budget headwinds and sometimes intense political scrutiny for the roles they play in their communities, the Times photo editor Erica Ackerberg last fall dispatched photographers to seven libraries in cities, suburbs and rural areas across the country to document what daily life in those public institutions really looks like in today's world. The resulting photographs, published this week with an accompanying essay by the Book Review editor Elisabeth Egan, revealed libraries to be essential community centers and far more than the hushed and beloved book depositories you may remember from your childhood. On this week's podcast, Egan and Ackerberg talk to the host Gilbert Cruz about how their article came together, and what libraries mean in their lives and in society at large."Books are what draw you to the library, but there are so many other things happening there that have nothing to do with books," Egan says. "The modern library encompasses 20 other things based on the needs of its community. ... What the library needs shows you what the community it's in is all about."Ackerberg says: "I was actually thinking about one of the libraries, the Northtown Library in Chicago — they call themselves an 'intergenerational community hub,' and I felt like that kind of sums up all these libraries. Every generation, and everybody from all communities are welcome there, and hang out there, and spend time there. It's a warm place to be."Also this week, MJ Franklin, an editor at the Book Review, talks to Cruz about his recent profile of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Paul Harding, whose new book is "This Other Eden." "What I was interested in was, What is Paul Harding up to now?" Franklin says. "What is his writing process? He has such a distinctive and singular voice, that I wanted to get closer to that."We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

Mark Braude's new biography, “Kiki Man Ray,” visits a place of perennial interest — Left Bank Paris in the 1920s — through the life of the singer, model, memoirist and muse. On this week's podcast, Braude says that his subject thoroughly captured the spirit of her age, “a mix of deep pain and a very deep love of life” that emerged after the First World War.We're used to reading about this age, Braude says, through the eyes of Americans in Paris, like Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Kiki “represents something that sometimes gets overlooked,” he says, which is “the French contribution to this scene and to this moment. People like Kiki were part of the reason why expats found France and Paris so exciting.” She was “living on a completely different rhythm and in a completely different way. She was just undeniably herself, and wasn't putting on airs. And just loved life; she just wanted to do everything and meet everyone and go everywhere, and she did.”Also on this week's episode, Gregory Cowles and Elisabeth Egan talk about what they've been reading. John Williams is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week's “What We're Reading”:“River of Mountains” by Peter Lourie“Colony” by Anne Rivers Siddons“The Emperor's Tomb” by Joseph RothWe would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

Elisa Gabbert, the Book Review's On Poetry columnist, visits the podcast this week to discuss writing about poetry and her own forthcoming collection of poems, her fourth, “Normal Distance.”“When I'm writing what I would call nonfiction or an essay or just pure prose, I'm really trying to be accurate,” Gabbert says. “I'm not lying, I'm really telling you what I think. There's very minimal distance between my persona on the page and who I really am. And then when I'm writing poetry, that persona really takes on more weight. I'm definitely creating more distance, and it really feels more like fiction or even more like theater, I might say. I'm really more creating a character that's going to be speaking this monologue I'm writing.”Ian Johnson visits the podcast to talk about his review of “Golden Age,” a novel by Wang Xiaobo recently translated by Yan Yan. The novel, set against Mao's Cultural Revolution, made waves in China when it was originally published there in the 1990s.“It was controversial primarily because of sex, there's a lot of sex in the novel,” Johnson says. “The sex is not really described in graphic detail; this isn't Henry Miller or something like that. It's more like they're having sex to make a point: that they're independent people and they're not going to be trampled by the state. And it's very humorous — he talks about sex using all kinds of euphemisms, like ‘commit great friendship,' stuff like that. It's meant to be a sort of parody, a somewhat absurd version of a romance.”Also on this week's episode, Elisabeth Egan and Dave Kim talk about what people are reading. John Williams is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week's “What We're Reading”:“Time Shelter” by Georgi Gospodinov, translated by Angela Rodel“The Displacements” by Bruce Holsinger“The Annotated Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum, edited by Michael Patrick HearnWe would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

