Podcast - Tova Mirvis

Tova Mirvis's two previous novels The Ladies Auxiliary and The Outside World were published to much critical acclaim. Her new novel, the first in ten years, is called Visible City, and it is available from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. It's the story of two families in Manhattan and the windows into their souls.

Download here.

Podcast - Jessica Khoury

Jessica Khoury's first novel Origin had a shadowy biotech company genetically engineering immortality and the teenager who was the result of the research. Her new novel, Vitro, published by Razorbill/Penguin, has a different cast of characters, but the same company is manipulating humanity itself for their own ends. 17-year-old Sophie Crue returns to the South Pacific to search for her estranged mother and discovers the truth about the research facility where her mother has been working.

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Podcast - Amy Greene

Amy Greene's first novel Bloodroot was a critical and commercial success when it was published in 2010. 2014 brings her sophomore effort, Long Man, about the people who stayed behind in a small Appalachian town on the verge of being flooded by the TVA in an effort to bring electricity and stability to the people of east Tennessee.

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Podcast - Wylie Cash

 
Wylie Cash's first novel, A Land More Kind Than Home, the story of a death of a small boy in a Holiness Pentecostal church in the hills of western North Carolina, won the Crime Writer's Association John Creasey New Blood Dagger Award as well as the SIBA Fiction Book of the Year Award. His new novel is This Dark Road to Mercy, and it is published by William Morrow.

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Podcast - Sheila Turnage

Sheila Turnage's first novel for middle graders and up, Three Times Lucky, received a 2013 Newbery Honor and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Book. Kathy Dawson Books, an imprint of Penguin, has just released the second episode following the preteen Desperado Detective Agency, and it's entitled The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing.

Download here. 

Podcast - Alan Lightman

Alan Lightman, a native of Memphis, is the first professor at MIT to receive appointments in both science and the humanities. He's best known in literary circles for his novels Einstein's Dreams and The Diagnosis. Pantheon has recently published a collection of his essays entitled The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew.

Download here.

 

Podcast - James Scott

James Scott's debut novel, The Kept, has garnered praise from reviewers, having been named a Best Book of the Month by Amazon and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus. Set in upstate New York at the end of the 19th century, a woman and her 12 year-old son set out into the deep, winter snow for revenge, while harboring secrets from each other.

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Podcast - James Magnuson

James Magnuson heads up the Michener Center for Writing at the University of Texas at Austin. He draws upon that experience for his new novel, Famous Writers I Have Known. Small-time grifter Frankie Abandonato gets in over his head in in New York and heads out to Austin, Texas, where he gets sucked into the world of literature and MFA programs. Could this be the longest and biggest con in Frankie's career?


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Podcast - Aram Goudsouzian

Aram Goudsouzian's previous two books looked at the lives of actor/director Sidney Poitier and basketball legend Bill Russell, who were major cultural icons during the 1960s in their fields, as well as in the push for Civil Rights. In his new book, Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power and the Meredith March Against Fear, Goudsouzian (chair of the history department at the University of Memphis) looks at a compressed time period of the June 1966 march from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi, as well as the multitude of personalities and organizations on both sides of the racial divide.

Goudsouzian will give a lecture at Rhodes College on Thursday, February 13 at 6:00 p.m. (reception at 5:30 p.m.), and a reading and signing at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on Monday, February 24 at 6:00 p.m.

Download here.

Podcast - Laurie Halse Anderson

Laurie Halse Anderson is a bestselling and prize-winning author of children's books and young adult novels, including Speak, Fever 1793, and Wintergirls. She and Stephen Usery talk about her new novel  The Impossible Knife of Memory, which is published by Viking.

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Podcast - Susan Gregg Gilmore

 
Guest host Ronda Cloud welcomes Susan Gregg Gilmore back to the program for Susan's third visit. We've talked to her about her two previous novels, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen and The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove.  Ronda talks to her about her most recent one, The Funeral Dress, which is available from Broadway Books.

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Podcast - Robert Talisse and Scott Aikin

 
Robert Talisse is a professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University who often concentrates on political philosophy. His most recent solo book is Pluralism and Liberal Politics. He often works with Scott Aikin, who is an assistant professor of philosophy, also at Vanderbilt. His most recent solo book is Epistemology and the Regress Problem. They have collaborated on four books together, and in this episode, we will talk about the most recent one, Why We Argue (And How We  Should), which is published by Routledge.

Download here.

