The National Book Foundation recently revealed the 20 finalists for the 2017 National Book Awards. In today’s Tidbits episode, Roxanne highlights some of her favorite titles from the four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on November 15th in New York.

See the complete list of nominees here

Books in this episode:

Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

In the Language of My Captor by Shane McCrae

Michael Kindness “always has his finger on the pulse of what we should be reading,” says Roxanne. Just the Right Book Podcast welcomes back Penguin Random House sales rep and former Books on the Nightstand host, Michael Kindness, who shares the print and audio books that he is loving right now. Roxanne and Michael also get into a discussion about the recent controversy surrounding an early draft of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in which Charlie Bucket was black.

Get even more book talk from Michael Kindness and listen to Ep 9, Ep 20 & Ep 32 of Just the Right Book Podcast.

Follow Michael Kindness on Twitter

Books in this episode:

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Artemis by Andy Weir

The Martian by Andy Weir

Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand

The Ice Storm by Rick Moody

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

Audio Books in this episode:

Charlotte’s Web 50th Anniversary Retrospective Edition (Compact Disc) by E.B. White, E.B. White (read by)

The BFG by Roald Dahl, David Walliams (read by)

House of Names by Colm Toibin, Juliet Stevenson (read by), Charlie Anson (read by)

The Changeling by Victor D. Lavalle

It comes as no surprise that novelist Claire Messud discovered her life’s calling at such a young age. “It was one of those things I announced when I was a kid. My parents gave me a typewriter for my sixth birthday because I had already said that I wanted to be a writer,” says Messud.

The New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor’s Children joins Just the Right Book to discuss her latest novel, The Burning Girl, which explores the unraveling of two adolescent girls’ friendship as they set out on a dangerous journey. Roxanne describes Claire as “one of the finest storytellers today about women’s friendships.”

And also in this episode, we hear from Casey Coonerty, the owner of  Bookshop Santa Cruz for our segment “What’s on the Front Table.”

Immigration Project Recommended Reading List

Immigration Project Recommended Reading: Kids

Artful Reading Benches in celebration of our 50th anniversary

Books in this episode:

The Burning Girl by Claire Messud

Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Enrique’s Journey: The True Story of a Boy Determined to Reunite with His Mother by Sonia Nazario

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York by Tyler Anbinder

Exit West by Moshin Hamid

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Autumn by Ali Smith

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

Nicole Krauss is an award-winning, best-selling author, was on the New Yorker’s list of “20 Under 40” and her latest novel Forest Dark, about the personal transformation of two seemingly disparate individuals, has been called “elegant, provocative and mesmerizing.”

The History of Love author who Roxanne calls “provocatively philosophical, fiercely intelligent and poetic,” came straight to Just the Right Book on the day of her debut to talk about her new book, which has been called “a brilliant novel” by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Phillip Roth.

Make sure to stay tuned after the interview with Nicole for a special installment of What’s On the Front Table with Lissa Muscatine, one of the owners of the renowned Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC. Muscatine, a former speechwriter for Hillary Clinton also tells Roxanne about her recent interview with Clinton when the former Secretary of State kicked off her fifteen-city tour at Politics and Prose to promote her new book, What Happened.

And only for Just the Right Book Podcast listeners, we are giving away a copy of Nicole’s new book, Forest Dark. Visit our Facebook page at Facebook.com/bookpodcast and check out the post at the top with details on how to enter to win!

Click here to watch Lissa Muscatine’s interview with Hillary Clinton

Books in this episode:

Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

The Aleph-Bet Story Book by Deborah Pessin

Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear… and Why by Sady Doyle

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

A Legacy of Spies by John Le Carre

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

Al Franken, Giant of the State by Al Franken

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

You might know Daniel Handler as the award-winning author of A Series of Unfortunate Events, the thirteen-volume sequence he wrote under the pen name, Lemony Snicket.The San Francisco native took time out of his multi-city tour to chat with Just the Right Book Podcast about his latest book, All the Dirty Parts, which details the erotic impulses of a teenage boy.

Roxanne and Daniel cover a range of topics including talking to your kids about sexuality, pornography’s contribution to our culture, and how the book has stirred up controversy. “Publishing houses just felt like it was not something that could be presented for young people,” says Handler.

And stay tuned after the interview with Daniel for a special sneak peek of books coming out in 2018, straight from the renowned Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont.

This episode of Just the Right Book Podcast is sponsored by Hello Fresh. When you visit hellofresh.com and use the promo code “bookpodcast30”, you’ll save $30 off your first week of deliveries.

Books in this episode:

All the Dirty Parts: A Novel by Daniel Handler

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

Dear Cyborgs by Eugene Lim

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent

Escape Artist: Memoir of a Visionary Artist on Death Row by William A. Noguera

Mem by Bethany C. Morrow

Tangerine by Christine Mangan

The Last Wave by Gillian Best

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A Lesson Before Dying by Earnest J. Gaines

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

One of the questions that Roxanne loves to ask all of our guests is “What is the book that changed your life?” “The stories are often poignant, personal or funny”, says Roxanne “and inevitably they become a list of books that you are dying to read.”

On a special edition of Just the Right Book Podcast, we take a look back at some of our favorite stories from the past forty episodes. Looking to start a new book this Labor Day weekend? We have 25 suggestions for you to choose from!

Be sure to like us on Facebook and join our mailing list to hear more news about Just the Right Book Podcast

Books in this episode:

The Broke Diaries: The Completely True and Hilarious Misadventures of a Good Girl Gone Broke by Angela Nissel

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

The Corrections by Jonathan Frazen

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders By Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Exodus by Leon Uris

Ulysses by James Joyce

The Wasp Factory By Iain Banks

Dreamtigers By Jorge Luis Borges

Marie Curie by Lola M. Schaefer, Wyatt Schaefer, Gail Saunders-Smith (Editor)

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice by Terry Tempest Williams

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler

The Hundred-Foot Journey By Richard C. Morais

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Summer of ’42 by Herman Raucher

A Series of Unfortunate Events Box: The Complete Wreck (Books 1-13) by Lemony Snicket

It Starts with Food by Dallas & Melissa Hartwig

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

The Flowers in the Attic Saga: Flowers in the Attic/Petals on the Wind/If There Be Thorns/Seeds of Yesterday; Garden of Shadows by V.C. Andrews

Nuyorican Poetry: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Words and Feelings edited by Miguel Algarin & Miguel Pinero