In Alice Elliott Dark's second novel, “Fellowship Point,” Agnes Lee and Polly Wister have been friends for about 80 years. Their intertwined families own homes on a Maine peninsula, and some of the book's drama stems from their efforts to preserve the land and keep it out of the hands of developers.“The issue of land, land ownership, land conservation has always been of deep interest to me,” Dark says on this week's podcast. “I came to that pretty quickly as I was developing this story. I decided I wanted to write something like a 19th-century-style novel, and I wanted to have it be modern. Women didn't own land in the 19th century. They didn't make decisions about land, even if they did own it, and having women landowners dealing with these issues seemed to me a modern version of a big, older, 19th-century-type novel.”Katherine Chen visits the podcast to discuss her new novel, “Joan,” which imagines Joan of Arc as a born fighter who becomes an avenging warrior.“I think the central image that keeps us fascinated with Joan of Arc all these years later is the mental image of a woman in armor on horseback going to war,” Chen says. “I think that image keeps us enthralled to this day because it's as startling and surprising as it is empowering.” We also remain captivated, Chen says, by the “sheer improbability” of Joan's story.Also on this week's episode, Elizabeth Harris has news about librarians caught in the culture war over banned books; and Elisabeth Egan and MJ Franklin talk about what they've been reading. John Williams is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week's “What We're Reading”:“Everything I Need I Get From You” by Kaitlyn Tiffany“Thank You For Listening” by Julia Whelan“A Word Child” by Iris MurdochWe would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

Elisabeth Egan, an editor at the Book Review, curates our Group Text column — a monthly choice of a book that she feels is particularly well suited to book clubs and their discussions. On this week's podcast, she talks about her latest pick: “Jackie & Me,” by Louis Bayard, which imagines the friendship between Jacqueline Bouvier and Lem Billings, a close friend of the Kennedys.“This is rooted in reality,” Egan says, “but Bayard runs with it and imagines conversations between Lem and Jackie, and just shows this, on one hand, fabulous life of parties and museums and fun they had together, but also sets up this ticking clock where you come to understand what Jackie really has at stake, and has to lose by committing to this life with the Kennedys.”Matthew Schneier visits the podcast to discuss Paula Byrne's new biography, “The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym.” Pym, a British writer, began publishing novels in the 1950s.“She published six novels in pretty quick succession, and they're great,” Schneier says of the first decade or so of her career. “Very clever, very witty, she was often compared to Jane Austen — which was a writer that she loved and appreciated, but also a kind of very easy comparison, whereas Pym's ironies can be a little bit darker than some of Austen's. And there's a sense in her work that she is spotlighting characters who are not the Emma Woodhouses, who are beautiful and rich and effervescent. They're what she ended up calling ‘excellent women,' which is the title of I think her best starter novel. These women who are well brought up and very proper, a little bit pious, but can also be a little dowdy, a little dreary, a little bit easier to overlook.”Also on this week's episode, Alexandra Alter talks about the filmmaker Werner Herzog and his first novel, “The Twilight World”; and Jennifer Szalai and Molly Young talk about books they've recently reviewed. John Williams is the host.Here are the books discussed by The Times's critics this week:“The Facemaker” by Lindsey Fitzharris“Meet Me by the Fountain” by Alexandra Lange

Hernan Diaz's second novel, “Trust,” is four books in one. Our reviewer, Michael Gorra, calls it “intricate, cunning and consistently surprising.” It starts with a novel inside the novel, about a man named Benjamin Rask, who builds and maintains a fortune in New York City as the 19th century gives way to the 20th. Diaz describes writing the uniquely structured book on this week's podcast, and the ideas at its core.“Although wealth and money are so essential in the American narrative about itself as a nation, and occupy this almost transcendental place in our culture, I was rather surprised to see that there are precious few novels that deal with money itself,” Diaz says. “Sure, there are many novels that deal with class — we were talking about Henry James and Edith Wharton a moment ago — or with exploitation or with excess and luxury and privilege. Many examples of that, but very few examples of novels dealing with money and the process of the accumulation of a great fortune.”Paul Fischer visits the podcast to discuss “The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures,” which is about Louis Le Prince, who made what is now widely acknowledged to be the first known moving picture, and the story of his mysterious disappearance as well.“What was fascinating about Le Prince — and what I really loved as a film nerd myself — is that he seems to have been the first one of that generation to really have a vision for what the medium could be,” Fischer says. “There were a lot of people, like Thomas Edison or the Lumière brothers, who were working on moving-image projects as a kind of novelty toy. Their idea was, this can make a little bit of money, at least for a while, and then it will fade away. And there were people, like Eadweard Muybridge or the French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey, who were scientists and really thought moving images would be a way to deconstruct the way our bodies work, the way things move, the way nature worked. And Le Prince was really the first to write in his notebooks and speak to his family about this medium as something that would change the way we related to reality.”Also on this week's episode, Gregory Cowles and Elisabeth Egan talk about what they've been reading. John Williams is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week's “What We're Reading”:“Music, Late and Soon” by Robyn Sarah“French Braid” by Anne Tyler“Poguemahone” by Patrick McCabe“The Butcher Boy” by Patrick McCabeWe would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

