On Madison Book Beat, we aim to highlight local authors and book events. And sometimes, we hope that you just might learn about the next book on your to-read pile.

On this pledge drive edition of Madison Book Beat, we flip the table, asking YOU: what’re you reading? What book should we add to our reading list? David Ahrens hosts today’s open line.

Books mentioned by callers and by hosts in this episode include…

• Elizabeth Engstrom’s When Darkness Loves Us (Valancourt Books, 1985),
• Works by Ross Gay, including The Book of Delights (Algonquin Books, 2019), The Book of (More) Delights (Algonquin Books, 2023),
• When Crack Was King (One World, 2023) by Donovan X Ramsey
• Pathogenesis: A history of the World in Eight Plagues (Crown, 2023) by Jonathan Kennedy
• Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez
• Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks (Anchor, 2023) by Patrick Radden Keefe
• Wizards: David Duke, America’s Wildest Election, and the Rise of the Far Right (Vanderbilt University Press, 2022) by Brian Fairbanks
• Indigenous Continent: The Epic Quest for North America (Liveright, 2022) by Pekka Hämäläinen

Also recommended in today’s episode is Libby, an app that lets patrons use their library card to check out and read eBooks or listen to eAudiobooks.