WYPL Book Talk

Laura E. Gómez- Inventing Latinos

Laura E. Gómez is a professor of law, sociology, and Chicana/Chicano studies at UCLA Misconceiving Mothers: Legislators, Prosecutors and the Politics of Prenatal Drug Exposure, Mapping “Race”: Critical Approaches to Health Disparities Research, and Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race. Today we'll be talking about her new book. Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism, which is published by The New Press.

Michael Imperioli - The Nicotine Chronicles

 

Michael Imperioli is probably best known for his acting, writing, and directing for television, movies, and theater. He won an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor for his portrayal of Christopher Moltisanti in the legendary series, The Sopranos. He pursues many creative endeavors, and his fiction writing has recently found its way to the reading public. His debut novel, The Perfume Burned His Eyes, was published in 2018, and he has a story in the new anthology from Akashic books, The Nicotine Chronicles, which is edited by Lee Child and also includes contributions from Joyce Carol Oates, Jerry Stahl, Hannah Tinti, and Eric Bogosian.

Renee Knake Jefferson and Hannah Brenner Johnson - Shortlisted

 

Hannah Brenner Johnson is Vice Dean for Academic and Student Affairs and Associate Professor of Law at California Western School of Law in San Diego. Renee Knake Jefferson is Professor of Law and holds the Joanne and Larry Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics at the University of Houston Law Center.

These legal scholars have collaborated on Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court. It's a look at the history of women who were considered for the Supreme Court prior to Sandra Day O'Connor's appointment in 1981. It also looks at what appears to being an honor by being a finalist for important positions is a way to pay lip service to diversity without actually achieving it.

 

Ariel Sabar - Veritas

 

Ariel Sabar is a former newspaper reporter for The Providence Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and The Baltimore Sun. He is currently a freelance journalist having written for publications such as Smithsonian, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Wall Street Journal. His previous books include My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for his Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq and Heart of the City. Today we'll be discussing his most recent one, Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife which is published by Doubleday. 

Daniel Hornsby - Via Negativa

Daniel Hornsby earned his MFA from the University of Michigan, and a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. His stories and essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, The Missouri Review, and Joyland. Today we'll be talking about his debut novel, Via Negativa, which is published by Knopf.

David Stebenne - Promised Land

Dr. David Stebenne teaches at Ohio State University in the history department and their law school. David has authored two academic books, Arthur J. Goldberg: New Deal Liberal and Modern Republican: Arthur Larson and the Eisenhower Years. He and Joseph Mitchell co-authored New City Upon A Hill: A History of Columbia, Maryland.  Today, we'll be looking at his most recent book, which is aimed a general audience, Promised Land: How the Rise of the Middle Class Transformed America, 1929-1968.

Wendy Williams - The Language of Butterflies

Wendy Williams' journalism has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, Scientific American, and many other august publications. She's written seven book to date, including about the resilience of cancer patients, the history of the horse, and today we'll be talking about her latest, The Language of Butterflies: How Thieves, Hoarders, Scientists, and Other Obsessives Unlocked the Secrets of the World's Favorite Insect, which is published by Simon & Schuster.

Walter Thompson-Hernandez - The Compton Cowboys

Walter Thompson-Hernández is a former New York Times reporter who is now moving into the fields of podcasting and documentary film making. While at the Times, he traveled the world looking for and profiling fascinating subcultures. One of those was the group of black horse riders known as The Compton Cowboys. Their story piqued Walter's interest, and he recently released his book looking at their fascinating and fraught life trying to hold onto their horses and non-profit during a tumultuous year of changing leadership at the top of the program. The book is The Compton Cowboys: The New Generation of Cowboys in America's Urban Heartland, and it is published by HarperCollins.

Sydney Ladensohn Stern - The Brothers Mankiewicz

Sydney Ladensohn Stern has was a reporter for Fortune and Money and her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times. She has also written three books of non-fiction, Toyland: The High-Stakes Game of the Toy Industry, Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics and Mystique, and most recently, The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics,  which is published by The University of Mississippi Press and was recently released in audio book format by Random House Audio.

Scott Turow - The Last Trial

In addition to being a international best-selling author, Scott Turow is an attorney and has served as the president of The Authors Guild. His novels often take place in the fictional Kindle county, which is a stand in for Chicago and Cook County, Illinois. The heart, but not always the star of these is books is defense attorney, Alejandro Stern, known to most as Sandy Stern. Now in his mid 80s, Sandy is contemplating his retirement in the new novel, The Last Trial, which is published by Grand Central. Mr. Turow joined us from Naples, Florida.

Scott Phillips - That Left Turn at Albuquerque

Book Talk veteran Scott Phillips joins us for our first remote interview during the Covid-19 era. Scott's writing mixes noir with biting wit. His novels include The Ice Harvest, Cottonwood, and Rake. Today we'll be talking about his most recent book, That Left Turn at Albuquerque.

Lee Durkee - The Last Taxi Driver

 

Lee Durkee's work has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, Best of the Oxford American,  and New England Review. His first novel was Rides of the Midway, and today we'll be talking about his latest, The Last Taxi Driver, which is published by Tin House Books.

Michael Farris Smith - Blackwood

Michael Farris Smith is a novelist and has been on Book Talk before to talk about his novels, Rivers, Desperation Road, and The Fighter. Today we'll be talking about his latest, Blackwood, which is available from Little, Brown. And as a note, this interview was recorded on March 11th, prior to many of the safer at home orders began taking effect.

Andy Davidson - The Boatman's Daughter

 

Andy Davidson holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Mississippi. His debut novel, In the Valley of the Sun, was nominated for the 2017 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel, This Is Horror’s Novel of the Year, and the 2018 Edinburgh International Book Festival’s First Book Award. Today we'll be talking about his second novel, The Boatman's Daughter, which is published by MCDxFSG Originals.

Alexander Weinstein - Universal Love: Stories

Alexander Weinstein is the director of The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and an Associate Professor of creative writing at Siena Heights University. He was last on Book Talk to talk about his debut story collection, Children of the New World. Today we'll be talking about his latest story collection, Universal Love, which is published by Henry Holt and Company.

Sonia Purnell - A Woman of No Importance

Sonia Purnell is a journalist and non-fiction author. Her books include: Just Boris: A Tale of Blonde Ambition, Clementine: The Life of Mrs Winston Churchill, and today, well be talking about he most recent title, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II, which is now in paperback from Penguin.

Candacy Taylor - Overground Railroad

Candacy Taylor is a visual artist, photographer and writer. Her previous books are Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress and the Moon Route 66 Handbook. Today, we'll be talking about her latest book, Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America which is published by Abrams Press.  It will be the companion book for the Smithsonian touring exhibition The Negro Motorists' Green Book and American Story which opens at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis in June 2020.

Maria Kuztnetsova - Oksana, Behave!

Maria Kuznetsova teaches at Auburn University and is an editor at The Bare Life Review, a journal of immigrant and refugee literature. Her writing has appeared in publications such as McSweeny's, The Southern Review, and Slate. 2019 saw the publication of her debut novel, Oksana, Behave! which is now in paperback from Random House.

Jerry Mitchell - Race Against Time

Blake McVey talks with former Jackson(MS) Clarion-Ledger reporter and MacArthur genius grant recipient Jerry Mitchell about his book, Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era, which is published by Simon & Schuster. 

Michael Zapata - The Lost Book of Adana Moreau

Michael Zapata is a former Chicago public School teacher, the founding editor of Make Literary Magazine, and he has recently published his first novel, The Lost Book of Adana Moreau, which is published by Hanover Square Press/Harper Collins.