Scholars have long believed that the first Americans arrived via land bridge some 13,000 years ago, when retreating glaciers created an inland corridor from Siberia. Jennifer Raff, an anthropological geneticist at the University of Kansas, tells a different story in “Origin.” According to Raff, the path to the Americas was coastal rather than inland, and what we've thought of as a bridge was a homeland inhabited for millenniums. Raff talks about the book on this week's podcast.“In recent years, the ability to obtain complete genomes from ancient ancestors has really given us new insights — extraordinary new insights — into the histories not only of individuals and populations but also of our ancestors globally,” Raff says. “We can now identify the populations who originally gave rise to the ancestors of Native Americans. And we can identify extremely important evolutionary events in that process going back, starting about 26,000 years ago. So we can use genetics to identify biological histories, to characterize biological histories, and even identify populations which we had no idea existed based on archaeology alone.'Ira Rutkow visits the podcast to talk about “Empire of the Scalpel: The History of Surgery.” Rutkow says the idea for the book evolved over the course of 50 years, and that he wrote it for the general public and surgeons alike.“I was dismayed, over the course of my surgical practice, at how little patients understood about the whys and wherefores of what a surgeon did, or how a surgeon becomes a surgeon,” he says. And he was “shocked” when he would ask colleagues historical questions — “When did anesthesia come about? When did Lister discover antisepsis?” — and “they would have no idea.”Also on this week's episode, Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world, and Elisabeth Egan and John Williams talk about what they've been reading. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week's “What We're Reading”:“The Days of Afrekete” by Asali Solomon“A Word Child” by Iris Murdoch“The Examined Life” by Stephen Grosz“The True American” by Anand GiridharadasWe would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat is used to writing about politics and ideas at play in the broader world, but with his new book, “The Deep Places,” he has written a memoir about his own harrowing experience with Lyme disease. Given the mysteries surrounding the disease, Douthat's story is also very much about his interactions with — and outside of — the medical establishment.“I was relatively open-minded at an intellectual level to the possibility that there are diseases that existing medical science doesn't know how to treat,” Douthat says on this week's podcast. “What I was not prepared for was actually just how bad these diseases could be, and also just how extreme, when you have something like this, you can be willing to get. Eventually I followed what is the outsider medical approach to treating chronic Lyme.”Elisabeth Egan, an editor at the Book Review, visits the podcast to discuss her latest pick for our Group Text, “O Beautiful,” by Jung Yun. The novel is about a Korean American woman who has traded a modeling career for journalism. She inherits an assignment in the oil fields of North Dakota from a former teacher and love interest.“She gets there and quickly discovers that what Richard, her professor, has set up for her isn't really the story that she wants to tell,” Egan says. “And she starts to unravel her own story, and it becomes a novel about insiders and outsiders, and about this town that's completely ill equipped for this influx of somewhat desperate people who are there to work and live in really, really unpleasant and sometimes dangerous conditions.”Also on this week's episode, Elizabeth Harris has news from the publishing world; and Gregory Cowles and Andrew Lavallee talk about what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week's “What We're Reading”:“Resuscitation of a Hanged Man” by Denis Johnson“Our Country Friends” by Gary Shteyngart“The Overstory” by Richard Powers

In Dana Spiotta's new novel, “Wayward,” a woman named Sam buys a dilapidated house in a neglected neighborhood in Syracuse, leaving her husband and her daughter in order to face down big midlife questions.“She is what we used to call a housewife, a stay-at-home mom,” Spiotta says on this week's podcast, describing her protagonist. “She has one daughter, she's married to a lawyer. It's not an unhappy marriage. I wanted to avoid a lot of clichés with her. I didn't want it to be an unhappy marriage that was the problem. And I didn't want him to leave her for a younger woman. I didn't want her to be worried about her looks. She never thinks about wrinkles or her looks very much in the book. She doesn't even look in the mirror anymore. She's not concerned about that.”What she's concerned about is living a more honest and purposeful life, and the novel follows her efforts to do that.Ash Davidson visits the podcast to discuss her debut novel, “Damnation Spring,” set in a tightknit logging community in Northern California in the late 1970s. Davidson describes how the book was partly inspired by her parents' memories of living in the area.“I grew up listening to my parents' stories of this place, and it is the most beautiful place they have ever lived, and that beauty is also the source of its own destruction,” she says. “So those stories became almost like a mythology of my childhood, and I think I always kept a folder of them in my head, where I was filing them away. I used a lot of them as scaffolding for the novel, in the early years of writing it. Gradually, as time went on and the story got strong enough to stand on its own, I was able to strip away that scaffolding of their stories and let the fictional narrative shine through.”Also on this week's episode, Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history as it celebrates its 125th anniversary; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; and Elisabeth Egan and John Williams talk about what they're reading. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week's “What We're Reading”:“Emerson” by Robert D. Richardson Jr.“Transcendent Kingdom” by Yaa Gyasi“The Post-Birthday World” by Lionel Shriver

