Naomi Hirahara joins Nancy Pearl to discuss "Clark and Division," her new historical mystery that takes place in the 1940s when a Japanese American family is transitioning to city life after mass incarceration during World War II. Naomi is the author of several mystery series as well as non-fiction and she tells Nancy why she decided to write this story inspired by historical events as a stand-alone mystery. Her years working as a journalist and researching Japanese American history add rich historical details to the heartbreaking story of Aki, a young woman who sets off to find out who murdered her older sister.

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl (Seattle Channel)

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl Featuring Naomi Hirahara

Author Stephen Mack Jones joins Nancy Pearl to discuss his "August Snow" mysteries. Steve reveals the inspiration behind the title hero, August Snow, an ex-police detective who solves crimes for the marginalized in this (so far) three-part crime fiction series based in Detroit. The books sprinkle true events and real places into the fictional stories and the city plays such a vivid role that they made Nancy homesick for her Detroit childhood. 

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl Featuring Stephen Mack Jones

Nancy Pearl talks with Daniel James Brown, author of the wildly successful "The Boys in the Boat." His new book, "Facing the Mountain - A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II," chronicles four Japanese American families and their sons, telling the story of World War II in a way you've never heard before. He explains how the book grew out of conversations with Tom Ikeda of Densho, the Seattle-based nonprofit that collects oral histories of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. Plus, Brown shares what he's been reading for pleasure after four years immersed in book research. 

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl Featuring Daniel James Brown

Author and journalist Blaine Harden joins Nancy Pearl to discuss his book "A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West." The book dismantles a bogus legend that turned failed missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman into great American heroes, justified devastating white conquest, and created a lasting false history about the founding of the Pacific Northwest. Also, Harden reveals what he reads in his spare time and tells Nancy how he feels about Hemingway.

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl Featuring Blaine Harden

Sonora Jha joins Nancy Pearl to discuss her book "How to Raise a Feminist Son." They talk about how the book is part memoir, part how-to workbook; how growing up in India influenced her identity as a feminist; and how she went about raising her son with feminist values. Plus, find out what Jha is reading and pick up some great book recommendations.

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl featuring Sonora Jha

After several successful works of narrative nonfiction, author David Laskin dove right into writing fiction, and the coming of age 1970s novel "What Sammy Knew" is the result. He and Nancy Pearl discuss the differences between writing fiction and narrative nonfiction, how he workshops his own writing, and his preferred method for writing the part of the book that comes between the beginning and the end.

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl Featuring David Laskin

Science writer Steve Olson joins Nancy Pearl to talk about his book "The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age," the story of the Manhattan Project, WWII, and the Cold War from the perspective of the often-overlooked Hanford Nuclear Facility. In the book, Olson, who grew up just down the road from the Hanford site in Othello, Wash., recounts stories of the influential scientists and engineers and the small town that played a big role in creating plutonium that fueled some of the most destructive weapons ever created.

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl Featuring Steve Olson

Jamie Harrison, author of "The Center of Everything," says each novel is some unexpected blend of autobiography and fiction, and this one is no different. She chats with host Nancy Pearl about her favorite comfort reads of the past year and the mystery novel she won't even share with her agent... yet. 

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl Featuring Jamie Harrison

Marina Endicott, author of 'The Voyage of the Morning Light,' shares the heartbreaking injustice that triggered the novel's plot and why she felt compelled to tell the story from a perspective of a skeptically open-minded little sister. Though the book largely takes place on a sea voyage in 1912, Endicott talks with Book Lust host Nancy Pearl about her own travels and research, which taught her about those injustices and their ties to the ones we're still fighting today.

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl featuring Marina Endicott

Natalie Zina Walschots connects the dots between video games, poetry, and her new novel "Hench" with host Nancy Pearl. The book follows the plight of Anna, a supervillain's henchperson who's just trying to pay the rent. Walschots says she waited and waited for someone to tell the evil sidekick's story, but "slowly came to the terrible realization" that the responsibility fell to her. She shares how sci-fi and fantasy in all forms provided the perfect escapism for the self-proclaimed nerd, and how poetry served the opposite, but equally necessary function.

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl featuring Natalie Zina Walschots

Book Lust host Nancy Pearl chats with poet Kathleen Flenniken. In the interview, the former Washington State Poet Laureate opens up about her experience traveling to every county in the state to share her love of poetry with elementary students. Plus, Kathleen reveals how she dove into reading and writing poetry in her early 30s, and how the craft has shaped her life. 

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl featuring Kathleen Flenniken

Nancy Pearl interviews Simon Stephenson about his new novel "Set My Heart to Five." The book stars Jared, a robot who works as a dentist in Michigan but discovers he has emotions (even though he's not supposed to) and dreams of becoming a Hollywood screenwriter. They discuss how he got the idea for the story, what it's like to write a laugh-out-loud book that some people won't find funny, and the merits of the word "heartwarming" and whether it accurately describes this novel.

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl featuring Simon Stephenson

In this special episode of Book Lust, Folio librarian Lillian Dabney interviews Book Lust host Nancy Pearl and co-author Jeff Schwager about the new book "The Writer's Library." The new book is an intimate, moving, and insightful collection of interviews with great literary figures. These literary legends, including Donna Tartt, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Andrew Sean Greer, Laila Lalami, and Michael Chabon, reveal the books that made them think, brought them joy, and changed their lives.

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl Featuring Nancy Pearl!

Spring training may have been suspended, but America's love of baseball has not. Author and editor Emily Nemens joins Nancy Pearl to talk about short stories, writing, and...baseball! Nemens' debut novel, "The Cactus League," is about a fictional baseball player on a fictional team during the excitement of spring training. As stories often go, it's about baseball but it's also not about baseball. They also share a long list of sports-centered (and sports-adjacent) literary fiction to get you through the dry spell until the season returns.

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl featuring Emily Nemens

Author Paul Yoon speaks with Nancy Pearl about where his stories come from, his writing process, and what influences his poetic writing style. Yoon's new book, "Run Me To Earth," follows three orphans in Laos during the late 1960s and early 1970s when the U.S. Air Force and CIA dropped an estimated two million tons of ordnance on the tiny, landlocked country as part of a covert attempt to defeat communism in Southeast Asia. He also explains his interest in stories of war and displacement and how that subject affects him personally.

Book Lust with Nancy Pearl featuring Paul Yoon

Seattle's own 'action figure librarian' and best-selling author Nancy Pearl sits down each month with top writers from around the country for conversations about books and the process and art of writing. There's no one better qualified than Nancy to discuss books and writing, bringing an informed reader's perspective to lively conversation and in-depth dialogs about all things literary.

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Book Lust with Nancy Pearl (Seattle Channel)

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