In Episode 4 of the Books on the Nightstand Podcast: Ann discovers the world of Reading Challenges. Use some of these links to explore for yourself A Novel Challenge - A list of all reading challenges in the blogosphere. This a great place to start. A Novel Challenge Yahoo Group - Join this group to discuss reading challenges, track your own reading, and get updates on new challenges. Canadian Book Challenge - also contains fabulous lists of Canadian novels arranged by Province. And this one offers great prizes! Orbis Terrarum Challenge - for the internationally-minded; read 9 books, each by an author from a different nation What's in a Name Challenge - a clever challenge hosted by a very sophisticated 11 year old In the last episode, Michael issued his own challenge to Ann: read an entire graphic novel. Ann did, and talks about the experience. If you think you don't like graphic novels, our podcast may be enlightening. And we preview two new books that hit the shelves on May 13th: The Boat, by Nam Le and The Steel Wave, by Jeff Shaara. Full details of the books discussed are at our blog: www.booksonthenightstand.com Please visit us there.

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In Episode 3 of the Books on the Nightstand Podcast:Michael tells us about his weekend at Comic-Con, and Ann makes a shocking confession.We discuss the bad rap given to short stories, and talk about our favorite story collections. If you think you don't like short stories, we dare you to give one of these a try!And we preview two new books that hit the shelves on May 6th: Skeletons at the Feast, by Chris Bohjalian and The Mysterious Montague, by Lee Montville. The story about Unaccustomed Earth debuting on the New York Times Bestseller list at #1 appeared on the New York Times' Paper Cuts blog on April 10. The essay about short stories that Michael referenced is from Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends.Full details of the books discussed are at our blog: http://www.booksonthenightstand.com -- please visit us there.

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In Episode 2 of the Books on the Nightstand Podcast, we first discuss a recent essay in the New York Times Book Review, It's Not You, It's Your Books by Rachel Donadio.  Can you find true love if your significant other has bad taste in books? Then we spend a few minutes talking about some of our favorite authors.  Michael likes William Boyd and Jonathan Lethem; Ann's favorites are Ian McEwan and Valerie Martin.  Ann shows her cultural illiteracy by confusing John Lithgow with John Malkovich (it was Malkovich that starred in Mary Reilly, of course). In the last segment, we preview two books that have just been or will soon published in the next few weeks:  Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (on sale today) and Peace by Richard Bausch (on sale April 15th).Full details of the books discussed are at our blog: http://www.booksonthenightstand.com My Odeo Channel (odeo/94923040ca0e85ba) My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-147ce1d500edca3a97cb80e25a5de496}

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Introducing Books on the Nightstand -- who we are, and what we are all about.In this episode, we talk about the concept of "comfort reading", rereading beloved books, and Michael discovers the perfect read for "Pi Day."All information about the Books on the Nightstand podcast is available at on our blog at www.booksonthenightstand.com

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