KCRW's Bookworm

Ben Lerner is a novelist/poet who writes about the way we live now, which is not the way we used to live.

Ben Lerner is a novelist/poet who writes about the way we live now, which is not the way we used to live.

Darnielle titled his novel after a back-masked message in Larry Norman’s song “Six Sixty Six.” He reflects on our desire to locate meaning where there might be none.

Darnielle titled his novel after a back-masked message in Larry Norman?s song ?Six Sixty Six.? He reflects on our desire to locate meaning where there might be none.

Unlike Coe?s other comedic novels, here the humor has a nostalgic feel, reminiscent of 1950s British films like Hitchcock?s The Lady Vanishes.

Mitchell?s new novel follows his protagonist from 1984-2040; he reflects on mortality in a world that doesn?t much smile upon the aging process.

This is the third in a trilogy of graphic novels by Burns in which the seemingly normal happenings of his protagonist Doug's life take an unsettling Freudian turn.

This is the third in a trilogy of graphic novels by Burns in which the seemingly normal happenings of his protagonist Doug's life take an unsettling Freudian turn.

Landis? novel, a series of chronological short-stories, follows the lives of three vulnerable, precocious girls as they pass through adolescence in 1970s New York.

Flanagan’s Booker-nominated novel, titled after a travelogue written by 17 th  century Japanese poet Basho, follows the building of the Burma-Siam Railway during WWII.

Flanagan?s Booker-nominated novel, titled after a travelogue written by 17th century Japanese poet Basho, follows the building of the Burma-Siam Railway during WWII.

Our discussion of this anthology, written by incarcerated men and women, divides between the shocking realism of the stories and Oates? experience as editor of the collection.

Antrim?s collection of stories stems from his own experience with psychosis; we all have our turn in the barrel, he notes, and sometimes you're really turned upside down.

What exactly made Ulysses so dangerous? Like an eye into the future, this difficult, all-consuming book still seems radical almost a century after its publication.

Kevin Birmingham delves into the history of censorship surrounding the publication of James Joyce?s Ulysses for its seemingly seditious, immoral content.