Podcast - Jesse Holland

Jesse J. Holland is a political reporter for the Associated Press in Washington. He's written two books, the first, Black Men Built the Capitol: Discovering African-American History in and around Washington, D.C. and today we'll be discussing his latest history title, The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African-American Slaves in the White House, which is published by Lyons Press.

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Podcast - Katy Simpson Smith

Katy Simpson Smith received rave reviews for her debut novel set in coastal Carolina during the Revolutionary War, The Story of Land and Sea, when it was published in 2014. 2016 welcomes the publication of her second novel, Free Men, set in the 1780s in what would become the state of Alabama.

Free Men is published by Harper. 
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Podcast - Rashod Ollison

Stephen Usery talks to Rashod Ollison about his memoir, Soul Serenade: Rhythm, Blues & Coming of Age Through Vinyl. Ollison, the critic for The Virginian Pilot, and veteran of The Dallas Morning News, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Baltimore Sun, writes candidly about growing up gay in a working-class African-American family in Arkansas and the music that his father gave him when his parents divorced.

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Podcast - Michael Bible

Michael Bible's work has appeared in Oxford American, The Paris Review Daily, Al Jazeera America, and ESPN: The Magazine. In this episode, we'll talk about his novella Sophia, where a Mississippi man of god is having all sorts of problems.

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Podcast - Bob Mehr

Bob Mehr is the music writer for The Commercial Appeal. He has also written for the Chicago Reader, Spin, and The Village Voice. Da Capo Press has just published his book, Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements, about the legendary 1980s indie rock band who were known for shambolic performances, incredible songs, and self-destruction.

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Podcast - Mark Greaney

Mark Greaney has been at the top of best-seller lists for co-authoring several of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, as well as writing several Ryan novels after Mr. Clancy's passing. However, Mark got his publishing start with his own original series about burned CIA operative, Court Gentry. Back Blast is the fifth installment in the series, which has Gentry returning to America to find out why the CIA wants him dead.

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Podcast - Kristin O'Donnell Tubb

Linda Lloyd talks to Kristin O'Donnell Tubb, writing as E.F. Abbott, who has written a middle-grade historical novel, John Lincoln Clem: Civil War Drummer Boy. It's based on a true story about a twelve year-old who went to war to support his president and preserve the Union.

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Podcast - Ed Tarkington

Ed Tarkington is a teacher and writer from Nashville whose work has appeared in the Nashville Scene, The Commercial Appeal, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, and The Southeast Review. Algonquin has recently published his debut novel, Only Love Can Break Your Heart.

Ed will be reading from his debut novel on Thursday, February 11 at Crosstown Art Story Booth at 6:30 p.m.

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Podcast - Stewart O'Nan

Stewart O'Nan is known for his many novels like Snow Angels, A Prayer for the Dying, and Last Night at the Lobster, but he's also written a couple of non-fiction books, including one done with Stephen King, Faithful : Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season. Penguin has released his most recent novel in paperback, which mixes in liberal amounts of fact about F. Scott Fitzgerald's last years alive in Hollywood, West of Sunset.

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Podcast - Chris Bohjalian

Chris Bohjalian is prolific, best-selling author having enjoyed much success, commercial and critical, with novels like Midwives, The Double Bind, and The Sandcastle Girls. Doubleday has recently published his seventeenth novel, The Guest Room, about a horrific bachelor party and its effect on one family and also the young women forced into the sex trade far from home.

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Podcast - Heidi Pitlor

Stephen Usery talks to Heidi Pitlor about her second novel, The Daylight Marriage, which is new in paperback. It's the story of a woman who goes missing, and then we see timelines of how her disappearance affects her husband and children, as well as how they became a couple and the events of the day leading up to her going missing.

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Podcast - Vickie Fee

Linda Lloyd talks to former Memphian Vickie Fee about debut novel, Death Crashes the Party, the first of the new Liv and Di in Dixie cozy mystery series. Liv, a party planner, and Di, a letter carrier, are best friends who investigate the murder of two men to help clear the names of those closest to them.

