The Book Case

This week, The Book Case welcomes journalist Alex Prud’homme! His new book Dinner with the President explores the long history of food and American diplomacy. Did you know that the purchase of Pearl Harbor came about because of the first official state dinner ever? Did you know that many believe our involvement in WWII was predicated on a king and hot dog? These are all great stories and this book is packed with them. Find out why Julia Child played and still plays a central role in White House culinary philosophy and what Nixon ate almost every day for lunch….it’s all fascinating! There were so many great stories we didn’t want you to miss any of them, so we forgo a bookstore this week.Dinner with the President by Alex Prud'hommeBooks mentioned in the podcast: The French Chef in America by Alex Prud'homme My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme The Cell Game by Alex Prud'homme The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century by Alex Prud'homme Hydrofracking: What Everyone Needs to Know by Alex Prud'homme France is a Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child by Alex Prud'homme and Katie Pratt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Five years ago Rebecca Makkai was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book award. Now, in what is a treat for readers, Rebecca Makkai has just released a brand new novel, “I Have Some Questions for You”. It is a marvelously plotted mystery/novel about a podcaster, Bodie Kane, who returns to her prep school to teach a mini-course. One of her students wants to reinvestigate, with a podcast, a murder that occurred when Bodie was a student and for which a school staffer may have been wrongly convicted. The novel investigates the vagaries of memory, the realities of violence against women, and the near-impossibility of reversing a years-old conviction. The book has received considerable pre-publication praise, deservedly so.And our bookstore this week has a wonderful story. The brand new Beacon Hill Books and Cafe in downtown Boston, at times, has customers lined up to get in. Find out why.Books mentioned in this week's podcast: I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai Music for Wartime: Stories by Rebecca Makkai The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey Paige of Beacon Hill by Sarah S. Brannen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amity Gaige is our featured author this week - her latest book is Sea Wife. But when we say latest - it’s been out for almost three years. With apologies, we just discovered it. Shame on us. It’s a book about a couple struggling with marital problems who decide (well the husband decides) to buy a sailboat and head for open waters. His wife isn’t crazy about the idea of sailing around the world so they settle on the Caribbean. That proves to be difficult enough. Amity makes marvelous use of foreshadowing. The wife Juliet is writing her remembrances of the sail. Her husband Michael is heard through his log book of the sail. Why? Well that’s part of the mystery incorporated in a good sea yarn. Our bookstore this week is a good one. Book Ends in Winchester, MA under new ownership -- Lauren Tiedemann and Jillian Hartline.Books mentioned in this podcast: Sea Wife by Amity Gaige Shroeder by Amity Gaige O My Darling by Amity Gaige The Folded World by Amity Gaige The Candy House by Jennifer Egan What You are Going Through by Sigrid Nunez The Silent Woman by Janet Malcom Trust Exercise by Susan Choi Rabbit, Run by John Updike  The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton The Little French Bridal Shop by Jennifer Dupee The Paris Bookseller by Keri Maher The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Julie Otsuka doesn't just write, she crafts. Trained as a painter, Otsuka took up writing as her second career, and man oh man are we lucky she did. Her latest, The Swimmers, is just coming out in paperback and it is one of the most lyrical rich character portraits we have read. Julie joins us to talk about her unique style, and to tell us how she has kept each one of her novels to less than 200 pages. Trust us, each page is packed with beauty. Our bookstore this week is Book Ends in Winchester Massachusetts with its two brand new owners.Books mentioned in this podcast: The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka When the Emporer was Divine by Julie Otsuka The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka Second Place by Rachel Cusk A Life's Work by Rachel Cusk The Outline Trilogy by Rachel Cusk The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway Camino Island by John Grisham A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles Art of Cooking by Jacques Pepin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stuart Gibbs is a man who loves his audience and his audience loves him. He has written six series of books for kids and all them offer a glimpse into the glee that Stuart Gibbs takes in the stories he tells. Whether it’s blowing up whales, going to a secretly run CIA training school for kids or a knight who never meant to become one, Stuart Gibbs takes real pleasure in entertaining his readers. One of his newest passions is turning his best selling work into graphic novels. His first series being turned into a paneled masterpiece is the Spy School series. His collaboration with illustrating Anjan Sarkar took a surprising turn. Our bookstore this week is Read Herring (soon to be New South Books) in Montgomery Alabama.Books mentioned in the podcast: Moon Base Alpha Series by Stuart Gibbs Once Upon a Tim Series by Stuart Gibbs Spy School Series by Stuart Gibbs Spy School: the Graphic Novel by Stuart Gibbs Spy Camp: the Graphic Novel by Stuart Gibbs The FunJungle Collection by Stuart Gibbs Whale Done by Stuart Gibbs The Last Musketeer by Stuart Gibbs Hope Wins: A Collection of Inspiring Stories for Young Readers edited by Rose Brock The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Jurassic Park by Michael Chrichton The Deep by Nick Cutter Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Irene Latham and Charles Waters Leaving Gee's Bend by Irene Latham Children of Dust by Marlin Barton Tell the World You're a Wildflower by Jennifer Horne Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ayana Gray doesn't just write books, she creates worlds. At 29 years old, she is already one of the best selling YA authors on the market (yes, it's ok to be jealous). Her series, which became Beasts of Prey and the more recently released Beasts of Ruin, presents a lush Pan-African fantasy world that will suck you