Literature | WCBE 90.5 FM

March 20, 2017 Shelf Discovery: Make ‘Em Laugh by Debbie Reynolds and Dorian Hannaway

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Mar 20, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin listens in on the adventures of a late Hollywood legend with Make ‘Em Laugh by Debbie Reynolds and Dorian Hannaway.

Title: Make ‘Em Laugh: Short-Term Memories of Longtime Friends

Author: Debbie Reynolds and Dorian Hannaway

Runtime: 5 hours, 51 minutes

Publisher: HarperAudio

AISN: B014I5G07E

March 13, 2017 Shelf Discovery: Girl 99 by Andy Jones

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Mar 13, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin follows a single guy on an ill-advised quest in Girl 99 by Andy Jones.

Title: Girl 99

Author: Andy Jones

Pages: 309

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

ISBN: 978-1503942295

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

March 6, 2017 Shelf Discovery: Sticks & Stones by Emily Jenkins, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Mar 6, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin goes back to school with the kids in the Upside-Down Magic class in Sticks & Stones by Emily Jenkins, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle.

Title: Sticks & Stones (Upside-Down Magic #2)

Author: Emily Jenkins, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle

Runtime: 3 hours, 9 minutes

Publisher: Scholastic Audio

AISN: B01FI73XPI

February 27, 2017 Shelf Discovery: The Young Wives Club by Julie Pennell

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Feb 27, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin explores the challenges of young love with the four characters in Julie Pennell’s The Young Wives Club.

Title: The Young Wives Club

Author: Julie Pennell

Pages: 296

Publisher: Emily Bestler Books

ISBN: 978-1501136467

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

February 20, 2017 Shelf Discovery: Sherlock Sam and the Sinister Letters in Bras Basah by A. J. Low

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Feb 20, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin hunts for clues with a clever boy and his trusty robot in A. J. Low’s Sherlock Sam and the Sinister Letters in Bras Basah.

Title: Sherlock Sam and the Sinister Letters in Bras Basah

Author: A. J. Low

Pages: 126

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

ISBN: 978-1449479756

February 13, 2017 Shelf Discovery: The Nowhere Man by Gregg Hurwitz

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Feb 13, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin battles more bad guys with shadowy hero Evan Smoak in Gregg Hurwitz’s The Nowhere Man.

Title: The Nowhere Man (Orphan X #2)

Author: Gregg Hurwitz

Pages: 342

Publisher: Minotaur Books

ISBN: 978-1250067852

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

February 6, 2017 Shelf Discovery: Cold as Ice by Sarah Mlynowski

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Feb 6, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin travels to the world of the Snow Queen with the audio edition of Sarah Mlynowski’s Cold as Ice.

Title: Cold as Ice (Whatever After #6)

Author: Sarah Mlynowski

Runtime: 3 hours, 16 minutes

Publisher: Scholastic Audio

AISN: B00PYLT7VS

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

January 30, 2017 Shelf Discovery: The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Jan 30, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin goes in search of a missing girl with Chelsea Sedoti’s The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett.

Title: The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett

Author: Chelsea Sedoti

Pages: 383

Publisher: Sourcebooks

ISBN: 978-1492636083

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

Simon Tolkien Draws On His Famous Grandfather's Experiences In 'No Man's Land'

By Brian Castner • Jan 24, 2017

I would argue that the most successful novel of the First World War is not A Farewell to Arms, or even All Quiet on the Western Front, but rather one that's rarely classified so: The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Like several other British veterans of the trenches — CS Lewis and David Lindsay come to mind — Tolkien chose to explore the inhuman horrors of the Great War through the allegory of mythology. In fiction, poetry, or memoir, he never explicitly addressed his time on the Somme.

January 23, 2017 Shelf Discovery: The Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Jan 23, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin journeys into the desert with a couple of haunted heroes in Derek B. Miller’s The Girl in Green.

Title: The Girl in Green

Author: Derek B. Miller

Pages: 336

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN: 978-0544706255

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

4-Year-Old Girl Reads More Than 1,000 Books

By editor • Jan 17, 2017

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

January 16, 2017 Shelf Discovery: Mad Love by Nick Spalding

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Jan 16, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin follows a highly-publicized marriage between two feuding strangers in Nick Spalding’s Mad Love.

Title: Ma Love

Author: Nick Spalding

Pages: 301

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

ISBN: 978-1503941113

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

January 9, 2017 Shelf Discovery: Shivers!: The Pirate Who’s Afraid of Everything by Annabeth Bondor-

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Jan 9, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin sets said with a scaredy-pirate in Annabeth Bondor-Stone’s Shivers!: The Pirate Who’s Afraid of Everything.

Title: Shivers!: The Pirate Who’s Afraid of Everything

Author: Annabeth Bondor-Stone

Runtime: 2 hours, 20 minutes

Publisher: HarperAudio

AISN: B00S6QOCNQ

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

January 2, 2017 Shelf Discovery: Above the Paw by Diane Kelly

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Jan 2, 2017

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin goes back to school with a cop and her K-9 in Diane Kelly’s Above the Paw.