Rebroadcasts for the Week of January 13, 2014

Monday, January 13, 2014 - Ian Frazier - Travels in Siberia

Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - Wendell Potter - Deadly Spin

Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - Scott Aikin and Robert Talisse - Why We Argue (And How We Should)

Thursday, January 16, 2014 - Neil White - In the Sanctuary of Outcasts

Friday, January 17, 2014 - John Perkins - The Secret History of the American Empire

Rebroadcasts for the Week of January 6, 2014

Monday, January 6, 2014 - Diana Abu Jaber - Birds of Paradise

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 - Michael Lee West - Mermaids in the Basement

Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - Joshilyn Jackson - Someone Else's Love Story

Thursday, January 9, 2014 - Mark Childress - Georgia Bottoms

Friday, January 10, 2014 - Karen White - The Beach Trees

Podcast - Joshilyn Jackson

Joshilyn Jackson returns to Book Talk to discuss her new novel, Someone Else's Love Story. It's the story of a young, single mother named Shandi who meets a geneticist name William, who is on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum. They meet during a robbery at a Circle K near Atlanta, and we learn what brought them to this place and how their lives will be changed by knowing each other.

Download here.

Rebroadcasts for the week of December 30, 2013

Monday, December 30, 2013 - Michael Morris - Man in the Blue Moon

Tuesday, December 31, 2013 - Sophie Littlefield - A Bad Day for Mercy

Wednesday, January 1, 2013 - Elaine Hussey - The Sweetest Hallelujah

Thursday, January 2, 2013 - Inman Majors - The Millionaires

Friday, January 3, 2013 - Courtney Miller Santo - The Roots of the Olive Tree

Rebroadcasts for the week of December 23, 2013

Monday December 23, 2013 - Michael Knight - The Holiday Season

Tuesday December 24, 2013 - Christmas Programming

Wednesday December 25, 2013 - Christmas Programing

Thursday December 26, 2013 - Jonathan Miles - Want Not

Friday December 27, 2013 - Larry Brown - Rabbit Factory

Podcast - Jonathan Miles

Jonathan Miles garnered much critical acclaim for Dear American Airlines, his 2008 debut novel. In addition to fiction, he also writes a cooking column for Field and Stream magazine and has recently released a collection of his recipes called The Wild Chef. His second novel is Want Not, which has again received much critical acclaim, including being named to the 2013 Notable Books list by the New York Times.

Download here:

Weekday Rebroadcasts for the Week of December 16, 2013

Monday, Dec 16 - Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell

Tuesday, Dec 17 - Tony DiTerlizzi

Wednesday, Dec 18 -  Jon Agee and Loren Long

Thursday, Dec 19 - Russ Kick

Friday, Dec 20 - Sal Lizard

Podcast - Jon Agee

Jon Agee is known for picture books like The Incredible Painting of Felix Clouseau and Ellsworth. He also writes books based on his love of word play, especially palindromes, like Go Hang a Salami. I'm a Lasagna Hog. Dial Books for Young Readers recently published Little Santa in which Jon gives his idea about Santa Claus's early days at the North Pole.

 Download here:

Podcast - Loren Long

Loren Long is best known for his series of picture books starring Otis the Tractor. In An Otis Christmas, Otis must brave the night and deep snow to help save a life on Christmas eve. We also talk about Long's illustration work for President Obama, as well as Long's appreciation of artists like Thomas Hart Benton and N.C. Wyeth.

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Podcast - Thomas Maltman

Thomas Maltman's first novel, the Civil War-era set The Night Birds won an Alex Award, a Spur Award, and the Friends of American Writers Literary Award. His new novel, Little Wolves is set in a small Minnesota town at the end of summer in 1987. A high school boy walks into town and kills a sheriff and then himself. His father and his English teacher both search for understanding in a town that has hidden many ills over the years.

Download here.

Podcast - Mark Greaney

Memphian Mark Greaney has just published the fourth installment on his Gray Man series. In Dead Eye, former CIA assassin Court Gentry finds himself in Eastern Europe being hunted by his fellow Americans. When he receives assistance from an unexpected source, Gentry must decide if it is worth the risk to take someone at their word. Greaney will be signing his novels at The Booksellers at Laurelwood (387 Perkins Road, Memphis) on Thursday, December 5 at 6:00 p.m.

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Podcast - George Pelecanos

 George Pelecanos is known for his high quality work as a novelist, as well as for writing on some of the most respected television shows around like The Wire and Treme. He's written over 20 novels including the Nick Stefanos series, The Night Gardener, The D.C. Quartet, and 2011 brought us The Cut, the first novel in the Spero Lucas series. Little, Brown has recently released the second book, The Double.

Download here.

Weekday Rebroadcasts December 2-6, 2013

Monday, December 02 - Michael Wiley - The Bad Kitty Lounge
Tuesday, December 03 - Keith Thompson - Twice a Spy
Wednesday, December 04 - Mark Greaney - Dead Eye
Thursday, December 05 - John Hart -  The Last Child

Friday, December 06 - Joseph Boyden - Through Black Spruce