New Books in Literature
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field.
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1576
Patrick B. Mullen, "Right to the Juke Joint: A ...
On its back cover, Patrick B. Mullen’s Right to the Juke Joint: A Personal History of American Music (University of Illinois Press, 2018) is aptly described as “part scholar's musings and part fan's memoir."
50 min
1577
Samantha Silva, "Mr. Dickens and His Carol" (Fl...
Christmas is not looking bright for Charles Dickens...
44 min
1578
Laurie Frankel, "This is How it Always is" (Fla...
In her new novel This is How it Always is (Flatiron Books, 2017), Laurie Frankel tells the story of the Walsh-Adams family and how they grapple with the youngest child, the fifth son, who announces at age three that he wants to be a girl....
35 min
1579
Joshua Max Feldman, "Start Without Me" (William...
In Joshua Max Feldman's thoughtful, bittersweet novel Start Without Me (William Morrow, 2017), two strangers meet at an airport restaurant, and through the course of one Thanksgiving Day...
28 min
1580
Nivedita Lakhera, “Pillow of Dreams” (Nivedita ...
Pillow of Dreams (Nivedita Lakhera, 2017) is an intensely emotional and inspirational collection of poetry and art by Dr. Nivedita Lakhera. She experienced a stroke, divorce, and then a heartbreak all at the young age of 27.
55 min
1581
Kate Brandes, “The Promise of Pierson Orchard” ...
How do families decide when financial relief outweighs the risks of drilling for natural gas on their land? In Kate Brandes’ novel Promise of Pierson Orchard (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2017), a big energy company comes to Minden,
28 min
1582
Anthony Ryan, “The Empire of Ashes” (Ace, 2018)
The Draconis Memoria series is comprised of a trilogy set in a world where drake (dragon) blood is a prized commodity, the basis of the trading fortune of the Ironship Syndicate. It is a brilliant, savage adventure.
33 min
1583
Tiffany Quay Tyson, “The Past is Never” (Skyhor...
It’s a hot August day in 1976, the sun beats down in the Mississippi Delta, and three siblings go swimming in the old, forbidden rock quarry. Everyone knows that something evil and unspeakable once happened there. The youngest child disappears,
35 min
1584
Eliot Peper, “Borderless” (47North)
It seems clear that our dependence on the internet will only grow in coming years, offering untold convenience. But how much control will we have to surrender to access this digital wonderland? That’s one of the key questions animating the first two bo...
40 min
1585
Vernon Keeve III, “Southern Migrant Mixtape” (N...
In this episode, we speak with Vernon Keeve III about his book Southern Migrant Mixtape (Nomadic Press, 2018), a collection published by Nomadic Press. Memoir comes in many forms, be it poetry or prose. Keeve’s work is a bridge between both worlds.
45 min
1586
Keith Gessen, “A Terrible Country” (Viking, 2018)
The only job Andrei Kaplan has been able to find since completing his doctorate, is teaching an online, poorly-paid course. So, he agrees to fly to Moscow when his brother promises him a round-trip ticket, hockey games,
45 min
1587
Dustin Parsons, “Exploded View: Essays on Fathe...
If you open Dustin Parsons’ new book, you’ll find maps, figures, footprints, a floor plan, silhouettes of roadside birds, charts of riverbed topography, origami directions for an owl in twenty-six folds, and an anatomized dog.
45 min
1588
Sam Hooker, “The Winter Riddle” (Black Spot Boo...
If you are a young moody woman who likes to wear black, you might well be a witch. Or aspire to be a witch. If you needed a tongue-in-cheek guide on how to behave, you could benefit from picking up The Winter Riddle (Black Spot Books,
37 min
1589
Lee Zacharias, “Across the Great Lake” (U Wisco...
Lake Michigan in 1936 is an essential commercial seaway, one that captains and their crews must cross regularly no matter the season, breaking massive ice floes under the prows of their ships and praying that they survive the fierce swells and changeab...
32 min
1590
Shelby Yastrow and Tony Jacklin, “Bad Lies” (Ma...
Questions about freedom of the press, defamation, libel and slander have been in the news quite a bit lately. Bad Lies (Mascot Books, 2017) tells the story of Eddie Bennison, who is over 50 when he makes it into the professional golf circuit.
42 min
1591
John Crowley, “Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ym...
In Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (Saga Press, 2017), John Crowley provides an account of human history through the eyes of a crow. The story takes flight in the Iron Age, when the eponymous main character, Dar Oakley,
41 min
1592
Sue Prideaux, “I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Nietzs...
Like most philosophers, Friedrich Nietzsche is better known for his ideas than for the life he led. In I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Nietzsche (Tim Duggan Books, 2018), Sue Prideaux details the events of his life and shows how they can inform many of the c...
41 min
1593
Wade Roush, ed., “Twelve Tomorrows” (MIT Press,...
Science fiction is, at its core, about tomorrow—exploring through stories what the universe may look like one or 10 or a million years in the future. Twelve Tomorrows (MIT Press, 2018) uses short stories to fit nearly a dozen possible “tomorrows” into ...
39 min
1594
Rachel Z. Arndt, “Beyond Measure” (Sarabande Bo...
Our world today is full of algorithms and metrics designed to help us keep up, to keep track, to keep going. New devices, such as the smartwatch, now make it possible to quantify and standardize every conceivable human activity,
29 min
1595
Karin Tidbeck, “Amatka” (Vintage, 2017)
In Karin Tidbeck‘s Amatka (Vintage, 2017), words weave—and have the potential to shred—the fabric of reality. Amatka was shortlisted for the Compton Crook and Locus Awards. A reviewer on NPR called it “a warped and chilling portrait of post-truth reali...
34 min
1596
Bernard Cornwell, “War of the Wolf” (Harper, 2018)
As seems appropriate for a character as resourceful, skilled, and self-confident as Uhtred of Bebbanburg, he goes from strength to strength. In addition to a set of bestselling novels, collectively dubbed The Saxon Tales,
32 min
1597
Leslie Schweitzer Miller, “Discovery” (Notramou...
When Giselle Gélis runs into David Rettig at a biblical studies conference, she’s not expecting a life-changing experience. On the contrary, the thought foremost in her mind is escaping the creepy colleague who seems oblivious to hints of dislike and e...
44 min
1598
John Kaag, “American Philosophy: A Love Story” ...
John Kaag is a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. American Philosophy: A Love Story (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016) won the John Dewey Prize from the Society for U.S. Intellectual History. Kaag offers a rich history,
43 min
1599
Rebecca Roanhorse, “Trail of Lightning” (Saga P...
In Trail of Lightning (Saga Press, 2018), the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Rebecca Roanhorse draws on Navajo culture and history to tell a gripping future-fable about gods and monsters. The book launches The Sixth World,
30 min
1600
Mira T. Lee, “Everything Here is Beautiful” (Pa...
In her first novel, Everything Here is Beautiful (Pamela Dorman Books, 2018), author Mira T. Lee delves into the sometimes troubled but always compelling life of Lucia from the perspectives of her older sister Miranda, her husband, Yonah,
36 min