Bookmark with Don Noble

Melinda Rainey Thompson has built a devoted readership with humorous essays about suburban family life, motherhood, marriage, manners, and the rituals of Southern womanhood. Her books SWAG: Southern Women Aging Gracefully and The SWAG Life turned everyday domestic experiences into sharp, affectionate comedy.

In this episode of Bookmark with Don Noble, Don Noble speaks with Melinda Rainey Thompson and Morgan Murphy at the Alabama Booksmith in Homewood, Alabama. Their conversation centers on I Love You—Now Hush, a collection of paired essays that might be described as "Venus and Mars in Alabama." Alternating between Thompson's and Murphy's points of view, the book takes a comic look at men, women, marriage, domestic life, and the ways couples learn to laugh at their differences.

Murphy, an award-winning magazine editor whose work has appeared with Southern Living, Forbes, and Vanity Fair, brings his own Southern wit to the collaboration. Together, Thompson and Murphy create a lively exchange about relationships, gender, and the comic misunderstandings of everyday life in Alabama.

Bookmark with Don Noble features conversations with writers whose work has shaped Alabama, the South, and American literature.

Madison Jones, one of Alabama's most distinguished fiction writers, was originally from Tennessee but spent much of his career in Alabama. A novelist deeply rooted in the Southern literary tradition, Jones wrote fiction marked by moral seriousness, historical weight, and a powerful sense of place.

In this episode of Bookmark with Don Noble, Don Noble speaks with Madison Jones following a remarkable year of recognition for his Civil War novel Nashville 1864: The Dying of the Light. The novel, Jones's eleventh book of fiction, received three major literary honors: the Michael Shaara Award for Civil War Fiction, the T. S. Eliot Award for Creative Writing, and the Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Jones later joined the English faculty at Auburn University, where he taught for decades and became professor emeritus and writer-in-residence emeritus. His novels include An Exile, A Cry of Absence, To the Winds, and Nashville 1864: The Dying of the Light. Across a long and respected career, Jones became recognized as a major voice in Southern fiction and an important figure in Alabama letters.

Bookmark with Don Noble features conversations with writers whose work has shaped Alabama, the South, and American literature.

Kinky Friedman was a novelist, songwriter, satirist, humorist, and one-of-a-kind Texas personality whose work earned him both a wide readership and a devoted cult following. Known for his irreverent wit and unmistakable voice, Friedman built a career that crossed boundaries between literature, music, politics, and comedy. In this episode of Bookmark with Don Noble, Don Noble sits down with Kinky Friedman at the Alabama Booksmith in Homewood, Alabama. Their conversation explores Friedman's unconventional career, his comic and satirical approach to writing, and the larger-than-life persona that made him one of American letters' most distinctive characters. Friedman led the alt-country band Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, toured with Bob Dylan, sang with Willie Nelson, and later became known for his detective novels and essays. His books include the Kinky Friedman mystery series, beginning with Greenwich Killing Time, as well as collections of essays and comic reflections on Texas, politics, and American life. He also made a memorable independent run for governor of Texas in 2006. Bookmark with Don Noble features conversations with writers whose work has shaped Alabama, the South, and American literature.

Kerry Madden is an accomplished writer of fiction and nonfiction for young readers, with a gift for capturing family, place, and the emotional lives of young people. Her Maggie Valley Trilogy — Gentle's Holler, Louisiana's Song, and Jessie's Mountain — is set in the mountains of North Carolina and follows a family whose stories are rooted in music, hardship, imagination, and Appalachian life. In this episode of Bookmark with Don Noble, Don Noble speaks with Kerry Madden at the annual literary conference On the Brink, held at Jacksonville State University. Their conversation explores Madden's work for young adults, her Maggie Valley novels, and her biography Up Close: Harper Lee, written for young readers. Madden's Up Close: Harper Lee was named one of Booklist's Top Ten Biographies for Youth in 2009. Her first novel, Offsides, was named a New York Public Library Pick for the Teen Age, and her work includes plays, journalism, fiction, nonfiction, and writing guides for young readers. Raised in college football towns across the South, Madden brings a strong sense of place, voice, and Southern experience to her writing. Bookmark with Don Noble features conversations with writers whose work has shaped Alabama, the South, and American literature.

Keith Thomson brings wit, speed, and an inventive twist to the spy thriller. In his novels Once a Spy and Twice a Spy, Thomson introduces Drummond Clark, a 64-year-old retired appliance salesman who appears to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. To the amazement of his son, Charlie — and to the reader — Drummond's ordinary life turns out to be a cover. He was once a legendary CIA operative, and even as his memory falters, his old skills can suddenly return. In this episode of Bookmark with Don Noble, Don Noble speaks with Keith Thomson in the studio at Reese Phifer Hall on the campus of The University of Alabama. Their conversation explores the creation of Drummond and Charlie Clark, the father-son relationship at the heart of the novels, and Thomson's unusual blend of espionage, comedy, action, and emotional stakes. Thomson is the author of Once a Spy, a darkly satirical thriller that launched the Drummond and Charlie Clark series, followed by Twice a Spy. His varied career has included work as a semi-professional baseball player in France, an editorial cartoonist for Newsday, a filmmaker whose short film was shown at Sundance, and a screenwriter. He has also written on intelligence and related subjects for The Huffington Post. Bookmark with Don Noble features conversations with writers whose work has shaped Alabama, the South, and American literature.

