WYPL Book Talk

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. 

Podcast - Ace Atkins - The Fallen

Ace Atkins is a best-selling and well-respected novelist of crime fiction. He has continued on the Spenser series for the Robert B. Parker estate, having published Little White Lies, his sixth addition to the series earlier in 2017, and this summer brings us the seventh installment of his Quinn Colson series, The Fallen, set in the contemporary, but fictional northern Mississippi county of Tibbehah.

Podcast - John Grisham - Camino Island

We have a special program today; we have two interviews. A little later I will be speaking with Tim Henderson who is the director of humanities TN about the organization and about its 2017 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. This October will be the 29th edition of one of the biggest book festivals in America. But up first, we have a special guest, a writer by the name of John Grisham. John Grisham is of course the best-selling author of legal thrillers and other popular novels who got his start writing stories set in the Mid-South. He is estimated to have sold more than 300 million books worldwide, and I was invited by the website Chapter16.org to interview him at his recent event at Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN. Chapter16.org is the literary website of Humanities TN and they have graciously allowed us to use the audio from the interview on Book Talk. MR. Grisham and I began our conversation about his latest novel, Camino Island, which is published by Doubleday.

Podcast - Gail Godwin - Grief Cottage

 

 

I was recently invited to be in conversation with one of America's greatest writers, Gail Godwin, at Parnassus books in Nashville, TN. Ms. Godwin was on tour with her latest novel, Grief Cottage, which is published by Bloomsbury. I had some technical difficulties with my recording microphone, so the sound isn't as good as we normally have on Book Talk, but it is a wonderful conversation with Ms. Godwin. - Stephen Usery

Podcast - Vickie Fee - One Fete in the Grave

Vickie Fee was a long-time journalist in western Tennessee but now calls the Upper Peninsula of Michigan home. To help with home sickness, she began writing the Liv and Di in Dixie Mystery series, and today we'll be talking about the third installment, One Fete in The Grave, which is published by Kensington.

Podcast - Alexandra Marzano-Lesnevich - The Fact of a Body

 

 

 

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich to the program today. Alexandria has received fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, and Yaddo, and a Rona Jaffe Award. Also, she teaches at Grub Street and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In this episode, we will talk about her book, The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir.