This week on the MashReads Podcast, we are joined by author Colson Whitehead to read and discuss his novel The Underground Railroad.

The book paints a portrait of slavery and American history by following Cora, a slave running away from a cruel plantation in Georgia. As she struggles to escape to freedom, Cora travels through the country, seeing how deeply slavery has shaped American life and how passionately citizens will fight to keep or destroy the institution.

Join us as we talk with Colson about writing, history, and fact vs. fiction in The Underground Railroad.

And we close the show, as always, with recommendations.

• Colson recommends reading Helen MacDonald's H is for Hawk."The writing is so exquisite. It was a nice companion while I was traveling."

• Aliza recommends the podcast Loreby Aaron Mahnke that covers myth, legends and history. "I binged 49 episodes in a week. And it's amazing." She also recommends Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, which reads through every chapter of Harry Potterusing the critical reading skills that one would use for texts like the Bible.

• Peter finished reading and recommends The Loneyby Andrew Michael Hurley. "It's so spectacularly spooky and atmospheric."

• MJ recommends Amazon's new show Good Girls Revolt. Inspired by the gender discrimination lawsuit filed against Newsweekin the '70s, Good Girls Revoltfollows a group of female researchers fighting for equality in their newsroom. He also recommends Nayyirah Waheed's poetry collection Salt. (You can find some of her poems on Instagram here.)

Also, if you are looking for something new to read, check out our official MashReads November book club selection: The Sun Is Also A Starby Nicola Yoon. Yoon will be chatting with MashReads IRL on Nov. 29, at 7:00 p.m. ET, at McNally Jacksonin New York City.We hope you can join the discussion.

And if you're looking for more book news, don't forget to follow MashReads on Facebook and Twitter.