WYPL Book Talk

 

Andy Davidson holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Mississippi. His debut novel, In the Valley of the Sun, was nominated for the 2017 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel, This Is Horror’s Novel of the Year, and the 2018 Edinburgh International Book Festival’s First Book Award. Today we'll be talking about his second novel, The Boatman's Daughter, which is published by MCDxFSG Originals.

Alexander Weinstein is the director of The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and an Associate Professor of creative writing at Siena Heights University. He was last on Book Talk to talk about his debut story collection, Children of the New World. Today we'll be talking about his latest story collection, Universal Love, which is published by Henry Holt and Company.

Sonia Purnell is a journalist and non-fiction author. Her books include: Just Boris: A Tale of Blonde Ambition, Clementine: The Life of Mrs Winston Churchill, and today, well be talking about he most recent title, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II, which is now in paperback from Penguin.

Candacy Taylor is a visual artist, photographer and writer. Her previous books are Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress and the Moon Route 66 Handbook. Today, we'll be talking about her latest book, Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America which is published by Abrams Press.  It will be the companion book for the Smithsonian touring exhibition The Negro Motorists' Green Book and American Story which opens at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis in June 2020.

Maria Kuznetsova teaches at Auburn University and is an editor at The Bare Life Review, a journal of immigrant and refugee literature. Her writing has appeared in publications such as McSweeny's, The Southern Review, and Slate. 2019 saw the publication of her debut novel, Oksana, Behave! which is now in paperback from Random House.

Blake McVey talks with former Jackson(MS) Clarion-Ledger reporter and MacArthur genius grant recipient Jerry Mitchell about his book, Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era, which is published by Simon & Schuster. 

Michael Zapata is a former Chicago public School teacher, the founding editor of Make Literary Magazine, and he has recently published his first novel, The Lost Book of Adana Moreau, which is published by Hanover Square Press/Harper Collins.

 

Mark Greaney co-wrote several years with Tom Clancy, and for his estate several years after Mr. Clancy's passing, for a total of seven novels. Last year, he published Red Metal, co-written with recently retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Rip Rawlings. But listeners of Book Talk know Mark best for his best-selling Gray Man thriller series, starring erstwhile CIA operator Court Gentry. Today we'll be discussing the ninth installment of the series One Minute Out.

Beatriz Williams and Karen White have both appeared on Book Talk before to talk about their best-selling novels, Beatriz with The Summer Wives, and Karen with The Beach Trees and A Long Time Gone. New to Book Talk is Lauren Willig, who has published six stand-alone novels and 13 installments of her successful Pink Carnation English historical series. All three authors together have collaborated on three novels, The Forgotten Room, The Glass Ocean, and today we'll be talking about All the Ways We Said Goodbye: A Novel of The Ritz Paris, which is published by Harper Collins. It's a story of honor and courage as three women, each in a different era in French history, World Wars I and II as well as the 1960s, strive for truth and autonomy while navigating a number of different battlefields.

 

Tara Conklin studied law and worked as a litigator here in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom. Her love of writing  eventually won out, and she published her best selling debut novel, The House Girl in 2013. in 2019, she returned with her follow up, The Last Romantics, which was also a best seller, and has just been published in paperback by William Morrow.

Nic Stone is a successful writer of YA novels, those being Dear Martin, Jackpot, and Odd One Out. Today, we'll be talking about her first book for middle-graders, Clean Getaway, which is already a bestseller and published by Crown Books for Young Readers.

The Honorable Debra H. Goldstein is a retired federal judge who is now making mystery writing her career. She has published four novels to date, including two installments in the Sarah Blair series, One Taste Too Many and Two Bites Too Many. Linda Lloyd talks to her about these delightful novels and about her transition from jurist to scribe.

Jeremy Scott is perhaps best known for being the voice and co-founder of the extremely popular YouTube channel Cinema Sins where he nitpicks the plots an details of movies. A few years ago, he started a young adult book series about a world were super heroes are real, but must remain in the shadows while keeping the world safe. It starts Philip a young, but blind hero, who bands together with other young, but physically handicapped fellow students, to help protect the protectors. The first book was called The Ables, and Turner  has recently released the second book in the series, Strings.

Jan Brett is one of the most-respected authors and illustrators of children's book in the world. Among her dozens of books are Berlioz the Bear, The Umbrella, and The Animals' Santa. Today we'll be discussing her latest, The Tale of the Tiger Slippers, which is published by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers.

Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne was an editor for The Atlantic Monthly, and her writing has also appeared in The Boston Globe, GlobalPost, and elsewhere. In this episode, she talks to Linda Lloyd about her east Tennessee roots and her debut novel, Holding On To Nothing, which is available from Blair.

Jami Attenberg is a best-selling novelist whose titles include The Kept Man, The Middlesteins, and All Grown Up. Today we'll be talking about her latest, All This Could Be Yours, which was named to best books of the fall lists by many media outlets, including Time, Entertainment Weekly, and BBC.

Gene Ha is four-time Eisner award-winning comic artist, having worked on books like Alan Moore's Top 10, Batman, Green Lantern, and Marvel Knights. Today we will be talking about the series he created, Mae, which he writes and draws, as well. Lion Forge recently released the second volume collection, which is about a pair of sisters from Indiana who find a portal to an amazing alien world.

Kristen Meinzer is a former public radio producer and current podcaster, whose podcasts include By The Book, Movie Date, and We Love You (And So Can You). She's recently written a why and how to book called So You Want to Start a Podcast: Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story, and Building a Community That Will Listen, which is published by William Morrow.

Pico Iyer is one of the world's great writers on our current age of travel and what it means to our connected societies. He writes for many publications, including Time Magazine and Harper's, and he has authored 15 books. Today we'll talk about his latest, A Beginner's Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations which is published by Knopf. 

Karen Abbott is a best-selling and respected writer of historical non-fiction. Her previous efforts are Sin in the Second City, American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare, and Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War.Today, we'll be talking about her latest, The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder that Shocked Jazz-Age America, which is published by Crown