Book Talk Taping - May 6, 2009 - Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark

A familial double header of best-selling authors will be in to tape two Book Talks. Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark will be at the WYPL studios on Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. . Mary Higgins Clark's newest supsense novel Just Take My Heart is at #1 on the NY Times Best Seller List, and Carol Higgins Clark's 12th Reagan Reilly mystery Cursed is also in the top 20 on the sales charts. Seating will be limited, first come, first serve. For more information call (901) 415-2752.

Book Talk Video - Kevin Wilson

Book Talk Video - Kevin Wilson from stephen usery on Vimeo.

Guest: Kevin Wilson
Book: "Tunneling to the Center of the Earth"
Host: Stephen Usery
Editor: Savannah Bearden
Recorded April 15, 2009

Come back on May 23, 2009 for the podcast which will have eight minutes of bonus conversation not in the video!

Book Talk Guest Charles Bock Wins Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction

In another big win for a Book Talk guest, Charles Bock has won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from The American Academy for Arts and Letters for his debut novel Beautiful Children. Congratulations to the Bockstar! If you haven't heard the interview already, download the podcast today.

Book Talk Podcast - David Robertson

Stephen Usery interviews David Robertson about his new biography of one of the giants of American music, "W.C. Handy: The Life and Times of the Man Who Made the Blues." It follows Handy from his childhood in Alabama, his life in traveling minstrel shows, his fame in Memphis, and his later years in New York City.

Book Talk Guest Jon Meacham wins the Pulitzer Prize

The 2009 Pulitzer Prizes were announced earlier today, and Book Talk guest Jon Meacham won for Biography. Check out this episode of Book Talk where Stephen Usery interviews the Chatanooga native Meacham (editor of Newsweek magazine) about American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the Whitehouse. The podcast has eight extra minutes of interview goodness AND a Q&A with the audience that followed the taping. (51 minutes total)

Book Talk Podcast - Anne Easter Smith

Stephen Usery interviews Anne Easter Smith about her new historical novel, The King's Grace. The King's Grace follows Grace Plantagenet, the illegitimate daughter of the late King Edward the Fourth of England as Henry the Seventh takes the throne and establishes the House of Tudor as the new monarchs of England.

Book Talk Podcast - Dr. Ronald C. White

Stephen Usery interviews Dr. Ronald C. White about his new book A. Lincoln. Just in time for the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, A. Lincoln is a comprehensive biography that pays particular attention to our 16th President's moral grounding and as his role as commander in chief during the Civil War.

Book Talk Podcast - Dwight Fryer

In this podcast, Susan Gray talks to Dwight Fryer about The Knees of Gullah Island, the prequel to his local best-seller, The Legend of Quito Road.

Book Talk Podcast - Diana Joseph

Download this Book Talk podcast as Stephen Usery interviews Diana Joseph about her touching, and at times hilarious, new memoir about the men in her life, I'm Sorry You Feel That Way. All the cool kids are doing it, so come on, bend to the will of your peer group!

Book Talk Podcast - Emily Yellin

Stephen Usery interviews Memphian Emily Yellin about her new book Your Call Is (not that) Important to Us. It's a special one-hour program that looks at the history of telephone customer service and how it is done well and not so well today. Also, Emily will be at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on Thursday, April 2nd at 6 p.m. Be sure and tell her that you heard her on Book Talk!

We are back on the air!

We have managed to resurrect our old transmitter and are now broadcasting at reduced power from our Barksdale tower. The signal isn't as strong, but it covers most of the city. We will pick up with our book reading schedule on Monday, March 30th! Thanks for your patience.

Statement from WYPL's Station Manager Tommy Warren

WYPL FM 89.3 Listeners,

Thank you for all of your phone calls and e-mails inquiring as to why WYPL FM is not broadcasting.

WYPL was knocked off the air last week due to lightning damage at our broadcast tower site. Our engineer, staff and other friends of WYPL have been working diligently to get us back on the air. We have located the damage and are in the process of securing the equipment needed to repair. Unfortunately the damage it at the top of our 1260 foot high tower and it will take some time to get everything in place, and we’ll need good weather for the tower crew to work at such height.

Thank you for your patience and we will do our best to have WYPL and all of your favorite programming back on the air as soon as we possibly can.


Tommy Warren
Broadcast Manager, WYPL FM 89.3 & TV-18

Book Talk Taping - March 18, 2009 - Emily Yellin

Memphian Emily Yellin will be back in the Book Talk studios Wednesday, March 18th at 2:00 p.m. to talk about her upcoming book, Your Call Is (not that) Important to Us. Stephen Usery will host. FM89.3 WYPL, located in the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, 3030 Polar Avenue, Memphis, TN.

Book Talk Podcast - Kathryn Stockett

Carolyn Gibson interviews Kathryn Stockett about her debut novel, The Help, which is set in tumultuous times of 1960s Jackson, Mississippi.

Book Talk Podcast - T Jefferson Parker

Download the podcast as Stephen Usery talks to T Jefferson Parker about his newest thriller, The Renegades, starring Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Charlie Hood.

Book Talk Podcast - Dwana Pusser

In this podcast, Stephen Usery discusses Walking On: A Daughter's Journey with Legendary Sheriff Buford Pusser with Dwana Pusser.

Book Talk Podcast - Jami Attenberg

Download the podcast where Stephen Usery talks to Jami Attenberg about her novel, The Kept Man, which is new in paperback.

Book Talk Video - Inman Majors

Book Talk - Inman Majors from stephen usery on Vimeo.


Stephen Usery interviews Inman Majors about his new novel The Millionaires which is set in the intriguing world of Tennessee politics and banking in the late Seventies and early Eighties.

Also check out the podcast which has 20 extra minutes of conversation!

Book Talk Podcast - Tony D'Souza

Stephen Usery interviews Tony D'Souza about his second novel, The Konkans, which follows the blending of an Indian and American family and is now available in paperback. Download the podcast today.

Book Talk Podcast - Inman Majors

Stephen Usery interviews Inman Majors about his new novel The Millionaires which is set in the intriguing world of Tennessee politics and banking in the late Seventies and early Eighties.

Book Talk Podcast - Charles Bock

Stephen talks to Charles Bock about his novel, Beautiful Children, which is also new in paperback and was named as one of the NY Times 100 Notable Books of 2008. Plus, there are 23 extra minutes on the podcast. Enjoy!

Book Talk Podcast - Michael Lee West

Stephen interviews Michael Lee West about Mermaids in the Basement which is now available in paperback.

Book Talk Podcast - Jack Riggs

Stephen Usery interviews Jack Riggs about his second novel, The Fireman's Wife, the story a fireman named Peck and his wife Cassie as their marriage falls apart in the costal Low Country of South Carolina and the mountains of western North Carolina at the beginning of the 1970s. Download the podcast today!

Book Talk Podcast - Jill Conner Browne

Stephen Usery has an audience with the Sweet Potato Queen herownself, Jill Conner Browne about her newest book, American Thighs: The Sweet Potato Queens' Guide to Preserving Your Assets.

Book Talk Podcast - Theresa Huttlinger Vigour

Dr. Carolyn Gibson interviews Theresa Huttlinger Vigour about her book, Mourning Sarah: A Case for Testing Group B Strep. Download the podcast today.