Best Elin Hilderbrand Podcasts (2024)

1
EP69: Keanu Reeves, Elin Hilderbrand, and the Book of the Year? 47:56

14d ago47:56

47:56

It's summer for real now, and we're hyped for our upcoming event at Hastings House in Beverly Farms, featuring four summer-read authors. This is a legit literary genre at this point, folks. So we fire things up with Elin Hilderbrand's final (maybe) summer novel, fittingly titled "Swan Song." What makes this new literary tradition so attractive? Sam…

1
Elin Hilderbrand on Her Final Nantucket Summer Book 37:38

22d ago37:38

37:38

For many years now, Elin Hilderbrand has published a novel every summer set on the island of Nantucket. With her 30th book, 'Swan Song,' the bestselling author says she will step off that hamster wheel and try something new. On this week's episode, she and host Gilbert Cruz talk about her career, what she's reading, and what's next.…

1
Book Club: 'Headshot,' by Rita Bullwinkel 34:06

1d ago34:06

34:06

Rita Bullwinkel’s impressive debut novel, “Headshot,” follows eight teenagers fighting in the Daughters of America Cup, a youth women’s boxing tournament staged in a dilapidated gym in Reno. Each chapter details a match between fighters, bout after bout, until finally a champion is declared. We are thrown into the high-octane theater of each fight,…

1
EP70: The Mayflower, Blood Quantum, and Great Sandwiches 38:39

2h ago38:39

38:39

Sam has been doing research into the family tree, which is largely irrelevent, but does have him fired up to talk books. Hannah's right there with him, with brand-new reads hot off the presses. But we're not quite done with "Fire Exit" yet and start things out with some closing thoughts and a great deal more context (the Press Herald reviewer that …

1
Emma Straub 50:34

2d ago50:34

50:34

Emma Straub is the New York Times best-selling author of This Time Tomorrow, All Adults Here, The Vacationers, and Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures. Elin and Tim dig in deep on being the daughter of novelist Peter Straub, growing up in New York City, her writing education and origin story, debut novels, time travel (Elin, Tim, and Emma travel back t…

1
Griffin Dunne on His Joyful and Tragic Family Memoir 37:50

7d ago37:50

37:50

Every family has its stories, and every family has its drama — and some families, like the one the actor and director Griffin Dunne was born into, have an excess of both. His uncle was the writer John Gregory Dunne, his aunt was Joan Didion and his father was Dominick Dunne, who became famous for his Vanity Fair dispatches from the trial of the man…

1
10 Books to Check Out This Summer 28:27

15d ago28:27

28:27

Summer is upon us and you're going to need a few books to read. Book Review editors Elisabeth Egan and Joumana Khatib join host Gilbert Cruz to talk through a few titles they're looking forward to over the next several months. Books discussed in this episode: "Farewell, Amethystine," by Walter Mosley "The Cliffs," by J. Courtney Sullivan "Horror Mo…

1
Sarah Jessica Parker 59:11

16d ago59:11

59:11

After a fun introductory episode, Season 2 of Books, Beach, & Beyond officially begins with award-winning actor, entrepreneur, producer, and designer Sarah Jessica Parker. Elin, Tim, and SJP shine a light on SJP Lit, the collaboration with Zando and her new imprint that publishes thought-provoking, inclusive, and big-hearted stories which include A…

1
Introducing… Season 2 45:42

23d ago45:42

45:42

Welcome back into the studio with your hosts of Books, Beach, & Beyond, Elin Hilderbrand and Tim Ehrenberg, for an incredible introductory episode of Season 2. The episode is a quick catch-up with Elin and Tim… where they traveled this winter and what they’ve recently been reading and recommending. The two then dive into Swan Song, Elin’s final Nan…

1
Let's Talk About Percival Everett's 'James' 45:40

29d ago45:40

45:40

The broad outlines of "James" will be immediately familiar to anyone with even a basic knowledge of American literature: A boy named Huckleberry Finn and an enslaved man named Jim are fleeing down the Mississippi River together, each in search of his own kind of freedom. But where Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” treated Jim as a secon…

1
EP68: Summer Reading Kicks Off! 33:33

29d ago33:33

33:33

Hannah and Sam are at Clearwater Pond on Memorial Day Weekend and they are ready to rock and roll for summer's many hours of lazy water-side reading. First up is Ann Hood, pride of Rhode Island, and her "The Stolen Child," which features travels to France and Italy with a pair of mis-matched travelers who develop a deep and abiding friendship and i…

1
EP67: Late Night from NEIBA 45:17

1M ago45:17

45:17

Hannah is at the New England Independent Booksellers Association Spring Fling (or something like that), and it's a late-night recording to beat the band. Mostly, both Hannah and Sam are fired up about the release of "Ministry of Time," which they've been wanting to talk about since they read it as an advanced-reading copy. Yes, it's a time travel b…

1
Writing About NASA's Most Shocking Moment 43:03

1M ago43:03

43:03

The year 1986 was notable for two big disasters, both of them attributable to human error and bureaucratic negligence at competing super powers: the Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Soviet Union and the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in the United States. The journalist Adam Higginbotham wrote about Chernobyl in his 2019 book, “Midnight…

1
Fantasy Superstar Leigh Bardugo on Her New Novel 41:44

2M ago41:44

41:44

In the world of fantasy fiction, Leigh Bardugo is royalty: Her Grishaverse novels are mainstays on the young adult best-seller list, her “Shadow and Bone” trilogy has been adapted for a Netflix series and her adult novels “Ninth House” and “Hell Bent” established her as a force to reckon with in the subgenre known as dark academia. Now Bardugo is b…

1
Colm Toibin on His Sequel to 'Brooklyn' 44:19

2M ago44:19

44:19

Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel “Brooklyn” told the story of a meek young Irishwoman, Eilis Lacey, who emigrates to New York in the 1950s out of a sense of familial obligation and slowly, diligently begins building a new life for herself. A New York Times best seller, the book was also adapted into an Oscar-nominated movie starring Saoirse Ronan — and now…

1
EP66: Live from Newburyport, with Jami Attenberg and Steve Almond 1:02:24

2M ago1:02:24

1:02:24

It's a special edition of "John Updike's Ghost," recorded live from the Newburyport Literary Festival, with special guests Jami Attenberg and Steve Almond, veteran authors who have both penned great new books about writing. Steve's "Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow," is an instruction manual that allows for failure along the way; Jami's "1000 W…

1
Book Club: Dolly Alderton's 'Good Material' 46:41

2M ago46:41

46:41

How to explain the British writer Dolly Alderton to an American audience? It might be best to let her work speak for itself — it certainly does! — but Alderton is such a cultural phenomenon in her native England that some context is probably helpful: “Like Nora Ephron, With a British Twist” is the way The New York Times Book Review put it when we r…

1
EP65: Big Questions, K-Pop, and Pre-Internet Nostalgia 41:30

2M ago41:30

41:30

Hannah has absconded to New York City, but no one will go to the Beatrix Potter exhibit with her. Such a shame. No matter! We're fired up about the Newburyport Literary Festival, and ready to talk books, starting with a recap of Leigh Bardugo's brand-new "The Familiar," which Sam has decided he likes quite a bit. Maybe not quite as much as both of …

1
100 Years of Simon & Schuster 31:22

3M ago31:22

31:22

Simon & Schuster is not growing old quietly. The venerable publishing house — one of the industry’s so-called Big 5 — is celebrating its 100th birthday this month after a period of tumult that saw it put up for sale by its previous owner, pursued by its rival Penguin Random House in an acquisition bid that fell apart after the Justice Department wo…

1
Looking Back at 50 Years of Stephen King 1:05:01

3M ago1:05:01

1:05:01

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Stephen King’s first novel, “Carrie.” In the decades since, King has experimented with length, genre and style, but has always maintained his position as one of America’s most famous writers. On this week’s episode, host Gilbert Cruz talks to the novelist Grady Hendrix, who read and re-rea…

1
EP64: Sex and Satanism 42:58

3M ago42:58

42:58

Just off a big night out on the town in Beverly, Hannah and Sam are focused on brand-new releases, of a wide variety, plus an older book that is very much NOT related to the website it shares a name with. That book is "Storm Front," the first in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, an older book (2000) recommended to Hannah by a customer, which has …

1
Books That Make Our Critics Laugh 30:33

3M ago30:33

30:33

Earlier this month, the Book Review’s staff critics — Dwight Garner, Alexandra Jacobs and Jennifer Szalai — released a list of 22 novels they have found reliably funny since Joseph Heller’s landmark comic novel “Catch-22” came out in 1961. On this week’s episode, they tell Gilbert Cruz why “Catch-22” was their starting point, and explain a bit abou…

