Episodes
7 days ago
7 days ago
Hampton Sides is a veteran journalist and non-fiction writer, with his work appearing in many publications, including National Geographic and Outside magazine. Book Talk listeners may best know him for his appearances discussing his titles like, Hellhound on His Trail, Blood and Thunder, and In the Kingdom of Ice. Today, we will begin a two-part interview talking about his latest book, The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, which is published by Doubleday.
Saturday Apr 27, 2024
Sara Koffi - While We Were Burning
Saturday Apr 27, 2024
Saturday Apr 27, 2024
Sara Koffi is a native of Memphis, who currently calls western Pennsylvania home. We’ll be discussing her debut, a thriller called, While We Were Burning, which is set in Harbor Town, one of the few majority-white neighborhoods in Memphis, and how that lack of integration exacerbates the grief felt by the leading women characters, both black and white.
Saturday Apr 20, 2024
Alice Randall - My Black Country, Part 2
Saturday Apr 20, 2024
Saturday Apr 20, 2024
This is the second of a two-part interview with, Alice Randall, who is best known for her best-selling novels The Wind Done Gone, Rebel Yell, Black Bottom Saints and others. But before writing prose, Alice wrote country songs in Nashville, including "XXXs and OOOs", which went to top the charts for Trisha Yearwood, making Alice the first African-American woman to write a number one country hit record. Her new book, My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future, interweaves her life story and the history of African-American musicians who helped make country music what it is today, despite attempts at sidelining or erasing their contributions. Also, the CD and vinyl of My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall is available from Oh Boy Records.
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Alice Randall - My Black Country, Part 1
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Book lovers know Alice Randall for her best-selling novels including The Wind Done Gone, Rebel Yell, Black Bottom Saints and others. But before writing prose, Alice wrote country songs in Nashville, including "XXXs and OOOs", which went to top the charts for Trisha Yearwood, making Alice the first African-American woman to write a number one country hit record. Her new book, My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future, interweaves her life story and the history of African-American musicians who helped make country music what it is today, despite attempts at sidelining or erasing their contributions. Also, the CD and vinyl of My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall is available from Oh Boy Records.
Saturday Mar 30, 2024
Dr. SunAh Laybourn - Out of Place
Saturday Mar 30, 2024
Saturday Mar 30, 2024
Dr. SunAh M. Laybourn is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Memphis. Her research has been published in Ethnic & Racial Studies, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Sociology Compass, and Asian Pacific American Law Journal. Her co-authored book entitled, Diversity in Black Greek-Letter Organizations: Breaking the Line, was published by Routledge in 2018. Today we will be discussing her new book, Out of Place: The Lives of Korean Adoptee Immigrants which is published by NYU press.
Saturday Mar 23, 2024
Kurt Wagner - Battle for the Bird, Part 2
Saturday Mar 23, 2024
Saturday Mar 23, 2024
We welcome Kurt Wagner back for the second of a two-part interview today. Kurt is an award-winning business and technology journalist covering social media for Bloomberg and has been writing about Twitter and other social media companies and their impacts on society since 2013. Kurt’s debut book is Battle for the Bird: Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, and the $44 Billion Fight for Twitter's Soul, which is published by Simon & Schuster.
Saturday Mar 16, 2024
Kurt Wagner - Battle for the Bird, Part 1
Saturday Mar 16, 2024
Saturday Mar 16, 2024
We happily welcome Kurt Wagner for the first of a two-part interview today. Kurt is an award-winning business and technology journalist covering social media for Bloomberg and has been writing about Twitter and other social media companies and their impacts on society since 2013. Kurt’s debut book is Battle for the Bird: Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, and the $44 Billion Fight for Twitter's Soul, which is published by Simon & Schuster.
Saturday Mar 09, 2024
Mark Greaney - The Chaos Agent
Saturday Mar 09, 2024
Saturday Mar 09, 2024
Mark Greaney is now best known for his long-running Grey Man series, starring the burned CIA op, Court Gentry. And as a special treat, Mark brought along his editor, Tom Colgan, who is Vice President, Editorial Director for Berkley Books. Today we’ll be talking about entry number 13 in the series, The Chaos Agent.
Saturday Mar 02, 2024
Louis Ferrante - Borgata: Rise of Empire
Saturday Mar 02, 2024
Saturday Mar 02, 2024
Saturday Feb 03, 2024
Brad Taylor - Dead Man's Hand
Saturday Feb 03, 2024
Saturday Feb 03, 2024
Prior to becoming a best-selling thriller writer, Brad Taylor served in the U.S. Army for twenty-one years retiring as a lieutenant colonel after serving in several special-forces capacities in multiple deployments around the globe. His Pike Logan thriller series began in 2011 with One Rough Man, and today we’ll talk about the 18th entry, Dead Man’s Hand, which is published by William Morrow.
