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September 02, 2021
Author Kent Wong's memoir, Swimming to Freedom -My Escape from China and the Cultural Revolution, an Untold Story is a riveting tale of his life in China as a boy during the Cultural Revolution. Wong joined the dissident underground and became one of the half million other Chinese who braved the…
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August 31, 2021
Fiction can be fantasy, fiction can reflect back to us who we are, and at its best it does both while being an entertaining read. Such is the case with two books we feature and the conversations with their award-winning authors Jessica Barksdale Inclán brings us the time-traveling literary fantasy,…
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August 09, 2021
Scampering across balconies, rooftops, and even Mick Jaggers house, to string antenna wire across London, Arnold M.D. Levine details the antics and achievements of the pirate radio movement in the UK in his fun and informative memoir Banned by the BBC, How I Became a Radio Pirate, a memoir of…
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July 04, 2021
“I believe in Rock-and-Roll, books, and movies to upset the world” says Jonathan Taplin author of The Magic Years, Scenes from a Rock-and-Roll Life. Taplin has been riding the waves of American art and culture for 50 years, from road manager for Dylan and the Band, to producing movies for Martin…
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June 07, 2021
Sometimes we move through life and are blindsided by catastrophe, and each individual’s response is unique and their own. No roadmaps, but there are touchstones along the way. Suzanne Lang talks with two authors who recount their journeys of shock and loss with candor, humor, and compassion. Cheryl…
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May 27, 2021
The year is 1597. The setting is the Upper Arctic. In search of a northeast passage to the Orient, Dutch cartographer William Barents and his crew become locked in ice and must wait out the months of polar night if they want to return to civilization. Suzanne Lang is in conversation with journalist…
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May 02, 2021
Suzanne Lang is on the road and her guest, journalist Brad Herzog, brings us his own travelogue in Detour 2020, a Cross-country Drive through…
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Apr 09, 2021
Award-winning author L. Annette Binder has created a moving and intimate portrait of an ordinary German family affected by war in the waning days of…
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Mar 07, 2021
There is the promise of life, even at its end. Richard Alther’s novel Bedside Matters explores the ultimate question: what matters most? Alther,…
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Feb 05, 2021
Bohemians West — Free Love, Family, and Radicals in Twentieth-Century America is the story of free love and the radical movement of the early…
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Jan 01, 2021
Lynn Downey is a historian of the American West, longtime archivist with Levi Strauss & Co, and has two new books worth talking about, whether you’re…
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Dec 07, 2020
“Radio saved me.” Brandon J McDermott grew up pretending to be a baseball announcer and ranking all the songs he knew said just this about himself:…
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Nov 01, 2020
David Stebenne unwraps how the middle class was created but then could not hold in his book Promised Land, How the Rise of the Middle Class…
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Oct 02, 2020
Charmian Kittredge London was a great American writer, Jack London’s second wife, and is the subject of Iris Jamahl Dunkle’s biography Charmian…
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Sep 04, 2020
Aerobatic flying, as described and practiced by Cecilia Aragon, a world champion aerobatic pilot, is a dance in the sky, with spins and turns and…
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Aug 28, 2020
A Novel Idea comes from 9000 ft above sea level in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains of California, where Suzanne M. Lang brings you her…
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Aug 02, 2020
Risky authors play with form and defy easy description, and this is the case with two authors who through their radical storytelling
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Jul 05, 2020
Food and family sustain us, especially during trying times. We celebrate this with two award-winning authors in
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Jun 07, 2020
Our stories are important. It is our stories that connect us. So says Caitlin Hamilton Summie, author of
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Jun 01, 2020
White people kill black people. Despite Emancipation, despite the Civil Rights movement of now over fifty years ago, white people
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May 03, 2020
Suzanne M. Lang welcomes Barbara L. Baer in conversation on her latest novel, The Ice Palace Waltz, the multi-generational
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Apr 05, 2020
Namwali Serpell is an Associate Professor at UC Berkeley and a well-published cultural critic who has now
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Apr 01, 2020
Suzanne M. Lang talks with two authors whose novels reflect on gender and family, race and ethnicity, and the effects
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Mar 01, 2020
Try to Get Lost! We continue celebrating the work ofJoan Frank. We recently featured her book of four novellas, Where You’reAll
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Feb 02, 2020
This week on A Novel Idea, richly drawn characters, vivid language, and compelling pace and story create the most satisfying
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Jan 05, 2020
Death and dementia aren’t all that funny, but really,sometimes they are, especially when we open
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Dec 29, 2019
On this final week of this last month of the decade, webring you two favorite conversations of this past year. Both
