Open Book / Open Mind 2022

December 1:  Laurie Lico Albanese, “Hester.” In conversation with Alice Elliot Dark.  Albanese talked about her latest historical novel, “Hester,” a reimagining of the woman who inspired the classic “Scarlet Letter,” with her friend and fellow novelist, the author of “Fellowship Point.” Their lively conversation touched on Nathaniel Hawthorne as bad boy Victorian heart throb, women’s legal and financial limitations in the 19th century, and how Laurie found a time in Hawthorne’s life in which this story could take place.

November 16: Evan Mandery, “Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us.” In conversation with Dale Russakoff. A CUNY professor and Harvard alumnus, discussed his scathing critique of Ivy-plus admissions and how access to top schools make the rich richer with the author of “The Prize: Who’s In Charge of America’s Schools.”

October 13: Maggie Haberman, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.” In conversation with Jonathan Alter. Two-time Pulitzer-winning reporter Haberman talked about her instant #1 New York Times bestseller with bestselling author and political analyst Jonathan Alter. Their discussion touched on the roots of Trump’s political style, the January 6 committee hearings, and the future for the 45th president…and our country.

September 29:  Alice Elliott Dark, “Fellowship Point.” In conversation with Christina Baker Kline. Dark, who teaches in the MFA writing program at Rutgers-Newark talks with bestselling novelist Kline (“The Exiles,” “Piece of the World,” “Orphan Train”) about Dark’s new novel, a long-awaited instant classic about lifelong friendship, reunion, and the world’s few remaining wild place. Highlights of the discussion include writerly tips, a shared love of Maine and Montclair, and the history of American women giving land to the public trust.

June 14:  Tom Perrotta, “Tracy Flick Can’t Win.” In conversation with Elisabeth Egan. Novelist Perrotta talked with Egan, a critic at The New York Times Book Review, about the sequel to his bestseller, “Election,” which was also the basis for the hit movie with Reese Witherspoon in the iconic leading role. Their conversation touched on the changing image of super-capable women and the influence of the #MeToo movement in looking backwards at the impact of Tracy Flick’s character on popular culture.

May 5:  Katherine Heiny, “Early Morning Riser.” In conversation with Kate Tuttle. Co-presented by Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival.  Heiny, an award-winning novelist, discussed her funny, poignant New York Times bestseller about modern families in a small town with Tuttle of The Boston Globe. Highlights of the conversation included examples of Heiny’s famous wit and how her fiction feeds on real life events.

April 7:  Ben Raines, “The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning.” In conversation with Sowandé Mustakeem (“Slavery at Sea: Terror, Sex, and Sickness in the Middle Passage”)  of Washington University. Raines, an award-winning journalist, filmmaker and charter ship captain discovered the wreck of the Clotilda, launched 50 years after the transAtlantic slave trade became illegal, with Mustakeem, associate professor of history and African American studies. Their lively discussion included current events in Africatown, founded by the Clotilda’s survivors, and Raines’s efforts to dredge up the remains of the last slave ship and find it a worthy home.

March 10:  Patrick Radden Keefe, “Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty.” In conversation with D.T. Max. Two staff writers for The New Yorker discuss Keefe’s longtime New York Times bestseller, “Empire of Pain,” a portrait of the Sackler dynasty, famous for their philanthropy and infamous for their part in making and marketing Oxycontin. The conversation includes references to the recent Purdue settlements, the value of a name to its holder, and Keefe’s reportorial self image as “the skunk at the garden party.”

February 10: Jeremy Peters; “Insurgency: How Republicans Lost Their Party and Got Everything They Ever Wanted.” In conversation with David Halbfinger. Peters, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times, and Halbfinger, the political editor of Times discussed Peters’s timely new book about the journey from the party of Lincoln to the party of Trump. Their animated conversation covered the roots of this change in Pat Buchanan and recent discoveries about the road to the January 6 insurrection.

January 25: Caitlin Petre in conversation with Andrew Marantz; “All the News That’s Fit to Click: How Metrics Are Transforming the Work of Journalists.” Co-presented by the N.J. Society of Professional Journalists. Petre, an assistant professor of journalism at Rutgers, discusses her new book with New Yorker staff writer Marantz (“Antisocial”). The conversation included behind-the-scenes glimpses of the now-defunct gossip site Gawker as well as the venerable New York Times, and certain journalists’ own addictive absorption with Chartbeat, the platform that offers a moment-to-moment view of readers’ engagement with articles and posts.

January 13:  Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Jake Silverstein, “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story.” In conversation with David Troutt.  Two major contributors to “The 1619 Project,” a Harvard history professor and the editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine, and the founder of the Rutgers Rutgers Center on Law, Inequality, and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME) discuss the #1 bestselling landmark reframing of American history with slavery and race at the center. Their discussion addresses the genesis of and context of the Project and the backlash to it.