Shelf Life Podcast: Celebrities Discuss Their Favorite Books

 Shelf Life is a show about books and the people who love them. In each episode, the show invites a celebrated bibliophile (Alan Cumming, John Waters, and Joyce Maynard, to name a few) to select two of their favorite books, and then the show's host chats about them, drawing connections between their literary choices and their lives and careers. 

The show began in 2021 and has produced close to 60 episodes.

The show's host, Aaron Hicklin, is a prominent editor, writer, and founder of One Grand Books in Narrowsburg, N.Y., In 2015, he launched this bookstore, which curates shelves based on the "desert island" book recommendations of famous figures. Formerly the editor-in-chief of Out magazine (2006–2018) and BlackBook, he is the author of Boy Soldiers and serves as the director of the Deep Water Literary Festival.

  The show begins with a clip from the episode's guest (always a nice feature) and then appropriately jazzy piano and cloying violins. 

Hicklin, as a host, is in full control here, comfortable with celebrities and knowledgeable about books. Unlike unctuous TV late-night hosts, Hicklin treats these people as he would any guest. No fawning, just probing questions. He's our advocate on the show.

Some important episodes include the show with Katherine Bucknell. 

"What can we learn from Weimar Germany and its rapid unraveling in the 1930s? Lately that question has gained more urgency as the US turns away from the trans-Atlantic alliance that has underpinned European security for the past 80 years. For Katherine Bucknell, no writer was better placed than Christopher Isherwood for understanding the speed with which a country can slide into autocracy. It was his book Goodbye to Berlin that became the basis for the musical, Cabaret. Without Isherwood, no Sally Bowles. 

"But the author’s legacy stretches far beyond Berlin, encompassing gay liberation, spiritual enlightenment, and what may be the 20th century’s most enduring May-December relationship–with his long-time partner Don Bachardy. Now Bucknell, editor of Isherwood’s voluminous journals and letters, has taken her epic knowledge of the writer and written Christopher Isherwood, Inside Out, an 800-page biography befitting such a lion of literature. In this episode of Shelf Life we discuss the biographer’s craft, and why Isherwood’s slim novel, Prater Violet, resonates down the years."

The episode with Alan Cumming was especially entertaining. On full display here is the actor's charm, wit, and intelligence.  

"When he's not making movies, TV shows, podcasts, or performing in cabaret, Alan Cumming also finds time to write books.  He's published a novel, a memoir, a book on photography, and several children's books based on his beloved (and dearly departed) dogs, Honey and Leon. 

"His latest book is called Baggage, and feels a lot like having Alan Cumming as your very favorite guest at a lively dinner party. Who wouldn't want that?  For those who've been hiding under a rock, it was his mesmerizing performance as the emcee in Cabaret that shot Cumming  to fame in the United States. He's had many notable roles since, from crowd pleasers like Spy Kids, to playing resident scene stealer Eli Gold, in the long-running CBS courtroom drama The Good Wife. For this episode of Shelf Life he talks about Close Up, the memoir of an out gay Scottish actor, John Fraser, and After Leaving Mr. McKenzie, the 1931 novel by Jean Rhys."

 You’ll get to see just how her knowledge of Russian history and language helps her appreciate her favorite novel, the Russian classic, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, in which the story of Jesus and Pontius Pilate is juxtaposed with a story of the Devil wreaks havoc in the 1930s in Moscow. 

  Sera Gamble is perhaps best known as the screenwriter and showrunner for the hit Netflix show You, creator of The Magicians for the SyFy Channel, and she was a showrunner on Supernatural, a haunting fantasy series which ran for 15 seasons. There are scares aplenty in the books she has chosen to talk about for Shelf Life: Stephen King’s classic nail-biter, Misery, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s tender and haunting dystopian novel Never Let Me Go. 

 Shelf Life spins a distinctive ambiance to the all-too-familiar book review podcast format. The show has celebrities talking about something other than themselves and demonstrating their depth of intellect by discussing their favorite books. Finally, The show's host, Aaron Hicklin, is a true master of ceremonies here, managing, prodding, and connecting with noteworthy people.