Teddy Wayne talks about his new novel The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, about an 11-year-old icon of bubblegum pop, whose image, voice, and even hairdo have been relentlessly molded into a perfect consumerism package. But underneath it all, Jonny is still a vulnerable young boy who is confused and perplexed by life.

Pulitzer Prize winner Dave Barry talks about his latest novel, Insane City, a dark comic story of a destination wedding in Florida. The groom and his friends become embroiled with rioters, Russian gangsters, angry strippers, a pimp as big as the Death Star, a very desperate Haitian refugee on the run with her two children from some very bad men, and an eleven-foot albino Burmese python named Blossom.

Michael Dahlie talks about his novel, The Best of Youth. What happens when an introverted young writer takes on a ghostwriting gig for a violent, drug-addicted Hollywood star? In the case of Henry Lang, the result is a string of outrageous but comic disasters.

Adam Mansbach, author of the bestselling Go the F*ck to Sleep, talks about his new novel, Rage Is Back, a tale of revenge, redemption, and the golden era of subway graffiti.

Ann Leary talks about her new novel, The Good House. It’s a classic New England tale about the secrets of a small town on the rocky coast of Boston’s North Shore about Hildy, a busy mother and grandmother who is also an alcoholic.

Joyce Carol Oates has been called one of the most quintessentially American writers. She’s also one of the most prolific, with more than 70 books to her name. The Leonard Lopate Show has selected her 2007 novel "The Gravedigger’s Daughter" for the next Book Club read.

Pulitzer Prize-winner and MacArthur Fellow Junot Diaz talks about his book of stories, This Is How You Lose Her. It’s about love—obsessive love, illicit love, fading love, maternal love. At the heart of these stories is Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness—and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses.

Louise Erdrich discusses her new novel, The Round House, which was awarded the 2012 National Book Award for Fiction. The story is set on a reservation in North Dakota, and is about a 13-year-old boy whose life is irrevocably transformed after his mother is attacked.

Lawrence Norfolk discusses his new historical novel, John Saturnall’s Feast. It tells the story of a young orphan who becomes a kitchen boy at a manor house, then rises through the ranks to become the greatest cook of his generation. It is a story of food, star-crossed lovers, ancient myths and one man’s rise from outcast to hero.
(Originally aired October 2, 2012)

Karen Englemann talks about her debut novel, The Stockholm Octavo. It’s about Emil Larsson, a bureaucrat in the Office of Customs and Excise in 1791 Stockholm, whose life changes when a fortune teller shares with him a vision of his future.

On the Media’s Bob Garfield talks about his new novel, Bedfellows. Jack Schiavone wants to rebuild his life after an embezzlement scandal saw him drummed out of his high-paying advertising job. So he’s reinvented himself as “Mr. Mattress,” a discount bedding franchisee in Ebbets Beach, Brooklyn. He has a nice, quiet life until he gets sucked into a simmering mob war.

Jay Neugeboren talks about his latest novel, The Other Side of the World. It’s a grand, episodic novel that moves from the lush forests of Borneo to coastal Maine.

A. M. Homes discusses her new novel, May We Be Forgiven. It’s a darkly comic novel of 21st-century suburban domestic life and the possibility of personal transformation.

A. M. Homes was here to talk about her latest novel. She shares a few of her favorite things.

At the Miami Book Fair International, five novelists sat down to talk about love: why it’s so appealing to read about, so hard to write about, and why we can’t get enough of it. It's the final part of our Love and Death series.