WYPL Book Talk

Brock Clarke - The Happiest People in the World

Brock Clarke has published two collections of short stories and four novels including the provocatively titled An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. His newest one, The Happiest People in the World, is the story of real and would-be assassins, editorial cartoonists, witness protection, and faculty-versus-student sporting events.

Tavis Smiley - Death of a King

Tavis Smiley is one of the most prominent broadcasters in America. He currently hosts his talk show for for PBS, and started an online talk-radio channel last year. He has also written twelve books, the newest of which is The Death of A King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King's Final Year, and it's available from Little, Brown.

Reed Farrel Coleman - Robert B. Parker's Blind Spot

Reed Farrel Coleman. Reed is best known for his Moe Prager private detective series which concluded earlier this year with the ninth book in the series,The Hollow Girl. Reed is well-respected having won Macavity, Anthony and three Shamus Awards. The Robert B. Parker estate recently asked him to pick up the Jesse Stone series, and today we'll talk about his first entry into it, Blind Spot, and it's published by Putnam.

Stephen Schottenfeld - Bluff City Pawn

 

Stephen Schottenfeld is a professor of English at the University of Rochester, and his short fiction has appeared in Virginia Quarterly, New England Review, and Best American Short Stories. Bloomsbury has recently published his debut novel, Bluff City Pawn, the story of Huddie, a pawnshop owner in Memphis who is struggling with bad business and his two brothers.

Barbara Shoup - Looking for Jack Kerouac

Barbara Shoup is the executive director of the Indiana Writers Center. She's published two books on writing as well as eight novels for young and old adults alike. Her newest novel, Looking for Jack Kerouac, is the first book of the new imprint, Lacewing Books, which is dedicated to bringing literary fiction to the young adult audience. It's the story of two young men recently graduated from high school who travel to meet their literary hero, and one of them learns more about himself the further he gets from home.

Angela Pneuman - Lay It on My Heart

Stephen Usery welcomes Angela Pneuman back to the program to talk about her debut novel, Lay it on My Heart. 13 year-old Charmaine Peake is starting junior high when her father returns home from the Middle East. Their home of East Winder, Kentucky has never agreed on if he is the prophet he has claimed to be, and his grip on sanity has slipped considerably since visiting the Holy Land. Charmaine's mother struggles with keeping the family afloat as Charmaine endures puberty while her world is turning upside down.

Ann B. Ross - Etta Mae's Worst Bad-Luck Day

Linda Lloyd talks to Ann B. Ross about the first spin-off novel from her Miss Julia series, Etta Mae's Worst Bad-Luck Day.  Get a different, but equally hilarious view of Abbottsville, NC as Etta Mae Wiggins tries to move from the trailer park to a mansion by marrying the elderly Howard Connor, and his adult children are not happy about the potential nuptials.

Hampton Sides - In the Kingdom of Ice

Hampton Sides is a journalist and author known for his best-selling nonfiction titles like Hellhound on His Trail and Blood and Thunder. His new book is In the Kingdom of Ice:The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeanette, about an 1879 expedition attempting to reach the North Pole via the Pacific Ocean.

C.J. Box - Shots Fired

C.J. Box is and Edgar-winning novelist best known for his Joe Pickett series, which started in 2001 with Open Season, and the fourteenth one, Stone Cold, was published earlier this year. He's also started a series of stand alone novels, in which a different character carries over to the next book. We'll be talking about his first collection of short stories, Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Picket Country, and it's available from Putnam.

Earl Swift - Auto Biography

Earl Swift is a veteran journalist and author of non-fiction books. His latest book Auto Biography: A Classic Car, an Outlaw Motorhead, and 57 Years of the American Dream, had its genesis as a feature piece he wrote in 2004 about the many owners of a 1957 Chevrolet station wagon. The outlaw motorhead in question is one Tommy Armey, whose tumultuous upbringing contributed to his being the meanest brawler in the Virginia Beach metro area, as well as an entrepreneur whose regard for legal restrictions was minimal at best.

Terry McMillan - Who Asked You?

Earl Swift is a veteran journalist and author of non-fiction books. His latest book Auto Biography: A Classic Car, an Outlaw Motorhead, and 57 Years of the American Dream, had its genesis as a feature piece he wrote in 2004 about the many owners of a 1957 Chevrolet station wagon. The outlaw motorhead in question is one Tommy Armey, whose tumultuous upbringing contributed to his being the meanest brawler in the Virginia Beach metro area, as well as an entrepreneur whose regard for legal restrictions was minimal at best.

Courtney Miller Santo - Three Story House

Courtney Miller Santo recently returned to the Book Talk studio to talk about her second novel, Three Story House. Three cousins in their late 20s convene in Memphis to rehabilitate an old house as well as their own lives.

Smith Henderson - Fourth of July Creek

 

Smith Henderson has won a 2011 PEN Emerging Writers Award for fiction and a Pushcart Prize. Ecco/Harper Collins recently published his debut novel, Fourth of July Creek, the story of a Montana social worker who faces a crumbling personal life while he's trying to help the young son of a religious survivalist living in the hills above his small town.

Lisa Howorth - Going Away Shoes

 

Lisa Howorth is co-owner of Square Books in Oxford, MS, which was named Bookstore of the Year by Publisher's Weekly in 2013. However, in this interview, we'll be talking about her debut novel Flying Shoes, which is available from Bloomsbury. It's the story of Mary Bird Thornton, who in the winter of 1996 learns of new information about the murder of her step-brother some 30 years prior, all while having a really bad week. It's a raucous, affirming novel which proves that life goes on, even if we are haunted by loss.

Charles Graeber - The Good Nurse

Charles Graeber  is an award-winner magazine writer, whose credits include Wired, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and National Geographic. His debut book, The Good Nurse: The True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder was a finalist for the Mystery Writer's of America Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime book. 

Lisa Turner - The Long Dead Train

Lisa Turner's first novel A Little Death in Dixie featured police detective Billy Able searching for a missing socialite. Her new novel, The Gone Dead Train, has detective Able back on the track looking for the person responsible for the suspicious deaths of two musicians.

Karen White - A Long Time Gone

Karen White is the author of the successful Tradd Street series set in Charleston, South Carolina as well stand alone novels like The Beach Trees and After the Rain.  In this episode, we'll be talking about her newest book, A Long Time Gone, which follows several generations of women in the Mississippi Delta who run away from home and how they find their ways back.

Peter Heller - The Painter

Peter Heller's written several books of non-fiction in addition to many years of fine writing for magazines. When last on the program, we spoke about his debut novel, The Dog Stars, and in this episode, we'll talk about his new one, The Painter, about an artist with a violent temper who has to deal with the life or death consequences of his actions.

Aaron Gwyn - Wynne's War

Aaron Gwyn's stories have appeared in publications such as Esquire and McSweeney's, and several were gathered into the collection, Dog on the Cross. His first novel, The World Beneath was released in 2009, and his newest one, Wynne's War, follows a Army Ranger from Oklahoma who gets sucked into intrigue while serving under a mysterious Special Forces captain in Afghanistan.

Daniel Friedman - Don't Ever Look Back

I last talked to Daniel Friedman about the novel Don't Ever Get Old, featuring the retired octogenarian Memphis police detective Baruch "Buck" Schatz. This time we talk about the second entry into the series, Don't Ever Look Back, which is published by Minotaur/St. Martins.