In Deborah Kalb’s debut adult novel Off to Join the Circus (Apprentice House Press 2023) it’s 2018, Howard Pinsky’s sister Adele, who ran away in 1954, as his parents said, “to join the circus,” is suddenly, 64 years later, in Bethesda wanting to be a part of the family. < Back Off to Join the Circus Deborah Kalb In Deborah Kalb’s debut adult novel Off to Join the Circus (Apprentice House Press 2023) it’s 2018, Howard Pinsky’s sister Adele, who ran away in 1954, as his parents said, “to join the circus,” is suddenly, 64 years later, in Bethesda wanting to be a part of the family. Howard, now 75 and a retired lawyer married to Marilyn, a retired teacher, spent years researching circuses and trying to find his sister. Now, during a two-week period when their eldest daughter is about to give birth at 46, their middle daughter’s younger son is about to become a Bar Mitzvah, and their youngest daughter is recovering from a terrible divorce, Adele forces everyone to consider the ties that bind them all as a family. There are secrets to be unearthed, resentments to be faced, concerns about the three sisters’ relationships, misunderstandings to be sorted, and worries that pull even 80-year-old Aunt Adele back into the Pinsky family circus. Deborah Kalb is a freelance writer and editor. She spent about two decades working as a journalist in Washington, D.C., for news organizations including Gannett News Service, Congressional Quarterly , U.S. News & World Report , and The Hill , mostly covering Congress and politics. Her book blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb , which she started in 2012, features hundreds of interviews she has conducted with a wide variety of authors. She is the author of three novels for kids, Thomas Jefferson and the Return of the Magic Hat (Schiffer, 2020), John Adams and the Magic Bobblehead (Schiffer, 2018), and George Washington and the Magic Hat (Schiffer, 2016) — and she’s the co-author, with her father, Marvin Kalb, of Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama (Brookings, 2011). She is the author/updater of Elections A to Z, 5th edition (CQ Press/SAGE, 2022), the editor of the two-volume reference book, Guide to U.S. Elections, 7th edition (CQ Press/SAGE, 2016), the co-author of The Presidents, First Ladies, and Vice Presidents (CQ Press, 2009), and the co-editor of State of the Union: Presidential Rhetoric from Woodrow Wilson to George W. Bush (CQ Press, 2007), and has contributed updates to a variety of other CQ Press books on politics and government. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Charles Lindbergh and his wife were out on the night of the kidnapping, but the nanny was home. After the baby disappeared from his bed, that nanny, Betty Gow, became a prime suspect, and her life was never the same. She was known thereafter as the Lindbergh Nanny. < Back The Lindbergh Nanny Mariah Fredericks November 15, 2022 Today I talked to Mariah Fredericks about her new novel The Lindbergh Nanny (Minotaur Books, 2022). The kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh, Jr in 1932 shocked the country and made international headlines. The famous Charles Lindbergh Sr became an American hero after successfully flying solo across the Atlantic. He was married to the wealthy and beautiful Anne Morrow Lindbergh, also a pilot. Their son Charles Lindbergh, Jr was suddenly kidnapped from his family home in New Jersey, and the case made international headlines. The parents were out on the night of the kidnapping, but the nanny was home. After the baby disappeared from his bed, that nanny, Betty Gow, became a prime suspect, and her life was never the same. She was known thereafter as the Lindbergh Nanny. Mariah Fredericks is the author of the Jane Prescott mystery series, set in 1910s New York and nominated twice for the Mary Higgins Clark award. She was born and raised in New York City, graduated from Vassar College with a degree in history and was the head copywriter for Book-of-the-Month Club for many years. Mariah lives with her husband and teenager in Queens and has a beloved French bulldog named Dita. