'Our Country Friends', Subway Book Reviews, 'Storm Lake', A New Joni Mitchell Album, Aimee Mann

*Novelist Gary Shteyngart joins us to discuss his latest book, Our Country Friends, which tells the story of a group of people isolating together during the COVID-19 pandemic… one of whom is a big celebrity.

*In 2013, Uli Beutter Cohen decided to start asking riders on the subway what they were reading, and what they thought of it, eventually founding the popular Instagram account Subway Book Review. Cohen has compiled the best of these interviews and photographs in a new book, Between the Lines, and joins us to discuss.

*A new PBS documentary, "Storm Lake," tells the story of a family run newspaper, The Storm Lake Times, and its editors who are trying to serve an Iowa town as it struggles to adapt to the ever-increasing footprint of Big Agriculture in the area. Directors Jerry Risius and Beth Levison speak with us about the paper, the making of the film, and the impact of local journalism in small towns. "Storm Lake" premieres on PBS on November 15.

*On March 19, 1968, a relatively unknown 25-year-old Joni Mitchell performed a concert at Le Hibou Coffee House in Ottawa, Canada. The performance was recorded and engineered by a 26-year-old by the name of Jimi Hendrix. Now, fifty-three years later, the performance, as well as other home demos and unreleased tracks are being compiled into one album. Joni Mitchell Archives – Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971), will be released on November 12. Patrick Milligan, director of A&R at Rhino Entertainment, who worked directly with Joni to produce the record, joins us to discuss this time period in her career and listen to some tracks.

*A few years ago, around the release of her Grammy-winning album Mental Illness, singer-songwriter Aimee Mann was approached to write music for a stage adaption of Susanna Kaysen’s 1993 memoir, Girl, Interrupted. The pandemic forced that project to go on hold, but Mann has now released the songs on her new album, Queens of the Summer Hotel. Mann joins us for a Listening Party. 

She will also be performing at City Winery December 27-30.