I'm pleased to be joined today on Writers at Work by Ron Charles, the book critic best known for his reviews published in the Washington Post, his former employer. If you know Ron's work, it goes without saying that his unceremonious exit from the Post represents another blow to the relevance of books and literature in American mainstream media.

On his Substack, Ron discussed his situation with characteristic self-deprecation. "I didn't start off as a journalist," he wrote. "Some might say I didn't end up one either. 30 years ago, I gave up a perfectly respectable job teaching English to write book reviews for the Christian Science Monitor." His aunt's huffy reaction? "'Surely, they're not gonna pay you to do that?' They did." Ron said he had some of the best years of his life at the Monitor, even if he toiled in relative obscurity. After a series of interviews, he was hired as a critic by the Washington Post. In time, he became editor of its Book World section.

After two decades and having received a National Book Critics Circle Award and served as a Pulitzer Prize judge, Ron was let go by the Post and Book World was shut down. As the New Yorker's Becca Rothfeld summarized, "No one who has anything to do with books remains employed at the Post."

Among US mainstream media, only the New York Times has a section dedicated to book reviews, though my former employer, the Wall Street Journal, regularly publishes book reviews. We can find publications and blogs dedicated to books, but as Becca points out, "They are produced for an audience that already knows or cares about literature. The books section of a newspaper plays an altogether different role. It does not cater to aficionados. It seeks new recruits."

It's been reported that at Ernst Lubitsch's funeral in 1947, Billy Wilder said, "No more Lubitsch" and William Wyler replied, "Worse than that, no more Lubitsch films." We can find online book reviews Ron Charles wrote for the Post and his reviews for CBS Sunday Morning on YouTube, but are we at the point of no more new Ron Charles book reviews?

My guest on this episode of Writers at Work is Don Winslow. His latest, THE FINAL SCORE, marks his return following his announced retirement in 2022. It's a six-story crime collection Stephen King called, "The best crime fiction I've read in 20 years." Having read them as if I were starving for Don's style of storytelling, I will tell you that the collection will make you very glad he's back.

Prior to his retirement to focus on his political activism, Don was at the peak of his popularity in a career that began in 1991 with his Neil Carey PI series. Next came several memorable stand-alones, THE WINTER OF FRANKIE MACHINE, SAVAGES, and if I may, a personal favorite, CALIFORNIA FIRE AND LIFE.

THE POWER OF THE DOG, which explored America's war on drugs through the experiences of a range of characters, kicked off his Cartel Trilogy. Its third novel, THE BORDER, now considered a classic of its kind, was cited as the best book of 2019 by the Washington Post, National Public Radio, The Guardian, The Irish Times, Book List, and many others.

Beginning in 2022, Don published in succession, CITY ON FIRE, CITY OF DREAMS, and CITY OF RUINS, his Organized Crime Trilogy. Several of his works have been made into feature films, including Crime 101, based on Don's novella of the same name. The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Halle Berry. It arrives in theaters on February 13th.

Like many readers, I was disheartened when Don announced his retirement, though I was well aware that he was deeply troubled by the actions of the Trump administration. I want to start our conversation with that decision.

Elizabeth Chamblee Birch joins me today on Writers at Work. She is the author of THE PAIN BROKERS: HOW CON MEN, CALL CENTERS, AND ROGUE DOCTORS FUEL AMERICA'S LAWSUIT FACTORY. It's Elizabeth's first book, but not the first time she's written on legal matters in such a way that can fascinate laymen.

Her thoughts on mass tort lawsuits have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and on National Public Radio. She is the Fuller E. Callaway Chair of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law. For the uninitiated, such as myself, a mass tort is a civil action involving numerous plaintiffs against one or a few defendants in a state or federal court.

In THE PAIN BROKERS, Elizabeth writes of a scheme by the medical and legal industrial complex that exploits a view that women's bodies are commodities, and their pain not a major concern. She does so by telling us about Geri Plummer, Barb Shepherd, and Sharon Gore, who are among the thousands of women tempted by deceitful telemarketers, who flew to Florida to undergo surgical procedures, setting off a flood of millions of insurance dollars to white-shoe lawyers, doctors, and unscrupulous con artists.

What became of Geri, Barb, and Sharon? Elizabeth tells us that and more.

Joining me on Writers at Work is Janice Page, author of YEAR OF THE WATER HORSE, a wise and often amusing memoir about her melting pot family, in particular its girls and women, for most of which are Janice's mom, Janice herself, her mother-in-law, and her adopted daughter, Zoe.

Amazing how a well-told story about someone else's family can remind us of our own. With YEAR OF THE WATER HORSE, Janice continues a fruitful career in books and journalism. She's a cultural and arts editor at The Washington Post. She was a deputy managing editor at The Boston Globe, charged with publications of books that bore the Globe's brand, including several bestsellers.

She was on the staff of the L.A. Times, the Providence Journal, and freelanced for The New York Times. Janice tells us much about herself in YEAR OF THE WATER HORSE. Let's see if there's more to discover.

