North Carolina Bookwatch 2012-2013 Archive | UNC-TV

As a leader of the Democratic Party and key member of Woodrow Wilson's cabinet, Josephus Daniels was one of the most influential progressive politicians in the country, and as secretary of the navy during the First World War, he became one of the most important men in the world. He forever changed the newspaper industry in the South, changing the relationship between politics and the news media..

As a leader of the Democratic Party and key member of Woodrow Wilson's cabinet, Josephus Daniels was one of the most influential progressive politicians in the country, and as secretary of the navy during the First World War, he became one of the most important men in the world. He forever changed the newspaper industry in the South, changing the relationship between politics and the news media..

Do you remember "The Big Fish" the wonderful novel by Daniel Wallace and how it made us suspend disbelief? Well he’s done it again with his latest novel, "The Kings and Queens of Roam” and he is here to tells us about that book and the magic he uses to draws us into his worlds of imagination"and that when we talk to Daniel on North Carolina Bookwatch". next.

We all know that our health care system is in trouble, but who's responsible? Nortin Hadler says that it is you and me and that we have a duty to understand the existing system and to visualize what the outcome of successful reform might look like. And he provides a guide in his latest book, "The Citizen Patient: Reforming Health Care for the Sake of the Patient, Not the System."

The third and final volume of the Literary Trails of North Carolina” series establishes Georgann Eubanks as the master guide to our states literary history. She's already taken us to Murphy and now in “Literary Trails of Eastern North Carolina: A Guidebook, "she takes us from Raleigh through the coastal plain, all the way to Manteo and she's here to tell us some of what she learned along the way"

She lives on a farm in mountainous Madison County north of Asheville & sets her popular novels right there on the farms and small towns were she & her husband have lived since moving there from Tampa, Florida, in 1975. We will find out how she turns her mountain surroundings into compelling fiction when we talk to Vicki Lane about "Under the Skin" on North Carolina Bookwatch..... next.

One thing that most North Carolinians share is a love for our coast. We know our coast is fragile, but do we love it too much to protect it and how can we know what is best to do. Retired East Carolina professor Stanley Riggs will talk to us about “The Battle for North Carolina’s Coast: Evolutionary History, Present Crisis, and Vision for the Future,” on North Carolina Bookwatch……. next.

In The Tree of Forgetfulness, writer Pam Durban, winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award, continues her exploration of southern history and memory. This mesmerizing and disquieting novel recovers the largely untold story of a brutal Jim Crow-era triple lynching in Aiken County, South Carolina. Through the interweaving of several characters' voices, Durban produces a complex narrative in which each section reveals a different facet of the event. The Tree of Forgetfulness resurrects a troubled past and explores the individual and collective loyalties that led a community to choose silence over justice.

Award-winning author Jill McCorkle takes us on a splendid journey through time and memory in this, her tenth work of fiction. Life After Life is filled with a sense of wonder at our capacity for self-discovery at any age. And the residents, staff, and neighbors of the Pine Haven retirement center (from twelve-year-old Abby to eighty-five-year-old Sadie) share some of life’s most profound discoveries and are some of the most true-to-life characters that you are ever likely to meet in fiction.

Ping Fu knows what it’s like to be a child soldier, a factory worker, and a political prisoner. To be beaten and raped for the crime of being born into a well-educated family. To be deported with barely enough money for a plane ticket to a bewildering new land. To start all over, without family or friends, as a maid, waitress, and student.

In this celebration of three legendary champions on the centennial of their births in 1912, one of the most accomplished and successful writers about the game explains the circumstances that made each of them so singularly brilliant and how they, in turn, saved not only the professional tour but modern golf itself.

A masterful novel set in 1920s Louisiana, The Missing is the story of Sam Simoneaux, a floorwalker at a New Orleans department store. When a little girl is kidnapped on Sam’s watch he is haunted by guilt, grief, and ghosts from his own troubled past.

A hilarious Southern debut with the kind of characters you meet once in a lifetime. Rising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, NC, where everyone's business is fair game and no secret is sacred. She washed ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she's been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to find her "upstream mother," she's found a home.