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Maureen Stanton’s new memoir, The Murmur of Everything Moving (Columbus State University 2025) opens when she was in her early twenties, working at a bar saving for a backpacking trip through Europe. < Back The Murmur of Everything Moving Maureen Stanton May 20, 2025 Maureen Stanton’s new memoir, The Murmur of Everything Moving (Columbus State University 2025) opens when she was in her early twenties, working at a bar saving for a backpacking trip through Europe. She meets and falls for Steve, an electrician who at 27 is the father of three children going through a divorce. They are deeply in love, now back in Michigan close to Steve’s children, when he’s diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer that has metastasized throughout his body. In beautiful prose, Stanton describes the medical challenges, Steve’s physical and psychological pain, and the heartache they face knowing that his time is limited while trying to defy the odds. This is a moving story of human fragility, resilience, and the different forms love can take. Maureen Stanton is also the author of Body Leaping Backward: Memoir of a Delinquent Girlhood, winner of a Maine Literary Award and a People Magazine "Best Books Pick"; and Killer Stuff and Tons of Money: An Insider’s Look at the World of Flea Markets, Antiques, and Collecting, winner of a Massachusetts Book Award and a Parade Magazine "12 Great Summer Books" selection. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times , Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, Longreads, New England Review and elsewhere, and has been recognized with the Iowa Review prize, the Sewanee Review prize, and Pushcart Prizes. She's received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maine Arts Commission, and the MacDowell Colony. She teaches at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and lives in Maine. When she’s not reading, writing, or teaching, she enjoys swimming (ponds, tidal rivers, lakes, and the ocean), foraging for wild mushrooms, baking, and haunting flea markets. www.maureenstantonwriter.com . Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

In Crown City (A Japantown Mystery)" (Soho Crime, 2026), Ryunosuke “Ryui Wada is orphaned at 18, with no family or path left in Japan. He’s lucky when merchants from the states pay for him to get to Pasadena to work in their store selling authentic Japanese merchandise. < Back Crown City, A Japantown Mystery Naomi Hirahara June 23, 2026 In Crown City (A Japantown Mystery) " (Soho Crime, 2026), Ryunosuke “Ryui Wada is orphaned at 18, with no family or path left in Japan. He’s lucky when merchants from the states pay for him to get to Pasadena to work in their store selling authentic Japanese merchandise. It’s 1903, and although he’s lonely and confused by American customs, he’s committed to his new life. He thinks he’s starting to fit in, making friends with his roommate, Jack, and falling for a pretty seamstress in his boarding house, but the man whose bed he acquired has gone missing, he’s attacked on the street, and a painting is stolen from Pasadena’s most well-known Japanese artist, Toshio Aoki. The artist then hires Jack and Ryui to find his painting, which just might get them both killed. Naomi Hirahara is an Edgar Award-winning author of multiple traditional mystery series and noir short stories. Her Mas Arai mysteries, which have been published in Japanese, Korean and French, feature a Los Angeles gardener and Hiroshima survivor who solves crimes. Her first historical mystery, Clark and Division , which won a Mary Higgins Clark Award, follows a Japanese American family’s move to Chicago in 1944 after being released from a California wartime detention center. A former journalist with The Rafu Shimpo newspaper, Naomi has also written numerous non-fiction history books and curated exhibitions. She has also written a middle-grade novel, 1001 Cranes . Her follow-up to Clark and Division, Evergreen , was released in August 2023 and was on the USA Today bestseller list for two weeks. And she’s passionate about collecting vintage postcards! Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

A publishing house called The House of Marvelous Books houses an old library in the center of London and hovers on the brink of financial disaster. < Back The House of Marvellous Books Fiona Vigo Marshall May 24, 2022 The House of Marvellous Books by Fiona Vigo Marshall (Fairlight Books 2022) describes a publishing house called The House of Marvelous Books that houses an old library in the center of London and hovers on the brink of financial disaster. Told in journal entries over the course of a year by Junior editor Mortimer Blakely-Smith, the publishing house seems to stumble into one disaster after another. The publisher focuses on safety issues, his assistant has cataracts and is nearly blind, and the chief editor is obsessed with finding a famous missing manuscript buried somewhere in the building. Mortimer grapples with his elderly uncle, annoying co-workers, a close friend who is in prison for stealing precious books from libraries all over the world, and hearsay about mysterious Russian