060: Muslim Comics And Warscape Witnessing by Esra Mirze SantessoEsra Mirze Santesso discusses and reads from Muslim Comics And Warscape Witnessing (The Ohio University Press, 2023), which looks at the growing body of Muslim graphic narratives, and how these comics have become an increasingly potent means of visualizing a variety of Muslim perspectives and experiences. Plus music by The Discipline. https://thediscipline.bandcamp.com/ [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/36208305
059: The Mad, Mad Murders Of Marigold Way by Raymond BensonRaymond Benson discusses and reads from The Mad, Mad Murders Of Marigold Way (Beaufort Books, 2022), a comic mystery in the vein of the Coen Brothers thrillers, set in the strange setting of the American suburbs, in the even stranger period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Plus music by Raymond Benson. https://raymondbenson.com/ [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/36085700
058: Reno’s Big Gamble: Image And Reputation In The Biggest Little City by Alicia BarberAlicia Barber discusses and reads from Reno’s Big Gamble: Image And Reputation In The Biggest Little City (University Press Of Kansas, 2008), which explores the history of this Northern Nevada city, and the unique push-and-pull between urban identity, civic pride, nonconformist reputation, and economic growth. https://aliciambarber.com/ [email protected] Bluesky:@abookanditsauthor.bsky.social Instagram: a_book_and_its_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Threads: a_book_and_its_author Twitter/X: @it_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/35992590
057: Bull Rider by Suzanne Morgan WilliamsSuzanne Morgan Williams discusses and reads from her YA/middle grade novel, Bull Rider (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2009), in which fourteen-year-old Cam O’Mara must face the fears of riding bulls and having to reforge a relationship with his war-wounded older brother. https://suzannemorganwilliams.com/ [email protected] Bluesky:@abookanditsauthor.bsky.social Instagram: a_book_and_its_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Threads: a_book_and_its_author Twitter/X: @it_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/35890020
056: Naked City by Eric DrookerEric Drooker discusses his graphic novel Naked City (Dark Horse Books, 2024), which follows a painted, a musician, and a dancer, as they ponder – and experience! – what it means to be an artist in the big city, and in the 21st century. https://www.drooker.com/ [email protected] Bluesky:@abookanditsauthor.bsky.social Twitter: @it_author Instagram: a_book_and_its_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Threads: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/35792890
055: Uncommon Allies: American Jews And Christians Uniting Against Hitler, 1933-1945 by Alan M. ShoreAlan M. Shore discusses and reads from Uncommon Allies: American Jews And Christians Uniting Against Hitler, 1933-1945 (Syracuse University Press, 2024), which looks at the development of interfaith unity in the face Hitler’s rise to power, largely manifested through a series of Madison Square Garden rallies, and how this unity helped reshape U. S. identity. https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/6470/uncommon-allies/ [email protected] Bluesky:@abookanditsauthor.bsky.social Twitter/X: @it_author Instagram: a_book_and_its_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Threads: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/34789020
054: Sync by Ellen HopkinsEllen Hopkins discusses and reads from her latest YA novel in verse, Sync (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2024), a story of twins, as close as they can be, until they’re separated within the foster system and have to struggle through heartbreaking trauma and cling to the hope of reunion. ellenhopkinsbooks.com [email protected] Bluesky:@abookanditsauthor.bsky.social Twitter/X: @it_author Instagram: a_book_and_its_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Threads: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/34698815
053: Love Virus by Jacci TurnerJacci Turner discusses and reads from her novel, Love Virus (Tree House Books, 2024), which follows the trials of three women, from three generations, as they navigate the challenges of love, loss, and learning to connect in the time of Covid-19. www.jacciturner.com [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Bluesky:@abookanditsauthor.bsky.social Instagram: a_book_and_its_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Threads: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/34624715
052: A Nuclear Family: Coming Of Age In Oppenheimer’s Secret City by Ellen Wilder Bradbury-Reid & E. Marshall WilderEllen Wilder Bradbury-Reid & E. Marshall Wilder discuss and read from A Nuclear Family: Coming Of Age In Oppenheimer’s Secret City (Bradbury-Reid & Wilder, 2023) which recounts their childhood experiences in Los Alamos, by turns normal and extraordinary, as their father worked on the intricacies of the atomic bomb. [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Bluesky:@abookanditsauthor.bsky.social Instagram: a_book_and_its_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Threads: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/34541330