Vickie will be signing her book at The Booksellers of Laurelwood in Memphis on Saturday, January 9, 2016 at 2:00 p.m.

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Podcast - Ashton Lee

Linda Lloyd interviews Ashton Lee about his latest installment in the Cherry Cola Book Club series, A Cherry Cola Christmas, in which business opportunities to help save the town, as well as a country superstar are considering coming to Cherico, Mississippi to help the struggling town.

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Podcast - Lori Wilde

Linda Lloyd interviews superstar romance author Lori Wilde about the latest and festive entry into her Twilight Texas series, I'll Be Home for Christmas.

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Podcast - Claire Vaye Watkins

Claire Vaye Watkins's story collection, Battleborn, won many prizes including the Story Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize. In this episode, we discuss her debut novel, Gold Fame Citrus, in which the southwest United States has been devastated by a long term drought and those who stayed behind are struggling to survive.

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Podcast - Leonard Pitts, Jr.

I'm honored to welcome Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. to the program. In addition to his award-winning syndicated columns, which originate with the Miami Herald, he also writes acclaimed novels like Freeman and Before I Forget. In this episode we discuss his latest novel, Grant Park, in which a newspaper columnist and his editor are already having a horrible day when they become entangled with two white-supremacist, wannabe terrorists.

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Podcast - Stephan Pastis

Stephan Pastis is best known for his award-winning daily comic strip, Pearls Before Swine, which has a new treasury available, entitled, Pearls Gets Sacrificed. But today, we'll begin the conversation talking about Timmy Failure: Sanitized for Your Protection, the fourth entry in his series about the less-than-great, grade-school detective.

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Podcast - Nicola Yoon

Nicola Yoon talks about her debut Novel, Everything Everything, which debuted at number one on the New York Times Young Adult bestseller list. It's the story of an 18 year old girl who has been stuck at home her entire life because of her severely compromised immune system and what she will do for the sake of love.

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Podcast - Sloane Crosley

Sloane Crosley has enjoyed a great deal of success for her humorous essays, including being a finalist for The Thurber Prize. Her collections, I Was Told There Would Be Cake and How Did You Get This Number were both NY Times bestsellers. Today, we'll be talking about her debut novel, The Clasp, which was inspired by the Guy de Maupassant short story, "The Necklace."

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Podcast - Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff has been on Book Talk twice before to talk about her previous novels, The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia. Today we'll be discussing her latest novel Fates and Furies, which has already been named a finalist for the National Book Award.

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Podcast - Matthew Guinn

When last in our studio, Matthew Guinn and I talked about his debut novel, The Resurrectionist, which went on to be a finalist for the Edgar Award for best first novel. W.W. Norton has recently published his second novel, The Scribe, where a madman terrorizes the African-American citizens of Atlanta in the early 1880s.

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Podcast - Garth Stein

Playwright and best-selling novelist Garth Stein recently stopped by the Book Talk studios. Garth is probably best known for his smash best-seller, The Art of Racing in the Rain. We start the conversation with his most recent novel, A Sudden Light, which was recently released in paperback by Simon and Schuster.

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Podcast - Dennis Bryon

Dennis Bryon first tasted pop chart success as the drummer for the Welsh blue-eyed soul band The Amen Corner. A few years later, he joined another band and got to travel the world and enjoy incredible success, which he writes about in his memoir You Should Be Dancing: My Life with the Bee Gees.

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Podcast - Andrew Malan Milward

Andrew Malan Milward, who is the editor-in-chief of Mississippi Review and professor of creative writing at the University of Southern Mississippi. His first collection of short stories, The Agriculture Hall of Fame won the Juniper Prize, and his second collection, I Was a Revolutionary, was recently published by Harper.

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Podcast - Tiffany Quay Tyson

Linda Lloyd talks to Mississippi native Tiffany Quay Tyson about her debut novel Three Rivers. Melody Mahaffey is unsatisfied as a keyboard player in a Christian pop band. She returns home to Mississippi as her mother abandons Melody's dying father and handicapped brother. A local man Obi tries to outrun a terrible mistake, and as the rivers rise, the stories converge.

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