The latest pick for Group Text, our monthly column for readers and book clubs, is Esther Freud's “I Couldn't Love You More,” a novel about three generations of women grappling with secrets, shame and an inexorable bond. Elisabeth Egan, an editor at the Book Review and the brains behind Group Text, talks about the novel on this week's podcast.“It's this incredibly powerful story about mothers and daughters,” Egan says, “and also an interesting and really heartbreaking look at what was happening in Ireland at the time that really went on for about 100 years, where the Catholic church ran the — they were like prisons — for women who were in trouble in some way. They forced the women to change their names and to give up their babies.”Philip D'Anieri visits the podcast to discuss his new book, “The Appalachian Trail: A Biography,” including what drew him to the sprawling subject.“It's a place that gives us an opportunity to examine the intersection of the built and the natural,” D'Anieri says. “It's a place that we think of as natural — it's the outdoors, you can hike, you can connect with the natural world — but it also had to be built: It needed shelters built, a route had to be determined, the land has to be owned. That tension is something that has always interested me.”Also on this week's episode, Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history as it celebrates its 125th anniversary; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; and Gregory Cowles and Lauren Christensen talk about what they've been reading. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week's “What We're Reading”:“Empire of Pain” by Patrick Radden Keefe“Intimacies” by Katie Kitamura“Razorblade Tears” by S.A. Cosby“The Plot” by Jean Hanff Korelitz

The subtitle of Jonathan Balcombe's new book, “Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World's Most Successful Insects” leads to the first question on this week's podcast. Why “successful”?“Their diversity, for one,” Balcombe says. “There's over 160,000 described species — and it's important to add that qualifier, ‘described,' because it's estimated there may be about five times that many that are undescribed. Insects make up 80 percent of all animal species on the planet, so that says something right there about how incredibly successful they are, and flies are arguably the most species-rich subset of insects. It's estimated there's about 20 million flies on earth at any moment for every human who's on the earth. And they occupy all seven continents.”Marjorie Ingall visits the podcast this week to discuss her essay about why she finds it troubling that children's literature focuses so relentlessly on the Holocaust.“Just as Black kids deserve more than books about slavery and suffering — they deserve books about Black joy and Black excellence — so too do Jewish kids deserve books that reflect the incredible diversity and often happiness of their lives,” Ingall says. “And I think sometimes we push the Holocaust because we want to tell kids: ‘Look where you come from; look how important it is to be Jewish; look how people died because they were Jewish.' When we're talking about children's books, that is not a way to make kids feel a connection.”Also on this week's episode, Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history as it celebrates its 125th anniversary; and Elisabeth Egan and Joumana Khatib talk about what they've been reading. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week's “What We're Reading”:“A Tale for the Time Being” by Ruth Ozeki“The Lost Child of Philomena Lee” by Martin Sixsmith“My Family and Other Animals” by Gerald Durrell

“The Engagement,” by Sasha Issenberg, recounts the complex and chaotic chain reaction that thrust same-sex marriage from the realm of conservative conjecture to the top of the gay political agenda and, eventually, to the halls of the Supreme Court. On this week's podcast, Issenberg talks about the deeply researched book, which covers 25 years of legal and cultural history.“What they have done, ultimately,” he says of those who won the victory, “is helped to enshrine, both in the legal process and in American culture, a sense that marriage is a unique institution. And the language they used to talk about it — about love and commitment — is so particular, I think, to the dynamic between two people that in a certain respect marriage is a more central institution in American life now than it was 30 years ago, because we went through this political fight over it.”J. Hoberman visits the podcast to discuss his piece about 10 books that, taken together, tell the story of Hollywood. He talks, among other subjects, about why the only celebrity memoir on his list is “Lulu in Hollywood,” by Louise Brooks, who acted in the 1920s and '30s and published her memoir much later in life.“She was a remarkably cleareyed observer of what was going on,” Hoberman says, “and embarked on the whole star-making thing with a healthy degree of ambivalence. So she's able to write about herself and about the conditions under which movies were made and the people she met in Hollywood and so on, in a way that's both personal and detached. There aren't too many other memoirs like this.”Also on this week's episode, Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history as it celebrates its 125th anniversary; and Elisabeth Egan and Andrew LaVallee talk about what they've been reading. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week's “What We're Reading”:“Libertie” by Kaitlyn Greenidge“Malibu Rising” by Taylor Jenkins Reid“On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed

