This week on The Reading Life: New Orleans crime novelists Jean Redmann, author of “Not Dead Enough,” her tenth book in the Micky Knight series, and Greg Herren, author of “Royal Street Reveillon,” the eighth in his series featuring detective Scotty Bradley, perfect holiday reading from a writer who loves Christmas in New Orleans.

This week on The Reading Life: Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton talk about their new book, “The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience.” Their appearance was presented by Octavia Books and recorded October 26 at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans.

This week on The Reading Life: Photographer Tina Freeman, whose new book is “Lamentations,” along with New Orleans Museum of Art curator of photography Russell Lord. And biographer Robert Mann talks about his book, “Becoming Ronald Reagan: The Rise of a Conservative Icon.”

This week on The Reading Life: Susan talks with Danielle Del Sol and Susan Langenhennig of the Preservation Resource Center about their gorgeous new book, “Building on the Past: Saving Historic New Orleans.” We’ll also hear from Miki Pfeffer, editor of “A New Orleans Author in Mark Twain’s Court: Letters from Grace King’s New England Sojourns.” Megan Holt joins us to preview Words and Music: A Literary Feast in New Orleans , coming up November 21-24.

This week on The Reading Life: Susan talks with New Orleans native Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of “The Revisioners,” a moving tale of lingering racism past and present, and a family of women healers who try to move beyond it. And Daniel José Older, author of “The Book of Lost Saints,” a dazzling novel about Cuban-Americans and the legacy of the revolution in Cuba.

This week on The Reading Life: Susan talks with novelist Jami Attenberg, whose new book is “All This Could Be Yours,” her first set in New Orleans. And we’ll have a preview of the Louisiana Book Festival, coming up November 2 in Baton Rouge.

This week on The Reading Life: Susan talks with authors who’ll be appearing at Improv NOLA: A Festival of Ideas. Jules Feiffer is known for his cartoons, novels, plays and screenplays, as well as his most recent graphic novel, “The Ghost Script.” He appears Saturday, November 9. And Michael Pollan, who has written so widely and beautifully about food and nature, talks about his most recent bestseller, “How to Change Your Mind.” He appears Friday, November 8. For more info, check out

This week on The Reading Life: Susan talks with New Orleans architect Lee Ledbetter, whose new book is “The Art of Place: Lee Ledbetter Architecture and Interiors.”

This week on The Reading Life: Photographer Robert Brantley, author of “Sacred Ground: Cemeteries of New Orleans.” And John Warner Smith, Louisiana’s new poet laureate and author of "Muhammad’s Mountain," "Spirits of the Gods," "A Mandala of Hands," and Soul Be a Witness," with a new collection, "Our Shut Eyes: New and Selected Poems on Race in America," due out later this year.

This week on The Reading Life: Susan talks with University of New Orleans anthropologist Rachel Breunlin and musician Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, co-authors of “Le Ker Creole (The Creole Heart): Creole Compositions and Stories from Louisiana,” the most recent book from the Neighborhood Story Project.