Wednesday Jan 31, 2024
Vanessa Sasson - The Gathering: A Story of the First Buddhist Women
Wednesday Jan 31, 2024
Wednesday Jan 31, 2024
Dr. David Mason back today as guest host. Dave is a professor of religious studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. This week he speaks with a returning guest, Dr. Vanessa Sasson, who is also a professor of religious studies, but at Marianopolis College in Quebec. They last spoke about her debut novel, Yasodhara, and today they will be discussing her most recent work of historical fiction, The Gathering: A Story of the First Buddhist Women, which is available from Equinox Publishing.
Sunday Jan 28, 2024
Avery Cunningham - The Mayor Maxwell Street
Sunday Jan 28, 2024
Sunday Jan 28, 2024
Avery Cunningham joins me to discuss her debut novel, The Mayor of Maxwell Street which is published by Hyperion. A native of Jackson, TN and now a resident of Memphis, Avery has crafted a tale set in the early 1920s in Chicago, as the wealthiest African-American families have gathered for the funeral of the son of the richest black man in the nation. The Sawyer family’s daughter, Nelly, only wants to become a journalist, but her parents have other plans for her future, as she chases after the most mysterious criminal in Chicago’s underworld, The Mayor of Mawell Street.
Saturday Dec 02, 2023
Fergus Bordewich - Klan War - Part 2
Saturday Dec 02, 2023
Saturday Dec 02, 2023
Fergus M. Bordewich is a former journalist and now a longtime historian. His books include THE FIRST CONGRESS: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government, BOUND FOR CANAAN: The Story of the Underground Railroad, KILLING THE WHITE MAN'S INDIAN: Reinventing Native Americans at the End of the Twentieth Century. Today we wrap up with the second of our two-part conversation about his latest book, KLAN WAR: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction which is published by Knopf.
Saturday Nov 25, 2023
Fergus Bordewich - Klan War - Part 1
Saturday Nov 25, 2023
Saturday Nov 25, 2023
Fergus M. Bordewich is a former journalist and now a longtime historian. His books include THE FIRST CONGRESS: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government, BOUND FOR CANAAN: The Story of the Underground Railroad, KILLING THE WHITE MAN'S INDIAN: Reinventing Native Americans at the End of the Twentieth Century. Today we begin the first of our two-part conversation about his latest book, KLAN WAR: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction which is published by Knopf.
Saturday Nov 11, 2023
Martin Clark - The Plinko Bounce - Part 2
Saturday Nov 11, 2023
Saturday Nov 11, 2023
Martin Clark is a retired circuit court judge from Patrick County, Virginia and is the author of six novels, including Plain Heathen Mischief and The Jezebel Remedy. Today is the conclusion of a two-part interview about his newest novel, The Plinko Bounce which is published by Rare Bird Books.
Saturday Nov 04, 2023
Martin Clark - The Plinko Bounce - Part 1
Saturday Nov 04, 2023
Saturday Nov 04, 2023
Martin Clark is a retired circuit court judge from Patrick County, Virginia and is the author of six novels, including Plain Heathen Mischief and The Jezebel Remedy. Today is the first half of a two-part interview about his newest novel, The Plinko Bounce which is published by Rare Bird Books.
Saturday Oct 28, 2023
Laurence Leamer - Hitchcock’s Blondes
Saturday Oct 28, 2023
Saturday Oct 28, 2023
Saturday Oct 21, 2023
Maureen Corrigan - Banned Books, Burned Books: Forbidden Literary Works
Saturday Oct 21, 2023
Saturday Oct 21, 2023
Maureen Corrigan is the Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University. She is perhaps bet known as the longtime book critic for the NPR program Fresh Air and is the author of Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading, and So We Read On: How “The Great Gatsby” Came to Be and Why It Endures. Earlier this year continuing education company The Great Courses made available her series of lectures, entitled, Banned Books, Burned Books: Forbidden Literary Works.
Saturday Oct 14, 2023
Stephan Pastis - Looking Up
Saturday Oct 14, 2023
Saturday Oct 14, 2023
Stephan Pastis is best known as the writer and artist for the wildly successful daily comic strip Pearls Before Swine. The latest collection of strips, Pearls Seeks Enlightenment was recently published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. Stephan also writes novels for all ages, but the publisher says that they are great especially for middle schoolers. His Timmy Failure series was successful, even spawning the major motion picture Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made. The Trubble Town books followed in 2021 and 22. His new novel, appropriate for middle grade readers and older, is entitled, Looking Up, and it is published by Aladdin, an imprint of Simon and Schuster.
Sunday Sep 10, 2023
Hayley Arcenaux - Wild Ride: My Journey from Cancer Kid to Astronaut
Sunday Sep 10, 2023
Sunday Sep 10, 2023
Hayley Arceneaux is a physician's assistant with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. Not only an employee, she is also a successful patient who recovered from pediatric cancer at St. Jude. A couple of years ago, she was offered a seat on a Space X flight to orbit the earth for three days and raise money for St. Jude. In 2022, her Memoir Wild Ride: A Memoir of I.V. Drips and Rocket Ships was published, and 2023 sees the young readers' adaptation Wild Ride: My Journey from Cancer Kid to Astronaut, which is published by Convergent Books.