Title: Above the Paw (Paw Enforcement #5)

Author: Diane Kelly

Pages: 370

Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks

AISN: 978-1250094841

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

December 26, 2016 Shelf Discovery: A Portrait of Emily Price by Katherine Reay

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Dec 26, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin finds art and love in Italy with Katherine Reay’s A Portrait of Emily Price.

Title: A Portrait of Emily Price

Author: Katherine Reay

Pages: 335

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

AISN: 978-0718077914

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

December 19, 2016 Shelf Discovery: Bad Hair Day by Sarah Mlynowski

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Dec 19, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin climbs Rapunzel’s tower with two lovable young heroes in Sarah Mlynowski’s Bad Hair Day.

Title: Bad Hair Day (Whatever After #5)

Author: Sarah Mlynowski

Runtime: 3 hours, 21 minutes

Publisher: Scholastic Audio

AISN: B00PYM2K2U

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

December 12, 2016 Shelf Discovery: A Very Merry Hockey Holiday by Toni Aleo

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Dec 12, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin takes to the ice for author Toni Aleo’s A Very Merry Hockey Holiday

Title: A Very Merry Hockey Holiday

Author: Toni Aleo

Runtime: 3 hours, 16 minutes

Publisher: Tantor Audio

AISN: B00REO6PYA

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

December 5, 2016 Shelf Discovery: The Fat Man by Ken Harmon

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Dec 5, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin travels to Kringle Town for a hard-boiled holiday whodunit, Ken Harmon’s The Fat Man.

Title: The Fat Man

Author: Ken Harmon

Runtime: 5 hours, 29 minutes

Publisher: Tantor Audio

AISN: B004995EGS

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

In 'ODY-C,' A Greek Hero Worthy Of Women

By Annalisa Quinn • Nov 30, 2016

Odysseus was the man of many minds and many ways, according to his Homeric epithets. And among the many minds of Odysseus, there's room for a space queen.

Odyssia is warlike, merciless, "witchjack and wanderer," "starminded," '"wolfclever," "lightspeed," a "wolfwitch." Written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Christian Ward, ODY-C is a beautifully colored space Odyssey, both graphic and novel, which makes Homer new.

November 28, 2016 Shelf Discovery: Fat Fridays by Judith Keim

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Nov 28, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin dines with the girls in Judith Keim’s Fat Fridays.

Title: Fat Fridays

Author: Judith Keim

Pages: 310

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

ISBN: 978-1503940666

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

November 21, 2016 Shelf Discovery: Things I Want to Punch in the Face by Jennifer Worick

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Nov 21, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin looks for laughs in Jennifer Worick’s blog-turned-audiobook, Things I Want to Punch in the Face.

Title: Things I Want to Punch in the Face

Author: Jennifer Worick

Runtime: 2 hours, 53 minutes

Publisher: Blackstone Audio

AISN: B00A0WG0NE

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

November 14, 2016 Shelf Discovery: First Light by Bill Rancic

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Nov 14, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin joins the quest for survival with the plane crash survivors in author Bill Rancic’s First Light.

Title: First Light

Author: Bill Rancic

Pages: 308

Publisher: G. P. Putnam’s Sons

ISBN: 978-1101982273

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

Weird, Spirited 'Pieces Of Soap' Celebrates The Essays Of Stanley Elkin

By Maureen Corrigan • Nov 10, 2016

There's a tendency to approach a posthumous collection of work by an esteemed "writer's writer" with respectful courtesy, but Stanley Elkin's essays demand a rowdier response from readers. They're weird and spirited, full of literal piss and vinegar. Pieces of Soap is the name of this collection and writer Sam Lipsyte, in his introduction, rightly says that reading Elkin makes you realize "how lazy most writing is."

'Things From The Flood' Is Gorgeously Creepy And Strangely Human

By Jason Sheehan • Nov 10, 2016

This is how it begins.

Somewhere out there beyond the cordons, beyond the fields and marshes, abandoned machines roamed like stray dogs. They wandered about impatiently, restless in the new wind sweeping through the country. They smelled something in the air, something unfamiliar. Perhaps if we had listened closely, we would have heard it. We may have heard the sound rising from the forgotten and sealed caverns in the depths: the muffled pounding from something trying to get out.

November 7, 2016 Shelf Discovery: The Rains by Gregg Hurwitz

By Kristin Dreyer Kramer • Nov 7, 2016

On this week’s Shelf Discovery, Kristin goes into hiding with the daring kids in author Gregg Hurwitz’s The Rains.

Title: The Rains

Author: Gregg Hurwitz

Pages: 272

Publisher: Tor Teen

ISBN: 978-0765382672

And read Kristin's full review on NightsAndWeekends.com.

Faith, Sex And The South Intersect In 'Virgin'

By Heller McAlpin • Nov 2, 2016

Sex is a fraught subject in April Ayers Lawson's impressively polished debut collection of stories. The audacious but vulnerable young Southerners who populate these five tales live in a world where the ordinary uncertainties of relationships and physical intimacy are amplified and distorted by their devout, fundamentalist Christian upbringing, and in several cases, a history of childhood sexual abuse. Despite her limpid, supple prose, there's a creepy cast to Lawson's vision, with shades of Flannery O'Connor's dark humor and Southern Gothic sensibility.