David Rakoff: Half Empty from KQED: The Writers' Block Podcast

David Rakoff, author of FRAUD and DON'T GET TOO COMFORTABLE, reads a passage from his hilarious new book HALF EMPTY.

Download the podcast here. See also: Fraud: Essays, Don't Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, This American Life Personalities: David Rakoff, Dan Savage, David Sedaris, John Hodgman, Sarah Vowell, Ira Glass, Jon Ronson, Julia Sweeney

Nicole Krauss: Great House from KQED: The Writers' Block Podcast

Nicole Krauss, author of international bestseller THE HISTORY OF LOVE, reads from her latest National Book Award nominated novel, GREAT HOUSE.

Download the podcast here. See also: Great House: A Novel, The History of Love: A Novel, Man Walks Into a Room, The Future Dictionary of America, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (BookRags.com Summary & Study Guide)

Paul Harding: Tinkers from KQED: The Writers' Block Podcast

Paul Harding reads a passage from TINKERS, this year's winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Download the podcast here. See also: Tinkers, By Murder's Bright Light (Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan)

Sam Lipsyte: The Ask from KQED: The Writers' Block Podcast

Sam Lipsyte reads two hilarious passages from THE ASK about recently unemployed, middle-aged Milo Burke and all of his anxieties.

Download the podcast here. There's also this NY Times piece on The Ask:

Sam Lipsyte’s third novel, “The Ask,” is a dark and jaded beast — the sort of book that, if it were an animal, would be a lumbering, hairy, crypto­zoological ape-man with a near-crippling case of elephantiasis. Literary satire has become a rare form in America over the past three decades. When it does make an appearance, it almost passes for a nostalgic gesture despite its typically cutting-edge content. As a result, Lipsyte is one of a handful of living American satirists (and when I say “handful” I mean a very tiny hand, with three fingers at most, including the thumb) who can tell a traditional story while remaining foul-mouthed and dirty enough to occupy the literary vanguard. This stuff wouldn’t play well at, say, meetings of the D.A.R. — too bad in a way, because it might not hurt them to hear it. Lipsyte is not only a smooth sentence-maker, he’s also a gifted critic of power.

See also: Home Land: A Novel, Venus Drive: Stories, The Subject Steve: A Novel