buyers. Along the way, he attends fabulous concerts, reads Proust, and works on his own novel, about the patron saint of navigation. Fiona Vigo Marshall was born in London and educated at Somerville College, Oxford. Her debut novel Find Me Falling , published by Fairlight Books in 2019, was shortlisted for the Paul Torday Memorial Prize 2020. The House of Marvellous Books is her second novel. Her short stories and poems have been nominated for numerous awards, including the V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize, which she won in 2016 with her short story ‘The Street of Baths’. Her work has appeared in Prospect, Ambit, The Royal Society of Literature Review, Orbis International Literary Journal , and The London Journal of Fiction. When not writing or reading, Fiona enjoys walking, swimming in the sea, and attending to her allotment or garden. She has a lifelong love of classical music. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

The little town of Bourne made national news seventeen years before when its water turned green and people started to get sick. The Mitchell triplets were born that year, after the factory closed, the town began to wither along with its citizens, and their father died. < Back One Two Three Laurie Frankel September 21, 2021 Today I talked to Laurie Frankel about her new novel One, Two, Three (Henry Holt, 2021). The little town of Bourne made national news seventeen years before when its water turned green and people started to get sick. The Mitchell triplets were born that year, after the factory closed, the town began to wither along with its citizens, and their father died. The three girls, each a different version of normal, have watched their mother’s endless fight for justice from the company that destroyed their town. Mirabel, number Three, is the smartest triplet, even though she can’t speak and uses a wheelchair. Monday, number Two, inherited all the library’s books when the library building closed. She eats and wears only yellow and knows exactly where in the house each book is hidden. And Mab, number One, is trying to get into college and out of Bourne. Then one day, a moving truck pulls up and the Mitchell sisters are forced to grapple with a past that was never resolved. Laurie Frankel writes novels (and reads novels, teaches other people to write novels, raises a small person who reads and would like someday to write novels) in Seattle, Washington where she lives on a nearly vertical hill from which she can watch three different bridges while she's staring out her windows between words. She's originally from Maryland and has a degree in reading Shakespeare, which has relatively little to do with writing novels. She has taught writing, literature, and gender studies at both community colleges and universities. Now she is at work — always — on her next novel but also blogs about craft at Medium where she endeavors to help other people finish their novels. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Steeped in the rugged beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains as America’s War on Terror rages in the background, Sarah St. Vincent’s Ways to Hide in Winter is a powerful story about violence and redemption, betrayal and empathy, and how we reconcile the unforgivable in those we love. < Back Ways to Hide in Winter Sarah St. Vincent July 18, 2019 After surviving a car crash that left her widowed at twenty-two, Kathleen has retreated to a remote corner of a state park, where she works flipping burgers for deer hunters and hikers—happy, she insists, to be left alone. But when a stranger appears in the dead of winter—seemingly out of nowhere, kicking snow from his flimsy dress shoes—Kathleen is intrigued, despite herself. He says he’s a student visiting from Uzbekistan, and his worldliness fills her with curiosity about life beyond the valley. After a cautious friendship settles between them, the stranger confesses to a terrible crime in his home country, and Kathleen finds herself in the grip of a manhunt—and face-to-face with secrets of her own. Steeped in the rugged beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains as America’s War on Terror rages in the background, Sarah St. Vincent ’s Ways to Hide in Winter (Melville House, 2018) is a powerful story about violence and redemption, betrayal and empathy, and how we reconcile the unforgivable in those we love. Sarah St. Vincent grew up in a rural Pennsylvania community similar to the one in which this novel is set. She attended Swarthmore College, Harvard University, and the University of Michigan Law School. She has worked as a legal fellow at the Center for Democracy & Technology and as a clerk at the International Court of Justice. St. Vincent is currently a researcher and advocate on national security, surveillance, and domestic law enforcement for Human Rights Watch. She frequently writes on these topics and has been interviewed recently by such outlets as the Washington Post , The Daily Beast , Reuters, NPR, and Bloomberg West. She lives in New York. Ways to Hide in Winter is her first novel. