books

Ross Reynolds interviews journalist and author Steven Brill about his new book, "America’s Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Health Care System."

While finishing the book Brill had his chest sawed open for emergency heart surgery. A dream he had the night before the operation revealed a truth about the health care system. 

Marcie Sillman speaks with beloved librarian Nancy Pearl about the book pick of the week by Canadian writer Emma Hooper, a first-time novelist. Called "Etta and Otto and Russell and James," it is about a middle-aged woman who decides to walk from her home on Canada's Great Plains all the way to the Atlantic coast.

Ross Reynolds speaks with author Domingo Martinez about his new memoir, “My Heart is a Drunken Compass," which recounts two terrifying late night phone calls about loved ones in the emergency room.

Martinez lives in Seattle and his work sketches life in the city, but often hearkens back to Brownsville, Texas, where he grew up in the 1980s and '90s. His first book, “The Boy Kings of Texas,” was a New York Times best seller. 

In "Three Dreams from the Eastside of the Mountains," a sprawling, rollickingly Whitmanesque love poem, Tod Marshall summons the wildly various landscapes and identities of Washington state. 

"Ask the swirling dirt rising in spirals/from dusty furrows just outside of Ephrata"

As you listen to this episode of Speakers Forum, keep in mind that author James McBride gave this talk without any notes. In it he riffs on his family, career, books and life in America with thoughtful, humorous and inspiring improvisation.

Marcie Sillman talks to librarian Nancy Pearl about her recommendation for the week: "Spooner," a novel by Pete Dexter that Pearl first read in 2009 and still loves.

As a teenager, University of Washington professor emeritus Charles Johnson discovered a book on yoga and meditation on his mom’s bookshelf that sparked his interest in practicing Buddhism.

Johnson spoke with Marcie Sillman on KUOW’s The Record to discuss the intersection of race, religion and his writing. His newest book is called “Taming the Ox: Buddhist Stories and Reflections on Politics, Race, Culture, and Spiritual Practice.”

Marcie Sillman talks with former Seattle PI arts writer R.M. Campbell about the civic group Allied Arts and the role it played in shaping the city. Campbell's new book is called "Stirring Up Seattle: Allied Arts in the Civic Landscape."

Walter Benjamin was a radical German philosopher and critic. In the 1920s and 30s his fascination with new technology lead him to create a series of radio broadcasts. No recordings of those broadcasts remain. We don’t even know what Benjamin sounded like, though it has been said he was a talented performer. Benjamin, who was Jewish, committed suicide in 1940 when he became trapped in his attempt to escape the Nazis.

Marcie Sillman talks with bookhugger Nancy Pearl about a new book that can help you improve your knowledge base for the beginning of the new year. Pearl recommends "Knowledge is Beautiful," by David McCandless.

In 1975, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Someone handed me a copy of Thornton Wilder’s “The Eighth Day.” When I finished that novel, someone else handed me “Theopolis North.”

I decided I had to get in touch with Thornton Wilder. I remembered from the play “Our Town,” by Wilder, that little Rebecca tells the story of Jane Crofut getting the most amazing letter.

Marcie Sillman and librarian Nancy Pearl discuss escaping into a good book with this week's recommendation, "F," by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from the German by Carol Brown Janeway.