FM 89.3 WYPL Book Talk // Book Talk is an author interview program produced by FM89.3 WYPL in Memphis, TN. WYPL is a service of The Memphis Public Library and Information Center, a division of the City of Memphis.
Stephen Usery interviews Charlaine Harris about the latest installment to her Sookie Stackhouse series, Deadlocked. The series, which is the inspiration for the television program True Blood, is ramping up for a conclusion next year, as human, vampire, shapeshifter and fairy worlds vie for the services of Sookie, whose psychic abilities are belied by her small-town waitress exterior.
Stephen Usery interviews Heidi Julavits, an editor of The Believer Magazine. She has recently published her fourth novel, The Vanishers, which is the story of a young woman who attempts to develop her psychic abilities and is sucked into a web of deceit and confusion where an academic is searching for a believed-to-be-dead filmmaker and there is no such things as coincidence.
Stephen Usery welcomes Lauren Groff back to the program. Following up on the success of her New York Times best-selling debut, Groff has just published her second novel, Arcadia. It's the story of the littlest hippie named Bit Stone who grew up on a utopian commune in upstate New York and his life beyond the idealistic community known as Arcadia.
Stephen Usery interviews Noah Hawley about his new novel, The Good Father. A veteran TV writer, producer and creator, Hawley's fourth book is about Dr. Paul Allen, a successful New York rheumatologist who comes home one evening to hear his his son's name on the network news, named as a suspect in the shooting of a presidential candidate. Dr. Allen tirelessly fights to prove his son's innocence as he tracks his movements over the year prior to the shooting.
Stephen Usery interviews Amy Franklin-Willis about her debut novel, The Lost Saints of Tennessee. Zeke Cooper is a Hardeman County, Tennessee native who is having a hard time in the mid-1980s. His marriage has fallen apart, much as he did after his twin brother died ten years earlier. Desperate, he drives east looking for a way out of the regret for a tough past and a life of unfulfilled potential. Plus, a live performance by Andrew Castro, who wrote an album based on the book!
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Stephen Usery interviews English expat Alex George about his new novel, A Good American, which follows Frederick and Henriette Meisenheimer as they emigrate from Germany to the United States in 1903. The story of the family's relationship with their new home in central Missouri spans almost a century, and the many upheavals in their lives mirror America's tumultuous history.
Stephen Usery interviews Taylor M. Polites about his debut novel, The Rebel Wife. Set in Alabama in the mid-1870s, reconstruction is coming to an end as Augusta "Gus" Branson's husband Eli lies dying from a mysterious hemorrhagic fever. Pressure mounts on the family as money grows tight and panic over the disease spreads.
Stephen Usery interviews Eugenia Bone about her book Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms. In it we learn about the essential roll of fungi in all areas of life on earth, the wonderful diversity of edible wild mushrooms that one can pick, and the scientific discoveries about the nutritional and medicinal values of the humble mushroom.
