Until writer Luis Alberto Urrea inherited his mother’s journals, he knew very little about what she’d seen and done in World War II. He knew she served on a team of Donut Dollies , women who volunteered with the Red Cross to provide mobile food, entertainment and comfort to U.S. servicemen station on many European battlefronts. But he didn’t know she’d been on the front lines in one of the most ferocious battles, or that the nightmares she suffered her whole life stemmed from her experiences the...
Jul 28, 2023•54 min
Shy, the teenage boy at the heart of Max Porter’s latest novel, defies classification. He is moody and violent, traits which heartbreak his mother and get him sent to the Last Chance boarding school. He is also sensitive and vulnerable, a boy who seems to be missing a layer of skin to protect himself from the world’s hypocrisy and starkness. This paradox is at the heart of “Shy” — and in fact, the heart of most teenagers. Porter took pains to not describe Shy’s inner world but to transcribe it. ...
Jul 21, 2023•1 hr 1 min
When Ruby Ishimaru and her family are sent away from Hawaii to a mainland internment camp in 1942, Ruby packs her treasures — photographs, seashells and the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She finds comfort in Laura’s adventures even as she and her family are thrust into the frightening unknown. On the other side of the world, the unknown is also baring down on Japan, where young Koji Matsuo watches the country rally for war from his home in Hiroshima. When Ruby and Koji eventually meet in Califo...
Jul 14, 2023•52 min
“Cancer took my mother. But religion would take my life.” So writes journalist Rachel Louise Snyder in her new memoir, “ Women We Buried, Women We Burned .” It recounts with brutal honesty how the death of her mother upended her previously peaceful world, launching her father into a new marriage within the confines of a strict, fundamentalist Christianity. Violence and rage became her new norm, until she was kicked out at age 16 for refusing the obey the many rules her father imposed. But that d...
Jul 07, 2023•1 hr 6 min
The latest book from journalist and bestselling author David Grann details the true story of a 1741 shipwreck that he believes has "surprising resonance … with our own contemporary, turbulent times.” When a squadron of ships left England in the fall of 1740, with secret hopes of capturing a Spanish galleon filled with gold, they had little idea what might befall them. They were overloaded with men, many who were old and infirmed. They were equipped with rudimentary navigation tools. And non...
Jun 30, 2023•53 min
Editor’s note: This program was originally preempted by breaking news coverage. The post has been updated to reflect the new broadcast date. Jeannette Wells’ 2009 memoir “ The Glass Castle ” has been a New York Times bestseller for more than eight years. The movie adaptation starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts also won awards. Her much-anticipated new book, “ Hang the Moon ,” is worth the wait. Set in 1920s rural Virginia, it centers on young Sallie Kincaid whose daddy runs the...
Jun 23, 2023•52 min
Joe Milan Jr.’s debut novel, “The All-American,” is about immigration — but it’s not a story about what it means to leave a foreign land and start over in America. Instead, it’s about what it means to leave America, unwillingly, and start over in a foreign land. Milan’s protagonist, 17-year-old Bucky Yi, knows nothing about his birth country of South Korea. Raised in rural Washington, he has only one goal — to become a college football player. But when he tangles with local law enforcement, and ...
Jun 09, 2023•58 min
Minnesota author William Kent Krueger has written 19 books that star his primary protagonist, private investigator Cork O’Connor. But just as central to his writing is the landscape of Northern Minnesota. It’s more than a setting. It’s a character. “I write profoundly out of a sense of place,” Krueger told MPR News host Kerri Miller at a special spring Talking Volumes earlier this month. “When I used to teach writing, I taught place as character. Place is one of the most important and versatile ...
Jun 02, 2023•1 hr 26 min
Minnesota writer William Kent Krueger is a fan favorite, thanks largely to his series of crime novels featuring private investigator Cork O'Connor. Krueger joined host Kerri Miller in Duluth earlier this week for a special spring edition of Talking Volumes. You’ll hear that conversation on Friday. So it’s only fitting that this week’s archive is Krueger’s last appearance on the Talking Volumes stage. He was at the Fitzgerald Theater in 2021 to discuss his book, “Lightning Strike.” Guest: Wil...
May 30, 2023•53 min
When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed the United States would benefit from a “ national divorce ,” many scoffed and labeled her statements as incendiary pot-stirring. Journalist Jeff Sharlet was not one of them. After traveling the country for more than a dozen years, reporting on the intersection between religion and far-right politics, he believes remarks like Rep. Greene’s should be taken seriously and at face value. His latest book, “ The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War ,” details...
