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For author Peter Orner, mirror books are essential reading — for all ages — and include childhood favorites, stories he discovered as an adult and a classic he returned to years later with his children.

Acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning author Yiyun Li discusses Music Against the Night, a sweeping historical novel set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Through the lives of two musicians, Li explores artistic ambition, sacrifice and the elusive promise of being remembered.

A reflection on Mavis Gallant’s “My Heart Is Broken,” a powerful story about violence, silence and the limits of our ability to understand another person’s suffering.

A review of Madeleine Thien’s story collection, "Simple Recipes." It's a quietly powerful collection about family, displacement and the ways love, memory and history shape the lives we inherit.

Mirror Books is a new podcast series from Book Public at Texas Public Radio about seeing ourselves — and discovering and knowing others — through books. Our inaugural guest is acclaimed author Sandra Cisneros, whose writing has become a mirror for countless readers. Listen as she discusses not just one mirror book, but many — and the ways these books she discovered from childhood through adulthood have remained important to her.

Michael Cunningham, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Hours, discusses his new book, Unsayable: A Life in Writing, and the mysteries of memory, imagination and storytelling.

In this interview, Ruth Ozeki talks about writing stories, publishing a story collection at age 70, the supremely skilled ways she can write about a range of characters in diverse places, the trunk full of ideas around stories and loss and, of course, typing.

In this episode, Book Public host Yvette Benavides shares a reflection on an essay collection that explores grief and how we make meaning from loss.

What are the mysteries behind the quiet routines of one Artie Dam, a high school history teacher in Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel? The Things We Never Say explores isolation and the painful, fragile truths we keep hidden because we don't have the words to talk about them. And yet, this luminous novel gives us a lexicon of loneliness that challenges the fundamental idea that we can never truly know each other. Turns out, the beauty is in trying.

Patrick Strickland discusses his story collection "A History of Heartache." These are stories set in North Texas that chart the small moments of grace, and the almost insurmountable mistakes boys inherit. These are gritty, sometimes violent stories, but there is a tenderness, too, and the knife’s edge here bends toward a kind of hope.

Laurie Hertzel's memoir is an open, frank rumination on a brother's death and its reverberations throughout a family.

Dan Simon discusses his debut novel, "Ashland." Six characters tell their story about living in this mill town in New Hampshire. They share resonant, unforgettable stories about the place they all have in common. They grapple with life’s mysteries and reveal to readers the sheer beauty in their struggle and their will to live life with meaning.

Camille Bordas discusses her story collection, One Sun Only. She also shares her thoughts on writing about loss, reading nonfiction for inspiration for writing fiction and balancing humor with the more serious subject matter of her stories.

On this episode, Yvette Benavides shares a reflection on ‘To Absent Friends: Eudora Welty’s Correspondence with Frank Lyell’ selected and edited by Julia Eichelberger.

The village of Faha in Ireland in 1962 is the setting of the latest novel by Niall Williams, Time of the Child. The protagonist, Dr. Jack Troy, is a quiet, serious man who lives alone with his eldest daughter — and a world of regret. One December day, a baby is left in his care — and will make him re-think every silence and secret he’s ever clung to. Yvette Benavides shares a review of the novel “Time of the Child” by Niall Williams.