Fresh Air

His first memoir, Four Skins Lament, was about his childhood years and his estrangement from his religious community and its traditions.

you wrote this first memoir, Four Skins Lament, where you went through your childhood and you really took a hard look at what you had been taught.

Practice, the debut novel by Rosalind Brown, follows an Oxford undergrad named Annabelle as she tries to write an essay on Shakespeare's sonnets within 24 hours.

The novel is an odd, absorbing little novel about an unusual subject, the act of reading and thinking deeply about literature, and it works because it doesn't try to be a bigger story than it is.

Practice is unapologetically small, inwardlooking and privileged, and in its final pages Annabelle finally writes the first sentence of her essay.

Brown's vivid writing and the concise, shyof200page length make the book a refreshing break from socially engaged fiction.

The novel captures fleeting insights in the style of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, with Annabelle's day filled with reading, yoga, tea, and the struggle against distractions.

From WHYY in Philadelphia, I'm Tanya Mosley with Fresh Air Weekend. Today, Taffy Brodesser-Ackner, author of the novel Fleishman Is in Trouble.

She adapted her first bestselling book, Fleishman Is in Trouble, and to the FX on Hulu series, under the same name, where she served as the writer, showrunner, and executive producer.

Half a Life, which was published in the mid1990s when she was in her mid40s.

When I was writing Half a Life, people can really hide all kinds of really blatant things just by not wanting to see them.

Her new memoir is called Consent.

In her new memoir, Consent, she confesses it was her future husband, Arnold Meshies, who started it.

Halfway through the semester, I caught him looking down my blouse, and that was more thrilling to me than the praise... (excerpt from Consent)

Also back in 1995, Martin Mull released a book called Martin Mull Paintings, Drawings and Words and had a solo exhibition at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art.

He's also the author of Hollowed Out, Why the Economy Doesn't Work Without a Strong Middle Class.

The idea behind Hollowed Out was that for many, many decades, the most economic policy making was dominated by what was known as trickledown economics... It failed. It didn't work. And what I argue is one of the reasons it failed is it really misunderstood the idea of what a middle class is and does and why it's so important.

When you have a strong middle class, they can consume goods and that encourages new businesses to invest, creating a virtuous cycle that benefits both the economy and democratic governance.

A strong middle class also fosters trust in society, making people more likely to work across party lines and do business with each other, which in turn makes the economy more efficient.

The middle class provides the wealth needed to start new businesses; without it, extreme inequality stifles entrepreneurship and innovation.

His new book, Madoff, The Final Word is largely based on the interviews he conducted with Wall Street insiders, prosecutors, FBI agents, and people who lost most or all of their money investing through Madoff's company.

If you're just joining us, my guest is Richard Bayhar, and his new book is called Madoff, The Final Word.

I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to my interview with Richard Bayhar, author of the new book Madoff, The Final Word.

His new book is called Made Off, The Final Word.

Richard Behar's new book is called Made Off, The Final Word.

When he died I was in the middle of a book called The Body in Question and one of the things that I did in The Body in Question is I knew Arnold would die while I was writing it because I started when he was 90 and it takes five years to write a book.

And I put in the death of the husband so that I would have a way to channel my grief.

I had no precedent to go on except Valley of the Dolls and Peyton Place.

But I also think about Crossroads, that great Jonathan Franzen book that came out a few years ago.

I was reading Herzog the other day. I was looking for a line, the Saul Bellow book.

author of the new memoir T-Shirt Swim Club Stories from Being Fat in a World of Thin People.

David Tatel's new book is called Vision, a memoir of blindness and justice.

His new book is called Vision, a memoir of blindness and justice.

If you're just joining us, my guest is David Tatel. His new book is called Vision, a memoir of blindness and justice.

He says only now in his 80s has he finally come to accept his blindness as an essential part of who he is.

David Tatel's new book is called Vixen, a memoir of blindness and justice.