With me on Writers at Work is Matthew Pearl, author of the novel THE AWARD. And I will say upfront that if you are a writer or want to be a writer or are curious at all about writers, this is a book for you.

Matthew Pearl is the author of many highly regarded and best-selling novels, including the historical fiction works THE DANTE CLUB and THE POE SHADOW, the latter about the death of Edgar Allan Poe. His THE TECHNOLOGISTS is an alternative history about the early days of MIT. In 2021, he published his first work of non-fiction, THE TAKING OF JEMIMA BOONE: COLONIAL SETTLERS, TRIBAL NATIONS, AND THE KIDNAP THAT SHAPED AMERICA – A TRUE STORY OF RESCUE AND REVENGE IN REVOLUTIONARY 1776. His journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Slate.

Which brings us to THE AWARD. The New Yorker said it "revels in its wickedness," and Tom Perrotta called it "addictive" and "propulsive" in comparing it to a Patricia Highsmith thriller. Without giving too much away, in THE AWARD, struggling novelist David Trent moves into a building in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On the floor below lived Silas Hale, a very famous author who, despite his acclaim, is disdainful to many, David perhaps most of all.

But then David wins a major award for his novel. Or does he? And chaos ensues. Who knew writing was such a fraught and deadly occupation. I found THE AWARD to be a lot of fun, its characters all too familiar, yet surprising in their actions.

With me on this first episode of Writers at Work of the new year is Lauren Rothery, author of TELEVISION, her debut novel.

If you visit laurenrothery.net, you'll find links to a number of short films she wrote and directed. As for TELEVISION, it's an intriguing, cleverly told novel about Verity, a famous actor who, after appearing in a hit film he detests, announces he will hold a lottery to give away the $80 million he stands to make from the picture.

Another primary character is Helen, an insightful, often cynical woman on the periphery of the entertainment business, and who Verity wishes were his wife. Then comes Phoebe, an aspiring screenwriter who can't seem to stop fantasizing about writing in order to actually write. The novel has a lived-in feel, in which we, the readers, swim in the characters' thoughts that are often mundane, occasionally astute, and always revealing.

As we approach the end of 2025, a special edition of Writers at Work. I speak with four writers I've known for almost 25 years: Peter Blauner, Reed Farrel Coleman, S.J. Rozan, and Peter Spiegelman. They are much-admired authors of mystery and crime fiction, with whom I've consulted and commiserated, and who have consulted and commiserated with each other as our careers as novelists careen like cars on a roller coaster.

If Writers at Work is about the joys, heartaches, challenges, and satisfaction of the creative writing process, they can discuss those outcomes in great and intimate detail. Peter, Reed, S.J., and Peter have experienced the highs the life of a novelist can bring. Publication by admirable houses, rave reviews, awards, the attention of Hollywood, and most importantly, the loyalty of readers.

They've also experienced the lows of the writer's life. Being dropped by those admirable houses, an absence of review, no nominations for awards, and silence from the film community. Thank goodness for those readers who remain true. To be a novelist is to be a solitary figure beset by uncertainty and doubt. To paraphrase Nietzsche, when you stare into a blank screen, the blank screen stares into you.

Peter, Reed, S.J., and Peter possess what I consider to be the most essential traits of a successful novelist, willfulness, courage, and a belief in their work regardless of whatever obstacles they may face. Let's find out how they do what they do and what they've learned from their experiences.

My guest on this episode of Writers at Work is Grammy winning music scholar, Rob Bowman, whose new book is LAND OF A THOUSAND SESSIONS: THE COMPLETE MUSCLE SHOALS STORY 1951-1985. If the role of Muscle Shoals, a town in Northwest Alabama, in modern music history doesn't immediately pop to mind, allow me to mention a few of the landmark tracks recorded there.

When A Man Loves a Woman by Percy Sledge, Land of a Thousand Dances by Wilson Pickett, You Better Move On by Arthur Alexander, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You by Aretha Franklin, I'll Take You There by the Staple Singers, I'd Rather Go Blind by Etta James, If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don't Want To Be Right by Luther Ingram.

And then came the 1970s. In pursuit of the earthy funk sound captured in those studios, the rock and pop world invaded and the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Jimmy Cliff, Paul Simon, and Bob Seger cut major hits there with members of the fame house band sitting in.

Then country came calling. Willie Nelson, Hank Williams Jr., Mac Davis, Jerry Reed, and so on. To say Rob captures it all doesn't quite get it. Clocking in at 762 pages, including essential indices and with its fluid narrative style, LAND OF A THOUSAND SESSIONS at times feels like a minute-by-minute history.

Fortified with a generous supply of photography and printed on beautiful stock, the book is as appealing as it is essential. As a fan of the music made in Muscle Shoals, and as a music journalist, I loved it. In addition to his Grammy nominated liner notes that are worthy of independent publication, Rob is also the author of SOULSVILLE USA: THE STORY OF STAX RECORDS and THE LAST SOUL COMPANY: THE MALACO RECORDS STORY.