A young woman begs her mountain climbing husband not to take on Mount McKinley in Alaska, but he goes anyway, promising "I will come back to you." But, as she feared, he falls to his death. Still, that promise to return is haunting and how it is fulfilled is the story of "The Memory Thief" a powerful debut novel from Wilmington’s Emily Colin who will be our guest on North Carolina Bookwatch, next.

David Cecelski’s book, The Waterman's Song, introduced us to Abraham Galloway an ex-slave from Wilmington who became an incredible leader of Blacks in North Carolina during the Civil War and later in state government. I became fascinated with Galloway and have waited a long time for David to tell me more with his new book, The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves’ Civil War.

Two North Carolina Watermen: One a talented captain, but enslaved and badly treated. The other a Naval Officer who had his own set of challenges as he served first the United States and then the Confederacy. Nobody could bring these two together in the same book.except Bland Simpson with his book Two Captains from Carolina, next.

DG Martin talks with Kevin Duffus about his book War Zone: World War Two Off the North Carolina Coast. War Zone tells the story of the little talked about war that waged off the coast of the Tar Heel state and the soldiers, sailors, and citizens who helped defend the country from Nazi U Boats.

Author Erik Lars Myers' "North Carolina Craft Beer & Breweries" showcases 45 brewpubs and breweries that can be found across the state. The book highlights information about the history of each location and their lineup of beers. Host DG Martin sits down with Erik to discuss the book and why North Carolina can claim the crown of King of Craft Beers in the American South.

Woody Durham was the "voice of the Tar Heels" for 40 years and in his autobiography "Woody Durham: A Tar Heel Voice", Durham reveals the stories of his life and his thoughts on college sports. Many North Carolinians experienced Tar Heel sports through Durham's eyes and voice. DG Martin sits down and talks with the voice of the Tar Heels, Woody Durham.

DG Martin interviews Terry Roberts about his latest novel, "A Short Time To Stay Here." Roberts' book tells the story of love and war from a backdrop of a German internment camp at the Mountain Park Hotel in Hot Springs, North Carolina during World War I.

DG Martin sits down to talk with Jill McCorkle & Lee Smith about their upcoming books in this special edition of NC Bookwatch. Jill McCorkle's next book Life After Life will be coming in the Spring 2013. Lee Smith's "Guests on Earth" will be coming in the Fall 2013. Both authors talk about their work & about how they appreciate great North Carolina programing like NC Bookwatch..

In 1968 a train carrying the body of the assassinated Robert Kennedy carried his body from New York to Washington, D.C. for burial beside his slain brother. Millions lined the route and at each place the train passed people were living their lives. Several of the people living those lives are characters in The Train of Small Mercies, by David Rowell, on North Carolina Bookwatch.

Can a psychotherapist take the insights she learns from her profession and use them as a novelist to create characters whose real strengths and weaknesses come together to make compelling fictional characters? I think the answer is yes and I bet you'ill agree when you meet author of "The Good Father" Diane Chamberlain on North Carolina Bookwatch.

One of the greatest horrors of slavery was the breakup of families. A new book tells another chapter in that story" how separated families attempted to find each other and reunite" before and after the Civil War. And we will learn about some of those efforts from Heather Andrea Williams, author of "Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery."

Wilmington, NC resident John J. Sullivan’s recent book "Pulphead: Essays." gained national critical attention in 2011: A "New York Times" notable book; a "Time" top 10 nonfiction book;and one of "Library Journal's" best books. What is it about Sullivan’s writing that gained it so much admiration? We will find out when we talk to John Jeremiah Sullivan.

"Leaving Tuscaloosa" is the debut novel of Walter Bennett, a former lawyer and judge and also known as the husband of retiring North Carolina Science Museum director Betsy Bennett. Walter Bennett tells us about his two young men, one black and one white, facing their destinies and dramas in 1962, in the South, on North Carolina Bookwatch.

