Live RadioSuzanne also talks with poet and playwright Stephen Mack Jones, who has published his first novel, a crime thriller set in Detroit, August Snow.
Listen to A Novel Idea - Sunday afternoon July 2nd at 4:00 pm on KRCB-FM Radio 91!
Daniel Pyne, and Stephen Mack Jones - this week on A Novel Idea
A Novel Idea
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July 31, 2020Chana Porter on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 10am
Risky authors play with form and defy easy description and this is the case with two authors who through their radical storytelling take us on a good ride, but with something sound and poignant underlying. The Seep is an alien life form that comes to inhabit humanity in Chana Porter’s… -
July 03, 2020A Celebration of Food and Family with Two Award-Winning Authors on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 10am
Food and family sustain us, especially during trying times. We celebrate this with two award-winning authors in conversation with Suzanne M. Lang. Meera Ekkanath Klein has just released “Seeing Ceremony -A Novel in Recipes”, a follow-up to “My Mother’s Kitchen -A Novel in Recipes”, both coming of… -
June 05, 2020Caitlin Hamilton Summie Explains Why Our Stories Are Important on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 10am
Our stories are important. It is our stories that connect us. So says Caitlin Hamilton Summie, author of To Lay to Rest our Ghosts, a remarkable and moving collection of 10 stories that reveal the complexity of our families and relationships, and the influence of place -all with finely rendered… -
May 29, 2020Suzanne Lang Talks with J. Chester Johnson on KRCB’s A Novel Idea – Sunday at 10am
White people kill black people. Despite Emancipation, despite the Civil Rights movement of now over fifty years ago, white people still kill African Americans in cold blood. In 1919 in the state of Arkansas in the fertile area of the Mississippi River, in a town called Elaine over the course of a… -
May 01, 2020Barbara L. Baer Talks About Her Latest Novel, The Ice Palace Waltz on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 10am
Suzanne M. Lang welcomes Barbara L. Baer in conversation on her latest novel, The Ice Palace Waltz, the multi-generational saga of two Jewish immigrant families—the western pioneers of Leadville Colorado and the smooth ‘our crowd’ New Yorkers, who come together amid the financial and social turmoil… -
April 03, 2020Namwali Serpell & Martin Puchner on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 10am
Namwali Serpell, is an Associate Professor at UC Berkeley and a well-published cultural critic who has now released an epic novel of Zambia; it is sweeping in scope, wildly imaginative, and grounded in the place along the Zambezi River called The Old Drift Suzanne M. Lang talks with Namwali about it… -
Mar 27, 2020Margaret Wilkerson Sexton and Jessica Winters Mireles on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 10am
Suzanne M. Lang talks with two authors whose novels reflect on gender and family, race and ethnicity, and the effects of heritage on American culture… -
Feb 29, 2020Joan Frank - Try to Get Lost, Essays on Travel and Place - A Novel Idea Sunday @ 10 am
Try to Get Lost! We continue celebrating the work of Joan Frank. We recently featured her book of four novellas, Where You’re All Going. Now we… -
Jan 31, 2020Joan Frank Shares Her Wit and Insight on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 10am
This week on A Novel Idea, richly drawn characters, vivid language, and compelling pace and story create the most satisfying literary experience for… -
Jan 03, 2020Journalist and Author Susan Swartz Joins Suzanne on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 10am
Death and dementia aren’t all that funny, but really, sometimes they are, especially when we open ourselves up to the conversation. Journalist Susan… -
Dec 27, 2019Two Favorites from 2019 This Month on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 10am
On this final week of this last month of the decade, we bring you two favorite conversations of this past year. Both people’s courage, tenacity, and… -
Nov 29, 2019Peter Mehlman Takes on Gender Politics in his New Book #MeAsWell on A Novel Idea - Sunday at 10am