051: The Necessary Beggar by Susan PalwickSusan Palwick discusses her novel The Necessary Beggar (Tor, 2005, 2020) in which refugees from another dimension find themselves on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada, where they learn to be American and to navigate the country's culture and systems, and also re-learn what it means to be a family. [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Bluesky:@abookanditsauthor.bsky.social Instagram: a_book_and_its_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Threads: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/34416430
050: Rants From The Hill by Michael P. BranchMichael P. Branch discusses and reads from Rants From The Hill (Roost Books, 2017), a collection of essays about (to borrow from the book’s subtitle) packrats, bobcats, wildfires, curmudgeons, a drunken Mary Kay Lady & other encounters with the wild in Nevada’s high desert. https://michaelbranchwriter.com/ [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/32502627
049: Cast Out Of Eden: The Untold Story Of John Muir, Indigenous Peoples, And The American Wilderness by Robert Aquinas McNallyRobert Aquinas McNally discusses and reads from Cast Out Of Eden: The Untold Story Of John Muir, Indigenous Peoples, And The American Wilderness (Bison Books, 2024), a selective biography examining the complex interplay between Muir’s love of the land and his troubling racial biases. https://www.ramcnally.com/ [email protected] Twitter/X: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/32387402
048: Horse Skull Moon by Robert MiltnerRobert Miltner discusses and reads from Horse Skull Moon (SurVision Books, 2024), a chapbook of prose poems about landscapes, the passage of time, & our place in the face of such vastness. www.pw.org/directory/writers/robert_miltner www.survisionmagazine.com [email protected] Twitter/X: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/32291597
047: So Tough by Jared StanleyJared Stanley discusses and reads from So Tough (Saturnalia Books, 2024), a book-length poem deeply couched in the West, where landscapes & human lives, the banal & the extraordinary collide in both violence & in hopefulness. https://jaredstanleyinfo.wordpress.com/ https://saturnaliabooks.com/ [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/32201977
046: Evil’s Unlikely Assassin by Jenn WindrowJenn Windrow discusses her novel Evil’s Unlikely Assassin (Irreverent Publishing, 2018), the first volume in the urban fantasy Alexis Black series about a reluctant vampire charged with slaying other creatures of the night, a task carried out with a ragtag team of misfits and a heaping dose of snark. https://jennwindrow.com/ [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/32101277
045: Mouse In The Box by Lewis Allan (Russell Jones & Jason Wrubell)Russell Jones and Jason Wrubell, the authors behind the Lewis Allan pen name, discuss and read from Mouse In The Box (Stretched Studio LLC, 2023), a legal thriller in which criminal defense attorney, Mason Mitchell, finds himself taking on two high-profile cases that rattle his faith in the system and put him in very real physical peril. https://www.mouseinthebox.com/ [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/30377043
044: The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuireSeanan McGuire discusses the eighteenth novel in the October Daye series, The Innocent Sleep (DAW Books, 2023), in which Tybalt, King of Cats, seeks to restore a reality rewritten by Titania, Mother of Illusions. And to reforge his mostly forgotten marriage to Toby Daye. https://www.seananmcguire.com/ [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/30275118
043: Axle Bust Creek: A Cleve Trewe Western by John ShirleyJohn Shirley discusses and reads from Axle Bust Creek (Pinnacle Books, 2022), the first novel in the Cleve Trewe western trilogy, in which our hero comes to the titular town, Axle Bust, to claim his uncle’s mine and finds corporate intrigue, merciless outlaws, and a charmingly free-thinking woman. Plus music by John Shirley and the Screaming Geezers. “All Alone When People Are Around” by John Shirley and the Screaming Geezers used with permission. https://john-shirley.com/ https://www.kensingtonbooks.com/ [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/30180088
042: Straitjackets and Lunch Money: A 10-Year-Old In A Psychosomatic Ward by Katya CengelKatya Cengel discusses and reads from Straitjackets And Lunch Money, a harrowing account of the authors time in a psychosomatic ward, viewed from the perspective of the 10-year-old child who underwent the experience and from that of the journalist that she would eventually become. https://katyacengel.com/ https://www.woodhallpress.com/ [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/30068613
