A Novel Idea

The North Bay's Literary Hub.

Tune in every 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7 pm

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Non-fiction to pulp fiction, host Rosemary Manchester and producer Suzanne M. Lang explore the world of books featuring conversations with writers, academics, and readers. It’s a novel idea.

May 9, 2012 - Carolyn Burke, Gene Viale
Edith Piaf, perhaps the most beloved singer of all time, comes to life in Carolyn Burke’s just published biography No Regrets, The Life of Edith Piaf. Carolyn and Suzanne talk about Piaf, Carolyn’s journey of discovery, as well as her other biographies Lee Miller, A Life and Becoming Modern, The Life of Mina Loy.

Gene Viale was a white boy singing black gospel music in the sixties and his belting song styling helped popularize gospel music. Viale passed away this past year and in this encore segment, Gene and Rosemary talk about his life and memoir, I Remember Gospel and I Keep on Singing.

Author Barbara Quick brings her review of Yi Yun Li’s Gold Boy, Emerald Girl.
April 11, 2012 - 3 Authors: Bart Schneider, Meredith Maran, Nafisa Haji
Author, poet, and publisher Bart Schneider returns with further crime solving from pot smoking private detective Augie Boyer and ex-cop poetry evangelist Bobby Sabbatini in Nameless Dame: Murder on the Russian River (Soft Skull Press). Bart talks about his approach to the book and the balance between reality and fiction. www.kellyscovepress.com/bart-schneider

Meredith Maran published her first piece before most of us could write a book report. Her career has tended toward personal and cultural reflection, asking the questions most people don’t. Her work has appeared in a bunch of magazines and 10 or so works of non-fiction, including "How Would You Feel if Your Dad was Gay?” and My Lie. A True Story of False Memory. And now Meredith joins us with, her first novel, A Theory of Small Earthquakes (Soft Skull Press). www.meredithmaran.com

Nafisa Haji, author of the critically acclaimed The Writing on My Forehead, takes on the emotional landscape at the confluence of culture and religion, and a young woman’s quest for identity against the backdrop of the War on Terror in The Sweetness of Tears (Harper Collins). www.nafisahaji.com
February 8, 2012 - The art and craft and business of writing are explored
This month on A Novel Idea:

Rosemary Manchester and Seré Prince Halverson on her phenomenal debut novel, The Underside of Joy, a novel exploring issues of family, love, and loss set in the environs of Sonoma County California.

The Redwood Writers is a branch of the California Writer’s Club, founded by no less than Jack London. Their motto is "writers helping writers." Author Sandy Baker joins Suzanne Lang on the annual Redwood Writers Conference in Santa Rosa, California.

Author and screenwriter Barbara Quick provides her perspective on billboards over Broadway and Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot.
January 11, 2012 - Music and Mysteries
Musician and author of the Evan Horne jazz mysteries - including Bird Lives, Looking for Chet Baker, and his latest novel, Fade to Blue, is in conversation with Larry Slater, Sonoma County’s Jazz MD and long-time host of KRCB’s Jazz Connections.

Novelist Stacy Carlson talks with Suzanne Lang about Stacy’s book Among the Wonderful, her novel inspired by PT Barnum and the cultural shifts playing out in 19th Century New York City.

Wanting to Be Jackie Kennedy. Elizabeth Kern and Rosemary Manchester talk about family life in a Polish area of 1960’s Chicago. Ellie Manikowski becomes a young woman in this nostalgic coming of age story.

Author Barbara Quick provides her review of Solace by Belinda McKeon.
December 14, 2011 - Haslam on Hayakawa
On A Novel Idea this month: Gerald Haslam in conversation with Rosemary Manchester on "In Thought and Action, the Enigmatic Life of H.I. Hayakawa"; Suzanne Lang with Jonah Raskin on his latest book, "Marijuanaland: Dispatches from an American War", and Barbara Quick review Sandor Marai's "Portrait of a Marriage".