New Books Network Podcast

Literature September 20, 2022

Three Muses

Martha Anne Toll

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

In Three Muses (Regal House Publishing, 2022) by Martha Toll, John Curtin survives the Holocaust by singing for the entertainment of the kommendant who murdered his family. He’s sent to …

Historical Fiction September 13, 2022

The Hanging Tree

Paul Doherty

Hosted by Michael Morales

London, 1382. The Crown's treasury, the most secure chamber in the kingdom, has been robbed, and the five guards killed. Brother Athelstan is set to investigate, but he has problems …

Historical Fiction September 6, 2022

Back to the Garden

A Novel

Laurie R. King

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

Today I talked to Laurie R. King about her new novel Back to the Garden: A Novel (Bantam, 2022). Inspector Raquel Liang of the San Francisco Police Department has reached a …

Literature August 30, 2022

Price of Passage

A Tale of Immigration and Liberation

Larry F. Sommers

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

Price of Passage: A Tale of Immigration and Liberation (DX Varos, 2022), Larry Sommers opens in 1853 in Norway, where only firstborn sons inherited their father’s land and estate. Other …

Literature August 18, 2022

Babel

Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution

R. F. Kuang

Hosted by Jennifer Lee

In R. F. Kuang’s Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution (Harper Voyager in 2022), we meet Robin Swift. Orphaned by Cholera in Canton …

Historical Fiction August 9, 2022

Winter's Reckoning

A Novel

Adele Holmes

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

Madeline (Maddie) Fairbanks has created a satisfying life for herself in Jamesville since the death of her husband, Samuel, one of the town’s leading citizens. An herbalist from a long …

Literature July 26, 2022

Home So Far Away

A Novel

Judith Berlowitz

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

After author Judith Berlowitz found both Gestapo and Soviet records about a relative named Klara Philpsborn, she began thinking about writing Home So Far Away (She Writes Press 2022). Set …

Historical Fiction July 21, 2022

The Falcon's Eyes

A Novel

Francesca Stanfill

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

Twelfth-century Europe was not a good time or place to be born female. Even queens had few rights, garnered little respect, and were tolerated largely for their ability to produce …

Literature July 12, 2022

Victory Colony, 1950

Bhaswati Ghosh

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb

Victory Colony, 1950 (Yoda Press, 2020) by Bhaswati Ghosh is a story of resilience about East Pakistani refugees who were forced to leave their homes in East Pakistan because of …

Historical Fiction July 5, 2022

Death of an Heiress

Anne Louise Bannon

Hosted by C. P. Lesley

Los Angeles in the 1870s is not the sprawling city we know today. A rapidly growing pueblo of perhaps 7,000 residents, it features vineyards and ranchos, worked by an army …

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 …