Fully Booked by Kirkus Reviews

It's the second annual Fully Booked Holiday Gift Guide Extravaganza! Editor-in-chief Tom Beer joins Megan in rounding up all the books you’ll want to give (and get) this December. Guests include Toshi Reagon, author of an introduction to a gorgeous new edition of Octavia Butler’s “Parable” novels, and Vicky Bennison, author of Pasta Grannies, a story-filled cookbook that’ll have you whipping up gnocchi like a nonna in no time. Then our editors join with their top gift picks, including books by Anouck Boisrobert (illus. by Louis Rigaud, trans. by Kevin St. John), Nahoko Uehashi (trans. by Cathy Hirano), Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns, and the editors at Phaidon Press.

In the second of two special episodes recorded live at the Texas Book Festival, Editor-in-Chief Tom Beer joins Megan to moderate the Kirkus Prize Panel, featuring the winners and finalists of this year’s awards for fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature. Young readers literature winner Jerry Craft, nonfiction winner Saeed Jones, and Kirkus Prize finalists Carolina De Robertis, Laila Lalami, Kwame Alexander, Kadir Nelson, Lauren Castillo, Rosalind Harvey, and Alicia D. Williams each share a little bit about their celebrated work. Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, including books by Cece Bell, Geraldine McCaughrean, Prince (with Dan Pipenbring), and Kevin Wilson.

Law professor and bankruptcy expert Jodie Adams Kirshner discusses Broke: Hardship and Resilience in a City of Broken Promises, which Kirkus calls, “Eye-opening and sometimes heartbreaking …. A significant work of social sciences and urban studies” (starred review). Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, including books by Kwame Mbalia, Lance Rubin, and Leigh Bardugo.

Ambassador Samantha Power joins Megan in conversation for this special episode of Fully Booked, recorded live for CSPAN2/BookTV at the Texas Book Festival in October. Power’s phenomenal autobiography, The Education of an Idealist, charts her rise to Washington insider, serving beside President Barack Obama on National Security Council and, later, as the U.S.’s 28th Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Bold, humane, and incredibly personal, The Education of an Idealist should be required reading for anyone who wants to make a difference in the world. Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, including books by Alan Gratz, ed. Sangu Mandanna, Ronan Farrow, and Talia Hibbert.

Fire signs Alex Dimitrov and Dorothea Lasky join us on this week’s episode to discuss poetry, the zeitgeist, and their hotly anticipated new book, Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac. This compelling compendium (think Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs, updated for the Beyoncé years) extends the collaborative wit, lyricism, and heart of their viral Twitter account @poetastrologers. Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, including books by Lupita Nyong'o (illus. by Vashti Harrison), Cynthia Hand, Elton John, and Elizabeth Strout. This week also features a sponsored indie interview with Teri Case.

On this week’s episode, New Yorker staffer, sustainability expert, and tinnitus sufferer David Owen discusses the fascinating science of sound. His latest book, Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World, is a peek into the complicated machinery of the inner ear, a history of American Sign Language and deaf education, and an entreaty to listeners to protect their ears. Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, including books by Kate DiCamillo, Camryn Garrett, and Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.

Two-time Grammy nominee, music journalist, and professor Holly George-Warren joins us on this week’s episode to discuss the bold and brilliant life of the legendary Janis Joplin. George-Warren’s latest, Janis: Her Life and Music, is “A top-notch biography of one of the greatest performers to emerge from a brilliant era” (*starred review*). Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, including books by Ibtihaj Muhammad (with S.K. Ali, illus. by Hatem Aly), Ruta Sepetys, Garrett Graff, and Ann Patchett.

Award-winning poet and former BuzzFeed culture editor Saeed Jones joins us to discuss his exquisite memoir, How We Fight for Our Lives. His story of growing up black and gay in the South in the Nineties and Aughts, “marks the emergence of a major literary voice,” Kirkus writes in a starred review. (Nonfiction editor Eric Liebetrau calls it one of the best memoirs he’s ever read, period.) Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, including books by Ashley Bryan, Tochi Onyebuchi, Jim Mattis, and Cathleen Schine.

We’re just two weeks away from this year’s Kirkus Prize ceremony in Austin, Texas! On October 24, three of the authors of this year’s best books, as determined by judges’ panels comprised of eminent writers, Kirkus critics, booksellers, and librarians, will take home $50,000 each. In this special episode of Fully Booked, editor-in-chief Tom Beer interviews Kirkus Prize writer-judges Min Jin Lee (fiction), Jack E. Davis (nonfiction), and Mitali Perkins (young readers’ literature) about the responsibility of judging, the deliberation process, what makes a book prizeworthy, and much more. You won’t want to miss this behind-the-scenes look at one of the richest literary awards in the world.

#1 New York Times-bestselling YA author Leigh Bardugo joins us on this week’s episode to discuss her hotly anticipated adult debut, Ninth House, a literary fantasy set in a spooky world not unlike New Haven, Connecticut... Starring Galaxy “Alex” Stern, a high school dropout from LA who’s recruited to oversee the occult activities of Yale University’s secret societies, Ninth House is a “compulsively readable novel [that] leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels,” Kirkus writes (*starred review*). Then our editors join with their reading recommendations for the week, including books by Jason Reynolds, Kim Liggett, Malcolm Gladwell, and Margaret Atwood.