A Novel Idea Podcast
Suzanne Lang speaks with author Cynthia Lim, whose book Wherever You Are, A Memoir of Love, Marriage, and Brain Injury is an odyssey through loss and disability in the aftermath of her husband’s suffering an anoxic brain injury as a result of a heart attack; it’s a tale of her life of self-empowerment, care-giving, and …
Continue reading “Cynthia Lim, Susan Avery Stewart – September 2, 2018”
Jonah Raskin has a large and ranging body of non-fiction books and articles and now has come out with a detective fiction of a different order, Dark Land, Dark Mirror.
San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore, the landmark independent bookstore founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, recently featured rising author Bruce Holbert in conversation with KRCB’s Suzanne M. Lang in an evening hosted by Peter Maravelis. Holbert’s latest novel is Whiskey —“A gut-punch of a bleak family saga that satisfies on …
A timely encore presentation of Rosemary Manchester in conversation with Brad Herzog, collaborator on Carolyn Goodman’s memoir, My Mantelpiece: a Memoir of Survival and Social Justice. Goodman, who died in 2007, was the mother of Andy Goodman, who in 1964 along with James Earl Chaney and Michael Schwerner, was murdered in Mississippi while trying to …
From Homer to Harry Potter, literary critic and philosopher Martin Puchner takes the reader on an epic journey through the history of literature, and so the history of humanity in The Written World, The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, and Civilization. This work is lively and accessible and Martin brings that energy to …
Continue reading “Martin Puchner, Alexandra Chasin – June 10, 2018”
It’s all about food. Suzanne Lang talks with Adam Federman on his book Fasting and Feasting, the Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray. Gray became somewhat of a cult figure when she published Honey from a Weed in 1986. Also featured is Elaine Khosrova, a gastronomic rock star who specializes in stories about food …
Continue reading “Adam Federman, Elaine Khosrova – May 6, 2018”
To celebrate the release of Bruce Holbert’s third novel, Whiskey, here is a reprise of two previous conversations between Bruce and Suzanne M Lang on the release of his first novel, Lonesome Animals, followed by the truly amazing The Hour of Lead. Bruce is a gritty and poetic writer who explores character and landscape with …
Tamed and Untamed, Close Encounters with the Animal Kind. Suzanne Lang talks with two of the world’s most celebrated animal writers, Sy Montgomery and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. They have collaborated on a book of essays. Sy and Liz are also good friends and practically next door neighbors. Join us as we talk about the minds, …
Continue reading “Sy Montgomery, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas – March 5, 2018”
Two California writers who both had long non-literary careers before publishing these heralded first works join Suzanne M. Lang in conversation on this episode of A Novel Idea. Barbara Ridley’s When It’s Over is a sweeping historical fiction set during WWII that exposes elements of that war and on European refugees that resonates today …and …
Continue reading “Berbara Ridley, Laurie Ann Doyle – February 4, 2018”
Emerging from the economic consulting and the tech sector, Jaime B. Hansen aims to inspire and empower women through videos, speaking and speaking out; her latest book is Expanding the Conversation. Also, born in the USA but as a baby but sent back to El Salvador when his mother was deported, Rand Ertll has spent …
Continue reading “Jaime B. Hansen, Rand Ertll – January 7, 2018”