5 Great Podcasts for Book Lovers

Bookable is a brand-new podcast from Amanda Stern, author of, among other books, Little Panic: Dispatches From an Anxious Life and founder of a live music and reading series that's run at Joe's Pub in New York City for 15 years. Stern uses her literary chops to explore books through author interviews, while cleverly incorporating sound. As she speaks with Susan Choi about Choi's recent novel Trust Exercise, for instance, Stern weaves clips from songs, quotes from the author and bits from movies around the principal conversation, creating a kind of ambient noise that, I've found, doesn't distract. It's like listening to a really delicious night of live theater for readers.

Just the Right Book

If you're interested in relevant nonfiction, listen to Just the Right Book with Roxane Coady, once the owner and principal buyer for R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut. She knows books at a molecular level; when she chooses a title, you can be sure it's important, and also electrifying. Coady's broad Atlantic Coast accent combined with her firm ideas and interjections mean the podcast has a distinct identity — but she never gets in the way of the authors she hosts. Whether it's Ta-Nehisi Coates, Sylvia Ann Hewlett or Erik Larson, she focuses on the authors and their work with knowledge, warmth and engagement.

Marlon & Jake Read Dead People

If backlist titles make you happy, try this one, with Marlon James and Jake Morrissey. James, the award-winning author of 2015's A Brief History of Seven Killings, among other novels, talks with his “relentlessly critical” editor at Riverhead Books, Jake Morrissey. The two men have completely different backgrounds and tastes, but their long collaboration means they can throw ideas back and forth until they've reached a conclusion — or at least a punch line. Their unscripted, entertaining podcasts have earned them a big audience, with more than 140,000 downloads.