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Sparks fly in Megan Staffel’s novel, The Causative Factor (Regal House 2024), when Rachel is randomly paired with Rubiat, a fellow student, for an assignment in their college art class. < Back The Causative Factor Megan Staffel November 5, 2024 Sparks fly in Megan Staffel’s novel, The Causative Factor (Regal House 2024), when Rachel is randomly paired with Rubiat, a fellow student, for an assignment in their college art class. After a heavenly night together, they go hiking, and he dives off a cliff, disappearing without a trace. Although Rachel graduates with an art degree, moves to New York, and supports her painting as an ESL teacher, she’s scarred for years by the mystery of Rubiat’s disappearance. This is a sweet coming-of-age, but also a suspense-filled novel told in shifting viewpoints, about art, growing up, making choices, and finding love. Megan Staffel splits her time between a farm in western New York State and an apartment in Brooklyn. She is an avid walker, bird watcher, and gardener. Her new novel, The Causative Factor , was inspired by a hike she took with her husband in a state park in October, 2020 and grew into a story about an artist trying to understand the mysterious disappearance of her lover. Staffel's interest in the arts and in the process of art-making has been a life-long passion. Her first novel, She Wanted Something Else , was a story about an artist as well. Staffel's other book publications include a third novel and three collections of short stories. She taught for many years in the MFA program at Warren Wilson College and writes a monthly Substack newsletter, "Page and Story." Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s award-winning collection of short stories is peopled with characters who leave home, return home, or dream of home. The stories alternate between sweet, thoughtful, and sad, all expressing a universal longing for family, friendship and connection. < Back To Lay to Rest our Ghosts Caitlin Hamilton Summie February 14, 2019 An 8-year-old awaits her father’s return from the war. A young man returns home to northern Minnesota for his sister’s funeral. A woman struggles to survive in New York City. Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s award-winning collection of short stories is peopled with characters who leave home, return home, or dream of home. The stories alternate between sweet, thoughtful, and sad, all expressing a universal longing for family, friendship and connection. To Lay to Rest our Ghosts (Fomite Press, 2017) won Silver in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Short Stories, was selected for 35 Over 35’s annual 2017 list, and was named a Pulpwood Queen Book Club Bonus Book. It is also the winner of the fourth annual Phillip H. McMath Post Publication book award. Summie, who earned an MFA at Colorado State University, is the co-founder/owner of a book marketing firm and is online at caitlinhamiltonsummie.com . Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Written as a series of web posts, Instagram essays, Snapchat posts, rejected Yelp reviews, Facebook screeds, and streams-of-consciousness that merge volcanic confession with eagle-eyed art criticism, Art Is Everything is about a woman who has to grapple with being derailed. < Back Art Is Everything Yxta Maya Murray January 5, 2021 In Art Is Everything (TriQuarterly Books, 2021), L.A. native Amanda Ruiz is a successful Chicana performance artist who is madly in love with her girlfriend, Xochitl. Amanda is about to enjoy a residency at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and plans to film a groundbreaking documentary in Mexico. Then Xochitl’s biological clock begins beeping, Amanda’s father dies, and Amanda is assaulted during an Uber ride. Her life and art are upended and she’s not sure how to get back on track. Written as a series of web posts, Instagram essays, Snapchat posts, rejected Yelp reviews, Facebook screeds, and streams-of-consciousness that merge volcanic confession with eagle-eyed art criticism, Art Is Everything is about a woman who has to grapple with being derailed. After earning her J.D. at Stanford Law School, Yxta Maya Murray clerked