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Dec 01, 2019
#MeAsWell , a novel by Peter Mehlman takes on genderpolitics, race, and the ubiquitous control of Social Media on our
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Nov 03, 2019
Roberto Tejada’s Still Nowhere in an Empty Vastness is expansive in its range: from accounts
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Oct 06, 2019
ReInvention! Amy Edwards does it, again and again. FromAustin, Texas, Edwards is a musician, hosts
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Sep 29, 2019
Dark Day, Dark Night is Jonah Raskin’s sequel to Dark Land,Dark Mirror, where we were
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Sep 01, 2019
The Fourth Industrial Revolution.Heard of it? Maybe not, but I guarantee, you’re living in it. Technology and artificialintelligence, genomics and…
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Aug 04, 2019
Hummingbird in Underworld, Teaching in a Men’s Prison ispoet Deborah Tobola’s memoir of working in
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Jul 07, 2019
Bones of the Earth is the tenth installment in the Inspector Shan mystery series by award winning
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Jun 30, 2019
Bo Kearns and Frank Strausser join Suzanne M. Lang in conversation. Each has published a first novel after years of writing in other forms: Kearns as…
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Jun 02, 2019
The Guest Book follows three generations of a powerfulAmerican family as their wealth declines, examining “not just a privilegedAmerican family,
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May 21, 2019
Mothers always take their children somewhere in life and on the planet.
Dena Moes traveled with
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Apr 07, 2019
Suzanne M. Lang visits with two Sonoma County writers who bring us their stories of moving beyond adversity. Journalist, blogger,
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Mar 03, 2019
Author and independent historian Michael Morey’s book, Fagen: An African American Renegade in the Philippine-American War, unpacks American…
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Feb 03, 2019
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…
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Feb 03, 2019
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…
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Jan 06, 2019
Barbara L. Baer, publisher of Floreant Press and author of two previous novels joins Suzanne M. Lang in conversation on her latest book set in the…
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Dec 29, 2018
Love, Hate, & Other Filters is Samira Ahmed’s novel of a young Muslim American woman finding her way through contemporary cultural challenges. Samira…
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Dec 02, 2018
Oil makes the world go round and geologist Thomas E. Cochrane delivers candid and lively remembrances of his life and experience in the American…
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Nov 04, 2018
This moment in history, in culture, in our election cycle demands truth and craves heroes. We cover both with Suzanne Lang on KRCB’s A Novel…
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Oct 24, 2018
Seaweed. It plays a vital role in ocean ecology, and also in our health and diet, and in our local and global economies. Seaweed Chronicles: A World…
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Sep 30, 2018
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…
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Sep 02, 2018
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…
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Aug 05, 2018
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…
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Jul 29, 2018
San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore, the landmark independent bookstore founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, recently…
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Jul 01, 2018
A timely encore presentation of Rosemary Manchester in conversation with Brad Herzog, collaborator on Carolyn Goodman’s memoir, My Mantelpiece: a…
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Jun 10, 2018
From Homer to Harry Potter, literary critic and philosopher Martin Puchner takes the reader on an epic journey through the history of literature, and…
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May 06, 2018
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. Gray…
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Apr 01, 2018
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…
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Mar 04, 2018
Tamed and Untamed, Close Encounters with the Animal Kind. Suzanne Lang talks with two of the world’s most celebrated animal writers, Sy Montgomery…
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Feb 04, 2018
Two California writers who both had long non-literary careers before publishing these heralded first works join Suzanne M. Lang in conversation on…
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Jan 07, 2018
Emerging from the economic consulting and the tech sector, Jaime B. Hansen aims to inspire and empower women through videos, speaking and speaking…
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Dec 31, 2017
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. You’ll…
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Dec 03, 2017
Featured on KRCB’s A Novel Idea, two novelists whose books hit big this year. Fierce Kingdom is a thriller of a book by Gin Phillips, which takes…
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Nov 13, 2017
This episode of KRCB’s A Novel Idea features Suzanne Lang in conversation with Kermit Roosevelt on his latest novel, Allegiance, an historical…
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Nov 13, 2017
This episode of KRCB’s A Novel Idea is an “encore” presentation of a favorite broadcast, originally broadcast in 2010, featuring Andre Codrescu and…
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Nov 13, 2017
This month’s A Novel Idea features authors Richard Michael Levine and Lucille Lang Day.
Levine has just published a short story collection, The Man…
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Nov 13, 2017
To honor Black History Month and International Women’s Day (March 8th) we present Rosemary Manchester with an encore presentation of a show featuring…
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Nov 13, 2017
Big Nature, Big California
The Farallon Islands, remote and mysterious, is the setting of Abby Geni’s novel of nature and mystery, The Lightkeepers.…
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Nov 13, 2017
Suzanne Lang speaks with Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, who has spent a lifetime observing other creatures and other cultures, from her own backyard to…
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Nov 13, 2017
Black lives matter. Suzanne Lang explores the injustices of Jim Crow American and the valor of an all-Black battalion whose D-Day contributions have…
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Nov 13, 2017
Wendy E. Simmons is a world traveler. Not a novice. Not a pushover. Her trip to North Korea challenged every bit of her perceptions of herself and…
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Nov 13, 2017
Mystery writer Kenneth Wishnia joins Suzanne Lang in conversation on his latest novel, The Fifth Servant, which is set in 1592 Prague, where a young…
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Nov 13, 2017
William Luvaas, NEA grant recipient who has been recognized for his short stories and novels alike, joins Suzanne Lang in conversation on his third…
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Nov 13, 2017
New York Time’s bestselling author Meg Waite Clayton joins Suzanne M. Lang in conversation about The Race for Paris, Clayton’s compelling novel of…
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Nov 13, 2017
California forests and the rich natural history of Sonoma County are brought to light with Fred Euphrat, forester and author of Sonoma Mandala, a…
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Nov 13, 2017
A Novel Idea, with Suzanne M. Lang, takes a look at California’s borders: the immigrants traveling over our Southern border rolling in on bicycles,…
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Nov 13, 2017
This edition A Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang features two authors who go deep into our cultural histories and help us understand where we’ve come from…
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Nov 13, 2017
This encore presentation features Rosemary Manchester in conversation with Jonah Raskin on his book James McGrath: The Life and Times of an…
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Nov 13, 2017
Elite North Koreans struggle to protect themselves and their families in the face of a paraonoid, tyrannical regime in award winning journalist, Paul…
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Nov 13, 2017
Elite North Koreans struggle to protect themselves and their families in the face of a paraonoid, tyrannical regime in award winning journalist, Paul…
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Nov 13, 2017
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…
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Nov 13, 2017
15,000 nautical miles, six years, and a world of insight ….Heather Lyn Mann joins Suzanne Lang in conversation about Heather’s journey as expressed…
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Nov 13, 2017
Prolific author and curious man, Jonah Raskin joins Suzanne M. Lang in conversation on his book A Terrible Beauty: the Wilderness of American…
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Nov 13, 2017
Encore presentation of a 2013 broadcast features Suzanne Lang in conversation with author and poet Gary Soto and Rosemary Manchester talking with…
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Nov 13, 2017
A Novel Idea features two novelists, whose books couldn’t be more different. Both write about the challenges of difference, of motherhood, and of…
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Nov 13, 2017
Neo-noir and crime fiction with Suzanne Lang in conversation with Daniel Pyne, screenwriter, show runner of Amazon’s hit drama Bosch, and author of…
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Nov 13, 2017
Suzanne M. Lang talks with Thais Nye Derich about her path of self-examination and learning to discover that she, like many other women, was a victim…
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Nov 13, 2017
Historical fiction radiates into the present with two novels featured on A Novel Idea. Join Suzanne M. Lang in conversations with Susan Sherman on…
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Nov 13, 2017
Top intellectual property and entertainment lawyer Peter Afrasiabi joins Suzanne Lang in conversation on his recent book Burning Bridges, America’s…
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Nov 13, 2017
J. Jaye Gold has been a hustler and gambler in his life, but sought a new way of being in his that lead him on a journey around the globe, and
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Nov 05, 2017
On KRCB’s A Novel Idea, two authors at the top of their form —Joan Frank, with her novel All the News I Need, and Richard Alther and his book Roxie…
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Dec 12, 2016
Suzanne Lang talks with Gayle Forman, a literary star in the Young Adult genre, who has recently released a novel, as she says, starring adults and…
Live Radio
Northern California writer Joan Frank is a woman who quotes Dorothy Parker with ease and whose conversations are as good as her books. Joan’s published her third book of 2020; The Outlook for Earthlings is a stunning work of prose and an insightful look into lives over time and experience. Joan Frank joins Suzanne M. Lang in conversation.
