Novelist Meg Wolitzer talks with Steve Bertrand on Books about summer camp, the need to be special, and her latest novel, The Interestings.

What do you get when you mix The Merchant of Venice and Othello with Edgar Allen Poe? Only Christopher Moore knows. He explains himself and his latest, hilarious, book, The Serpent of Venice, with Steve Bertrand on Books.

Irish novelist Sebastian Barry writes about his maternal grandfather in this latest novel, The Temporary Gentlemen. He talks with Steve Bertrand on Books about growing up with the man, later alienating him and ultimately writing his story. Barry also considers what it is about Ireland the makes for such great writers.

Bruce Weber talks with Steve Bertrand on Books about his cross country bicycle trip, omnipresent social media and writing obits for the New York Times. His latest book, Life is a Wheel, is an account of his ride from Oregon to New York, with a stop in Chicago in between.

Anne Perry talks with Steve Bertrand on Books about her latest Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novel: Death on Blackheath.

Chicago author Alexai Galaviz-Budziszewski talks with Steve Bertrand on Books on growing up in Pilsen, the inner joy of writing and the ghost of Nelson Algren.

What will your legacy be? How much say will you have in it? Those are among the questions posed in Margaret Hawkins’ novel “Lydia’s Party.” She talks with Steve Bertrand on Books on being remembered, on writing and on listening-in on the conversation one table over.

Alice Hoffman’s talks with Steve Bertrand on Books about her latest novel, “The Museum of Extraordinary Things,” Coney Island’s influence on America and Ray Bradbury’s influence on her.

Kenan Trebincevic was 12-years-old when his small Bosnian town was ripped apart by civil war and ethnic cleansing. He was a Muslim kid, which meant he faced possible death every day. His father and brother were hauled off to camps. They survived and escaped to Queens. Twenty years later, they went back. Kenan talks with Steve Bertrand on Books about his memoir of that trip, “The Bosnia List.”

Novelist Robin Oliveira talks with Steve Bertrand on Books about “I Always Loved You,” a fictional look at the relationship between American artist Mary Cassatt and French Impressionist Edgar Degas. Robin talks about the early days of the Impressionists in Paris, the magic of research and sharing a character with Nancy Horan’s novel “Under the Wide and Starry Sky.”