Sunday 16:00-16:30, repeated Thursday 16:00-16:30, except first Sunday in the month when it is replaced by Book Club.
Open Book spotlights new fiction and non-fiction, picks out the best of the paperbacks, talks to authors and publishers, and unearths lost masterpieces.
This week
16 November 2008 and 20 November 2008
Shena Mackay on the art of the short story; why American reading habits are more high-minded than ours; and could books help beat the credit crunch?
Shena Mackay
Shena Mackay is perhaps best known for her novels Heligoland, shortlisted for the Orange prize five years ago, and her Booker-nominated The Orchard on Fire. But she's also been widely praised for her entertaining and often mordant short stories. She talks to Mariella about her new collection of stories, and why she finds embarrassment such a powerful fictional tool.
Shena Mackay: The Atmospheric Railway is published by Jonathan Cape.
Divided by a Common Language
This week's bestseller charts are dominated by celebrity memoirs by TV stars and musicians. But strangely, American readers seem to be immune to this craze, instead preferring books about politics and history. Mariella is joined by John Freeman and Joel Rickett to discuss why.
Can Books Beat the Stock Market?
Mariella talks to Richard Davies of the second-hand booksellers' website Abebooks.com to find out whether books could be a better long-term investment than stocks and shares.
The Reading Clinic
Diane Roberts offers advice to a listener who's enjoyed the novels of Willa Cather and would like more tales of American pioneer life.
Jane Smiley: A Thousand Acres Publisher: Harper Perennial
James Fennimore Cooper: The Prairie Publisher: State University New York Publishing
Lydia Maria Child: Hobomok Publisher: Kessinger Publishing Co
Catherine Maria Sedgwick: Hope Leslie Publisher: Kessinger Publishing Co
If you have a query for the Reading Clinic, why not send it to [email protected]
