Christine Butler

Short People
August 5, 2003
There's a tendency for writers to romanticize childhood. Well, Joshua Furst resists that in his stories told in the voices of different children, children who are struggling with the more awkward parts of growing up, whose lives are both picturesque and troubled. Mr. Furst makes his fiction debut with a book called Short People. Hear Furst talk about his novel with Leonard Lopate.
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Girl Cook
July 24, 2003
Former chef Hannah McCouch’s fresh and animated voice leaps off the pages of Girl Cook, a deliciously modern Cinderella story of love, sex, chefs, and the city. Hear Hannah talk about her novel with Leonard Lopate.
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The Dogs of Babel
June 25, 2003
In Carolyn Parkhurst's hot debut novel, a professor of linguistics named Paul Iverson returns home one day to find that his wife Lexy has died under strange circumstances. The only witness to the event was their dog, Lorelei. Paul suspects his wife's plunge was no accident but he thinks the only way to know for sure is to teach his dog to speak. Hear Carolyn Parkhurst talk about her novel with Leonard Lopate.
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Bangkok 8
June 10, 2003
In his latest novel Bangkok 8, John Burdett has created an unlikely mystery set in Thailand and centered on experiences of a vigilant Buddhist detective. Hear John Burdett talk about his novel with WNYC's Leonard Lopate.
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Getting Mother's Body
June 5, 2003
The enormously accomplished fiction debut from Suzan-Lori Parks, the 2002 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Getting Mother’s Body takes its place in the company of the classic works of Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker. But when it comes to an ingenious, uproarious knack for depicting the trifling, hard-luck, down-and-out souls who need a little singing and laughing and lying and praying to get through the day, Suzan-Lori Parks shares the stage with no one. Hear Suzan-Lori Parks share her debut novel with WNYC's Leonard Lopate.
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On The Nature of Human Romantic Interaction
June 2, 2003
Karl Iagnemma's literary terrain is the world of science, with its charged boundary between the rational mind and the restless heart. On The Nature of Human Romantic Interaction features eight complex, multi-layered stories where mathematicians and theoreticians, foresters and doctors, yearn to create bonds as steadfast as the equations and principles that anchor their lives. Listen as Karl Iagnemena discusses his debut collection of short stories with WNYC's Leonard Lopate.
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Links:
The Books of Summer 2003 on NPR
Summer 2002 book picks by Leonard Lopate
Read an excerpt of On The Nature of Human Romantic Interaction
Read an excerpt of Getting Mother's Body
Read an excerpt of Girl Cook