1
Talking to Tana French About Her New Series 43:34

3M ago43:34

43:34

If you're familiar with Tana French, it's likely for her Dublin Murder Squad series of crime novels that kicked off in 2007 with "In the Woods." But her new book, "The Hunter," a sequel to 2020's "The Searcher," takes place outside of that series. In this episode of the podcast, speaking to Sarah Lyall about her shift to new characters, French said…

1
EP63: Jamaica, Southie, and Points in Between 41:03

3M ago41:03

41:03

It's a late-night edition of John Updike's Ghost and Hannah and Sam are ready to rock and roll. First up is Tana French's new thriller, "The Hunter," a follow up to "The Searcher," which Hannah hasn't read, but she wasn't bothered by this. Brilliant audiobook experience. Sticking with violent acts, Sam talks about how seeing the new Bob Marley movi…

1
Talking ‘Dune’: Book and Movies 39:04

4M ago39:04

39:04

Frank Herbert’s epic novel “Dune” and its successors have been entrenched in the science fiction and fantasy canon for almost six decades, a rite of passage for proudly nerdy readers across the generations. But “Dune” is experiencing a broader cultural resurgence at the moment thanks to Denis Villeneuve’s recent film adaptations starring Timothée C…

1
Book Club: Let’s Talk About ‘Erasure,’ by Percival Everett 44:23

4M ago44:23

44:23

It’s not often that the Academy Awards give the publishing world any gristle to chew on. But at this year’s Oscars ceremony — taking place on Sunday evening — one of the Best Picture contenders is all about book publishing: Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” is adapted from the 2001 novel “Erasure,” by Percival Everett, and it amounts to a scathin…

1
EP62: Supercommunicating, Interviewing, and Mythmaking 53:15

4M ago53:15

53:15

Is March Fourth a "declarative sentence"? No, Sam, it's an imperative sentence. But it's Hannah's birthday and at least he remembered that, if not his grammar lessons. Not to worry, though, this episode is chock full of weighty discussion, starting with "Women and Children First," the biography of the pioneering Dr. Susan Dimock (with a side bar on…

1
Tommy Orange on His "There There" Sequel 37:46

4M ago37:46

37:46

Tommy Orange’s acclaimed debut novel, “There There” — one of the Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2018 — centered on a group of characters who all converge on an Indigenous powwow in modern-day Oakland, Calif. His follow-up, “Wandering Stars,” is both a prequel and a sequel to that book, focusing specifically on the character Orvil Red Feather and tr…

1
The Rise and Fall of The Village Voice 36:16

4M ago36:16

36:16

Tricia Romano’s new book, “The Freaks Came Out to Write,” is an oral history of New York’s late, great alternative weekly newspaper The Village Voice, where she worked for eight years as the nightlife columnist. Our critic Dwight Garner reviewed the book recently — he loved it — and he visits the podcast this week to chat with Gilbert Cruz about or…

1
EP61: Time-Travelers, Survivors, Fascists, and Crooks 36:33

4M ago36:33

36:33

Hannah is back from Winter Institute and she has all sorts of thoughts on the state of the bookselling industry (900 booksellers in the same place is NOT illegal, it turns out). She's not sure she's a hero, exactly, but not every bookseller is in tony Beverly Farms. Also, it turns out she didn't learn all that much about what's coming down the pipe…

1
Let's Talk About 'Demon Copperhead' 42:22

4M ago42:22

42:22

Barbara Kingsolver’s novel “Demon Copperhead,” a riff on “David Copperfield” that moves Charles Dickens’s story to contemporary Appalachia and grapples engagingly with topics from poverty to ambition to opioid addiction, was one of the Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2022. And — unlike an actual copperhead — “Demon Copperhead” has legs: Many readers…

1
4 Early-Year Book Recommendations 34:29

5M ago34:29

34:29

The early part of a year can mean new books to read, or it can mean catching up on older ones we haven’t gotten to yet. This week, Gilbert Cruz chats with the Book Review’s Sarah Lyall and Sadie Stein about titles from both categories that have held their interest lately, including a 2022 biography of John Donne, a book about female artists who nur…

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