The Reading Life

This week on The Reading Life: Benjamin Moser, author of "Why This World? A Biography of Clarice Lispector , " talks about his longstanding affection for the Brazilian writer and his stewardship of her literary legacy. And Susan has a review of Roxane Gay’s "Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body."

This week on The Reading Life: Bill Loehfelm's policewoman Maureen Coughlin takes on Mardi Gras in " The Devil’s Muse ." We’ll also hear from artist Emma Fick, who has created the very charming and colorful sketchbook, "Snippets of New Orleans."

This week on The Reading Life: We'll be talking about the Vietnamese community in Louisiana in fact and in fiction. Mark VanLandingham talks about his scholarly study, Weathering Katrina: Culture and Recovery Among Vietnamese Americans . And Joanne O’Sullivan, author of the young adult novel, Between Two Skies, a story of a a Cajun girl who falls in love with a budding Vietnamese bluesman in her home town of Bayou Perdu.

This week on The Reading Life: Tulane professor Yuri Herrera, whose third book set in the world of Mexican drug culture is " Kingdom Cons." Journalist/historian Paige Bowers of Baton Rouge, author of "The General’s Niece: The Little Known DeGaulle Who Fought to Free Occupied France ,' talks about her quest to tell the story of Genevieve DeGaulle. **Lagniappe Audio**

This week on The Reading Life: Jon McCarthy, author of "Hard Roll: A Paramedic’s Perspective of Life and Death in New Orleans. " Michael Allen Zell previews Bloomsday 2017, that annual celebration of James Joyce's "Ulysses," and catches us up on books coming from the new imprint, Crescent City Books.

This week on The Reading Life: Susan talks with New Orleans mystery writer Jean Redmann, author of Girl on the Edge of Summer and Perdition , and just in time for June weddings, Ada Calhoun talks about her new essay collection , Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give.

This week on The Reading Life: Culinary historian Jessica Harris, author of High on the Hog, Beyond Gumbo , and so many other great books, talks about about her new and very personal memoir, "My Soul Looks Back." Nicholas Reynolds uncovers a new side of a great American writer in " Writer, Sailor, Soldier Spy, Ernest Hemingway’s Secret Adventures, 1935-1961 ," and Phyllis Jordan previews that annual rite of spring, the Symphony Book Fair. **Lagniappe Audio**

This week on The Reading Life: Bestselling novelist Alys Arden, author of "The Casquette Girls" and " The Romeo Catchers," is creating the next generation of New Orleans witches and vampires. A nd geographer Joshua Jelly-Schapiro takes us on a leisurely historical/cultural tour in "Island People: The World and the Caribbean."

This week on The Reading Life: Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body: A Murder, A Memoir , describes reconstructing the 1992 murder of 8 year-old Jeremy Guillory by Ricky Langley in Iowa, LA, and interweaving it with her own personal history. Journalist-turned-novelist Omar El Akkad, author of American War, talks about his choice of Louisiana as a setting for his vision of a second American Civil War in 2074. **Lagniappe Audio**

This week on The Reading Life: Historian Lynne Olson author of "Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood that Helped Turn the Tide of War," and New Orleans poets Cassie Pruyn, author of "Lena," and Gina Ferrara, author of "Fitting the Sixth Finger," poems inspired by the paintings of Marc Chagall. **Lagniappe Audio**