Just the Right Book with Roxanne Coady

In part two of Roxanne’s sit-down with James Forman Jr., the two dive further into James’ first book Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America. Forman tells us his first-hand story of the criminal justice system from his experience as a public defender and shares his incredulity over his results of Harvard’s Implicit Association Test in this season finale.

The Wall Street Journal says, “If we are going to have a national conversation about race in the United States, a book like [James Forman Jr.'s] Locking Up Our Own ought to set the tone." James and Roxanne explored the intricacies of political activism and discuss the current gun debate, the decriminalization of marijuana, James’ father, civil rights leader James Forman Sr. and his first book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America.

She flipped the notion of parenting on end with her last book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Now she takes her latest shot and claims the way we act is destroying the world. Her latest book, Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations offers a bold new remedy for reversing foreign policy failures and overcoming our own destructive political tribalism at home.

Our guest Yascha Mounk’s new book, "The People Vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom is in Danger and How to Save It" is “a provocative must read,” according to Roxanne. Roxanne and Yascha will explore how we got to where we are and what we can do about it. Yascha, the Executive Director at the Tony Blair Institute, lectures at Harvard and write The Good Fight column at Slate as well as hosts a podcast by the same name. This is an important show you won’t want to miss.

Julia Samuel’s first book Grief Works: Stories of Life, Death, And Surviving is organized by the type of loss; losing a parent, losing a child, and confronting your own death. Is the way which someone grieves different by the loss or is it more defined by who they are? Samuel, a psychotherapist specializing in grief who spent the last 25 years working with bereaved families describes grief as a process that's unique to every person, but universal in the need to be experienced and discussed.

Roxanne recently sat down with author and friend Amy Bloom to talk about her new book White Houses, inspired by one of the most intimate relationships in history between Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok. Listen to Amy read an excerpt from her latest bio-fiction in this week's episode. Also, stay tuned for a sneak peek into our next episode featuring Julia Samuel where she discusses her latest book Grief Works: Stories of Life, Death, and Surviving.

A.J. Jacobs, journalist and contributing writer for Esquire, shares how he chronicled his three-year journey to help build the biggest family tree in history in his latest book, "It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree." We also speak to Gael LeLamer, Book Buyer at Books & Books in Miami who shares what is on their front table and the books the changed her life.

In this episode, Bustle's Senior Books Editor Cristina Arreola talks to Roxanne about everything from BookCon to Broadway and their shared love of Cheryl Strayed. Also in this episode, we hear from author Amy Bloom who was at RJ Julia recently to launch her new book White Houses. The bio-fiction which USA Today called "irresistibly audacious" is inspired by one of the most intriguing relationships in history- between Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok.

A.J. Jacobs is an author, journalist, and contributing writer for Esquire. His latest book "It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree" chronicles Jacobs's three-year journey to help build the biggest family tree in history. In this week’s Bookmarks, we give you a special look inside the book with an excerpt read by A.J. Jacobs himself. Later this week, you can hear author Amy Bloom talk about her latest book "White Houses." Stay tuned for a sneak peek in this week's Bookmark

On this week's episode we meet Daphne De Marneffe, the author of "The Rough Patch: Marriage and the Art of Living Together." She takes us through some of the major stressors of marriage like money and sex, and offers tips for couples who might be going through rough patches or want to avoid them. Also in this episode, we hear from the patrons of RJ Julia who share what's on their nightstand.