By Jon Menaster : Lover of Literature
Read Learn Live Podcast - Improve Yourself Through Literature
Go Tell the Crocodiles explores the efforts of ordinary people to provide for themselves where foreign aid, the formal economy, and the government have fallen short. I tell the story of contemporary Mozambique through the stories of people on the...
A brilliant, fierce writer makes her debut with this enthralling travelogue and memoir of her journey by bicycle along the Silk Road—an illuminating and thought-provoking fusion of The Places in Between, Lab Girl, and Wild that dares us to challenge...
After months of disturbing behavior, Gardner Quinn has vanished. Her older sister Fredericka is desperate to find her, but Fred is also pregnant—miraculously so, in a near-future America struggling with infertility. So she entrusts the job to their brother, Carter....
Bina has never forgotten the time she and her mother ran away from home. Her mother promised they would hitchhike to the city to escape Bina’s cruel father and start over. But before they could even leave town, Bina had...
Meet Rainy Cain, a tough, smart seventeen-year-old whose primary instinct is survival. That instinct is tested when her life is upended by the sudden appearance of her father, Sam, who she thought was long dead, but instead had been in...
Mike Reiss has won four Emmys and a Peabody Award during his twenty-eight years writing for “The Simpsons”. He ran the show in Season 4, which Entertainment Weekly called “the greatest season of the greatest show in history.” Mike co-created...
After a chance encounter with an obscure Middle Eastern red, journalist Kevin Begos embarks on a ten-year journey to seek the origins of wine. What he unearths is a whole world of forgotten grapes, each with distinctive tastes and aromas,...
Bill Kelly studied philosophy at NYU and UC Berkeley and then left the U.S. at 26 for travel and adventure. Unexpectedly, Bill ended up living abroad for almost 25 years, five years of which was spent traveling with little money...
From forest trails in Korea, to islands in Finland, to eucalyptus groves in California, Florence Williams investigates the science behind nature’s positive effects on the brain. Delving into brand-new research, she uncovers the powers of the natural world to improve...
In this “revelation” of a biography (USA TODAY), a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist examines the life and times of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, arguing she left behind the Kennedy family’s most profound political legacy.While Joe Kennedy was grooming his sons for the...
A radical, optimistic exploration of how humans evolved to develop reason, consciousness, and free will. Lately, the most passionate advocates of the theory of evolution seem to present it as bad news. Scientists such as Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, and Sam...
James Van Der Zee was just a young boy when he saved enough money to buy his first camera. He took photos of his family, classmates, and anyone who would sit still for a portrait. By the fifth grade, James...
Born into a world of magic wielders without any powers of her own, Keriya Nameless isn’t exactly hero material, yet she’s chosen to save the last living dragon. She doesn’t know why it happened, and frankly she doesn’t care—this is...
How can you reconcile yourself with the lives you will never lead, with possibilities foreclosed, and with nostalgia for lost youth? How can you accept the failings of the past, the sense of futility in the tasks that consume the...
Set in the early 1990s, All The Castles Burned is about Owen Webb, the son of working-class parents, receives a scholarship to the prestigious Rockcastle Preparatory Academy. He is befriended by the enigmatic Carson Bly, an upperclassman from a wealthy...
The Stowaway is the spectacular, true story of a scrappy teenager from New York’s Lower East Side who stowed away on the Roaring Twenties’ most remarkable feat of science and daring: an expedition to Antarctica. It was 1928: a time of...
In a word-drunk romp through an alternate, preapocalyptic America, Ana Simo’s fiction debut, Heartland, turns the classic murder mystery on its head with the story of a thwarted author’s elaborate revenge on the woman who stole her lover, blending elements...
It’s tough living in the 21st century, when mythical beings not only roam the earth, but camp out on your sofa and raid your refrigerator. Jobs are scarce; angels infest Brooklyn (the demons have taken all the good property in...
Tatiana “Pluta” Spektor was a mostly happy, if awkward, young girl–until her sociologist father was disappeared during Argentina’s Dirty War. Sent a world away by her grieving mother to attend boarding school outside New York City, Pluta wrestles alone with...
In this glittering tale of forgotten treasures and long-held secrets, international bestseller Karen Swan explores one woman’s journey to discovering the truth behind an abandoned apartment and a family whose mysteries may be better left undiscovered. When high-powered fine art agent...
For anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky and wondered, “Are we alone?” Sarah Scoles examines the science behind the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and its pioneer, Jill Tarter, the inspiration for the main character in Carl...
Dr. Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff is an international sports writer, historian, and consultant, working at the intersections of sports, international affairs, and global communications. The author of The Making of Les Bleus: Sport in France, 1958-2010, her work on how identity,...
In this episode, Jon interviews Chelsea Marshall and Mary Dauterman about their book, What Are We Even Doing With Our Lives? In this a charming, satirical “children’s” book, BuzzFeed’s animals editor turned video producer and acclaimed art director/illustrator poke fun at...
