True crime and bestselling author Daniel Stashower’sAmerican Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripperprobes the depression era search for the “torso murderer” who left a wake of dismembered bodies in Cleveland Ohio, while also revealing the post-Untouchables life and career of Eliot Ness in his role as Cleveland’s Public Safety Director. Stashower joins Suzanne Lang in conversation! A Novel Idea airs the first, third, and fifth Sundays of each monthat 10:00 am PT. Streaming

A tale of two cities. Suzanne Lang talks with sports executive and author Andy Dolich, who along with journalist Dave Newhouse, authored the book Goodbye Oakland: Winning, Wanderlust, and a Sports Town’s Fight for Survival about the history of professional teams in Oakland California and their sometimes heartbreaking departures from the city and the fans. Also featured is sportswriter Dale Tafoya with his book of triumph and civic pride & perseverance, One Season in Rocket City: How the 1985

Long time activist for economic and environmental justice, Chuck Collins, brings us his provocative novel of the near future,Altar to an Erupting Sun,which opens with a woman strapping a bomb to herself to blow up an oil executive. Also featured is Hannelore Krollpfeiffer’s book,We Lived in Berlin, a Story about the End of the War,finally translated into English from the original German by our guest Katrin Ciaffa. It is an undistorted look at the realities of two young women during the final

Suzanne Lang talks with novelists Ginny Kubitz Moyer on her historical novel,The Seeing Garden,set in 1910 on the San Francisco Peninsula. Also on the program, Robert McKean, whose novelMending What is Brokenis mad-capped, funny, and heartfelt. It’s A Novel Idea, Sunday, July 16that 10 am PT. Click the icon below to listen.      

Fire Captain Christy Warren was born to deal with crisis situations and rescuing others. She was tough and decisive under pressure, but when she started experiencing uncontrollable emotional distress, she turned on herself in self-destructive ways and struggled for her own survival. Christy tells her story inFlash Point, a Firefighters Journey through PTSD. We also feature Susan Farren, founder and Executive Director of First Responders Resiliency, Inc., an organization that takes a proactive and

Tina Davidson is a composer whose music is autobiographical, so her memoir is of course, musical. Suzanne Lang talks with composer Tina Davidson, on her life, work, and memoir:Let Your Heart Be Broken, Life and Music from a Classical Composer. Also featured is Francesco Lecce-Chong, Conductor and Music Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony and the Eugene Symphony orchestras and impetus behind the First Symphony Project. A Novel Idea airs on the first, third, and fifth Sundays on KRCB

Suzanne Lang talks with prize-winning journalist Mary Jo McConahay on her bookPlaying God, American Catholic Bishops and the Far Right, which reveals the big money, unholy alliances, and far right agendas held by a faction of American Catholic Bishops. Suzanne also talks with Kate McElwee, Executive Director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, agrassroots-driven movement that promotes activism and dialogue to call for women's ordination and gender equity in the Roman Catholic Church. It’s

Baseball and horseracing are two sports that have been with us since before the Civil War and we still enjoy them in one way or another today. Suzanne Lang is joined by sportswriter Dale Tafoya to talk aboutBilly Ball: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A’s. Then, it's prolific turfwriter Mark Shrager with his bookThe First Kentucky Derby: Thirteen Black Jockeys, One Shady Owner, and the Little Red Horse that Wasn’t Supposed to Win. A Novel Idea airs every first and fifth Sundayat

Suzanne M. Lang is joined by Beth Ann Mathews, Marine biologist and author ofDeep Waters, A Memoir of Loss, Alaska Adventure, and Love Rekindled. When her active and energetic husband suffers a rare type of stroke, his idea of recovery -through sailing in the ocean waters off Alaska- challenges Beth’s notions of sense and safety. Her story is frank, intimate, and filled with an honesty and verve that are gripping. Also featured in conversation with Suzanne is award winning author Skye Blaine who

Joan Frank is simply a master of language and expression, and she has two new books to prove it: a novel,Juniper Street, and a book of essays,Late Work, a Literary Autobiography of Love, Loss, and What I Was Reading. Joan joins Suzanne Lang in a freewheeling conversation on her work and the writer’s life. It's A Novel Idea every first and fifth Sunday at10am on KRCB 104.9. Click the icon below to listen.      

Absorbing literary fiction comes from Donnaldson Brown with her decades spanning epic novelBecause I Loved Youand Samuel W. Gailey withCome Away from Her,his bold mystery set in the cold of Eastern Pennsylvania. Both authors are in conversation with Suzanne M. Lang on A Novel Idea, heard first and fifth Sundaysat 10:00 am PT on KRCB 104.9 Sonoma County's NPR station. Click the icon below to listen.      

Actor, singer, and Warner Brothers voice artist for many animated characters, Candi Milo, tells the story of her unusual upbringing in her memoirSurviving the Odd. Her father was entertainer Tony Milo, and when he gave up show business to run a half-way house for mentally ill and emotionally disturbed adults and bring his family into the house, the course of her childhood was changed forever. The book is funny, irreverent, and heartbreaking. Candi joins Suzanne Lang in conversation. Also featured

What happens in our youth ripples through our entire lives. Authors Marylee MacDonald and Elisa Stancil Levine join Suzanne M. Lang in conversation on their memoirs of resilience and courage. MacDonald’sSurrender, a Memoir of Nature, Nurture, and Loveexplores the double circumstance of her being adopted as an infant and then her giving up her first child to adoption; she eventually reunites with both her birth mother and her son. Stancil Levine’sThis or Something Better, a Memoir of

Shugri Salh was born in the Somalia desert and lived with her grandmother as a desert nomad herding goats before landing in an orphanage and the streets of Mogadishu during the Somali Civil War, and eventually making her way to North America.The Last Nomad, Coming of Age in the Somali Desertis her eye-opening memoir, and she joins Suzanne Lang in conversation. Also featured is Hemu Aggarwal with her bookThe Forbidden Letters, a True Story.Hemu is an artist and graphic designer whose discovery of

Road trips seem to be uniquely American and Suzanne Lang talks with two authors about their unique takes on traveling the country.Miles to Go, an African Family in Search of America Along Route 66is Brennen Matthews’ travelogue of his family’s emersion into America on its “Mother Road." Brad Herzog goes a different direction withDetour 2020, a Cross-country Drive through America’s Wrong Turns, trying to get a bead on just what that year brought to us. It’s A Novel Idea, first and fifth

Suzanne Lang talks with equestrian Lissa Bachner. When Lissa became blind, it was the healing partnership with her horse Milo that physically guided her to become a show jumping champion and emotionally provided Lissa the love and confidence she needed to define herself outside of blindness. The book isMilo’s Eyes, How a Blind Equestrian and Her Seeing Eye Horse Rescued Each Other. Suzanne also talks with Amy Turner about her memoirOn the Ledge.Nearly being killed when a truck ran over her while