WYPL Book Talk

 

Credit: Tamara Beckwith

Adam Johnson back to the program today. Adam was last on Book Talk for his novel, The Orphan Master's Son which would go on to win the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and well as the Dayton Peace Prize. He's also previously published the novel Parasites Like Us, and the short story collection, Emporium. Today we discuss his success as well as his new collection of short stories, Fortune Smiles, which is published by Random House.

Barry Wolverton enjoyed a good deal of success for his debut novel for younger readers, Neversink. On this episode, we talk about the first book in his new series Chronicles of the Black Tulip. Book one is The Vanishing Island, and it's published by Walden Pond Press.

Amy Stewart might be best known as a writer of lively non-fiction about the natural world, with several books including Flower Confidential, Wicked Plants, and The Drunken Botanist, but today we talk about her fiction debut, Girl Waits with Gun, which is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

 

Katy Simpson Smith earned a Ph.D in history from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and an MFA from Bennington. She's published one non-fiction work, We Have Raised All of You: Motherhood in the South, 1750-1835, and last year her debut novel, The Story of Land and Sea was released, and is now available in paperback from Harper Perennial.

Carrie Bebris is the author of the seven book series of mystery novels starring Elizabeth and Mister Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the newest of which is The Suspicion at Sanditon, set in the world of Sanditon, the unfinished novel Austen had had worked on just prior to her death.

Our guest for this edition is Jon Jefferson, one half of the Jefferson Bass writing team. Together with Dr. Bill Bass, who founded the famous Body Farm forensic research facility at the University of Tennessee, Jon has published two works of nonfiction, and nine novels featuring forensic genius Dr. Bill Brockton. The newest of which is The Breaking Point.

 

Susan Elizabeth Phillips is the only writer to the Romance Writers of America favorite book award five times. She's also been elected to their hall of fame and has received their lifetime achievement award. She's written the popular Wynette, Texas and Chicago Stars series, but she stopped by the Book Talk studios to talk to Linda Lloyd about her latest stand-alone novel, Heroes Are My Weakness, which is new in paperback.

Susan Crandall was last on to talk about her breakthrough best-selling novel, Whistling Past the Graveyard. This time, we'll be discussing her new historical novel, The Flying Circus, which is published by Gallery Books.

The Honorable Martin Clark is a circuit court judge from the Commonwealth of Virginia, but we'll only be talking about the law as it is in the confines of his fourth novel, The Jezebel Remedy, which is published by Knopf.

Ace Atkins is a former newspaper journalist and current writer of crime fiction. He started off with a series about the New Orleans private eye Nick Travers. Then he moved on to a quartet of critically acclaimed novels based on historic true crimes. Currently, he is continuing the Spenser series for the Robert B Parker estate, as well as writing his own series based in the northern Mississippi county of Tibbeha, the newest of which is The Redeemers.

After reading This Republic of Suffering by Harvard president and historian Drew Gilpin-Faust, a book which chronicles the Civil War’s legacy of death and destruction, New York Times-bestselling novelist Dolen Perkins-Valdez decided her next novel should investigate the possibilities of healing the personal and national trauma caused by the war. Balm looks not at the soldiers’ suffering but at the very real pain of widows, former slaves, and others.

Harrison Scott Key is a humorist whose writings have appeared in The New York Times, Reader's Digest, and The Oxford American. Harper has recently published his memoir, The World's Largest Man.

Sonja Livingston was last on Book Talk to talk about her memoir, Ghostbread, which won the AWP award for non-fiction. Today we'll be discussing her new collection of essays entitled, Queen of the Fall.

 

Humorist Mary Laura Philpott handles social media duties for Ann Patchett's Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and USA Today. Perigee Books recently published a collection of her cartoons, Penguins with People Problems.

 

 

William Boyle is originally from New York but now calls Oxford, Mississippi home. His first novel, Gravesend, was published in 2013, and his collection of short stories, Death Don't Have No Mercy, was recently released by Broken River Books.

Actor and novelist Lyndsay Faye's first novel was a continuation of the Sherlock Homes and John Watson universe called Dust and Shadow. She then moved her efforts to New York in the 1840s with The Gods of Gotham, Seven for a Secret, and the newest one featuring copper star policeman Timothy Wilde, The Fatal Flame.

Chantel Acevedo's first novel Love and Ghost Letters won the Latino International Book Award. Her third novel A Falling Star won the Doris Bakwin Award. And today we'll be talking about her new novel, The Distant Marvels, which is published by Europa Editions.

Richard Lange is a former magazine editor and currently a writer of literary crime fiction. His novels are This Wicked World and Angel Baby, which won the Hammett Prize, and he's published two collections of short stories Dead Boys, and the book we'll talk about today, Sweet Nothing, which is available from Mullholland Books.

Kimberly Willis Holt won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 1999 for her novel, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town. Henry Holt and Company recently released her novel, Dear Hank Williams, which set in Louisiana in the late 1940s.

Preston Lauterbach was last on to talk about his debut, The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock'n'Roll. This time we discuss his newest non-fiction title,Beale Street Dynasty: Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis, which is published by W.W. Norton.