Gays Reading

Host Jason Blitman finally sits down with author Rachel Howzell Hall now that he's survived a full year of agony waiting for the follow-up to her cliffhanger-ending crime novel, Fog and Fury. Today, they're celebrating the arrival of Mist and Malice, the long-awaited sequel. New to the series? No problem. This spoiler-free conversation is the perfect entry point into the world of Haven.

Conversation highlights:
🌽 Rachel's favorite foods at the county fair
🎵 The song from Hamilton as a character's theme song
👵 Which Golden Girl Rachel identifies with

Rachel Howzell Hall is the New York Times bestselling author of Fog and Fury, The Cruel Dawn, The Last One, What Never Happened, We Lie Here, These Toxic Things, And Now She’s Gone, They All Fall Down, and, with James Patterson, The Good Sister, which was included in Patterson’s collection The Family Lawyer. A two-time Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist as well as an Anthony, International Thriller Writers, and Lefty Award nominee, Rachel is also the author of Land of Shadows, Skies of Ash, Trail of Echoes, and City of Saviors in the Detective Elouise Norton series. A past member of the board of directors for Mystery Writers of America, she has been a featured writer on NPR’s acclaimed Crime in the City series and the National Endowment for the Arts weekly podcast. Rachel lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.
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Host Jason Blitman talks to Ayelet Waldman about what she's been reading (spoiler alert: a lot of audiobooks while quilting!) and about her new book, A Perfect Hand. Come for the book recs, stay for the Heated Rivalry conversation.

Ayelet Waldman is the author of A Really Good Day, Love and Treasure, Red Hook Road, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Daughter’s Keeper, Bad Mother and the Mommy-Track Mystery series. She co-developed and was an Executive Producer on the Netflix series Unbelievable, which received a Peabody Award and Best Limited Series nominations at the Critics’ Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Primetime Emmys in 2020. Waldman lives in Berkeley, California with her husband Michael Chabon.
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Host Jason Blitman is joined by debut novelist Paige Lewis to talk about their book, Canon.

Conversation highlights include:
⚠️ Perseverance in the face of danger
🐀 Animal fun facts
🦸 What makes a hero

Paige Lewis is the author of the poetry collection Space Struck and coeditor of Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance. Lewis teaches at the University of Iowa; Canon is their first novel.
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Host Jason Blitman talks to author Davin Malasarn about what he's been reading and the books that influenced his debut novel, The Outer Country.

Davin Malasarn was born and raised in Southern California. After completing his PhD in biology at the California Institute of Technology, he earned his MFA in creative writing from Bennington College and completed the Queens University of Charlotte Book Development Program. He was a PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, a Plympton Writing Downtown Fellow, and a Bennington Alumni Fellow. He co-founded The Granum Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to supporting writers, and hosts The Artist’s Statement podcast.
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Host Jason Blitman is joined by debut author Portia Elan to talk about her book, Homebound, named May 2026's Good Morning America Book Club selection.

Highlights from this spoiler-free conversation:
💾 evolution of technology
🏳️‍🌈 history of the queer community
👍 how people experience different truths

Portia Elan studied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, before returning to California, where she has worked as a teacher and public librarian. A former Lambda Literary Fellow, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and an abundance of cats. Homebound is her first novel.
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CONTACT! [email protected]
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