Megan Abbott interviews Ivy Pochoda on the Fully Booked Takeover.

We’ve got more hot fun in the summertime, with another Fully Booked Takeover rounding out the month of July. A beloved bestselling author invites an author whose work they admire for an in-depth conversation—writer to writer—in this new regular feature at the podcast. Last week, Sarah MacLean discussed the complexities and delights of the wonderful world of romance with Adriana Herrera. Today, we’re plumbing the depths of the underworld with two crime stars:

On this week’s Fully Booked Takeover, we welcome special guest host Megan Abbott. Kirkus calls the bestselling, Edgar Award–winning crime writer’s latest novel, Beware the Woman (Putnam, May 30), an “unsettling, nightmare-inducing morsel from a master of suspense.” She’s in conversation with novelist Ivy Pochoda, author of Wonder Valley, Visitation Street, and These Women. “Pochoda has carved a place for herself in California noir—and her lockdown Los Angeles is about as noir as it gets,” Kirkus writes in a review of her new novel, Sing Her Down(MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 23).

And in a sponsored interview, Fully Booked host Megan Labrise talks with Preeti Chhibber and Alex Segura about their fantastic original Spider-Man stories for publisher Marvel Press: Chhibber’s fun middle-grade fantasies Spider-Man’s Social Dilemma! (2022) and Spider-Man’s Bad Connection (Sept. 5); and Segura’s thrilling YA sci-fi novel, Araña and Spider Man 2099: Dark Tomorrow (May 2).

Then editors Laura Simeon, Mahnaz Dar, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.

EDITORS’ PICKS:

Frontera by Julio Anta & Jacoby Salcedo (HarperAlley)

The International House of Dereliction by Jacqueline Davies, illus. by Julia Castaño (Clarion/HarperCollins)

Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)

ALSO MENTIONED ON THIS EPISODE:

Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea

The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea

Temple Alley Summer by Sachiko Kashiwaba, trans. by Avery Fischer Udagawa, illus. by Miho Satake

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

Contractor II: Operation Alpha Count by B.V. Mays 

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.