WYPL Book Talk

By Stephen UseryArts Books

WYPL Book Talk episodes

October 20, 2020 Laura E. Gómez- Inventing Latinos

Laura E. Gómez is a professor of law, sociology, and Chicana/Chicano studies at UCLA Misconceiving Mothers: Legislators, Prosecutors and the Politics of Prenatal Drug Exposure, Mapping “Race”: Critical Approaches to Health Disparities Research, and Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race. Today we'll be talking about her new book. Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism, which is published by The New Press.
38 min
October 13, 2020 Michael Imperioli - The Nicotine Chronicles

Michael Imperioli is probably best known for his acting, writing, and directing for television, movies, and theater. He won an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor for his portrayal of Christopher Moltisanti in the legendary series, The Sopranos. He pursues many creative endeavors, and his fiction writing has recently found its way to the reading public. His debut novel, The Perfume Burned His Eyes, was published in 2018, and he has a story in the new anthology from Akashic books, The Nicotine Chronicles, which is edited by Lee Child and also includes contributions from Joyce Carol Oates, Jerry Stahl, Hannah Tinti, and Eric Bogosian.
38 min
October 07, 2020 Renee Knake Jefferson and Hannah Brenner Johnson - Shortlisted

Hannah Brenner Johnson is Vice Dean for Academic and Student Affairs and Associate Professor of Law at California Western School of Law in San Diego. Renee Knake Jefferson is Professor of Law and holds the Joanne and Larry Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics at the University of Houston Law Center.
These legal scholars have collaborated on Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court. It's a look at the history of women who were considered for the Supreme Court prior to Sandra Day O'Connor's appointment in 1981. It also looks at what appears to being an honor by being a finalist for important positions is a way to pay lip service to diversity without actually achieving it.

1 hr 2 min
September 16, 2020 Ariel Sabar - Veritas

Ariel Sabar is a former newspaper reporter for The Providence Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and The Baltimore Sun. He is currently a freelance journalist having written for publications such as Smithsonian, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Wall Street Journal. His previous books include My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for his Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq and Heart of the City. Today we'll be discussing his most recent one, Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife which is published by Doubleday.
1 hr 1 min
August 29, 2020 Daniel Hornsby - Via Negativa
Daniel Hornsby earned his MFA from the University of Michigan, and a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. His stories and essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, The Missouri Review, and Joyland. Today we'll be talking about his debut novel, Via Negativa, which is published by Knopf.
42 min
August 22, 2020 David Stebenne - Promised Land
Dr. David Stebenne teaches at Ohio State University in the history department and their law school. David has authored two academic books, Arthur J. Goldberg: New Deal Liberal and Modern Republican: Arthur Larson and the Eisenhower Years. He and Joseph Mitchell co-authored New City Upon A Hill: A History of Columbia, Maryland. Today, we'll be looking at his most recent book, which is aimed a general audience, Promised Land: How the Rise of the Middle Class Transformed America, 1929-1968.
1 hr 12 min
August 08, 2020 Wendy Williams - The Language of Butterflies
Wendy Williams' journalism has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, Scientific American, and many other august publications. She's written seven book to date, including about the resilience of cancer patients, the history of the horse, and today we'll be talking about her latest, The Language of Butterflies: How Thieves, Hoarders, Scientists, and Other Obsessives Unlocked the Secrets of the World's Favorite Insect, which is published by Simon & Schuster.
1 hr 3 min
July 18, 2020 Walter Thompson-Hernandez - The Compton Cowboys
Walter Thompson-Hernández is a former New York Times reporter who is now moving into the fields of podcasting and documentary film making. While at the Times, he traveled the world looking for and profiling fascinating subcultures. One of those was the group of black horse riders known as The Compton Cowboys. Their story piqued Walter's interest, and he recently released his book looking at their fascinating and fraught life trying to hold onto their horses and non-profit during a tumultuous year of changing leadership at the top of the program. The book is The Compton Cowboys: The New Generation of Cowboys in America's Urban Heartland, and it is published by HarperCollins.
29 min
June 25, 2020 Sydney Ladensohn Stern - The Brothers Mankiewicz
Sydney Ladensohn Stern has was a reporter for Fortune and Money and her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times. She has also written three books of non-fiction, Toyland: The High-Stakes Game of the Toy Industry, Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics and Mystique, and most recently, The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics, which is published by The University of Mississippi Press and was recently released in audio book format by Random House Audio.
1 hr 3 min
May 30, 2020 Scott Turow - The Last Trial
In addition to being a international best-selling author, Scott Turow is an attorney and has served as the president of The Authors Guild. His novels often take place in the fictional Kindle county, which is a stand in for Chicago and Cook County, Illinois. The heart, but not always the star of these is books is defense attorney, Alejandro Stern, known to most as Sandy Stern. Now in his mid 80s, Sandy is contemplating his retirement in the new novel, The Last Trial, which is published by Grand Central. Mr. Turow joined us from Naples, Florida.
30 min