#MeAsWell , a novel by Peter Mehlman takes on gender politics, race, and the ubiquitous control of Social Media on our lives. Mehlman was a sports… -
Nov 01, 2019Roberto Tejada, Plus Russian River Poet Pat Nolan Join Suzanne M. Lang for A Novel Idea – Sunday at 10am
Roberto Tejada’s Still Nowhere in an Empty Vastness is expansive in its range: from accounts of conquistador castaway Cabeza de Vaca, to the media… -
Oct 04, 2019Author and Musician Amy Edwards on A Novel Idea at its New Time – Sunday at 10am
ReInvention! Amy Edwards does it, again and again. From Austin, Texas, Edwards is a musician, hosts a podcast, and now is a novelist with the… -
Sep 27, 2019Jonah Raskin Joins Suzanne Lang on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4pm
Dark Day, Dark Night is Jonah Raskin's sequel to Dark Land, Dark Mirror, where we were first introduced to Private Investigator, or an Op as she… -
Aug 30, 2019The transHuman Code and Grandmother Power on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4pm
The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Heard of it? Maybe not, but I guarantee, you’re living in it. Technology and artificial intelligence, genomics and… -
Aug 02, 2019Teacher, Author, and Poet Deborah Tobola on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4pm
Hummingbird in Underworld, Teaching in a Men’s Prison is poet Deborah Tobola’s memoir of working in the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo… -
Jul 05, 2019Eliot Pattinson in Conversation with Suzanne Lang on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4pm
Bones of the Earth is the tenth installment in the Inspector Shan mystery series by award winning author Eliot Pattison, whose interest in Tibet and… -
May 30, 2019The Guest Book Author Sarah Blake, and Author Laurie Ann Doyle on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4 pm
The Guest Book follows three generations of a powerful American family as their wealth declines, examining “not just a privileged American family,… -
May 01, 2019Remarkable Moms on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4 pm
Mother’s always take their children somewhere in life and on the planet. Dena Moes traveled with her two daughters and husband on a journey of… -
Apr 02, 2019Brian Fies and R. L. Rotary Join Suzanne on A Novel Idea - Sunday at 4 pm
Suzanne M. Lang visits with two Sonoma County writers who bring us their stories of moving beyond adversity. -
Feb 28, 2019Author and Independent Historian Michael Morey on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4 pm
Author and independent historian Michael Morey’s book, Fagen: An African American Renegade in the Philippine-American War, unpacks American… -
Jan 31, 2019Carol Rosenberger’s Memoir of Musical Survival on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4 pm
At age twenty-one, while studying music abroad, Carol Rosenberger was struck with polio resulting in paralysis of the very muscles she needed to play… -
Jan 03, 2019Barbara L. Baer and Hilary Moore join Suzanne Lang on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4 pm
Barbara L. Baer, publisher of Floreant Press and author of two previous novels joins Suzanne M. -
Dec 26, 2018Love, Hate, & Other Filters Author Samira Ahmed Joins Suzanne Lang on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4 pm
Love, Hate, & Other Filters is Samira Ahmed’s novel of a young Muslim American woman finding her way through contemporary cultural challenges. -
Nov 29, 2018Geologist & Author Thomas E. Cochrane Joins Suzanne Lang on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4 pm
Oil makes the world go round and geologist Thomas E. Cochran delivers candid and lively remembrances of his life and experience in the American… -
Oct 31, 2018A Former FBI Agent and A NYT Best-Selling Author on A Novel Idea - Sunday November 4th at 4 pm
This moment in history, in culture, in our election cycle demands truth and craves heroes. -
Oct 09, 2018Seaweed Chronicles: A World at the Water’s Edge - A Novel Idea - Sunday October 7th @ 4:00 pm
Seaweed. It plays a vital role in ocean ecology, and also in our health and diet, and in our local and global economies. -
Sep 26, 2018Gregory Crouch Joins Suzanne M. Lang on A Novel Idea - Sunday at 4 pm
Gregory Crouch joins Suzanne M. Lang in conversation on his epic western history of California wealth and the Comstock Lode, bringing focus to one of… -
Aug 29, 2018Authors Cynthia Lim and Susan Avery Stewart on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4 pm
Suzanne Lang speaks with author Cynthia Lim, whose book Wherever You Are, A Memoir of Love, Marriage, and Brain Injury is an odyssey through loss and… -
Aug 02, 2018Join Jonah Raskin in Conversation with Suzanne M. Lang on A Novel Idea - Sunday at 4 pm
Jonah Raskin has a large and ranging body of non-fiction books and articles and now has come out with a detective fiction of a different order, Dark… -
Jul 28, 2018Bruce Holbert in Conversation With Suzanne Lang at City Lights on A Novel Idea – Today at 4 pm
San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore, the landmark independent bookstore founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. -
Jun 28, 2018Rosemary Manchester in Conversation With Brad Herzog on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4 pm
A timely encore presentation of Rosemary Manchester in conversation with Brad Herzog, collaborator on Carolyn Goodman’s memoir, My Mantelpiece: a… -
Jun 07, 2018Martin Pucher and Alexandra Chasin, This Week on A Novel Idea – Sunday at 4 pm
From Homer to Harry Potter, literary critic and philosopher Martin Puchner takes the reader on an epic journey through the history of literature, and… -
May 15, 2018Adam Federman, Elaine Khosrova – A Novel Idea, Sunday May 6th @ 4 pm
It’s all about food. Suzanne Lang talks with Adam Federman on his book Fasting and Feasting, the Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray. -
May 15, 2018Bruce Holbert - A Novel Idea, Sunday April 1st @ 4pm
To celebrate the release of Bruce Holbert’s third novel, Whiskey, here is a reprise of two previous conversations between Bruce and Suzanne M Lang on… -
Mar 01, 2018Tamed and Untamed, Close Encounters with the Animal Kind - A Novel Idea, Sunday March 4th @ 4pm
Suzanne Lang talks with two of the world's most celebrated animal writers, Sy Montgomery and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. -
Feb 01, 2018Barbara Ridley; and Laurie Ann Doyle - this week on A Novel Idea, Sunday @ 4pm
Two California writers who both had long non-literary careers before publishing these heralded first works join Suzanne M. Lang in conversation.… -
Jan 04, 2018Jaime B. Hansen, and Randy Ertll this week on A Novel Idea, Sunday 1/7 @ 4pm
Emerging from the economic consulting and the tech sector, Jaime B. Hansen aims to inspire and empower women through videos, speaking and speaking… -
Dec 27, 2017Val Bodurtha; and Barbara Baer - A Novel Idea - Sunday 12/31 @ 4 pm
History, culture, and strong women are at the core of the two novels, The History Makers by Val Bodurtha and The Ballet Lover by Barbara Baer; these… -
Nov 28, 2017Gin Phillips and Rachel Khong featured this month on A Novel Idea - Sunday December 3rd, 4 pm
This month on A Novel Idea: Featured are two novelists whose books hit big this year. Fierce Kingdom is a thriller of a book by Gin Phillips, which… -
Sep 27, 2017Peter Afrasiabi on A Novel Idea - Sunday October 1st @ 4pm
Top intellectual property and entertainment lawyer Peter Afrasiabi joins Suzanne Lang in conversation on his recent book Burning Bridges, America’s… -
Aug 30, 2017Susan Sherman, and David Boling - Sunday September 3rd @ 4 pm - on A Novel Idea
Historical fiction radiates into the present with two novels featured on A Novel Idea. -
Jul 26, 2017Thais Nye Derich and Cathy Langlois featured this week on A Novel Idea
July 30th on A Novel Idea: Suzanne M. Lang talks with Thais Nye Derich about her path of self-examination and learning to discover that she, like… -
May 31, 2017Shanti Sekaran and Shelby Londyn-Heath featured this month on A Novel Idea
For June, A Novel Idea features two novelists, whose books couldn’t be more different. -
Feb 28, 2017A Novel Idea - Sunday March 5th @ 4 pm
A Novel Idea with Suzanne M. Lang features Jessica Teich with her memoir The Future Tense of Joy. A Rhodes Scholar, Teich happens upon an obituary of… -
Feb 02, 2017A Novel Idea - Sunday February 5th @ 4pm
This month on A Novel Idea: Elite North Koreans struggle to protect themselves and their families in the face of a paraonoid, tyrannical regime in…
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