A Novel Idea

Rosemary Manchester in conversation with Ben Tarnhoff on his book The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers who Reinvented American Literature. Rosemary also talks with Jonah Raskin on his “pop-up” books Burning Down the House – on the fire that destroyed Jack London’s Wolf House in Glen Ellen, and A Few French Scenes.

A Novel Idea goes to Hollywood with Ken LaZebnik, Hollywood screenwriter and co-writer with Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion, the radio show and the 2006 Altman flick. LaZebnik brings us his latest book Hollywood Digs, An Archaeology of Shadows, warm and real portraits of the people and places of this fabled place. He’s got some fun and illuminating stories.

Author of Bad Mother and Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Aeylet Waldman, in conversation with Rosemary Manchester on her just released novel Love and Treasure.

Long time writer, activist, and friend to KRCB, Jennie Orvino and sexuality educator and advocate Remi Newman talk about Steamy Sonoma County’s Menage a May: erotic literary soiree.

Doug Jayne, host of KRCB’s Connections, is in conversation with San Francisco music critic, Joel Selvin on his latest book, Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues.

Suzanne Lang talks with Belo Miguel Cipriani on Blind: A Memoir, his life affirming chronicle explores his transitions after a brutal assault left him totally blind.

Rosemary Manchester is back from the road and reviews the Tucson Festival of Books.

Sonoma County’s Jazz MD, Larry Slater, in conversation with Kathy Sloane on her book Keystone Korner: Portrait of a Jazz Club which through stories and photographs chronicles the days of that vibrant jazz club that closed in the eighties. Slater is also talks with mystery writer and jazz drummer Bill Moody on his Evan Horne novels featuring a mystery solving jazz pianist and include Fade to Blue, Looking for Chet Baker, and Bird Lives!

Poet, advocate, and science educator Lucille Lang Day reveals her unlikely life in her memoir Married at Fourteen: a True Story and is featured in conversation with Suzanne M. Lang.

Rosemary Manchester talks with Jean Wong about her debut collection of stories, Sleeping with the Gods.

Author, director, and painter Linda Loveland Reid and architect, playwright, and author H. B Reid join Suzanne Lang in conversation on their recently published books. Something in Stone is Loveland Reid’s most recent novel set in Sonoma County and the coastal community of Dillon Beach. Harry discusses his memoir, Nikita Khrushchev Waved at Me as well has his novel, The Concert – the Diary of Count Frederigo Alfieri.

Suzanne Lang in conversation with Lydia Crichton on her smart, savvy, politically astute romantic thriller set in Egypt, Grains of Truth; and with Bruce Holbert on his debut novel, Lonesome Animals, a western noir exploring issues of violence, family, and the taming of the West.

A good cigar, and a good meal - what could be more satisfying? This month on A Novel Idea, we bring you both!

Host Rosemary Manchester and Suzanne Lang welcome Emelio Gonzales-Llanes with his book Cigar City Stories: Tales of Old Ybor City; and Judith Newton with her memoir Tasting Home: Coming of Age in the Kitchen.

Two writers from California’s Central Valley. Gary Soto in conversation about his latest book What Poets are Like, Up and Down with the Writing Life. Rosemary Manchester talks with Gerald Haslam on In Thought and Action, the Enigmatic Life of S.I. Hayakawa.