EP51: Three Deaths and a Deal with the Devil

Live from the Book Shop: John Updike's Ghost

Big things are afoot in the Book Shop — new shelving! With that highly engaging development discussed, we move on to chat about the newest from Melissa Broder ("Death Valley" is very meta, a treatise on grief, but we've had similar journeys) and Keigo Higashino ("A Death in Tokyo"; if you like procedurals, this is the Japanese master of the form). Plus, Hannah has picked up last year's "The Twyford Code," which doesn't involve magicians, but does involve the death of a children's author during WW2 and lots of transcribed audio recordings. And it's "mind tingling." The book Sam is reminded of is, indeed, called "The Puzzle Master." Finally, Hannah discovers she actually worked with some of the folks featured in Kristi Coulter's new memoir, "Exit Interview," about rising and falling at Amazon, which is just as bonkers and evil as you think it is. This leads to a pretty wonky discussion about the history of Amazon as a publisher and deals with the devil publishers had to make. But Amazon sorta failed and that was awesome. Oh, and RIP Tim Wakefield — his death at 57 is a very unfair thing. (And prepare yourself for the "pause," which is proof we actually have customers come in sometimes.)