Supriya Kelkar was born and raised in the Midwest. She learned Hindi as a child by watching three Bollywood films a week. After college she realized her lifelong dream of working in the film industry when she got a job...
C. A. Higgins writes novels and short stories. She was a runner-up in the 2013 Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing and has a B.A. in physics from Cornell University. She lives in Brooklyn,...
Michelle Young is a graduate of Harvard College in the History of Art and Architecture and holds a master’s degree in urban planning from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she is an Adjunct Professor of...
Naomi Pitcairn is an artist and activist committed to advancing the urgent social issues of our times. She is passionate about the rights of immigrants, whistleblowers, native americans and other oppressed minorities. Using disruptive art projects and purposeful pranks along...
Krystal was the former Chief Marketing Officer and advisor to the board for Honey Bun Limited when she resigned to go on a journey to answer the questions that consumed her. Through her Eat-Pray-Love-esque journey, she not only found the...
Malik Wade has lived three lives. As a teenager, he was an enterprising drug dealer. As a young man, he was a fugitive from the FBI and eventually a prison inmate. As an adult, Malik transformed his life to...
Andrew Ervin is the author of the novels Burning Down George Orwell’s House and Extraordinary Renditions. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and many other places. He lives in Philadelphia and teaches at Temple University In...
Jon Ramer is a space artist, writer, President of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, Fellow IAAA member, retired military officer, avid photographer and world traveller. IAAA/Jon Ramer’s Patreon page for the new book, Our Alien Earth.
Ward Regan has a Ph.D. in Labor and Cultural History from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He teaches history and philosophy at New York University’s Liberal Studies Program. He edited and contributed to Great Books Written...
John F. Simon, Jr. is a visual artist and author of “Drawing Your Own Path” (Parallax Press, 2016) As one of the pioneers in the development of Software Art, his seminal work “Every Icon” was included in the 2000 Whitney...
Massimo is a philosopher of science and evolutionary biologist at the City College of New York. He holds PhDs in genetics, evolutionary biology, and philosophy. His areas of research include the nature of evolutionary theory and the phenomenon of...
Eileen Merwin has been fortunate to write and publish fables and other assorted forms of offbeat fiction for both children and adults. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College– and has been published in acclaimed children’s magazines...
Deepak Unnikrishnan is a writer from Abu Dhabi and a resident of the States, who has lived in Teaneck, New Jersey, Brooklyn, New York and Chicago, Illinois. He has studied and taught at the Art Institute of Chicago and presently...
Dr. Lloyd Sederer is Chief Medical Officer of the New York State Office of Mental Health, the nation’s largest state mental health system; Adjunct Professor at the Columbia/Mailman School of Public Health; Medical Editor for Mental Health at The Huffington...
Who would have guessed a former surf shop owner would ever become the award-winning author of 22 books and a corporate training working with companies large and small? Nobody. Yet, that’s what Lee Silber did—and he did it by believing...
John Kaag is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and is the author of American Philosophy: A Love Story, published in October by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, that was recently named an New York Times Editors’ Choice...
Cecilia Galante is the author of three middle grade novels, three young-adult novels, an 8-book chapter book series, and two adult novels. Her first book, The Patron Saint of Butterflies, published in 2008, was the recipient of numerous awards, including...
Born José Miguel Sánchez Gómez, YOSS assumed his pen name in 1988, when he won the Premio David in the science fiction category for Timshel. Together with his peculiar pseudonym, the author’s aesthetic of an impenitent rocker has allowed him...
In this episode Jon speaks with Francis J. Greenburger, author of Risk Game: Portrait of an Entrepreneur. Francis J. Greenburger is the founder and CEO of Time Equities, Inc., a multibillion-dollar real estate investment and development company, as well as chairman...
In this episode Jon speaks with William Irwin, author of Free Dakota. William Irwin is Herve A. LeBlanc Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of Philosophy at King’s College and is the author of the Free Market Existentialist: Capitalism without Consumerism. He...
In this episode Jon speaks with Tracey Baptiste. This is part two of a two part discussion. Tracey Baptiste, M. Ed. is the author of the middle grade novel THE JUMBIES and its forthcoming sequel. She is also the author of...
In this episode Jon speaks with Tracey Baptiste. This is part one of a two part discussion. Tracey Baptiste, M. Ed. is the author of the middle grade novel THE JUMBIES and its forthcoming sequel. She is also the author of...
In this episode Jon speaks with Skye Cleary. Skye C. Cleary PhD MBA is a philosopher and author of Existentialism and Romantic Love published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2015. Skye teaches at Columbia University, Barnard College, the City University of New...
In this episode Jon speaks with Nate Waggoner. Nate Waggoner is the author of Dilettantes and Heartless Manipulators, a novel from Snow Goose Press. He is the co-editor of The-Tusk.com, on which he and his ex-girlfriend co-host the Invitation to Love...