Kathryn Magendie's fiction is known for its lyrical, intimate voice and its deep attention to family, memory, place, and the difficult work of finding one's way home. In Tender Graces, the first novel in her Graces series, Magendie follows Virginia Kate Carey as she returns to her Appalachian roots and confronts the painful history of a fractured family. In this episode of Bookmark with Don Noble, Don Noble speaks with Kathryn Magendie at the annual literary conference On the Brink, held at Jacksonville State University. Their conversation explores Magendie's distinctive personal style, the emotional terrain of Tender Graces, and the ways her fiction moves between Appalachia, Baton Rouge, and the lives of characters shaped by love, loss, and family instability. Magendie is the author of the Graces series — Tender Graces, Secret Graces, and Family Graces — as well as other fiction including Sweetie and The Lightning Charmer. Her work has been described as literary women's fiction with a strong sense of voice and place, and Tender Graces became an Amazon Kindle No. 1 bestseller. Bookmark with Don Noble features conversations with writers whose work has shaped Alabama, the South, and American literature.

John S. Sledge has spent much of his career studying, preserving, and interpreting the history of Mobile, Alabama. As book review editor for the Mobile Press-Register and architectural historian for the Mobile Historic Development Commission, Sledge has brought together a critic's eye, a historian's discipline, and a deep affection for the Gulf Coast. In this episode of Bookmark with Don Noble, Don Noble speaks with John Sledge in Reese Phifer Hall on the campus of The University of Alabama. Their conversation explores Sledge's work on Mobile's built environment, its literary and cultural history, and the stories preserved in the city's cemeteries, ironwork, and Greek Revival architecture. With Sheila Hagler, Sledge is the author of three important books on Mobile: Cities of Silence: A Guide to Mobile's Historic Cemeteries, An Ornament to the City: Old Mobile Ironwork, and The Pillared City: Greek Revival Mobile. Across these works, Sledge documents the architecture, craftsmanship, and memory embedded in one of the South's oldest and most distinctive cities. Sledge later expanded his work with books including The Mobile River, Southern Bound, These Rugged Days: Alabama in the Civil War, and The Gulf of Mexico: A Maritime History. A longtime member of the National Book Critics Circle, he is recognized as one of Alabama's leading voices on Mobile history, architecture, and Gulf Coast culture. Bookmark with Don Noble features conversations with writers whose work has shaped Alabama, the South, and American literature.

In this episode of Bookmark with Don Noble, Don Noble speaks with Jennifer Paddock at the Friends Bookstore in the Fairhope Public Library during the annual gathering Southern Writers Reading. Their conversation explores Paddock's early novels, her interest in women at turning points in their lives, and the pull of places such as Point Clear, Fairhope, Destin, and the Gulf Coast. Paddock is the author of A Secret Word, Point Clear, and The Weight of Memory. She earned a master's degree in creative writing from New York University, and her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in publications including The North American Review, Other Voices, Garden & Gun, Mr. Beller's Neighborhood, The New York Times, and Stories from the Blue Moon Café. A former Division I tennis player and longtime tennis professional at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, Alabama, Paddock brings an intimate knowledge of the Gulf Coast to her fiction. Bookmark with Don Noble features conversations with writers whose work has shaped Alabama, the South, and American literature.

Jeffrey Stepakoff spent more than a decade in Hollywood as a television writer, working on series including Dawson's Creek, The Wonder Years, and Sisters. Those years in writers' rooms, pitch meetings, and network television helped shape his memoir Billion-Dollar Kiss: The Kiss That Saved Dawson's Creek and Other Adventures in TV Writing, a behind-the-scenes look at life as a screenwriter during a booming era for scripted television. In this episode of Bookmark with Don Noble, Don Noble speaks with Jeffrey Stepakoff at the annual literary conference On the Brink at Jacksonville State University. Their conversation explores Stepakoff's Hollywood career, the craft of writing for television, and his move into fiction with his debut novel Fireworks Over Toccoa. Set in Toccoa, Georgia, in the final days of World War II, Fireworks Over Toccoa is a love story about memory, longing, and the choices that shape a life. Stepakoff, who was raised in Atlanta and trained in journalism and playwriting, brings a screenwriter's sense of scene, pacing, and emotion to his fiction. Bookmark with Don Noble features conversations with writers whose work has shaped Alabama, the South, and American literature.

In this episode of Bookmark with Don Noble, Don Noble speaks with Janisse Ray in Carmichael Library on the campus of the University of Montevallo. Their conversation explores Ray's life and work, her deep connection to the rural South, and the ways personal history, ecology, and activism come together in her writing. Ray's acclaimed memoir Ecology of a Cracker Childhood helped establish her as a major voice in environmental literature, weaving her childhood in rural Georgia with a call to preserve the endangered longleaf pine ecosystem. Her work has been widely taught and anthologized and has received honors including an American Book Award, a Southern Book Critics Circle Award, and a Southern Booksellers Award. Bookmark with Don Noble features conversations with writers whose work has shaped Alabama, the South, and American literature.