A Novel Idea

In the twentieth Century, Alabama was the epicenter of the visceral, cultural, social, and very personal working out of America's identity. Segments feature: Waights Taylor Jr with his book Our Southern Home, Scottsboro to Montgomery to Birmingham - The Transformation of the South in the Twentieth Century ; Peter Cooper with his ode, 715 (for Hank Aaron); and Wayne Roden, violist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, with a reflection of life growing up in Alabama. It's A Novel Idea.

A Novel Idea, with host Rosemary Manchester, previews the Sonoma County Book Festival.

The Sonoma County Book Festival is a free public event that transforms downtown Santa Rosa into the literary capital of Northern California. On Saturday Sept 22nd, thousands of book lovers will return for a full day of fun under the white tents that adorn downtown Santa Rosa. With lots of events and activities, there is truly something for everyone.

Joining us in the studio:

Barbara Baer, author, journalist, and publisher (Floreant Press) will be on the festival’s panel, “Making Fiction”. Barbara’s most recent work is Grisha The Scrivener from Ghost Road Press.

Joan Frank, is the author of five books of fiction and her most recent publication is Because You Have To: A Writing Life, a collection of her essays; Joan is presenter at the festival’s “Chic Fic” panel and a member of the festival’s Authors Committee.

Doug Jayne, musician, radio personality, and owner of The Last Record Store will be in conversation with Dan Dion, the most prolific portrait photographer of comedians. ¡Satiristas! is a collection of 100 portraits, with interviews by Paul Provenza, (creator of The Aristocrats) including George Carlin, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, and Conan O’Brien.

Barbara Quick, author of both fiction and non-fiction is A Novel Idea’s regular reviewer; her most recent work of fiction, this time geared toward young adult readers, is A Golden Web. Barbara will present a review and perspective on the festival’s Young Adult offerings.

Jennie Orvino has a new book. It’s a memoir and collection of her poetry and essays: Poems, Politics, and Passion. Jennie joins Suzanne Lang in conversation about the book, about the times, about things that change and things that stay the same.

Orvino was the co-creator of KRCB’s Word by Word, and we reprise a 2005 interview she did with Robert Bly for that show.

Barbara Quick shares her review of Karen Russell’s Swamplandia.

Joan Frank joins Rosemary Manchester in conversation on Joan’s latest novel, Make It Stay .

A strong and colorful dad becomes homeless and estranged in Mary Ames Mitchell’s The Purple Cow House and Other Tales of Eccentricities. Mary talks about her experience with Suzanne Lang.

Barbara Quick reviews Bring Up the Bodies, the second installment of a trilogy by Hillary Mantel that began with Wolf Hall and centers on the life of Thomas Cromwell.

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.