Bookmarks: Authors on Their Life-Changing Encounters With Books

If you could ask Margaret Atwood one question, what would it be? We came up with a good one. In fact, we asked Atwood, Tommy Orange, Lidia Yuknavitch, Jericho Brown and many more writers and creators the same question – “What book have you read that you’d consider personally life-changing, and why?” Their answers are the subject of “Bookmarks,” a new podcast from Wisconsin Public Radio and the producers of “To The Best Of Our Knowledge.”

“Great writers are great readers. And boy do they have stories to tell. Not just about the books they write, but about the books they read,” said Charles Monroe-Kane, senior producer of “To The Best Of Our Knowledge” and “Bookmarks.” “We’ve been asking authors for years to tell a story about that one book that left a mark. And oh my God, they’re so good. Funny, sexy, surprising, poignant. So now, we’re sharing them with listeners in this special bite-sized podcast. The lineup is incredible: Alice Walker, Phillip Pullman, Anne Lamott, Orhan Pamuk, even Werner Herzog. In the end, maybe the book that marked one of these authors just might leave a mark on you. It’s about three minutes every week of awesome.”

About "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" (TTBOOK)

TTBOOK is a nationally syndicated, Peabody award-winning radio show where long-form interviews lead us to dive headlong into the deeper end of ideas. We have conversations with novelists and poets, scientists and software engineers, journalists and historians, filmmakers and philosophers, artists and activists—anyone with a big idea and a passion to have a creative and engaging conversation about it.

About Wisconsin Public Radio 

For over 100 years, Wisconsin Public Radio has served the people of Wisconsin with quality news, music, talk and entertainment. On air, online and in the community - we work for Wisconsin. WPR is a service of the Educational Communications Board and University of Wisconsin-Madison. Listen, learn more and donate at www.wpr.org. 

Catch up on previous episodes

an illustration of a knight in armor

Helen Macdonald On 'The Dark Is Rising'

Every year, at holiday time, "H is for Hawk" author Helen Macdonald reads this tale of a boy who finds out he's one of the "old ones," part of a series from author Susan Cooper. She says it reconnects her with a sense of wonder inspired by what might lurk beneath the surface of the seen world.

Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell on 'When Police Kill'

Journalist Malcolm Gladwell is famous for mining behavioral science for his work, and when it comes to better understanding the intersection of crime, violence, and policing, he turns over and over to criminologist Frank Zimring.

Robert Macfarlane on 'The Living Mountain'

Nature writer and adventurer Robert Macfarlane has given away one book more than any other volume. It's "The Living Mountain," by Scottish writer and poet Nan Shepherd.

Stanley Crouch on 'Reasons of the State'

For decades, Stanley Crouch has cut a singular path through American culture as a cultural critic and an intellectual mentor to jazz figures like Wynton Marsalis. For all of his intellectual virtuosity, we were still surprised to discover the book that Crouch wanted to recommend: Alejo Carpentier’s “Reasons of State.”

chris ware on "society is nix"

Chris Ware on 'Society Is Nix'

When he’s not drawing, Chris Ware likes to read and look at vintage comics. He highly recommends a book that defies even his powers of description — a folio-sized reproduction of some of America’s first newspaper cartoons, made long before super-heroes and adventure stories took over the medium. Back then, he says, the medium could be anything — and was.

Cheryl Strayed

Cheryl Strayed on 'Love & Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere'

Cheryl Strayed’s "Wild" is one of the most famous wilderness memoirs of our time. She especially appreciates writers who combine honesty with emotional intensity — writers who reveal themselves unflinchingly on the page. She recommends a memoir by the writer Poe Ballantine.

"The Earthsea Trilogy" by Ursula LeGuin
"The Dark Is Rising" by Susan Cooper
The Blue Sword
Gene Smith's Sink by Sam Stephenson
"The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner
"Borne" by Jeff VanderMeer
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys