Bookworm

The Children's Book  (Knopf)As the vast array of subjects presented in A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book parades past — puppetry, women's rights, Fabianism, Peter Pan, education, children's fiction, the history of pottery glazes — one can't help but wonder: how does it all hold together?

Though he’s had five books published, Tao Lin is not yet thirty. Yet, for all his industriousness, he expresses the apathy and emptiness felt by many of his generation.

Practical Water ( Wesleyan) Brenda Hillman's work has been described as difficult and experimental, but we beg to disagree. Here, we hear some of her most accessible poems; discuss her work with Code Pink, a feminist activist group; and try to describe the way to read a so-called "difficult" poem. The live broadcast of this interview will be pre-empted by special holiday programming, but will be available in the KCRW archives.

Margaret Atwood thinks she has done something new: her novel takes place simultaneously with Oryx and Crake — her nightmare novel about the biotechnological future...

As Is  (Copper Canyon)One of our most tender poets (tough but tender), James Galvin, investigates his growing tendency toward poems that express his bitterness— toward politics, environmental despoilment, big business. Still he affirms, in poems that breathe with sweet relief, the ongoing possibility of love.

The Anthologist (Simon & Schuster)The polymath Nicholson Baker has been able to create a version of himself in the figure of accomplished poet Paul Chowder...

Glover's Mistake (Viking) In this novel of love, manipulation and deception, Nick Laird attempts one of the trickiest strategies in the novelist's tool kit. He structures a book so that readers come to understand things the characters remain blind to.

A Gate at the Stairs (Knopf) Lorrie Moore has written three collections of short stories and two rather short novels. Now, after eleven years of work, she has published a longer novel and survived to tell the tale...

The Angel's Game (Doubleday)Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón has attracted an international audience with his series of metaphysical thrillers.

Ugly Man (Harper Collins) Although we've followed the career of Dennis Copper from the ground up, in this conversation, he acknowledges a new influence—the master director of French film comedy, Jacques Tati.