WYPL Book Talk

Podcast - Yvette Manessis Corporon - Something Beautiful Happened

Yvette Manessis Corporon is an Emmy-Award-winning writer, producer and author. She is currently a Senior Producer with the syndicated entertainment news show, EXTRA. She is the author of the international, best-selling novel When the Cypress Whispers, and today we'll be talking about her recent non-fiction book, Something Beautiful Happened: A Story of Survival and Courage in the Face of Evil, which is published by Howard Books.

Podcast - Joe Hagan - Sticky Fingers

 

 

Journalist Joe Hagan is the author of the biography, Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine, which is published by Knopf. We talk about Wenner's childhood with his parents, the early days of Rolling Stone, his marriage to his wife Jane, as well as the star creatives that Jann Wenner edited at Rolling Stone, and ultimately, about his decision to leave his wife and the closet, in order to live openly as a gay man.

 

Podcast - Philip Jett - The Death of an Heir

 

Blake McVey talks to Philip Jett about his true crime book, The Death of an Heir: Adolph Coors III and the Murder That Rocked an American Brewing Dynasty which is published by St. Martin's Press. In February 1960, Adolph Coors III, known as Ad, was kidnapped on his way to the Coors Brewery in Golden Colorado, and the subsequent manhunt riveted the Mountain West region of America.

 

Podcast - Radney Foster - For You to See the Stars

Radney Foster in a popular and critically-acclaimed country music singer and songwriter. He was a member of the duo Foster and Lloyd, and has released many well-received solo albums like Del Rio Texas 1959 and The World We Live In. He has also joined the ranks of American fiction writers with his first collection of short stories, For You to See the Stars which is published by Working Title Farm, which is the new publishing imprint from author Shari Smith, and there is a companion album with a song for each of the stories, also called For You to See the Stars, and it is available from Devil's River Records.

Podcast - Judy Schachner - Sarabella's Thinking Cap

Judy Schachner is a best-selling artist and author of children's books. She is best known for her popular Skippy Jon Jones series starring a Siamese kitten who thinks he is a Chihuahua. She's also written many stand- alone books like: Yo, Vikings!, Dewey Bob, and Grannyman. Today we'll be talking about her latest stand-alone book, Sarabella's Thinking Cap which is published by Dial Books.

 

Judy shares her character bible for Sarabella's Thinking Cap.

 

 

Podcast - Denise Kiernan - The Last Castle

Denise Kiernan is an author, journalist and producer. She has worked in television, serving as head writer for ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". Her writing has appeared in publications like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. She's written several non-fiction works,  Her previous title, The Girls of Atomic City, was a New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and NPR Bestseller and has been published in seven languages. Today we'll be talking about her newest book, The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home. 

 

Podcast - John Grisham and Hampton Sides - The Rooster Bar

John Grisham is of course one of the most beloved writers of fiction in the world today, having sold close to 300 million books worldwide including The Firm, A Time To Kill, Camino Island, and A Painted House, as well as the Theodore Boone  series for younger readers. He spent much of his childhood in Southhaven, Mississippi just across the border from Memphis. He recently returned to town to sign copies of his latest novel for Burke's Books, a store which was one of his earliest supporters. His new novel is The Rooster Bar, a thriller about a trio of third-year law school students who take unusual steps to deal with their mountain of student debt which they built up at a shady for-profit program in Washington, DC. A little bit later, we'll be joined by Memphis-native and best-selling non-fiction author Hampton Sides who joined Mr. Grisham later in the day for a conversation at Christian Brothers University for an audience of 500 fans.

Hampton Sides who is a Memphis native and author of best-selling non-fiction books like Hellhound on His Trail and Blood and Thunder. There were some technically difficulties, so Mr. Sides microphone wasn't operating properly, but we salvaged what was overheard by Mr. Grisham's microphone.

 

 

Podcast - Elizabeth Heiskell - What Can I Bring?

 

Linda Lloyd talks to Elizabeth Heiskell about her cookbook, What Can I Bring? Southern Food for Any Occasion Life Serves Up. Mississippian Elizabeth is farmer and a contributor for Southern Living magazine and NBC's Today show. This highly-spirited and charming conversation will be a winner for people who might be looking for something to take to potlucks this coming holiday season.

Podcast - Michelle Kuo - Reading with Patrick

Michelle Kuo graduated from Harvard Law and teaches in the History, Law, and Society program at the American University of Paris on issues related to race, punishment, immigration, and the law. We recently spoke about her debut book, a memoir, Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship.

