The Book Show

Anne Lamott’s new book “Somehow: Thoughts on Love” is her 20th book and published on her 70th birthday. In each chapter, Lamott refracts all the colors of the spectrum. She explores love and the power it has in our lives. The lessons she underscores are that love enlightens as it educates, comforts as it energizes, sustains as it surprises.

“City on Fire” by Don Winslow launched an ambitious crime fiction trilogy that has transported readers from the gritty streets of Providence to the glittering screens of Hollywood to the golden casinos of Las Vegas as Danny Ryan, forges a dynasty. Winslow’s latest book is “City in Ruins.” It is also his last.

Anna Quindlen puts her trademark wisdom on family, friendship, and the ties that bind us at the center her new novel, “After Annie.” When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her children, and her closest friend are left to find a way forward without the woman who has been the lynchpin of all of their lives.

“My Beloved Life” by Amitava Kumar is a father-daughter story that widens into an Indian family saga. It tells the story of an ordinary life made exceptional by the fact that father has loved and has been loved in return. His daughter’s story recasts the past in a new light.

Poet Kaveh Akbar joins us to discuss his first novel “Martyr!” which follows Cyrus Shams on a journey of introspection and discovery. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet. His obsession with martyrs and dealing with the death of his mother drives him to examine the mysteries of his past.

Novelist Danielle Trussoni is the author of the bestsellers “Angelology” and “Angelopolis.” She gives readers a thrilling ride with her latest, “The Puzzle Master.” Reality and the supernatural collide when an expert puzzle maker is thrust into an ancient mystery - one with explosive consequences for the fate of humanity.

“The Women,” a new novel by Kristin Hannah, is set at a pivotal time in American history: the Vietnam era. It is an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous situation and an epic tale of a nation divided by war and broken by politics.

Ann Napolitano took the literary world by storm with her tear-jerker of a novel “Dear Edward.” Her latest, “Hello Beautiful,” is an homage to Louisa May Alcott’s classic, “Little Women.” “Hello Beautiful” is a portrait of what is possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.

In his new novel, “Cold Victory,” New York Times bestselling author Karl Marlantes delivers a sweeping tale of Cold War intrigue set in post-war Finland in which loyalty, friendship, and love are put to the ultimate test. The book is layered with action, historical detail, and a keen eye for the way totalitarianism and loss of truth and privacy threatens love and friendship.

“Alphabetical Diaries” by Sheila Heti contains a decade’s worth of thoughts, arranged in alphabetical order. The book is a chronicle of the self, of the fundamentals and idiosyncrasies of human experience, that plays out thrillingly in the space that Heti has staked out between life and art, reality and fiction.