Minneapolis author Shannon Gibney made a splash with her first novel, " See No Color ," drawn from her life as a transracial adoptee. It won the 2016 Minnesota Book Award for Young People's Literature. She returns to writing about her own life in her just released memoir, “ The Girl I Am, Was and Never Will Be .” But this a memoir unlike most. Gibney calls it speculative fiction. It explores both her life as it was — and as it might have been, had she not been adopted by a white fa...
Feb 14, 2023•35 min
Modern English loves an idiom. We use them all the time. “Take the cake.” “Eat crow.” “Deader than a doornail.” “By hook or by crook.” “Cut the mustard.” “Left in the lurch.” But do we really know what they mean? That was University of Minnesota linguistics professor Anatoly Liberman’s question when he set out to write a dictionary of common English language idioms. His new book, “Take My Word For It,” is the first truly all-encompassing etymological guide to both meanings and origins of idioms ...
Feb 03, 2023•53 min
Is there a word or phrase that you grew up with, something you felt was unique to your family? Maybe it was an expression your parents or grandparents used to show affection or describe frustration, only to eventually discover it had foreign origins? Or perhaps you still wonder where it came from? Borrowed words have flooded most languages, including English. In August 2021 , Anatoly Liberman, beloved etymologist and professor of languages at the University of Minnesota, joined MPR News host Ker...
Jan 31, 2023•50 min
What does it mean to stand on the soil where enslaved people lived, worked and died — and to see, surrounding it, monuments to the people who did the enslaving? That’s the question at the heart of Clint Smith’s book, “ How the Word Is Passed .” After a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee came down in his hometown of New Orleans, Smith began a quest to understand America’s historic and contemporary relationship to slavery. He did that by visiting sites like Monticello Plantation, where Th...
Jan 27, 2023•56 min
When a racially segregated community is suddenly forced to integrate high schools, it inextricably intertwines families on opposite sides of the divide. How two of those families navigate the chaos — and its ripple effects for years to come — is at the heart of Naima Coster's novel, “ What's Mine and Yours .” Coster joined MPR News host Kerri Miller for the season finale of the 2021 Talking Volumes series, Talking Race . We hope it will whet your appetite for Miller’s conversation with C...
Jan 24, 2023•49 min
The American West wouldn’t have been settled without the women who braved the frontier. Katie Hickman’s new history, “ Brave Hearted: The Women of the American West ” uncovers their stories. But she doesn’t stop at the white women settlers who traveled by wagon or on foot. Drawing on diaries, letters and memoirs, she also brings to life Black enslaved women who went west with their master’s families, Chinese women who were brought by sex traffickers to the West Coast, and the Native American wom...
Jan 20, 2023•1 hr
Everyone's heard the story of the shootout at the O.K. Corral. It's been immortalized in over 40 feature films and written about in 1,000 books. But Mary Doria Russell refused to accept the story as we know it. Her 2015 novel novel digs for truth in the conflict that made Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday household names. While researching “Epitaph,” Russell tracked down diaries, census records and first-hand accounts of the O.K. Corral shootout. “It has been simplified and scrubbed up and cha...
Jan 17, 2023•35 min
When we first meet Cristabel, the heroine of Joanna Quinn’s debut novel, “ The Whalebone Theatre ,” she is only three. But she is already sure of herself, in the pure and defiant way that young children often are. She knows she was born to be a leader. But how does she get there? That’s the story at the heart of Quinn’s delightful book, which follows Cristabel and her half-siblings as they grow up on the family’s lush estate in 1920s England. The grownups are dizzy with relief that World War I h...
Jan 13, 2023•55 min
Do you recognize a meme when you see one? Online disinformation expert Joan Donovan defines memes as pithy words or images — like “Black Lives Matter” or “Build That Wall” — that contain a coded meaning. They often work as badges of identity, and they can be powerful shortcuts to provoking an emotional response in the viewer. And thanks to the internet, they’re more influential than ever. Her new book, “Meme Wars,” details how memes and the online communities that produce them intensify the cult...
Jan 06, 2023•55 min
Big Books and Bold Ideas is usually the show where readers meet writers. But for this final show of 2022, we decided to do something unexpected. Instead of talking to writers about books they wrote, we asked them about their favorite literary characters someone else wrote. It’s an assignment these Minnesota authors took seriously, and their selections both surprised and delighted host Kerri Miller. She also asked each author to recommend their favorite book of 2022, so get your “need to read” li...