Podcast - Tova Mirvis - The Book of Separation

 

Tova Mirvis has published three novels, The Ladies Auxiliary, The Outside World, and Visible City, but today we'll be talking about her memoir which deals with her ending her marriage at the same time she questions her commitment to Modern Orthodox Judaism. It's called The Book of Separation, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

 

Podcast - Daren Wang - The Hidden Light of Northern Fires

Daren Wang is the founding Executive Director of AJC Decatur Book Festival. As a public radio producer, he produced and or hosted several series  including The Spoken Word, Porches: The South and Her Writers, and Atlanta Forum. His writing has appeared in Paste Magazine, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Saporta Report, and others. Today we talk about his debut novel, The Hidden Light of Northern Fires, which is available from Thomas Dunne Books.

Podcast - Reed Farrel Coleman - Robert B. Parker's The Hangman's Sonnet

Reed Farrel Coleman is the author of the much-lauded Mo Prager detective series. He recently started a new new series starring grief-stricken retired cop and current hotel detective Gus Murphy. The first of which Where it Hurts just won the 2017 Shamus award for best detective novel. Earlier this year, we spoke about the second in the series, What You Break. But today we'll be talking about the fourth Jesse Stone book he has written for the Robert B. Parker estate. It's called Robert B. Parker's The Hangman's Sonnet, and it's published by GP Putnam's Sons.

Podcast - Will Schwalbe - Books for Living

 

 

This week, Blake McVey talks to best-selling writer Will Schwalbe. Will has careers as editor in the publishing world , as the founder of cookstr.com, and has turned his hand to writing books. His first, Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do it Better—was co-written  with David Shipley. The second, The End of Your Life Book Club, and today he and Blake will discuss his third, Books For Living, which is now in paperback, published by Vintage.

Podcast - Thomas Mullen - Lightning Men

 

Thomas Mullen has published five novels, The Last Town on Earth, which won the James Fenimore Cooper prize, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers, The Revisionists. His latest Lightning Men is a continuation of a series begun with his previous novel, Darktown, which follows two of Atlanta's first African-American police officers following World War Two. It's now 1950 and when three African-American families move into a formerly all-white neighborhood, Officers Lucius Bogs and Tommy Smith, as well as white policeman Denny Rakestraw, discover that morality often lies outside the law.

Podcast - Anne Gisleson - The Futilitarians

 

 

Anne Gisleson's writing has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Oxford American, The Believer, and The Los Angeles Times, among others. Today we'll be talking about her first book, The Futilitarians: Our Year of Thinking, Drinking, Grieving, and Reading which is published by Little, Brown.

 

 

 

 

 

Podcast - Adrienne Berard - Water Tossing Boulders

 

 

Blake McVey talks with Adrienne Berard about her book WATER TOSSING BOULDERS:HOW A FAMILY OF CHINESE IMMIGRANTS LED THE FIRST FIGHT TO DESEGREGATE SCHOOLS IN THE JIM CROW SOUTH, which is now in paperback by Beacon Press. It's the true story of the Chinese-American Lum family who fought for the rights of their daughters to attend whites-only public schools in 1920s Mississippi. Their case made it all the way to the Supreme Court thirty years before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.

 

 

Podcast - Ladee Hubbard - The Talented Ribkins

 

Ladee Hubbard is the winner of the 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award and the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition for the Short Story. Today we'll be talking about her debut novel, The Talented Ribkins, which is published by Melville House. It's the story of Johnny Ribkins, who, despite an amazing ability to make maps of places he's never seen, finds himself in deep debt to an unsavory character all while trying to bond with his niece whom he's never met before.

Podcast- Peggy O'Neal Peden - Your Killin' Heart

Linda Lloyd talks to Peggy O'Neal Peden about her mystery novel, Your Killin' Heart.

From the Macmillan website:

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in Nashville is an aspiring country music star. Campbell Hall, for one, just wants to get her travel agency off the ground and move on from a break-up. But when she gets the opportunity to visit the mansion of mysterious country icon Jake Miller, she jumps at the chance. After all, who knows what clues are lurking around the long-dead star’s last home?

Podcast - Mark Bowden - Hue 1968

 

Mark Bowden is a renowned journalist and author. He recently had the cover story of the July August 2017 issue of the Atlantic Monthly magazine about how America and the world should deal with North Korea. He is perhaps better known for his non-fiction books including The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden, Our Finest Day: D-Day, June 6, 1944, and Blackhawk Down. Today, we'll be discussing Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam, which is a look at the longest and fiercest battle of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. The combined North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces seized control of South Vietnam's third-largest city on the eve of Tet, the nation's biggest holiday. It would take almost a full month for South Vietnamese and American forces to regain control of city that was almost leveled during the fighting. 

Podcast - Scott McClanahan - The Sarah Book

 

Scott McClanahan is a writer from West Virginia whose approach to writing and life would never be called timid. He's released several collection of stories, but he's probably best known for his book Crapalachia. His newest release is a novel called The Sarah Book, which features a writer named Scott McClanahan who is doing his best to ruin his marriage to a woman named Sarah, and examines the beginning of their relationship as well as its demise.