KGNU Radio Book Club

In this edition of Afterhours at the Radio Book Club, author Nina McConigley talks more about growing up as an immigrant in 1980s Wyoming, and navigating an Indian, Irish, American identity. 

The May 2026 installment of the Radio Book Club, a collaboration between KGNU and the Boulder Bookstore, is How to Commit a Post Colonial Murder, by author Nina McConigley. The book is set in 1986 in rural Wyoming and tells the story of two sisters Georgie Ayyar and Agatha Krishna as they plot to murder their uncle to end a cycle of abuse. The book is darkly funny and explores themes of identity, immigration, sisterhood and 1980s Wyoming.

Listen to more of our conversation with Laura Pritchett where she talks more about nature writing and the urgency for literature to address the climate crisis. 

The April 2026 selection for the Radio Book Club is "Three Keys" by Colorado author Laura Pritchett. The novel follows Ammalie, a recently widowed woman who sets out on a journey across the Mountain West and eventually to New Zealand. Along the way, she begins to reconsider her role as a mother, what it means to be a woman in her fifties, and how to navigate life after the loss of her husband.

The three keys in the title refer both to literal keys that give Ammalie access to empty homes during her travels, and to three significant people in her life, as well as the new connections she forms along the way.

The novel explores themes of grief, invisibility, middle age and self-discovery.

This interview was broadcast on KGNU at 9 am on Thursday, April 23, 2026.

In this edition of Afterhours at the Radio Book Club, author Thea Weiss answers questions from the audience. This episode was recorded at Chautauqua as part of the inaugural Boulder Bookstore Reading Retreat on Sunday, March 1st, 2026. Thea talks more about her debut novel The Second Chance Cinema, and how her background as a screen writer influenced the book.

The March 2026 selection for the Radio Book Club is "The Second Chance Cinema" by Thea Weiss. The novel blends magical realism and  romance, telling the story of Ellie and Drake, an engaged couple preparing for their wedding. When they stumble upon a mysterious, seemingly abandoned movie theater, they find it’s anything but empty. Inside, films begin to roll, but instead of fictional stories on the screen, they see movies of their own pasts, revealing secrets each has kept hidden, not only from each other, but from themselves. This episode was recorded at Chautauqua as part of the inaugural Boulder Bookstore Reading Retreat on Sunday, March 1st, 2026.

This interview was broadcast on KGNU at 9 am on Thursday, March 26, 2026.

In this episode of Afterhours at the Radio Book Club, Peter Heller answers questions from the audience at the event that was recorded at the Boulder Public Library on Thursday, January 15th, 2026. Peter talks about his writing process, the upcoming movie version of his novel The Dog Stars, and his favorite places to visit in Boulder.

The February episode of the Radio Bookclub features The Orchard, the latest novel by best-selling author Peter Heller. The story's protagonist is Frith, a little girl who lives with her mother, Hayley, on a remote Vermont apple orchard. The story weaves in strands of Chinese poetry to explore memory, loss and the enduring complexity of love between parent and child. This episode was recorded at the Boulder Public Library on Thursday, January 15th, 2026.

In this episode of Afterhours at the Radio Bookclub, author Edward Hamlin talks more about the inspiration for his novel Sonata in Wax, including how the Spanish Flu pandemic and a tuberculosis outbreak ravaged Boston.

The January 2026 selection for the Radio Bookclub is "Sonata in Wax," by Edward Hamlin. The book weaves together two timelines: a contemporary story in 2018 about a music producer in Chicago, and a story set during World War I in Boston and France, that focuses on a mysterious, lost sonata recorded on wax cylinders.

In 2018, Ben Weil, the music producer, attempts to recreate the sonata that is recorded on the wax cylinders, and discovers more than he could have anticipated about the composer and performer.