Harper Audio Presents

Maira Kalman is the illustrator of The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr., and author of And the Pursuit of Happiness and The Principles of Uncertainty. Her latest book, My Favorite Things (HarperCollins, October 2014), is a beautiful pictorial and narrative exploration of the significance of objects in our lives, drawn from her personal artifacts, recollections, and selections from the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Hear her thoughts on what it means to be an optimist, the importance of taking a walk, and her Proust book group.

Audiobook producer Caitlin Garing speaks to experienced narrator Katherine Kellgren about how she gives voice to a gargoyle, why she imitates Dame Edith Evans, and what she thinks of Neil Gaiman as a narrator.

Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim talks about his 6-overtime game against UConn and Coach Calhoun, the pros and cons of zone defense, Big East vs. ACC, and what he thinks of casting Tom Cruise to play Jack Reacher, among other things.

Richard Ford talks about how the commotion of Hurricane Sandy led him to publish another work featuring Frank Bascombe, what Emerson taught him about character, and why the middle section of TO THE LIGHTHOUSE earned the novel a spot on his desert island booklist.

In this episode we hear from authors Patricia Cornwell and David Nicholls, both with new novels available now and both with fascinating insight into character development.

Patricia Cornwell, author of FLESH AND BLOOD, the 22nd book to feature the detective Kay Scarpetta, talks with her editor, David Highfill, about how she used research into new, high tech weapons to try to trick Scarpetta, an attempt that she says always ultimately fails. And David Nicholls tells us about his desire to write a male protagonist for his new book, US, that is in direct contrast to the leading character in his previous, very popular novel, ONE DAY.

A discussion about writing genre fiction for adult and children with New York Times bestselling authors Garth Nix, author of the Old Kingdom series including the prequel Clariel, and the duo behind Ilona Andrews, author of several series including the upcoming Hidden Legacy series.

Together they talk about how they build their works, creating rules for magic and of course the genres so many of us love, science fiction and fantasy.

Lauren Oliver, the New York Times bestselling author of the Delirium trilogy, Before I Fall, and Panic, discusses her new novel ROOMS with @HarperAudio_US producer Caitlin Garing. This episode also includes an excerpt from the audio edition which is performed by Orlagh Cassidy, Barbara Caruso, Elizabeth Evans, Noah Galvin, and Cynthia Darlow.

ABOUT ROOMS

After a number of highly acclaimed New York Times bestsellers, including the Delirium trilogy and the standalone novels Before I Fall and Panic, Lauren Oliver returns with a spellbinding tale that confirms her place as one of our finest storytellers. Fueled by the same inspired feel for plot and character that drew readers to Oliver's earlier works, Rooms is a mesmerizing and suspenseful story of guilt, love, and family secrets.

Estranged patriarch Richard Walker has died, leaving behind a country house full of rooms packed with the detritus of a lifetime. His alienated family—bitter ex-wife Caroline, troubled teenage son Trenton, and unforgiving daughter Minna—have arrived for their inheritance.

But the Walkers are not alone. Alice and Sandra, two long-dead and restless ghosts, linger within the house's claustrophobic walls, bound eternally to its physical structure. Jostling for space and memory, they observe the family, trading barbs and reminiscences about their past lives. Though their voices cannot be heard, Alice and Sandra speak through the house itself—in the hiss of the radiator, a creak in the stairs, the dimming of a lightbulb.

The living and dead are haunted by painful truths that surface with explosive force. When a new ghost appears, and Trenton begins to communicate with her, the spirit and human worlds collide—with cataclysmic results.

Elegantly constructed and brilliantly paced, Rooms is an enticing and imaginative ghost story and a searing family drama that is as haunting as it is resonant.

Author, journalist and letterpress printer Alix Christie discusses her debut novel, Gutenberg's Apprentice (on-sale: September 23, 2014), with @HarperAudio_US producer Erin Wicks. This episode also includes an excerpt from the audio edition read by Robert Petkoff.

ABOUT GUTENBERG'S APPRENTICE

An enthralling literary debut that evokes one of the most momentous events in history, the birth of printing in medieval Germany—a story of invention, intrigue, and betrayal.

Youthful, ambitious Peter Schoeffer is on the verge of professional success as a scribe in Paris when his foster father, the wealthy merchant and bookseller Johann Fust, summons him home to corruption- riddled, feud-plagued Mainz to meet "a most amazing man."

Johann Gutenberg, a driven and caustic inventor, has devised a revolutionary—and, to some, blasphemous—method of bookmaking: a machine he calls a printing press. Fust is financing Gutenberg's workshop, and he orders Peter to become Gutenberg's apprentice. Resentful at having to abandon a prestigious career as a scribe, Peter begins his education in the "darkest art."

As his skill grows, so too does his admiration for Gutenberg and his dedication to their daring venture: printing copies of the Holy Bible. But when outside forces align against them, Peter finds himself torn between two father figures—the generous Fust and the brilliant, mercurial Gutenberg, who inspires Peter to achieve his own mastery.

Caught between the genius and the merchant, the old ways and the new, Peter and the men he admires must work together to prevail against overwhelming obstacles in a battle that will change history . . . and irrevocably transform them all.

Entrepreneur and journalist Shane Snow (Wired, Fast Company, The New Yorker, and cofounder of Contently)discusses his new Harper Business title, Smartcuts, with @HarperAudio_US Producer Erin Wicks. This episode also includes an excerpt from the audio edition performed by the author.

ABOUT SMARTCUTS

Entrepreneur and journalist Shane Snow (Wired, Fast Company, The New Yorker, and cofounder of Contently) analyzes the lives of people and companies that do incredible things in implausibly short time.

How do some startups go from zero to billions in mere months? How did Alexander the Great, YouTube tycoon Michelle Phan, and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon climb to the top in less time than it takes most of us to get a promotion? What do high-growth businesses, world-class heart surgeons, and underdog marketers do in common to beat the norm?

One way or another, they do it like computer hackers. They employ what psychologists call "lateral thinking: to rethink convention and break "rules" that aren't rules.

These are not shortcuts, which produce often dubious short-term gains, but ethical "smartcuts" that eliminate unnecessary effort and yield sustainable momentum. In Smartcuts, Snow shatters common wisdom about success, revealing how conventions like "paying dues" prevent progress, why kids shouldn't learn times tables, and how, paradoxically, it's easier to build a huge business than a small one.

From SpaceX to The Cuban Revolution, from Ferrari to Skrillex, Smartcuts is a narrative adventure that busts old myths about success and shows how innovators and icons do the incredible by working smarter—and how perhaps the rest of us can, too.

New York Times bestselling author Karen Abbott discusses her new novel Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy (on-sale: 9-2-14)with @HarperAudio_US Producer Erin Wicks. This episode also includes an excerpt from the audio edition performed by Karen White.

About Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy

Belle Boyd

Emma Edmonds

Rose O'Neal Greenhow

Elizabeth Van Lew

In Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, bestselling author Karen Abbott tells the spellbinding true story of four women who risked everything—their homes, their families, and their very lives—during the Civil War.

Seventeen-year-old Belle Boyd, an avowed rebel with a dangerous temper, shot a Union soldier in her home and became a courier and spy for the Confederate army, using her considerable charms to seduce men on both sides. Emma Edmonds disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union private named Frank Thompson, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the war and infiltrating enemy lines, all the while fearing that her past would catch up with her. The beautiful widow Rose O'Neal Greenhow engaged in affairs with powerful Northern politicians, used her young daughter to send information to Southern generals, and sailed abroad to lobby for the Confederacy, a journey that cost her more than she ever imagined. Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist, hid behind her proper Southern manners as she orchestrated a far-reaching espionage ring—even placing a former slave inside the Confederate White House—right under the noses of increasingly suspicious rebel detectives.

Abbott's pulse-quickening narrative weaves the adventures of these four forgotten daredevils into the tumultuous landscape of a broken America, evoking a secret world that will surprise even the most avid enthusiasts of Civil War–era history. With a cast of real-life characters, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, General Stonewall Jackson, Detective Allan Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and Emperor Napoléon III, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy shines a dramatic new light on these daring—and, until now, unsung—heroines.