A Novel Idea Suzanne M. Lang

A dancer on Everest and a queen of high climbing mountaineers are featured. Suzanne Lang talks with Mimi Zieman, doctor and author of “The Post Roe Monologues” whose latest book is Tap Dancing on Everest —a Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure , a chronicle of her life and serving as the team doctor on a dicey ascent from Tibet up the east side of Mt. Everest. Also featured is journalist Cathryn J. Prince, on her book Queen of the Mountaineers, the Trailblazing Life of Fanny Bullock Workman , a story of a remarkable woman, explorer and climber of high peaks in the Alps and the Himalaya at the turn of the Twentieth Century. It’s a Novel Idea with Suzanne Lang, Sunday, April 21 st at 10am PT. Streaming and podcasting at norcalpublicmedia.org .

Stories from the devastating times in Europe during World War II, —told to us by the people who lived through them, speak loudly to us in our current moment of brutal wars and suffering people. Suzanne Lang talks with Alfred J. Lakritz on his book Adieu: A Memoir of Holocaust Survival . His warm and moving tale relates his separation from his parents, and then the many people and experiences that kept Alfred and his brother safe from the Nazis in occupied France, including stays on remote farms and even in Lourdes. In 1950, at the age of 16, Alfred, miraculously reunited with his mother, emigrates to Oakland California where he learns English, and despite not having much formal education, excels in school, attends Berkeley and eventually becomes a successful lawyer in Los Angeles. Also featured is Katrin Ciaffa, translator of Hannelore Krollpfeiffer’s autobiographical novel We Lived in Berlin: A Story About the End of the War. First published in German in 1947, re-issued in 2007, and now translated into English, it’s the story of two sisters in their early twenties making their way in Berlin near the end of the war, who live in a bombed out building amidst daily air raids. More concerned with the fate of their prized record collection and their romantic flings than the fact that their Jewish neighbors disappear overnight, they are not Nazi’s, they are skeptical, at times cynical, but they are utterly complacent. Suzanne also talks with Peter Bromberg, Associate Director of EveryLibrary (everylibrary.org), an organization that supports and defends libraries nationwide, including efforts against book banning and illicit political interference in public, school, and college libraries.

We go above and below, at every depth. Tessa Hill joins Suzanne Lang in conversation on At Every Depth, Our Growing Knowledge of the Changing Oceans, the book she wrote with science writer Eric Simons that takes readers from the shore to the ocean depths, from the tropics to polar regions, and introduces us to people who are working hard to save our oceans and the habitats that host so much life. Also featured is a conversation with Marianna Leuschel and Josie Iselin, co-directors of Above/Below, an ocean literacy campaign that has created a webstory, The Mysterious World of Bull Kelp , online at https://bullkelp.info . It's A Novel Idea with Suzanne M. Lang. Streaming and podcasting at KRCB.org .

Jennifer Manocherian’s book is Alpha Bette , sort of the opposite of a coming of age story. It takes place over the course of a single day and is centered around a 95 year old widow, Bette Gartner, who wakes up one morning in her New York City apartment and decides to throw a dinner party that evening, with a surprising guest list. Manocherian, who has produced Broadway plays, written books for a couple of musicals, and has produced and written for film, joins Suzanne Lang in conversation to talk about this, her first Novel, Alpha Bette . Suzanne also talks with Jude Berman, who has spent the last 30 years supporting other writers as a coach, editor, and ghostwriter, and now has a slew of novels coming out which include, The Die , a utopian techno-thriller set in the near future that folds in ancient wisdom from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata . It’s A Novel Idea with Suzanne M. Lang. Streaming and podcasting at KRCB.org .

For the past four hundred years, the groundbreaking Italian artist, Caravaggio, has challenged, intrigued, and transformed us. Suzanne Lang talks with Terence Ward on his book that combines memoir, history, biography, and journalism, The Guardian of Mercy: How an Extraordinary Painting by Caravaggio Changed an Ordinary Life. Suzanne also talks with author Eugenio Volpe on his post-modern novel I, Caravaggio, that depicts the artist’s phychological unraveling while evolving his art and arising as a super star. It’s A Novel Idea. Streaming and podcasting at krcb.org .

Novelists who write inside of their calling. D.J. Green is a geologist and writer who brings her love of the planet into a drama that ranges from the external challenges of earthquake prone Turkey to the inner lives of an American family living there in her book No More Empty Spaces. Hi storian and archivist, Lynn Downey talks about her interests in Western fashion and dude ranches in her novel set on one, Dude or Die. Both authors join host Suzanne Lang on A Novel Idea.