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

A Tale of Love and Darkness

Israel Story radio host Mishy Harman recommends "A Tale of Love and Darkness" by Amos Oz.

What Hath God Wrought cover

When and how did American get so polarized? For answers, Jonathan Chait recommends reading "What Hath God Wrought,"  a history of American politics from 1815-1848 by the Pulitzer prize-winning historian Daniel Walker Howe.

Blues People

Alex Abramovich recommends "Blues People: Negro Music in White America" by Leroi Jones, who later changed his name to Amiri Baraka.

"The Days Of Abandonment" by Elena Ferrante

Alissa Quart recommends Elena Ferrante's "Days of Abandonment" and Elizabeth Hardwick's "Sleepless Nights."

Choreogapher Bill T. Jones recommends Lawrence Weschler's biography of Robert Irwin, an artist who spent his career attempting to capture the subjectivity of the act of experiencing the world around us.

Stephen Burn recommends David Foster Wallace's critically-acclaimed novel, "Infinite Jest." The book was published 20 years ago, on February 1st, 1996.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Blue Sword
The Peregrine by J.A. Baker
Street Through Time by Anne Millard
'A Confederacy of Dunces' by John Kennedy Toole
"The Earthsea Trilogy" by Ursula LeGuin
Anna Karenina
The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike