Podcast - Nathaniel Philbrick

Stephen Usery interviews National Book Award-Winner Nathaniel Philbrick about his latest best-seller, The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. In addition to a remarkably detailed recounting of the two-day battle, The Last Stand looks at Sitting Bull and George Armstrong Custer's careers leading up to their fight and the effect to their legacies in the 134 years since The Last Stand.

Podcast - Karl Marlantes

Stephen Usery interviews Karl Marlantes about his New York Times bestselling debut novel Matterhorn. A searing look at futility, racism, and the changing nature of American military missions, Matterhorn is one of the finest fiction debuts in recent memory.

Podcast - Hampton Sides

Stephen Usery interviews Memphis native Hampton Sides about his latest best-seller Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin. It follows James Earl Ray starting with his escape from a Missouri prison in 1967 until his capture a few months after the murder of Dr. King.

Podcast - Reif Larsen

Stephen Usery interviews Reif Larsen about his debut novel, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet. Brand new in paperback, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet is about a 12 year-old map maker whose incessant diagramming of the world around him leads him on an amazing journey from his home ranch in Montana to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. There's a bonus of sixteen minutes of conversation on the podcast!

Podcast - Ace Atkins

Stephen Usery interviews Ace Atkins about his latest historical crime novel, Infamous. Infamous is the darkly humorous story of Memphis-native George "Machine Gun" Kelly, his wife Kathryn, and the kidnapping of an Oklahoma City oil baron that draws the unwanted attention of J. Edgar Hoover and his Bureau of Investigation.

Podcast - Norris Church Mailer

Stephen Usery interviews novelist Norris Church Mailer about her memoir A Ticket to the Circus, which follows her childhood in small-town Arkansas, life as a high school art teacher, and her more than thirty-year relationship with her husband, the late Norman Mailer.

Podcast - Keith Thomson

Stephen Usery interviews Huffington Post blogger and international security expert Keith Thomson about his espionage thriller Once a Spy.

Podcast - Rheta Grimsley Johnson

Stephen Usery interviews nationally-syndicated columnist and author Rheta Grimsley Johnson about her new memoir Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming. Also, she will be appearing at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library on Mother's Day, May 9th, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. For more information call LINC at 415-2700.

Podcast - Brad Watson

Stephen Usery interviews Brad Watson about his new short story collection Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives. Mississippi-native Watson has won the Sue Kaufmann Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Download the podcast today.

Podcast - Linda Fairstein

Stephen Usery interviews Linda Fairstein about her latest Alexandra Cooper novel Hell Gate. Manhattan prosecutor Cooper and her homicide detective partner Mike Chapman investigate the deaths surrounding a human trafficking shipment of Ukrainians and a political scandal that has turned deadly which echoes a crime committed in America's earliest days.

Podcast - Molly Caldwell Crosby

Stephen Usery interviews Molly Caldwell Crosby about her book Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries.

Podcast - Roy Morris, Jr.

Stephen Usery interviews the editor of Military Heritage magazine, Roy Morris, Jr. about his last look at nineteenth century America with Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain.

Podcast - Richard Bausch

Stephen Usery interviews PEN/Malamud-winner Richard Bausch about his latest collection of short stories, Something Is Out There.

Podcast - Elizabeth Kostova

Stephen Usery interviews best-selling author Elizabeth Kostova about her new novel, The Swan Thieves. It follows psychiatrist Andrew Marlow as he tries to discover why painter Robert Oliver tried to attack a painting in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Podcast - Amy Greene

Stephen Usery interviews Amy Greene about her New York Times best-selling debut novel Bloodroot, which follows four generations of women in the Smoky Mountains of east Tennessee.

Podcast - Jeffrey Jackson

Stephen Usery interviews Rhodes College professor Jeffrey Jackson about his latest look into French history with Paris Underwater: How the City of Light Survived the Great Flood of 1910. It's an intriguing look on how many with very real political and economic differences came together and endured one of the River Seine's worst floods ever.

Podcast - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Stephen Usery interviews Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl about their supernatural young adult novel Beautiful Creatures, which Amazon named the fifth best book of 2009.

Podcast - Kimberla Lawson Roby

Stephen speaks to best selling author Kimberla Lawson Roby about the second book to follow Alicia Black, the daughter of Reverend Curtis Black, in Be Careful What You Pray For.

Podcast - Rebecca Skloot

Stephen Usery interviews Rebecca Skloot about her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It's a fascinating look into HeLa cells which were the most important advance in medical research for the twentieth century, but more than that we meet Henrietta Lacks the woman who provided the cells and the grief her loss caused her family, and it looks at the socio-economic impact the HeLa cells have had on our country and world. This is an intriguing 72 minute audio interview with Rebecca; please download it today. Just click on the white box with the blue musical note and it will take you to the download page.

Podcast - Rebecca Skloot

We're making our interview with Rebecca Skloot available early due to the huge advance interest in her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This is an intriguing 72 minute audio interview with Rebecca; please dowload it today. Just click on the white box with the blue musical note and it will take you to the download page.

Podcast - Dacre Stoker

With vampires ubiquitous in the popular culture, Dracula has returned to claim his throne. Stephen Usery interviews Dacre Stoker, the great-grand nephew of Dracula creator Bram Stoker, about the first family-approved sequel to the original, with Dracula the Un-Dead. Set a couple of decades after dipatching the Count, the intervening years haven't been kind to our band of heroes as a new threat invades London. Download the podcast today!

Podcast - Alanna Nash

2010 marks the 75th anniversary of Elvis Presley's birth, so Stephen Usery interviews Alanna Nash about her new look at the king of rock'n'roll, Baby Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him. More than just a look at Elvis's love life, it investigates all his relationships with women, romantic, familial, platonic, artistic and business. Over one hour of talking about The King, download it today!

Podcast - Stephen Hunter

Stephen Usery interviews Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Hunter. Though retired from the world of film criticism, Hunter has kept going with his successful line of Bob Lee Swagger novels. His just released I, Sniper follows Bob the Nailer as he tries to figure out who is assassinating anti-Viet Nam war activists more than thirty years after the end of the war. Load up the podcast today.

Podcasts - Patricia Harman and Inman Majors

Stephen Usery interviews Patricia Harman about her memoir, The Blue Cotton Gown. The Blue Cotton Gown is a look at a year in Harman's life as she works as a nurse midwife in a university town in West Virginia and the challenges facing her and the women she treats.





We've begun revisiting past Book Talks. This week we have Inman Majors talking about his novel The Millionaires, which is newly available in paperback.

Podcast - Cornelia Nixon

O'Henry and Pushcart winner Cornelia Nixon stops by to talk about her third novel Jarrettsville. Jarrettsville starts of with a woman murdering a man in front of dozens of witnesses on the fourth anniversary of the surrender at Appomatox. Jarrettsville is a small town in northern Maryland that had divided sympathies during and after the Civil War, which Nixon's book deftly explores. Book Talk each Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. on FM 89.3 WYPL Memphis.