A Novel Idea Podcast
History, culture, and strong women are at the core of the two novels: The History Makers by Val Bodurtha and The Ballet Lover by Barbara Baer. You’ll want to remember these two authors. Val Bodurtha’s first novel, The History Makers, is chilling, funny, and a smart coming of age story which imagines a contemporary Aztec …
Continue reading “Val Bodurtha, Barbara Baer – December 31, 2017”
Featured on KRCB’s A Novel Idea, two novelists whose books hit big this year. Fierce Kingdom is a thriller of a book by Gin Phillips, which takes place over the course of three hours in a zoo that is under attack by gunmen, and where a woman and her young son are trapped; ultimately this …
Continue reading “Gin Phillips, Rachel Khong – December 3, 2017”
This episode of KRCB’s A Novel Idea features Suzanne Lang in conversation with Kermit Roosevelt on his latest novel, Allegiance, an historical fiction set in the Supreme Court during WWII, with the Japanese internment presenting moral issues that resonate today. Suzanne also speaks with Larry Hendricks, musician and retired Oakland firefighter on the non-profit organization …
Continue reading “Kermit Roosevelt, Larry Hendricks – January 3, 2016”
This episode of KRCB’s A Novel Idea is an “encore” presentation of a favorite broadcast, originally broadcast in 2010, featuring Andre Codrescu and hosted by Monte Rio sage, Pat Nolan; it’s a tribute to Jeffrey Miller, who died tragically before he reached his full expression as an artist. (Repeat) Host: Suzanne Lang
This month’s A Novel Idea features authors Richard Michael Levine and Lucille Lang Day. Levine has just published a short story collection, The Man Who Gave Away His Organ: Love and Obsession at Midlife and joins Suzanne Lang in conversation. Before turning to fiction and poetry, Richard Michael Levine was a magazine writer and editor …
Continue reading “Richard Michael Levine, Lucille Lang Day – February 7, 2016”
To honor Black History Month and International Women’s Day (March 8th) we present Rosemary Manchester with an encore presentation of a show featuring three generations of strong women of color: matriarch and author of When We Were Colored, Eva Rutland with her daughter Ginger and grand-daughter and namesake, Eva. Feisty, lively, and telling it like …
Big Nature, Big California The Farallon Islands, remote and mysterious, is the setting of Abby Geni’s novel of nature and mystery, The Lightkeepers. Abby talks with Suzanne about the book and her own life as a writer. Also, the Inland Empire of Southern California is the focus of visual artist Lewis deSoto’s book of photographs …
Suzanne Lang speaks with Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, who has spent a lifetime observing other creatures and other cultures, from her own backyard to the African savannah. Her books have transported millions of readers into the hidden lives of animals―from dogs and cats to deer and lions. Thomas has chronicled the daily lives of African tribes, …
Black lives matter. Suzanne Lang explores the injustices of Jim Crow American and the valor of an all-Black battalion whose D-Day contributions have been largely ignored until now with author Linda Hervieux, who presents the compelling story of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion in her book Forgotten, The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, at …
Continue reading “Linda Hervieux, Jeane Slone – June 5, 2016”
Wendy E. Simmons is a world traveler. Not a novice. Not a pushover. Her trip to North Korea challenged every bit of her perceptions of herself and other people. Captured in her recent memoir, My Holiday in North Korea, the Funniest/Worst Place on Earth, Wendy tells the strange, sad, and funny tale of her 10 …