041: Drowning In The Desert by Bernard SchopenBernard Schopen discusses and reads from his novel Drowning In The Desert (University of Nevada Press, 2023), a “Nevada noir” in which an ex-deputy sheriff, Norman “Fats” Wrangle, sifts through the lies and corruption of the Silver State while navigating his own deeply flawed character. https://unpress.nevada.edu/ https://baobabpress.com/ [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/29973843
040: Little Fury by Casey BellCasey Bell discusses and reads from Little Fury (Metatron Press, 2023), a collection of short stories wherein the naturalistic and the surreal blend to tell the tales of women seeking a sense of place, self-care, and social justice in a less-than-welcoming world. Plus music by Fine Motor. “Mother’s Lungs” by Fine Motor comes from the Exotic Fever Records LP, Half Normal. Used with permission. https://www.caseybellwriter.com/ https://metatron.press/ https://www.girlsrockreno.org/ https://www.exoticfever.com/artists.php?id=140 [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/27781380
039: Stars Of Walt Disney Productions by Mark ArnoldMark Arnold discusses and reads from Stars Of Walt Disney Productions (BearManor Media, 2022), a reference book detailing hundreds of performers, household names and vaguely familiar faces alike, who appeared in the studio’s movies and TV shows from 1929 to 1983. https://bearmanor-digital.myshopify.com// [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/27653133
038: Still Lives, New Mexico: Unmarked Graves In The Land Of Enchantment by (Richard Baron &) John MulhouseJohn Mulhouse discusses and reads from Still Lives, New Mexico: Unmarked Graves In The Land Of Enchantment, a collection of photographs by Richard Baron (& text by Mulhouse), evoking uncertain lives and unknown stories of those who lived and died in the sparse landscapes on New Mexico. https://cityofdust.com/still-lives/ https://cityofdust.blogspot.com/ Facebook: cityofdustnm Instagram: cityofdustnm [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/27644871
037: Underneath The Oversea by Marc LaidlawMarc Laidlaw discusses and reads from his novel, Underneath The Oversea, the culmination of the Gorlen Vizenfirthe stories, about a gargoyle-handed bard, a human-handed gargoyle, and the family that they’ve built in the fantastical world of Ique. “Sombre Hombre” by Marc Laidlaw comes from the independently released EP, Sombre Hombre. Used with permission. https://www.marclaidlaw.com/ https://uvlamprey.bandcamp.com/album/sombre-hombre [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/27585129
036: Wolf Healer by Huckleberry RahrHuckleberry Rahr discusses and reads from Wolf Healer, the first book in the Jade Stone Chronicles, which explores the struggles of self-definition, community, & acceptance associated with teenage, LGBTQ identity, & living with a werewolf pack. https://huckleberryauthor.com [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/27521763
035: The Soul’s Echo: Thirteen Pieces Of Short Fiction by Jill Creech BauerJill Creech Bauer discusses & reads from The Soul’s Echo: Thirteen Pieces Of Short Fiction (Jill Creech Bauer, 2021), a collection of stories, some speculative, some literary, all steeped in deep empathy for those struggling to face the challenges of life & human connections. [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/26252289
034: Straight Flossin’ And Other Stories Of The American West by Danny NielsenDanny Nielsen discusses and reads from Straight Flossin’ And Other Stories Of The American West (Whistling Rabbit Press, 2022), a collection of essays about the author’s wanderings through landscapes filled with punishing heat, ornery skunks, menacing wildfires, and strange stewards of the desert. https://www.whistlingrabbitpress.com/ [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/26178465
033: The Modoc War: A Story Of Genocide At The Dawn Of America’s Gilded Age by Robert Aquinas McNallyRobert Aquinas McNally discusses and reads from The Modoc War: A Story Of Genocide At The Dawn Of America’s Gilded Age (Bison Books, 2017), which tells of the U. S. government’s violent 1872-1873 campaign to at first remove and then to extinguish the indigenous Modoc people in what would become California’s only full-blown Indian war. [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/26108592
032: Happy For You by Claire StanfordClaire Stanford discusses and reads from Happy For You, a novel which follows Evelyn Kominsky Kumamoto as she struggles to navigate what it means to be happy in regards to relationships, ethnicity, and working for the third-most popular internet company to develop an app to define, quantify, and augment…happiness. [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/26024328
031: Abacus Of Loss: A Memoir In Verse by Sholeh WolpéSholeh Wolpé discusses and reads from Abacus Of Loss: A Memoir In Verse (The University Of Arkansas Press, 2022), which blends forms to explore the nature of memory and examine the author’s tumultuous life, its losses & gains, its downfalls & windfalls, its subtractions & additions. [email protected] Twitter: @it_author Facebook: abookanditsauthor Instagram: a_book_and_its_author /episode/index/show/abookanditsauthor/id/25954845