Dec 30, 2022•1 hr 3 min
“Between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business.” So says Madam Parks to young Eliza Ripple, who is now working as a prostitute in Gold Rush-era California after her brutish husband was killed in a bar fight. Eliza knows this truth all too well. But instead of letting that truth paralyze her, she leans into the danger that freedom brings. When some of her fellow working girls go missing, Eliza and friend Jean take it upon themselves to investigate the murders — a mystery the male auth...
Dec 23, 2022•51 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 new 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 ...
Dec 16, 2022•51 min
Many dog owners get to enjoy knowing their pet from puppyhood to maturity. Turns out, that life cycle also has a lot to teach us. New research that looks at how dogs age finds parallels between dogs and their human companions. For example, dogs are squirrelly when they are young and calm as they enter midlife. Changes to canine DNA mirror the changes in our own. Could our best friends teach us how to age better — and maybe even live longer? That was the central question MPR News host Kerri Mille...
Dec 13, 2022•43 min
When faced with a tough situation, do you walk away? Or do you press on? Most of us are inclined to stay the course. After all, quitting — especially in American culture — is seen as a character defect. But Annie Duke thinks that’s wrong. Her new book, “ Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away ,” is a guidebook for learning how and when to quit. She explores the psychology and social forces that keep us stuck in bad situations for too long — and what we lose when we equate quitting with fai...
Dec 09, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Why do we do what we don’t want to do? And why can’t we make ourselves do what we want? Humans have puzzled over this one for ages. But science is starting to clear a window into the motives and biology behind self-control. Science journalist John Tierney teamed up with psychologist and researcher Roy F. Baumeister in 2011 to write about it in their book “ Willpower .” For this week’s archive broadcast, you’ll hear a conversation between Tierney and MPR News host Kerri Miller from early 2012 whe...
Dec 06, 2022•46 min
Thirty years ago, David Treuer was a young writer, taking classes at Princeton University, far from his home on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. He was eager to polish his craft — and maybe a little brash. In 1995, a few months before he turned 25, Graywolf Press published his first novel. Now, decades later, Graywolf is rereleasing that book, “ Little .” In the introduction, Treuer — now a widely respected, award-winning author — reflects on his writing roots and how both he an...
Dec 02, 2022•53 min
This month, Graywolf Press republished author David Treuer’s first novel, “ Little .” Originally printed in 1995, when Treuer wasn’t yet 30, “Little” tells the story of a Native American family struggling with loss, poverty and prejudice. What does Treuer think about his debut novel now, 27 years after it was published? MPR news host Kerri Miller will talk with him about that on this Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. In the meantime, enjoy this 2019 conversation from Miller and Treuer about his...
Nov 29, 2022•42 min
When “ The House of Fortune ” opens, Nella Brandt is 37. Almost 20 years have passed since we first met her in “ The Miniaturist ,” Jessie Burton’s wildly popular first book. But not much has changed. Nella still lives in the house she inherited from her dead husband. Many of the same characters inhabit her world — with one addition. Her niece, Thea, is grown and turning 18. And Nella has pinned all her hopes on Thea marrying well. The irony is thick, although Nella doesn’t see it. Nella herself...
Nov 18, 2022•56 min
Jessie Burton's first book, " The Miniaturist ," was an international best-seller and set her on the road to continued success with novels “The Muse” and “The Confession.” Her latest book, “ The House of Fortune ,” is a companion novel to “The Miniaturist.” This Friday on Big Books and Bold Ideas, host Kerri Miller will talk with Burton about that book. In the meantime, enjoy this 2014 conversation from the archives , when the pair discuss “The Miniaturist,” and Burton’s meteoric r...
Nov 15, 2022•41 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. In his book, Gay writes, “What if joy is not only entangled with pain, or suffering, or sorrow, but is also what emerges from how we care for each other through those things...
Nov 11, 2022•1 hr 10 min
Dani Shapiro knows a thing or two about family secrets. Her early novels center around identity and family history. Her 2019 memoir, “ Inheritance ,” beautifully chronicles what happened after she discovered, at age 54, that the man she considers her dad was not her biological father. That discovery spawned a popular podcast that just kicked off its eighth season, “ Family Secrets ,” which features guests who’ve also stumbled across a family secret. So it naturally flows that her new novel, “ Si...