Patrick Radden Keefe’s new book, “Empire of Pain,” is a history of the Sacklers, the family behind Purdue Pharma, the creator of the powerful painkiller OxyContin, which became the root of the opioid crisis in the United States. One of the subjects covered in Keefe’s investigative work is what the company knew, and when, as the crisis began to unfold.“One thing I was able to establish very definitively in the book is that, in fact, there is this paper trail, really starting in 1997, so just a year after the drug is released, of sales reps sending messages back saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got a problem here. People are abusing this drug,’” Keefe says. “And there’s very high-level discussion by senior executives at the company, some of whom subsequently testified under oath that they didn’t know anything about this until early 2000. In terms of the timeline, it’s very hard to reconcile what they have always said publicly and what I was able to substantiate with internal documents.”Elisabeth Egan, an editor at the Book Review, is on the podcast this week to discuss “What Comes After,” by JoAnne Tompkins, the latest pick for Group Text, our monthly column for readers and book clubs. The novel starts with the deaths of two high school students, and becomes a mystery when we meet Evangeline McKensey, a pregnant 16-year-old with a connection to the dead boys.“I am the mother of three teenagers, and I’m constantly looking for the book that makes me feel a little better about how little I know about what’s running through my kids’ heads at any given time,” Egan says. “There was something about this book that felt reassuring to me, as strange as that sounds because it begins with this terrible tragedy. But it’s really, actually a book about life.”Also on this week’s episode, Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history during this year of its 125th anniversary, and Lauren Christensen and John Williams talk about what they’ve been reading. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week’s “What We’re Reading”:“Crusoe’s Daughter” by Jane Gardam“The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” by Deesha Philyaw“True Grit” by Charles Portis“Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro

In his new book, “Life’s Edge,” Carl Zimmer asks the modest questions: What is life? How did it begin? And by what criteria can we define things as “living”? On this week’s podcast, Zimmer, a science columnist for The Times, talks about just how difficult it can be to find answers.“There are actually philosophers who have argued that maybe we should just try not to define life at all, in fact; that maybe we’re getting ourselves into trouble,” Zimmer says. “If you look for a definition of life from scientists, you will find hundreds of them; hundreds of published definitions that are different from each other. And every year a new one comes out, or maybe two, and they just keep going. there was a paper I read not too long ago that said that there are probably as many definitions of life as people who are trying to define life.”Paulina Bren visits the podcast to discuss her new book, “The Barbizon,” an account of the storied hotel for women that first opened in 1928.“It went through all sorts of incarnations,” Bren says. “This hotel really follows in so many ways not just the history of women in the 20th century, but truly the ups and downs, the history, of New York.”Also on this week’s episode, Elisabeth Egan and John Williams talk about what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed in this week’s “What We’re Reading”:“Visitors” by Anita Brookner“Firekeeper’s Daughter” by Angeline Boulley“I Am, I Am, I Am” by Maggie O’Farrell

James Comey’s “Saving Justice,” arrives three years after his first book, “A Higher Loyalty.” Joe Klein reviews it for us, and visits the podcast this week to discuss, among other subjects, how the new book is different from the first.“It doesn’t differ very much at all, actually,” Klein says, “except for one thing: He rehearses all of the confrontations he had with Donald Trump in both books, but in the second book he places that in the context of the need for truth and transparency in government, which I think is a valuable thing. The book is a repetition of the first book, but it’s not an insignificant repetition because of the context that he’s now placed it in.”Elisabeth Egan, an editor at the Book Review, is on the podcast to discuss the latest selection for our monthly column Group Text: “A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself,” by Peter Ho Davies.“What I found especially compelling about this book in this moment, when we’re all still kind of confined to our houses,” Egan says, “is that it was very reassuring to read about parental worry in a moment when we’re all flying blind. But you have this worry with a lot of funny lines and funny observations about parenthood.”Also on this week’s episode, Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; and Parul Sehgal and Jennifer Szalai talk about books they’ve recently reviewed. Pamela Paul is the host.Here are the books discussed by the Times’s critics this week:“Kill Switch” by Adam Jentleson“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ian McGuire talks about his new novel, and Elisabeth Egan discusses Romy Hausmann’s “Dear Child.”