for two judges and then joined the Loyola Law School faculty in 1995. Recipient of an Art Writer’s Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation, she published a one-act play about the Christine Blasey Ford hearings, titled Advice and Consent (LARB Books 2019) and was named a finalist for the National Magazine Awards in Fiction. Her scholarly work focuses on Community Constitutionalism, Criminal Law, Property Law, Gender Justice, and Law and Literature. Professor Murray has published in a number of law journals, where her most recent work concerns FEMA’s failures in Puerto Rico. As a novelist and art critic, she has published six books and won a 1999 Whiting Writer’s Award. Her seventh novel, Art Is Everything, is being published by TriQuarterly Books. When she is not teaching, reading, or writing, Murray enjoys running, photography, painting, and eating. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

After Genna’s husband betrays her, she finds a way to spend six months writing a cookbook based on the city of Paris. In this lighthearted women’s fiction, Cram’s protagonist pairs both famous and lesser-known Parisian landmarks with often mouth-watering sounding recipes. < Back Love Among the Recipes Carol M. Cram April 20, 2021 Today I talked to Carol Cram about her new book Love Among the Recipes (New Arcadia Publishing, 2020). After Genna’s husband betrays her, she finds a way to spend six months writing a cookbook based on the city of Paris. In this lighthearted women’s fiction, Cram’s protagonist pairs both famous and lesser-known Parisian landmarks with often mouth-watering sounding recipes. Genna shops and cooks, sometimes for friends, sometimes for her landlord, but always for herself. Each chapter starts with a description of a different kind of macaron in varying colors and flavors that often describe the mood of the chapter that follows. In addition to exploring Paris, making friends with people she meets in her French class, and meeting a charming widower, Genna begins to understand that she has it in her power to create her own happiness. Carol M. Cram loves the arts, food, travel, and writing novels about people who follow their passions. Three previous novels of historical fiction, The Towers of Tuscany (Lake Union Publishing, 2014) and A Woman of Note (Lake Union Publishing, 2015), and Muse on Fire (New Arcadia Publishing 2018) are also about women in the arts, and she matches her travel-inspired vignettes with pastel drawings created by her husband, Canadian artist Gregg Simpson in Pastel & Pen: Travels in Europe (New Arcadia Publishing, 2018). Carol expresses her enthusiasm for the written word, the arts, and her love of travel on Artsy Traveler ( www.artsytraveler.com ) and Art In Fiction ( www.artinfiction.com ), and on the Art In Fiction Podcast in her chats with authors who write novels inspired by the arts. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

It’s the summer of 1943 and an unexploded mortar shell kills 9-year-old Salvatore’s twin brothers. His faith is destroyed, and his family unravels, fueling fear that the Vassallo name is cursed. Salvatore and his sister, Nella, accept the help of a fascist Italian soldier, Vincenzo, who accompanies them to a new life in America. < Back How Fires End Marco Rafalà May 12, 2020 In a sad but loving tribute to his Sicilian-Italian heritage, Marco Rafala ’s debut novel How Fires End (Little A, 2019) centers on the haunting legacy of WWII on the people of a small Sicilian village. It’s the summer of 1943 and an unexploded mortar shell kills 9-year-old Salvatore’s twin brothers. His faith is destroyed, and his family unravels, fueling fear that the Vassallo name is cursed. Salvatore and his sister, Nella, accept the help of a fascist Italian soldier, Vincenzo, who accompanies them to a new life in America. But the three of them make the choice to keep their secrets hidden, and years later in America, Salvatore’s son, David, is swept up in the chaotic aftermath of their hidden pasts. This is a story about loyalty, family, and forgiveness. Marco Rafalà is a first-generation Sicilian American, novelist, musician, and writer for award-winning tabletop role-playing games (e.g. The One Ring). He earned his MFA in fiction from The New School and is a co-curator of the Guerrilla Lit Reading Series in New York City. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in the Bellevue Literary Review and LitHub. Born in Middletown, Connecticut, he now lives in Brooklyn, New York. And when not working, reading or writing, Rafalà loves walking in the cemetery with his partner. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next