WYPL Book Talk

Ariel Lawhon is a historical novelist based outside of Nashville, TN. Her debut was The Wife, The Maid, The Mistress about a New York Supreme Court Justice who disappeared in 1930. Flight of Dreams about the last voyage of the  Hindenburg came next. And Today we'll be talking about her latest novel, I Was Anastasia, about a woman believed by many to be sole survivor of Tsar Nicholas II's family, Anastasia Romanov.

Eric Barnes publishes several newspapers throughout Tennessee. He's also an author of literary fiction. He's appeared on Book Talk previously to Talk about his novels, Shimmer and Something Pretty, Something Beautiful. Today we will be discussing his latest novel, The City Where We Once Lived, which is available from Arcade Publishing.

Michael Farris Smith is the author of four novels, The Hands of Strangers, Rivers, and Desperation Road. Little, Brown has recently published the fourth, The Fighter, a story of a broken-down, bare-knuckle boxer who heads back to the Mississippi delta to answer for his past.

Robert Gordon is a documentary film maker and writer. His most  well-known film is Best of Enemies about the series of debates between Gore Vidal and William F Buckley in the late 60s. His many books include the biography of Muddy Waters, Can't Be Satisfied, and Respect Yourself, a history of Stax Records.Today we'll be talking about his new book, Memphis Rent Party: The Blues, Rock, and Soul in Music's Hometown, a collection of his previous writings about some of the lesser known, but still massively talented musicians who are from or came to Memphis.  A soundtrack album of the same name is available on vinyl and via streaming services from Fat Possum Records.

Elizabeth Crook is a novelist from Texas who has published five novels, including her newest one, The Which Way Tree. In a story told through letters,  a teenage boy recounts tale from the Texas frontier during the Civil War about his half-sister's fervent search for the panther that disfigured her and killed her mother.

Bestselling author Donna Everhart recently returned to Book Talk to discuss her second novel, The Road to Bittersweet, with Linda Lloyd. Set in the 1940s, the musically-inclined Stamper family must fight to service after all they have is washed away in a flood.

Blake McVey talks to Memphis Commercial Appeal Reporter Marc Perrusquia about his new book, A Spy in Canaan, about how the FBI used famed Civil Rights photographer Ernest Withers as an informant.

Blake McVey talks to John T. Edge, director of The Southern Foodways Alliance, about the paperback release of his book, The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South, which pays particular attention to the Civil Rights era and how immigration is adding to the social and culinary makeup of the American South.

Mark Greaney is a New York Best Times bestselling author of international thrillers. He co-authored several Jack Ryan novels with Tom Clancy, and continued the series for several titles after Mr. Clancy's passing. Mark is also the author of the Gray Man series starring for CIA goon Court Gentry. In this episode, we talk about seventh book in that series, Agent in Place.

K. J. Howe is the executive director of the annual conference Thrillerfest. She recently joined the ranks of thriller writers with her debut novel, The Freedom Broker, which is now in paperback from Quercus. It's the first book in a series starring Thea Paris, a hostage negotiator who must keep her composure when a kidnapping hits close to home.