WPR’s “The Larry Meiller Show” announced the six titles that will comprise the show’s official book club selections for 2026.
And unlike other clubs, this one requires no membership fees or secret handshakes. As Larry Meiller recently revealed to all of his listeners, “You’re a book club member, whether you know it or not.”
Executive producer Jill Nadeau recently joined Meiller in the studio to discuss the book club and the carefully chosen books for 2026.
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Selecting the books for “The Larry Meiller Show” book club starts — and stops — with staying close to home.
“We want to make sure that there’s some kind of connection to Wisconsin, or at least close,” Nadeau said. “Either the author lives here, or has lived here. But they’re talking about Wisconsin in the book.”
Regular listeners of “The Larry Meiller Show” might know that the program discusses more than six books a year. But the book club selections are different.
“A lot of times when we talk about a book, people haven’t read it because a lot of times those books are brand new,” Nadeau explained. “But the book club books have been out for a little while. We want listeners to read them ahead of the time we talk to the author. Then we can get questions from listeners directly to the author.”
We have the titles!
The dates that the authors will be appearing on “The Larry Meiller Show” to discuss their book club selections are as follows:
- Thursday, Feb. 19: “Waltraud: A True Story of Growing Up in Nazi Germany” by Tammy Borden
As the title suggests, the first selection of the year details what life was life during WWII as a German citizen. New London author Borden grew up listening to and recording the stories her mother — the “Waltraud” of the title — shared about coming of age during Hitler’s regime and the cruelty inflicted by the Nazis on their own people. - Thursday, April 16: “The Unveiling” by Quan Barry
This literary horror novel by the Lorraine Hansberry, professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is about a film location scouting expedition in the Antarctic that goes horribly wrong. - Thursday, June 18: “Pigeon Falls” by Jeff Elzinga
This novel follows a traveling crew of wind turbine builders who face unforeseen challenges while attempting to complete their final project of the season in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area. Born in Racine, Elzinga served for 20 years as a college instructor at Sheboygan County’s Lakeland University. - Thursday, Aug. 20: “Scarred But Not Broken” by Olivia Karimi-Jones
A Kenyan-born writer living in Madison, Olivia Karimi-Jones’s latest is a story of a woman thrust into marriage at a young age and left to raise her daughters alone amid poverty and societal isolation. - Thursday, Oct. 15: “Not Yet Lost” by Janis Falk
Set in turbulent 1937 Detroit, this novel is about a Polish immigrant woman working at a cigar factory who fights against worker oppression despite her husband’s best efforts to silence her. Falk lives in Door County. - Tuesday, Dec. 22: “Settle Down” by Ritt Deitz
A college kid endowed with hypnotic powers believes there’s got to be more waiting for him after graduation than family in the neighborhood and an OK catering job. Deitz teaches French at UW-Madison.
After nearly six decades on the air, Meiller still appreciates discovering new authors and new books.
“That is one of the most fun parts of this job for me,” Meiller revealed. “I read something that I wouldn’t have read, and it’s like, ‘Wow.’ So that’s the exciting thing for me here.”
“The Larry Meiller Show” airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on WPR News.