May 26, 2023•56 min
Cats … in space? It’s not a crazy notion for fans of Drew Brockington’s “CatStronauts,” who’ve devoured his graphic novels the way pilot Waffles eats a tuna fish sandwich. After six books detailing the adventures of Waffles, Blanket, Pom-Pom and Major Meowser, Brockington recently launched a prequel series detailing the kittenhood adventures of siblings Waffles and Pancakes. How did they end up wanting to be catstronauts? At a special Talking Volumes in Rochester, Minn., earlier this month, Broc...
May 19, 2023•1 hr 3 min
Cats are known to like their space. But outer space? That we didn’t learn until Minneapolis author and illustrator Drew Brockington’s put a crew of feline scientists on a rocket in his 2017 book, “CatStronauts: Mission Moon.” Turns out, Waffles, Blanket, Pom-Pom and Major Meowser are capable and witty astronauts, adapt at both saving the universe and delighting kids with their antics. Brockington’s graphic novels have won acclaim and fans across the galaxy. Last week, Brockington (and Waffles) j...
May 16, 2023•31 min
In his new novel, “ Symphony of Secrets ,” Brendan Slocumb once again tucks a mystery inside a musical thriller. But underscoring the plot are some big questions about our culture. Whose music gets heard and honored? Who gets to claim the ownership and rewards of a song? And who gets to tell the story of how that music came to be? Slocumb’s protagonist is Bern Hendricks, a musicologist thrilled to be given the chance to authenticate a just discovered opera, attributed to his musical hero, Freder...
May 12, 2023•57 min
If you want to know canine psychologist Alexandra Horowitz’ best advice for training a puppy, it can be summed up in one sentence: “Expect that your puppy will not be who you think, nor act as you hope.” That truth — which can both delight and confound new puppy caretakers — is at the center of her 2021 book, “ The Year of the Puppy .” A longtime researcher of canine behavior, Horowitz realized she had never examined those critical first months of a dog’s life. So in 2020, she started to observe...
May 05, 2023•53 min
April is Animal Month on Big Books and Bold Ideas. But this time, we’re not talking about dogs , monkeys or bats — but bees, beetles and butterflies. It might not seem like it on a summer night in Minnesota — when mosquitos are swarming your campfire — but Earth’s kingdom of insects is diminishing so rapidly, scientists have declared it a crisis. In 2019, a report in published in Biological Conservation found that 40 percent of all insect species are declining globally and a third of them are en...
Apr 28, 2023•52 min
Insects — or the lack thereof — are the focus of this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. On Friday, host Kerri Miller will talk with environmental journalist Oliver Milman about how the silent collapse in global insect populations is disrupting many of our most important ecosystems. Here in Minnesota, bees are the insects whose absence is most keenly felt. Back in 2013 , University of Minnesota entomologist Marla Spivak talked with Miller about what she was seeing. But she also gave advice about h...
Apr 25, 2023•12 min
All animals use their senses to perceive the world, humans included. But not every animal senses the same thing. In Pulitzer prize-winning science journalist Ed Yong’s 2022 book, “ An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us ,” he explores the way each species sees the world through its own sensory lens and explains why those differences should both delight and humble us. “Senses always come at a cost,” Yong writes. “No animal can sense everything well.” MPR News host ...
Apr 21, 2023•52 min
It helps for a veterinarian to be an animal lover. It doesn’t help for her to be allergic to cats. But Karen Fine didn’t let that stop her. Nor was she cowered by the fact that, in the 1980s, when she went to vet school, almost all the students were male. She followed in her physician grandfather’s path and became a veterinarian who made house calls, “laid hands” on her patients and always took time to listen — both to the pets and the caretakers. Fine’s new book, “ The Other Family Doctor ” is ...
Apr 14, 2023•57 min
Renown underwater photographer David Doubilet has been donning a mask and flippers and descending into what he calls “the secret garden of the sea” since he was 12. What he saw there captivated him and eventually fueled his career. He’s photographed powerful sharks, brightly colored fish, the splendor of the coral reefs and the destruction caused by warming oceans. He’s published 12 books chronicling his work and he regularly contributes to National Geographic. In 2006, Doubilet visited Minneapo...
Apr 11, 2023•50 min
Once you start looking, wolves are everywhere. A wolf plays the the villain in “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Three Little Pigs.” The boy who cried wolf is ultimately destroyed by his lie. A person who isolates from society is called a “lone wolf.” A dangerous mob is named a “wolfpack.” And of course, the animals themselves are both feared and admired. Wolves have intrigued writer Erica Berry since she was a child growing up in Oregon, where the animals enjoyed an uneasy truce with ranchers. ...
