Friday Post--A Roundup of Bookish Links on Local Radio and Press

This week's Book Preview in the Shepherd Express is June Melby's My Family and Other Hazards. Jenni Herrick called it " a nostalgic look back at Melby’s experiences and the inevitability of letting go of one’s childhood." As I've mentioned, Ms. Melby will be jointed by Mel Miskimen, author of Cop's Kid, who is previewing her newest memoir.

Reviewed in the Shepherd Express is Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World (FSG), by Amir Alexander. Critic Dave Luhrssen writes that Alexander "asserts that Protestant England rose to world prominence because it was faster to adopt the new mathematics than Roman Catholic Europe, thereby becoming 'a model for political pluralism and economic success.'"

Kathleen Dunn talked to Scott Cowen on Tuesday, July 15 for an hour about New Orleans. Scott Cowen's book is The Inevitable City: The Resurgence of New Orleans and the Future of Urban America. As of today, we have a copy in stock, though for some reason, it's not registering on our website. I'm sure many of you are primed to read about urban comebacks after that New York Times Magazine story on Detroit.

Those of you who are reading the apocalyptic fiction (like upcoming authors' Edan Lepucki's California, appearing on August 1) might be interested in the potential real deal from Erik Conway and Naomi Oreskes. Their handy The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future is just $9.95 from Columbia University Press and is discussed by Dunn on the Wednesday, July 16 show.

On Thursday, July 17, Kathleen Dunn talked to Michael Edmonds, the editor of Risking Everything: A Freedom Summer Archive, along with Peggy Rozga and Portia Cobb. Edmonds appeared at the Milwaukee Public Library last Saturday. The exhibit moves to the Racine Public Library on July 21 and Edmonds is set to be doing a talk there during the run.

Also on Wisconsin Public Radio, Joy Cardin spoke with Paul Greenberg, the author of American Catch on Monday, July 14 (Cardin was particularly fascinated by the idea that we import most of the fish we eat and export most of the fish we catch) and on July 17, she interviewed Mayra Hornbacher, in conjunction with the reissue of Wasted, her memoir of anorexia and bulimia

Steve Paulson talks about books with Rob Ferrett on Thursday, July 18. His picks? On the Run, by Alice Goffman,The Island of Knowledge, Marcelo Gleiser, and My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante. I'm sure you've noticed by now that Wisconsin Public Radio generally links books to Amazon, but I've switched it up and linked to a different Wisconsin bookstore for each book. Once again, I should note that we also stock On the Run, even though our website says we don't. Hmmm...

Today (July 18) on Central Time, Rob Ferret interviews Nancy Andreasen about the genius of Kurt Vonnegut. Andreasen wrote a book called The Creative Brain: The Science of Genius, some years ago. We don't stock it, but it it is available for order.  Here's the link. It should be live, well, after the show is recorded.

On WUWM's Lake Effect, Paul Salsini appeared on Monday, July 14 to discuss his new novellas, A Piazza for Sant'Antonio. On Tuesday, Lynn Wiese Freyd discussed The Horse Lover and Mary Basson appeared for Saving Kandinsky. Wednesday's show featured Jim Landwehr for his memoir of the Boundary Waters, Dirty Shirt. On  Thursday, July 17, one of the stories on Lake Effect is about the new bicycle exhibit at Old World Wisconsin. It uses as a reference the WHS book Wheel Fever: How Wisconsin Became a Great Bicycling State.

What's this week's book featured in Urban Milwaukee's Dial? Will Stotts, Jr. reviews a book a week. Recent selections have been Francine Prose's Lovers at the Chamelon Club, Mona Simpson's Casebook, and Colson Whitehead's The Noble Hustle. And in Urban Milwaukee, I spoke to Lisa Bonvissuto on the state of Boswell. Here's the article.

And finally yesterday in the Journal Sentinel, Mary Louise Schumacher reviews a new book from Coffee House Press, The Artists Library: A Field Guide, a survey of how artists and librarians can work together. The authors, Laura Damon-Moore and Erinn Batykefer, are both graduates of the information science (library) program at UW Madison. And yes, we also have a copy of this in stock (though it might be on hold for someone else at this point--that's something I can't figure out on our computer system).