Nov 04, 2022•1 hr 24 min
Dani Shapiro uses her memoir, " Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage " as a way to explore the motivations behind marriage. "When I was writing 'Hourglass' I thought of it as an inquiry," Shapiro said to MPR host Kerri Miller during a 2017 conversation . Shapiro was thoughtful in her characterization of her marriage, but not dishonest. Her husband is also a writer, and she reported that she would read him pages of her manuscript every day. One day, he said to her, "...
Nov 01, 2022•51 min
Celeste Ng’s “ Little Fires Everywhere ” was a best-selling novel, even before it became a hit series for Hulu . Her new novel, “ Our Missing Hearts ,” is also receiving critical acclaim. It delves into the power of intellectual freedom in an authoritarian world and the strong bonds of family in a society steeped in fear. This week, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, you’ll hear Ng on stage at the Fitzgerald Theater with host Kerri Miller for the second Talking Volumes event of 2022. They were joined ...
Oct 28, 2022•1 hr 13 min
In 2020, author Sarah Broom joined the pandemic season of Talking Volumes by talking via Zoom with host Kerri Miller about her book “The Yellow House.” The memoir, which speaks poignantly of the pull of home and family against the backdrop of a shotgun house in New Orleans East, was hailed as both brilliant and haunting. Enjoy this interview as you get ready for this coming Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, which will feature novelist Celeste Ng on stage at the Fitzgerald Theater for the latest...
Oct 26, 2022•50 min
In January 1942, a young Black man from Kansas wrote a letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, the nation’s largest Black newspaper at the time. He poignantly asked the questions that many Black men also asked while serving in a segregated military during World War II. “Should I sacrifice my life to live half American?” wrote James G. Thompson. “Will things be better for the next generation in the peace to follow? Would it be demanding too much to demand full citizenship rights in exchan...
Oct 21, 2022•52 min
Who decides history? What gets passed on, and what gets passed over? That is the question that historians are always plumbing. On this week’s special edition of Big Books and Bold Ideas, host Kerri Miller replayed portions of conversation she’s had with writers who’ve drawn indelible portraits of American history. You’ll hear Stacy Schiff, whose 2015 book “The Witches” delves into what really happened during the Salem Witch Trials. There’s also David Wright Faladé, who novelized the true story o...
Oct 14, 2022•52 min
Writers come to the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul from all over the world for Talking Volumes. The experience is always intimate and energetic. But hometown authors might have the most fun. For this special edition of Big Books and Bold Ideas, host Kerri Miller takes a look back at some of her favorite on-stage conversations with Minnesota writers. They include Dessa, who appeared at Talking Volumes in 2018 to talk about her memoir, “My Own Devices,” William Kent Krueger, who was the finale gue...
Oct 07, 2022•51 min
Boyah J. Farah spent his earliest years in Somalia, surrounded by family and feeling free. War shattered that idyllic state, and forced his mother to walk her children to safety at a refugee camp in Kenya and eventually, to a new life in a suburb outside of Boston. It was traumatic, but Farah was grateful for the respite. Since a young boy, he had been infatuated with America, and now he was here, where the grass seemed to be miraculously short without the intervention of goats, and the houses w...
Sep 30, 2022•52 min
As a child, Emily Bernard worried she was not black enough. As an adult, she wonders whether she's too black for America today. Her new book is built on that kind of nuance. "Black is the Body" is a collection of first-person essays that explore vast themes like race, identity and trauma — through the personal details of her own life. She was born in the South, lives now in the Northeast, and is married to a white man. "Blackness is an art, not a science," writes Bernard....
Sep 27, 2022•30 min
Lucrezia de’ Medici was only 13 when she was forced to marry Alfonso II d’Estej, the Duke of Ferrara; just 15 when she joined the court of her new husband. By age 16, she was dead. Only her officials portraits survive her. Many years later, Robert Browning wrote a poem based on one of those paintings, which loosely fictionalizes the short marriage of Lucrezia and the possibility that she was murdered by her husband. Maggie O’Farrell goes one step further, and imagines the young girl’s whole life...
Sep 23, 2022•51 min