in and won't let go. As page turners with mature themes, these books are the perfect way for The Book Case to start talking about fantasy.Books Mentioned in the podcast: Beasts of Ruin by Ayana Gray Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth Little Thieves by Margaret Owen How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You by The Oatmeal The Belgariad by David Eddings Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Karabian Red by Ashley N. Silver Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You may have noticed that most weeks in our ‘rapid fire’ questions to featured authors, we ask if they have a favorite author. Little secret: Sometimes we are looking for ideas. A few weeks ago, John Irving told us he would read anything John Boyne has written just because Boyne wrote it. So we got busy reading John Boyne. It turns out he has a new book released just this past November, All the Broken Places, that is a continuation of sorts of a book released many years ago that was made into a terrific movie, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, that we both saw and admired. All the Broken Places centers around a now 91 year old woman who deals with the shame she feels knowing her father was commandant of Auschwitz, having tried to hide her past for decades. How that haunts her makes for an engrossing read. Thank you to John!Our book store this week is Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. Books Mentioned in the Podcast: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne All the Broken Places by John Boyne The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne The Absolutist by John Boyne My Brother’s Name is Jessica by John Boyne A History of Loneliness by John Boyne Stay Where You Are and Then Leave by John Boyne The Boy At The Top Of The Mountain by John Boyne A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne The Echo Chamber by John Boyne The Book Thief by Markus Zusak The Cider House Rules by John Irving The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier Snow by John Banville The Singularities by John Banville The Sea by John Banville Horse by Geraldine Brooks Clay’s Quilt by Silas House Southernmost by Silas House Lark Ascending by Silas House Not Your Average Hot Guy by Gwenda Bond The Date from Hell by Gwenda Bond Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week it is David Sedaris part two - or David Sedaris redux. We loved our conversation with him and as we said last week, were we to limit the conversation to just one podcast, we’d have to cut out some of the good stuff. This week David talks about his empathy for those who come to hear him speak or who ask him to sign a book, his love for reading appearances, how he tries out new material on audiences, and how those audiences don’t seem to remember any of what he read. Listen to the end for a funny anecdote.Our bookstore this week is Arundel Books in Seattle - the store David said was his favorite ‘indie’ in the U-S.Books Mentioned in the Podcast: Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris Calypso by David Sedaris Barrel Fever by David Sedaris Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020) by David Sedaris SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris Theft by Finding: Diaries (1997-2002) by David Sedaris Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris Naked by David Sedaris Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris The Best of Me by David Sedaris Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff The Collected Short Stories of Tobias Wolff by Tobias Wolff The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Pulp by Charles Bukowski Babel by R.F. Kuang Freshwater for Flowers by Valerie Perrin The Midnight Library by Matt Haig Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Sedaris is our guest this week and next. Our conversation with him was so delightful and insightful that we could find no way to edit our conversation to just one podcast without leaving out too much of the “good stuff’. David is unique. He writes marvelous essays of observation about modern life drawing much of his material from audiences who come to listen to him read and with whom he spends considerable time interacting. He writes about serious family issues he’s encountered with great humor. He writes about playing a Christmas elf at Macy’s, and how can that fail to draw a chuckle? “Happy-Go-Lucky” is his latest collection of essays. But there are many. We loved everything of his we read. You will too.Books mentioned in this podcast: Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris Calypso by David Sedaris Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020) by David Sedaris SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris Theft by Finding: Diaries (1997-2002) by David Sedaris Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris Naked by David Sedaris The Best of Me by David Sedaris Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris Barrel Fever by David Sedaris Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It might seem a bit presumptuous to write a three volume autobiography about the first 29 years of your life, wouldn’t you think? But Esmerelda Santiago lived an almost unbelievable first thirty years and writes in such a personal fashion, that reading her story makes you feel as if you’re in the company of a good friend speaking just to you. The first volume, When I was Puerto Rican tells the story of growing up in abject poverty in Puerto Rico with no expectations of anything more. The second volume, Almost a Woman tells of her coming to the United States terrified about what life would be like and through the most improbable of circumstances finding herself in an esteemed school for the performing arts though speaking almost no English. The third volume, The Turkish Lover finds Esmerelda realizing she is a whole lot smarter than the man in her life - applying to Harvard and graduating Magna Cum Laude! How is that for 29 years? If you’re intimidated by three short volumes, just try the first volume and see if you don’t want to go on. And if you’d like to be charmed, listen to Esmerelda’s conversation with us.Books Mentioned in the Podcast: When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago Almost a Woman by Esmeralda Santiago The Turkish Lover by Esmeralda Santiago Conquistadora by Esmeralda Santiago América's Dream by Esmeralda Santiago The Iliad by Homer The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk Free Puerto Rico by Pedro Albizu Campos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices