New Books Network

Historical Fiction June 27, 2022

The Last Dress from Paris

Jade Beer

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

London, 2017. Lucille will do anything for her beloved grandmother. So when Granny Sylvie volunteers to send her to Paris to retrieve a beloved Dior creation left in the city …

Historical Fiction June 17, 2022

Answering Liberty's Call

Anna Stone's Daring Ride to Valley Forge

Tracy Lawson

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

Today I talked to Tracy Lawson about her novel Answering Liberty's Call: Anna Stone's Daring Ride to Valley Forge (Gray Lion Books, 2021). In 1778, war is men's business. That doesn't stop …

Historical Fiction May 31, 2022

Miss Morton and the English House Party Murder

Catherine Lloyd

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

As we soon find out in this opener to a new series set in 1830s London, Lady Caroline Morton’s illustrious heritage has been tarnished by the financial ruin and suicide …

Japanese Studies May 25, 2022

The Afterlife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Historical Fiction and Popular Culture in Japan

Susan Westhafer Furukawa

Hosted by Jingyi Li

Literature May 10, 2022

Lea

Ariela Freedman

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

Lea Roback was a feminist and labor activist who was raised in a large Jewish family in Quebec, Canada. In the novel Lea (Linda Leith Publishing, 2022), Ariela Freedman describes a …

Historical Fiction May 3, 2022

Murder on the Sea Witch

A Redmond and Haze Mystery Book 7

Irina Shapiro

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

Jason Redmond, a US Civil War surgeon, never expected to step into his father’s shoes as the heir to an English earldom. When he first shows up to claim his …

Asian Review of Books April 28, 2022

Too Far from Antibes

Bede Scott

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Jean-Luc Guéry is a man down on his luck. Middling journalist, gambling addict, alcoholic. Yet when news of his brother’s murder in Saigon reach him in France, Guéry drops everything …

Recall This Book April 21, 2022

Madeline Miller on Circe (GT, JP)

Madeline Miller

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz

In this rebroadcast, John and Brandeis neuroscientist Gina Turrigiano (an occasional host and perennial friend of Recall this Book) speak with Madeline Miller, author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Circe …

Literature April 19, 2022

The Lamps of Albarracin

Edith Saavedra

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

The Lamps of Albarracin tells the story of Sarita, who looks back on her life before and after the Inquisition arrived in her town. It’s 15th century Spain, and Sarita …

Think About It April 18, 2022

Ardythe Ashley on Oscar Wilde

Book Talk 51

Ardythe Ashley

Hosted by Uli Baer

Secretly his unconscious body, still flickering with life, is spirited away by to an island monastery in the Venetian lagoon where he recovers his health and joie de vivre. From …

Historical Fiction April 11, 2022

Danger on the Atlantic

Erica Ruth Neubauer

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

From the years leading up to and into the French Revolution, we move forward in time to 1926. In Danger on the Atlantic (Kensington Publishing, 2022), Jane Wunderly, who left her home …

Literature March 29, 2022

River Aria

Joan Schweighardt

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

Today I talked to Joan Schweighardt about her novel River Aria (Five Directions Press, 2020). It’s 1928 and Estela Euquério Hopper, of Manaus, Brazil, is the star vocal pupil of a world-renowned …

Literature March 28, 2022

The Last Professional

Ed Davis

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

This is a story of America! Lynden Hoover, a young man on the brink of a new beginning, cannot embrace it without confronting the traumas of his past. Help …

Historical Fiction March 22, 2022

The School of Mirrors

Eva Stachniak

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

France in 1755 is a country of extremes. The streets of Paris are filled with the poor and downtrodden, whereas just a few miles away lies the Palace of Versailles …

Literature March 22, 2022

The Benefits of Eating White Folks

Leslie T. Grover

Hosted by Yakir Englander

Today I talked to Leslie T. Grover about her book The Benefits of Eating White Folks (Jaded Ibis Press, 2022). The Sickness, a disease with unknown origins, is killing white children in …

Historical Fiction March 14, 2022

I Must Betray You

Ruta Sepetys

Hosted by Ian Drake

Ruta Sepetys is an acclaimed “crossover” author (read by both young people and adults) of historical novels. In her latest novel I Must Betray You (Philomel Books, 2022) published by Philomel …

Historical Fiction March 11, 2022

Murder in the Cloister

Tania Bayard

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

There is a great temptation, when writing about the past, to sanitize its circumstances and attitudes to make the characters more palatable to present-day readers. Tania Bayard, who has written …

Historical Fiction February 25, 2022

The Last Grand Duchess

A Novel

Bryn Turnbull

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

Interest in the events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 has only increased since the centenary of the Romanovs’ assassination in 1918. Bryn Turnbull tackles this familiar story …

Novel Dialogue February 17, 2022

Promises Unkept

Damon Galgut with Andrew van der Vlies

Damon Galgut and Andrew van der Vlies

Hosted by Chris Holmes

Guest host Chris Holmes sits down with Booker Prize winning novelist Damon Galgut and Andrew van der Vlies, distinguished scholar of South African literature and global modernisms at the University …

Historical Fiction February 11, 2022

An Impossible Impostor

Deanna Raybourn

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

Starting a new historical mystery series is always fun, but summarizing one at book 7 creates a certain conundrum: how to convey the essence of a character and her development …