Jon Mooallem talks about “This Is Chance!” and Elisabeth Egan discusses Charlie Mackesy’s “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.”

Kolker talks about a large family beset by schizophrenia, and Elisabeth Egan discusses Lily King's "Writers & Lovers."

Clement Knox talks about “Seduction,” and Elisabeth Egan discusses Amina Cain’s “Indelicacy.”

This one is a doozy. The number of times the Hart children were so close to having someone listen to them, so close to being believed, so close to being saved... it's really difficult to hear. But it is also a story that needs to be told for many reasons - cops not taking complaints seriously, white parents not making any effort to immerse their adopted children in their own culture, abuse being reported, but ignored. It's honestly all a massive mess with a horrible ending.  So, thank you for sticking with us through this tough one. I'll try to bring something a bit lighter to your attention next week. Also, note - Helayne was really busy last week, but she's very much still my partner in crime. My roommate, Comfort, was nice enough to listen to me tell this story so we could get an episode up this week. Love you all for understanding! Keep showing that love with a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. It really does make a difference. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Bond with us! Instagram: @highcrimepod Facebook: High Crime Pod Twitter: @highcrimepod Website: www.highcrimepod.com Email: info@highcrimepod.com  Sources:  Broken Harts [Podcast]  // Justine Harman, Elisabeth Egan, + Lauren Smiley // Glamour + HowStuffWorks Hart family crash: Driver was legally drunk at time of fatal SUV plunge off Northern California cliff // CBS/AP // CBS News Jennifer Hart drove her six children to their deaths as her wife looked up how much they would suffer, a jury says // Madeline Holcombe + Augie Martin // CNN Edge Of The Cliff: How An American Dream Turned Into A Nightmare For Model Family // Matt Gilligan // Investigation Discovery

Anna Wiener discusses her new memoir, and Elisabeth Egan talks about Group Text, a new monthly feature from the Book Review.

Gayle and Nicole discuss their conception and notion of summer books and what constitutes summer reading. They also discuss some upcoming books that they are looking forward to reading in May. Some books discussed in this podcast. http://amzn.to/2qvNNJ1 (Saints for Occasions) by J. Courtney Sullivan http://amzn.to/2q8WCpf (Into the Water) by Paula Hawkins http://amzn.to/2qvYUBS (Gone Girl) by Gillian Flynn http://amzn.to/2r467Fx (Startup) by Doree Shafrir http://amzn.to/2qvOS3E (A Window Opens) by Elisabeth Egan http://amzn.to/2qw6b4L (The Circle) by David Eggers http://amzn.to/2q8YOgB (The Leavers) by Lisa Ko http://amzn.to/2q8Uo9e (Everybody's Son) by Thrity Umrigar (June 6) http://amzn.to/2qw0tQb (The Stars Are Fire) by Anita Shreve A big discussion ensues about Sue Miller, Jodi Piccoult and Elizabeth Brundage and book endings which are plausibly implausible. http://amzn.to/2pDeSWJ (All Things Cease to Appear) by Elizabeth Brundage http://amzn.to/2qvXmHS (Since We Fell) by Dennis Lehane Big Brother by Lionel Shriver Gayle has read and updates us on two of the books we discussed previously on the podcast. http://amzn.to/2q622DC (The Arrangement) by Sarah Dunn http://amzn.to/2qwp1IK (All Grown Up) by Jami Attenberg Support this podcast

Host Mike Malone interviews Elisabeth Egan, author of the novel "A Window Opens," at The Oath Craft Beer Sanctuary in Tarrytown, NY. We sample the Saranac Citra Galaxy imperial IPA and the Newburgh Brewing Conspiracy Russian imperial stout.

The Satellite Sisters Word Write Author Interviews continue with a conversation with Elisabeth Egan, debut novelist of A Window Opens. Author Egan tells us about her leap from the business side o fthe books business to the author side. She penned her first novel at her daughter's swim team practice. The result is A Window Opens, a warm, funny tale of woman caught between work, life and books.    For more information about Elisabeth Egan and her work, please visit her website.     

This week, Steve Silberman talks about “NeuroTribes” and autism; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Elisabeth Egan discusses “A Window Opens”; questions from readers; Maria Russo talks about the season’s children’s books; and Parul Sehgal has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.