The Reading Life

This week on The Reading Life: Poet Nicole Eiden, whose new collection is I Am One of You. We’ll also hear from Chris Smith, who’s putting together the Second Annual Jefferson Parish Library Literary Festival, the Mystery Writers/ Readers Festival August 6 . And Susan has some historical fiction - The Muse , by Jessie Burton and Leaving Lucy Pear , by Anna Solomon - for your beach bag.

This week on The Reading Life: LSU historian Nancy Isenberg, author of the bestseller,White Trash: The 400 Year Untold History of Class in America , and Megan Abbott, whose novel about a young gymnast with Olympic hopes, You Will Know Me, is topping the list of summer must-reads. Also, Susan will review some cold books for the summer heat.

This week on The Reading Life: Rising star of Mexican fiction and New Orleanian Yuri Herrera, whose new novel is Transmigration of Bodies, and Kerry Hamilton, who’s the ambassador his great grandmother’s book, Trials of the Earth The True Story of a Pioneer Woman by Mary Mann Hamilton. And Susan reviews Lionel Shriver’s The Mandibles, 2029-2047.

This week on The Reading Life: William Barnwell, whose new book is "Called to Heal the Broken-Hearted: Stories from Kairos Prison Ministry International." And we’ll hear about lawyer Tad Bartlett’s unusual path to publication with the novella, "Marchers’ Season."

This week on The Reading Life: New Orleans native John Gregory Brown talks about his new novel, "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere," about one man's post-Katrina journey to redemption and a new life. Mystery novelist Jean Redmann begins a new series, writing as R. Jean Reid; the first, set in a small Mississippi town, is "Roots of Murder."

This week on The Reading Life: Bill Loehfelm, whose new Maureen Coughlin thriller is Let the Devil Out. We’ll also hear from Bethanne Patrick, editor of The Books that Changed My Life: Reflections by 100 Authors, Actors, Musicians, and Other Remarkable People. And Susan will have some recommended reading for dog lovers.

This week on The Reading Life: Historian Nigel Hamilton talks about Commander in Chief: FDR’s Battle with Churchill, 1943. Nigel divides his time between Boston and New Orleans. And Susan reviews two historical novels, The Noise of Time, by novelist Julian Barnes, about composer Dimitri Shostakovich, and The Summer Guest, by novelist and translator Alison Anderson, an homage to Anton Chekhov, for beach book reading.

This week on The Reading Life: It's all history, all the time! Patrick Maney, formerly of Tulane, now of Boston College, talks about Bill Clinton: New Gilded Age President, and Erin Greenwald of the Historic New Orleans Collection discusses Marc Antoine Caillot and the Company of the Indies in Louisiana: Trade in the French Atlantic World. And Susan offers some debut thrillers -- Under the Harrow, by Flynn Berry, and The Second Girl, by Donald Swinson -- for your beach reading.

This week on The Reading Life: Rich Cohen, author of The Sun & the Moon & the Rolling Stones. And Susan kicks off beach book season with Terry McMillan's I Almost Forgot about You.

This week on The Reading Life: Susan Tucker, author of City of Remembering: A History of Genealogy in New Orleans, and Margo Orlando Littell, author of Each Vagabond by Name, along with her publisher, Abram Himelstein, of the University of New Orleans Press.