Welcome to The Dinner Party. This is your icebreaker. I've got a joke for you. So I walked into a bookstore, and I said to the woman behind the counter, where's the self-help section? And she said, well, if I tell you that, it's going to defeat the purpose.

I'm Rico Galliano. I'm Brendan Francis Noonam. And from APM, I'm Rico Gagliano.

I'm Brendan Francis Nuneum, and from APM American Public Media, this is The Dinner Party,

the culture show that gives you an edge in your weekend conversations.

You just got a joke from author T.C. Boyle. His latest novel, San Miguel, just came out.

He is one of many authors you'll be hearing from during this very special all-book episode of The Dinner Party.

Yes, this week's show is a veritable audio literary salon.

Invited guests include Martin Amos, Juno Diaz, Miranda July, even William Shakespeare.

And also perhaps the only person who means more to literature than Shakespeare.

That's right.

Reading Rainbows Lovar Burton will be here.

But first, here's something we aired earlier this year when we got some small talk from an expert in all things literary.

We're speaking with Sadie Stein.

She is deputy editor of the Paris Review.

Sadie, what story are you going to be talking about at your parties this weekend? Well, I thought we would probably be talking about the passing of the late Mike McGrady.

Mike McGrady.

Yes, whom you may know is the perpetrator of a 1960s sexy literary hoax.

Whoa, I didn't know that.

We don't keep up on 60s literary hoaxes, but do fill us in?

Well, in, I believe, 1969, McGrady was a writer at New York Newsday, and this was the era of Valley of the Dolls and a lot of other kind of salacious bestsellers.

So he and his colleagues kind of for fun, I think they did this in like a week,

decided they would come up with a faux salacious tell-all by a housewife, Penelope Ash.

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