Apr 07, 2023•52 min
Diana Abu-Jaber’s family has deep roots in Jordan. Her father came to America after a failed marriage proposal — an act of “revenge immigration,” she laughs. And while he lived in the U.S., married here and raised a family here, his never truly left his homeland behind. Growing up in a thoroughly Jordanian household within an American context shaped Abu-Jaber’s life. She traveled to Jordan with her family and was often startled to discover hidden aspects to her father during her visits. It was t...
Mar 31, 2023•52 min
Author Diana Abu-Jaber returns to MPR News this week. Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas will feature a conversation between host Kerri Miller and Abu-Jaber about her latest novel, “Fencing with the King,” a book set in Jordan that explores family dynamics and inheritance. It’s not the first time Abu-Jaber and Miller have talked. For this week’s blast from the past, enjoy their 2011 discussion about “ Birds of Paradise ,” which NPR named one of the top books of that year and won a 2012 Arab-Ameri...
Mar 28, 2023•34 min
Paul Harding says it’s no accident that the residents of the small interracial community he imagined for his new book are uprooted from their island home at the same time as the first International Eugenics Congress was being held in London. In fact, learning about the conference inspired him to write his book. The seeds of “ This Other Eden ” are planted in the true story of Malaga Island , an isolated island off the coast of Maine that was one of the first racially integrated towns in the nort...
Mar 24, 2023•58 min
When was the last time you felt awe? For many of us, awe is the result of an experience in nature. Or maybe it’s due to a sudden chill up the spine as you listen to music or read a poem. It might be what happens when you witness selflessness or uncommon kindness in another human being, or something as simple as listening to a child laugh as they lose themselves in play. Whatever the source, and no matter the culture, Dacher Keltner says the feeling is the same across humankind. Awe produces a hu...
Mar 17, 2023•58 min
Poet Ross Gay believes in joy. But he pays careful attention to how one defines that word. It is not simply happiness or delight, he says in his new book “ Inciting Joy .” Rather, it is what grows from the fertile soil of breaking and belonging. It is the light that emanates from us when we help each other carry our sorrows. Gay was in St. Paul in November of 2022 to talk with MPR News host Kerri Miller for the finale of the 2022 Talking Volumes season . The evening also featured music from Minn...
Mar 14, 2023•1 hr 10 min
Many Americans are unaware that all-Black enclaves popped up and even flourished during the early 20th century. They did so by following the conviction that “separate but equal” was the only way for Black Americans to stay safe and thrive. But as Jamila Minnicks points out in her gorgeous debut novel, “ Moonrise Over New Jessup ,” that belief was challenged by the Civil Rights movement, which championed equality more than separation. It’s a fictionalized account of one such town, set in Minnicks...
Mar 10, 2023•54 min
Historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela was a self-proclaimed bookish kid growing up in the 1990s. She didn’t exercise, she didn’t play sports and she loathed physical education at school. But that changed when she first stepped into a group exercise class. “When I walked in there, I discovered there was something called fitness ,” she tells host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. “Pretty quickly I realized this is not only better than PE, I love this. I don’t just tolerate it.” So...
Mar 03, 2023•57 min
It’s being compared to “The Godfather” and “Gatsby” — high praise for a young writer. But MPR News host Kerri Miller says Deepti Kapoor’s new novel is worth the accolades. “ Age of Vice ” is set in modern day India, a country changing so quickly, few can stay balanced. It follows a young man who grew up destitute, sold into a life of servitude to pay family debts. His life changes forever when he meets Sunny Wadia, the conflicted, playboy heir of a well-known crime family. The story swerves from...
Feb 24, 2023•52 min
Each year, there are a few new books that reduce readers to a frenzy before the words even arrive at the printing press. Such is the case for the “ Age of Vice ” by author Deepti Kapoor, one of the most anticipated books of 2023. This Friday, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, MPR News host Kerri Miller will talk with Kapoor about her crime novel that has been described as “ dazzling ,” with “ echoes of ‘The Godfather’ .” In the meantime, enjoy this conversation between Miller and an author who wrote ...
Feb 22, 2023•46 min
Minneapolis author Shannon Gibney made waves in 2015 when she published her novel, “ See No Color. ” The experiences of main character Alex Kirtridge — a Black girl adopted by a white family — were partially informed by Gibney’s own life as a transracial adoptee. From the archives: Shannon Gibney on 'Dream Country' Gibney returns to her own story with her new memoir, “ The Girl I Am, Was and Never Will Be .” But this time, she mines different timelines — that of her own life, growing up as a mix...
Feb 17, 2023•51 min
