Bookmark the Blog: Author Interviews

Author Emily Fridlund pens her second book, the darkly comic short story collection Catapult.

Author Emily Fridlund recently visited Reading Group Choices to meet fans and read from her new book, Catapult. She kindly took the time to answer a few questions about her formative influences, favorite books, and fictional characters she most identifies with.

Winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction, Catapult follows Emily Fridlund’s acclaimed debut novel History of Wolves.

Reading Group Choices: What book changed your life?​
Emily Fridlund: Beloved by Toni Morrison.

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Avi talks about war, childhood, and his inspiration for The Button War.

In The Button War, master of historical fiction Avi delivers a fierce account of the boys in a war-torn Polish village who are determined to prove themselves with a simple dare that spins disastrously out of control. Reading Group Choices interviewed him about the book, his methodology for writing, and the culture created in his striking novel.

Reading Group Choices: Why did you pick buttons as the object of the boys’ dare in The Button War?

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Shawn Francis Peters writes a heart-pounding account of the “Minneapolis Monster” in his newest book, The Infamous Harry Hayward.

Shawn Francis Peters recently visited Verona Public Library in Wisconsin to read and discuss his work with an audience. Shawn also kindly took the time to answer our questions after he shared part of his book!

Reading Group Choices: What book changed your life?

Shawn Francis Peters: When I was in high school in Baltimore in the 1980s, I read Truman Capote’s classic true-crime book In Cold Blood.

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Memoirist, humorist, singer-songwriter: Michael Perry’s latest book, Danger, Man Working, draws on 15 years of writing.

Michael Perry recently visited Reading Group Choices in Madison, Wisconsin, to read and discuss his work with an audience. Michael also kindly took the time to answer our questions after he shared part of his memoir!

Reading Group Choices: What book changed your life?​
Michael Perry: When I was in third grade our family received a box of secondhand clothes. When we opened it a worn copy of All Quiet on the Western Front tumbled out.

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History comes to life in this stunning novel by Devin Murphy with a moral dilemma at its core.

Devin Murphy’s debut novel The Boat Runner charts the coming-of-age story of a Dutch man during WWII. He kindly took the time to answer our questions during a recent visit to Reading Group Choices in Madison, Wisconsin.

Reading Group Choices: What book changed your life?​
Devin Murphy: All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. When I first starting writing, Warren’s novel gave me a sense of how flawed,

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Experience the small, often hilarious, moments common among parents of young children in the heartfelt book One Day You’ll Thank Me.

Author David McGlynn explores the many surprises of fatherhood in his new memoir One Day You’ll Thank Me, and recently visited with Reading Group Choices to read and discuss his work with an audience. David also kindly took the time to answer our questions after he shared part of his memoir.

Reading Group Choices: What book changed your life?

David McGlynn: Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore.

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