WYPL Book Talk

Podcast - Kerri Maniscalco - Stalking Jack the Ripper

Kerri Maniscalco is a debut novelist who has the honor of being the first author published by James Patterson's new young adult imprint called Jimmy Patterson Books and is distributed by Little, Brown. Stalking Jack the Ripper is the story of a 17-year-old girl named Audrey Rose Wadsworth who is fascinated by the Jack the Ripper case and is then terrified to learn that Jack might be closer to her than she suspects. Also, Stalking Jack the Ripper debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list for young adult hardcover! Congratulations Kerri!

Podcast - Candice Millard - Hero of the Empire

Candice Millard is a former writer and editor for National Geographic Magazine. Her first book The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey was published in 2005. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of A President, which won an Edgar for best fact crime book, followed in 2011. Doubleday has recently published her third book, Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill, which has already spent several weeks in the top ten of the New York Times Best Sellers list.

Podcast- Daniel Connolly - The Book of Isaias

Memphis Commercial Appeal reporter Daniel Connolly worked as an embedded reporter in Memphis Kingsbury High School investigating how children of immigrants, those who are here both legally and undocumented, navigate their difficult high school years and figure out how to pursue careers and higher education. The resulting book is The Book of Isaias: A Child of Hispanic Immigrants Seeks His Own America.

Podcast - Robert Hicks - The Orphan Mother

Linda Lloyd talks to Robert Hicks about his third novel, The Orphan Mother. The Civil War has ended, and characters from his best-selling debut, The Widow of the South, return to deal with the all too real consequences of the war and slavery. Formerly enslaved, Mariah Reddick is working as a midwife and fights for justice when her son is murdered.

Podcast - Jacqueline Woodson - Another Brooklyn

Jacqueline Woodson is one of America's most talented and beloved poets and authors of fiction for children. She's won the National Book Award, a Coretta Scott King Award, and numerous other accolades, including currently serving as the Youth Poet Laureate for the Poetry Foundation. 2016 sees the publication of her first novel for adults in 20 years, Another Brooklyn.

Podcast - Odie Lindsey - We Come to Our Senses

Odie Lindsey's writing has appeared in numerous outlets including Iowa Review and Best American Short Stories. 2016 sees the publication of his debut, a short story collection called We Come to Our Senses, available from W.W. Norton and received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist.

Podcast - Alex Bledsoe - Chapel of Ease

Alex Bledsoe is a veteran writer of horror and fantasy novels like The Memphis Vampire series and the Eddie LaCrosse series. Although born and raised in west Tennessee and living in Wisconsin, Alex has a contemporary fantasy series set in the hills of east Tennessee about a mysterious group of people known as the Tufa. The previous entries were The Hum and the Shiver, Wisp of a Thing, Long Black Curl, and today we'll talk about the world of the Tufa and the fourth book in the series called Chapel of Ease.

Podcast - Jason Miller - Red Dog

Jason Miller is a noted Twitter funny person and contributor to the RiffTrax movie satire series. Jason first appeared on Book Talk in 2015 to talk about the first book in his Slim in Little Egypt mystery series, Down Don't Bother Me. 2016 brings book two in the series set in southern Illinois coal country, Red Dog.

Podcast - Morgan Matson - The Unexpected Everything

Linda Lloyd talks to Morgan Matson about her fourth novel for young adults, The Unexpected Everything. Andie is a rising high school senior whose politician father's scandal has scuttled her summer internship. For a teenager who had her future planned out, she is now scrambling for a summer job which will lead her to change the way she thinks about her family, past and future.

Podcast - Donald Ray Pollock - The Heavenly Table

Donald Ray Pollock came to writing later in life after having worked 30+ years in a paper mill in central Ohio. His first published book was a collection of short stories called Knockemstiff, followed by the novel, The Devil All the Time. 2016 sees the release of his second novel, The Heavenly Table, which is published by Doubleday.

Podcast - Brad Taylor - Ghosts of War

Brad Taylor retired as lieutenant colonel from the United States Army after over 20 years of service, including time in what is popularly known as Delta Force. He then began writing thrillers about a shadowy special forces unit called The Taskforce, starring operator Pike Logan. The first book in the series was One Rough Man, and now in the summer of 2016, we have the tenth book in the series, Ghosts of War, which is published by Dutton.

Podcast - Ace Atkins - The Innocents

Ace Atkins used to be a crime reporter down in Tampa, Florida, but turned to the world of fiction with his New Orleans set Nick Travers series. He then wrote four critically acclaimed historical novels based on true crimes. His currently writing two series. One is continuing the Spenser series for the Robert B. Parker estate, and his own Quinn Colson series, set in northern Mississippi, about an Army Ranger who retires back to his hometown and takes over as sheriff. Today we'll talk about the most recent book in the series, The Innocents.

Podcast - Whitney Terrell - The Good Lieutennant

Whitney Terrell has written three novels, The Huntsman, The King of Kings County, and today we'll be talking about his most recent, The Good Lieutenant, about a U.S. Army lieutenant named Emma Fowler who is involved in a horrible incident in war-torn Iraq and is told in reverse chronology.

Podcast - Melissa Ginsburg - Sunset City

 

 

Melissa Ginsburg teaches English and creative writing at the university of Mississippi, having received her MFA from the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop. As a writer, she is a poet and a novelist having published the collection of poems, Dear Weather Ghost, and Ecco/Harper Collins has recently published her debut novel, Sunset City.

 

Podcast - Megan Miranda - All the Missing Girls

Megan Miranda has enjoyed a lot of success in writing novels for young adults like Hysteria, Fracture, and The Safest Lies. Today we'll be talking about her first novel for the adult market, All the Missing Girls, about a woman returning to her small North Carolina hometown to face a new mystery and some old lies.

Podcast - Rheta Grimsely Johnson - The Dogs Buried Over the Bridge

Rheta Grimsley Johnson has received the Ernie Pyle Memorial Award and the National Headliner Award for her newspaper work. She's also written five books, including a biography of Charles Schultz and a trio of memoirs: Poor Man's Provence: Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana, Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming, and in this episode, she and Linda Loyd will be talking about the newest of the three, The Dogs Buried over the Bridge: A Memoir in Dog Years.

Podcast - Richard Zacks - Chasing the Last Laugh

Richard Zacks has been writing lively non-fiction for over 20 years now with books like History Laid Bare, An Underground Education, The Pirate Coast, and Island of Vice. This time around, Richard takes an in-depth look at Mark Twain's final international lecture tour in Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour.

Podcast- John Hart - Redemption Road

John Hart is a former criminal defense attorney who turned into one of America's most popular and respected writers of literary crime fiction. 2006 saw the publication of his debut novel, The King of Lies, his next two novels 2007's Down River and 2009's The Last Child each won the Edgar Award for Best novel, and Iron House followed in 2011. 2016 sees the publication of his fifth novel, Redemption Road, which is published by Thomas Dunne Books.

Podcast - Kate DiCamillo - Raymie Nightingale

Kate DiCamillo to the program today. She is one of America's most successful writers of children's literature, having won two Newberry Medals, one for  and the other for Flora and Ulysses.  Her novels and chapter books for younger reader are perennial best sellers. And her most recent novel, Raymie Nightingale, debuted at number one on the New York Times best-sellers list for children.

Podcast - Drezen and Briscoe - How May We Hate You?

 

Anna Drezen and Todd Dakotah Briscoe are actors and entertainers in New York who had day jobs as concierges at hotels in Manhattan. They started a blog recounting some of the weird and hilarious interactions with hotel guests called How May We Hate You, and now there is a companion book which is filled with these interactions, as well as brand new exclusive content not available online.