Longtime Charlotte lawyer Jon Buchan represents newspapers and for a time was a reporter for The Charlotte Observer. Now he is a novelist. His first book, "Code of the Forest" is about a libel trial, and this lawyer-reporter-novelist shows us the terrible and challenging mess a libel action can be. Jon Buchan will tell us how he does it, on North Carolina Bookwatch.

People still talk about the Dixie classic holiday basketball tournament. Kids hoped to find Novelist and poet Judy Goldman’s memoir tells the story of her family and the complicated and sometimes hurtful relationship with her sister -- their anger at and love for each other. It is a poignant relationship that everyone who has a sibling will identify with. She shares that story with us in her new book, "Losing My Sister".

People still talk about the Dixie classic holiday basketball tournament. Kids hoped to find tickets to the game in their Christmas stockings and smoky Reynolds Coliseum was packed for every game. We’ll talk about stories from the tournament with Bethany Bradsher, author of The Classic: How Everett Case and His Tournament Brought Big-Time Basketball to the South, next.

Hold on go your hats. We are are going on a trip that will stretch your imagination - to a section of New York City called Golgotham, which has been set aside for a non-human species called Kymera. They have six fingers and magical powers and they are threatened by human interlopers. It is a wild ride and our driver will be Nancy Collins author of "Left Hand Magic" next.

We are going to meet an 11-year-old girl who is so afflicted with Cerebral Palsy that she can hardly move and cannot speak. Although she may be smartest person in her school, she is treated as though she has no intellectual potential until... we’ll let her tell her own story through her fictional biography, as written by Sharon Draper who will talk to us about her book, "Out of My Mind."

We may have our differences about immigration policy but nobody wants to send Latino food back home. How have these new foods made an impact on our Southern cooking styles? We'll find out when we talk to Sandra Gutierrez, author of “The New Southern-Latino Table: Recipes That Bring Together the Bold and Beloved Flavors of Latin America and the American South” on North Carolina Bookwatch

Bob Garner says he never imagined he would become a food writer & restaurant reviewer—or at least the idea never occurred to him until he was nearly fifty. Well, things happened and now just seeing the face of Bob Garner bring up visions of great barbecue in the brain & tummies of many North Carolinians. He talks about his book, Bob Garner’s Book of Barbecue: North Carolina’s Favorite Food next.

One of North Carolina’s favorite mystery writers tells the story of how a young widow from Wilmington goes to Washington during World War Two. Taking us back to those times when sugar and butter were rationed and Nazi operatives were hidden all through the Eastern Seaboard. Sarah Shaber talks about "Louise's Gamble."

Author Jay Leutze discusses his book Stand Up That Mountain with DG Martin.

You may have experienced living in a town where the furniture factory or textile mill has gone out of business, taking the heart out of the community with it. "Goliath" is set in one of these wounded towns and the characters deal with the terrible realities that follow.

In Wiley Cash’s debut novel, A Land More Kind Than Home, we meet a storefront preacher who turns out to be one of the most complicated and interesting villains ever encountered in fiction.

One of the most popular North Carolina fictional characters is a lady from a small town near Ashevile. Ann Ross talks to DG Martin about her book, Miss Julia To The Rescue

North Carolina native Ben Fountain has been honored with many awards for his writing and his book of short stories Brief Encounters with Che Guevara won widespread critical praise, but he has never published a novel == until now. "Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk" already is being called the next great American novel and he talks to DG Martin about the book and its rich characters.

Best Selling author Margaret Maron usually sets her popular Deborah Knott mystery novels in fictional Colleton County east of Raleigh where Knott grew up. But in her new book, "Three Day Town," she takes Judge Knott and her new husband to New York City for a winter holiday and honeymoon, and of course, a murder. DG Martin talks to Margaret Maron about "Three Day Town."

Author Ron Rash's best selling novel "Serena" is being made into a movie. Like "Serena", his new novel "The Cove" is set in the mountains of North Carolina and there is a war going on between good and evil. Host DG Martin talks with Ron Rash about his new book and his life as a successful writer.