Edith Piaf, perhaps the most beloved singer of all time, comes to life in Carolyn Burke’s just published biography No Regrets, The Life of Edith Piaf. Carolyn and Suzanne talk about Piaf, Carolyn’s journey of discovery, as well as her other biographies Lee Miller, A Life and Becoming Modern, The Life of Mina Loy.

Gene Viale was a white boy singing black gospel music in the sixties and his belting song styling helped popularize gospel music. Viale passed away this past year and in this encore segment, Gene and Rosemary talk about his life and memoir, I Remember Gospel and I Keep on Singing.

Author Barbara Quick brings her review of Yi Yun Li’s Gold Boy, Emerald Girl.

Author, poet, and publisher Bart Schneider returns with further crime solving from pot smoking private detective Augie Boyer and ex-cop poetry evangelist Bobby Sabbatini in Nameless Dame: Murder on the Russian River (Soft Skull Press). Bart talks about his approach to the book and the balance between reality and fiction. [http://www.kellyscovepress.com/bart-schneider]www.kellyscovepress.com/bart-schneider

Meredith Maran published her first piece before most of us could write a book report. Her career has tended toward personal and cultural reflection, asking the questions most people don’t. Her work has appeared in a bunch of magazines and 10 or so works of non-fiction, including "How Would You Feel if Your Dad was Gay?” and My Lie. A True Story of False

Memory. And now Meredith joins us with, her first novel, A Theory of Small Earthquakes (Soft Skull Press). [http://www.meredithmaran.com]www.meredithmaran.com

Nafisa Haji, author of the critically acclaimed The Writing on My

Forehead, takes on the emotional landscape at the confluence of culture and religion, and a young woman’s quest for identity against the backdrop of the War on Terror in The Sweetness of Tears (Harper Collins). [http://www.nafisahaji.com/ ]www.nafisahaji.com

This month on A Novel Idea:

Rosemary Manchester and Seré Prince Halverson on her phenomenal debut novel, The Underside of Joy, a novel exploring issues of family, love, and loss set in the environs of Sonoma County California.

The Redwood Writers is a branch of the California Writer’s Club, founded by no less than Jack London. Their motto is "writers helping writers." Author Sandy Baker joins Suzanne Lang on the annual Redwood Writers Conference in Santa Rosa, California.

Author and screenwriter Barbara Quick provides her perspective on

billboards over Broadway and Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot.

Musician and author of the Evan Horne jazz mysteries - including Bird Lives, Looking for Chet Baker, and his latest novel, Fade to Blue, is in conversation with Larry Slater, Sonoma County’s Jazz MD and long-time host of KRCB’s Jazz Connections.

Novelist Stacy Carlson talks with Suzanne Lang about Stacy’s book Among the Wonderful, her novel inspired by PT Barnum and the cultural shifts playing out in 19th Century New York City.

Wanting to Be Jackie Kennedy. Elizabeth Kern and Rosemary Manchester talk about family life in a Polish area of 1960’s Chicago. Ellie Manikowski becomes a young woman in this nostalgic coming of age story.

Author Barbara Quick provides her review of Solace by Belinda McKeon.

On A Novel Idea this month: Gerald Haslam in conversation with Rosemary Manchester on "In Thought and Action, the Enigmatic Life of H.I. Hayakawa"; Suzanne Lang with Jonah Raskin on his latest book, "Marijuanaland: Dispatches from an American War", and Barbara Quick review Sandor Marai's "Portrait of a Marriage".

On A Novel Idea this month: Rosemary Manchester and J. J. Wilson discuss Emma Donohue's Room; Suzanne Lang in conversation with Pat Nolan and Irene Nolan about Nuallain House and On The Road to Las Cruces; and Barbara Quick reviews Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife.

Author Joan Frank on her work and the writer's life in conversation with

Rosemary Manchester; Suzanne Lang catches up with author Bart Schneider who has just launched Kelly’s Cove Press; Katie Kasben presents Sonoma County literary calendar.

A preview of the 12th Annual Sonoma County Book Festival featuring Judy Moody author Megan McDonald, author and publisher Patrick Fanning, and columnist, author, and KRCB essayist Susan Swartz in conversation with Rosemary Manchester and Suzanne Lang.

Rosemary Manchester and Suzanne Lang with Meg Waite Clayton and her latest book The Four Ms. Bradwells, along with Canadian artist and author Peter Manchester.

Lisa See, an author beloved by many listeners, joins Rosemary Manchester in conversation about her latest book, Dreams of Joy. The story takes Joy, whom readers will remember from See's earlier book, Shanghai Girls, to China in 1957. She becomes a part of Mao's Great Leap Forward, and readers will be right there with her as she goes off to Green Dragon Village in the interior of China.

Nafisa Haji, whose acclaimed first novel was The Writing on Her Forehead, follows up with The Sweetness of Tears, a book that crosses cultures and continents, set amidst the War on Terror. Suzanne Lang speaks with Nafisa Haji.