Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

Christian Cooper’s visibility as a lifelong birder exploded after a woman in Central Park refused to leash her dog and reported, wrongly, that she was being threatened.

Three years later, Cooper is out with a powerful new memoir and a National Geographic TV show he hopes will attract more people of color to the world of bird-watching.

Don’t miss this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, when Cooper talks with host Kerri Miller about how a self-described nerdy gay kid from Long Island fell in love with our feathered friends and how the incident that pushed him into the national spotlight distracts from what he sees as the bigger issues.

He also shares stories about his work as a Marvel comics writer and has a few tips for want-to-be birders.

Guest:

• Christian Cooper is a science and comics writer and the host and consulting producer of Extraordinary Birder on National Geographic. His memoir is “Better Living Through Birding.”

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

J. Ryan Stradal knows supper club culture.

Growing up in Hastings, Minn., his family milestones were marked by dressing up, sitting in a leather booth at the Wiederholt'sSupper Club, picking at a relish tray and watching the grown-ups enjoy a brandy Old Fashioned.

He even worked at a supper club across the river, in Prescott, Wisc., where he went behind the double-swinging doors and had his views about restaurant work forever changed.

So it is with a deep sense of fondness, with a side of realism, that his latest novel centers around a supper club in the fictitious northern Minnesota town of Bear Jaw.

Main character Mariel has inherited the Lakeside Club from her grandparents and is wrestling with its future — and her own. Meanwhile, her husband stands to take on his own family’s restaurant legacy, a growing chain of family diners. Which future will they pursue? And will old family wounds deepen in the process, or be healed?

This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Stradal joined host Kerri Miller in the studio to trade stories about their own experiences with the supper club scene. They also talked about the purpose and value of nostalgia and how Stradal works to balance sentimentality with reality in his writing.

Guest:

• J. Ryan Stradal is a native Minnesotan and a New York Times bestselling author. His latest novel is “Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club.”

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

J. Ryan Stradal knows supper club culture.

Growing up in Hastings, Minn., his family milestones were marked by dressing up, sitting in a leather booth at the Wiederholt'sSupper Club, picking at a relish tray and watching the grown-ups enjoy a brandy Old Fashioned.

He even worked at a supper club across the river, in Prescott, Wisc., where he went behind the double-swinging doors and had his views about restaurant work forever changed.

So it is with a deep sense of fondness, with a side of realism, that his latest novel centers around a supper club in the fictitious northern Minnesota town of Bear Jaw.

Main character Mariel has inherited the Lakeside Club from her grandparents and is wrestling with its future — and her own. Meanwhile, her husband stands to take on his own family’s restaurant legacy, a growing chain of family diners. Which future will they pursue? And will old family wounds deepen in the process, or be healed?

This week on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Stradal joined host Kerri Miller in the studio to trade stories about their own experiences with the supper club scene. They also talked about the purpose and value of nostalgia and how Stradal works to balance sentimentality with reality in his writing.

Guest:

• J. Ryan Stradal is a native Minnesotan and a New York Times bestselling author. His latest novel is “Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club.”

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Until writer Luis Alberto Urrea inherited his mother’s journals, he knew very little about what she’d seen and done in World War II. He knew she served on a team of Donut Dollies, women who volunteered with the Red Cross to provide mobile food, entertainment and comfort to U.S. servicemen station on many European battlefronts.

But he didn’t know she’d been on the front lines in one of the most ferocious battles, or that the nightmares she suffered her whole life stemmed from her experiences there. Like many people who’ve lived through extreme trauma, his mother mostly avoided the topic while she was alive.

As Urrea combed through her journals and scrapbooks after her death, he encountered a woman who was marked by her time serving as a Donut Dolly in the war. His new novel, “Good Night, Irene” is not a biography of his mother, but it is inspired by her courage and experiences.

This Friday, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Urrea joined MPR News host Kerri Miller to tell stories about his mother and her fellow Donut Dollies. It’s a conversation about the power of friendship, the trauma of war, and why laughter might be the most important human quality.

Guest:

• Luis Alberto Urrea is the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 19 books. His latest novel is “Good Night, Irene.”

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Until writer Luis Alberto Urrea inherited his mother’s journals, he knew very little about what she’d seen and done in World War II. He knew she served on a team of Donut Dollies, women who volunteered with the Red Cross to provide mobile food, entertainment and comfort to U.S. servicemen station on many European battlefronts.

But he didn’t know she’d been on the front lines in one of the most ferocious battles, or that the nightmares she suffered her whole life stemmed from her experiences there. Like many people who’ve lived through extreme trauma, his mother mostly avoided the topic while she was alive.

As Urrea combed through her journals and scrapbooks after her death, he encountered a woman who was marked by her time serving as a Donut Dolly in the war. His new novel, “Good Night, Irene” is not a biography of his mother, but it is inspired by her courage and experiences.

This Friday, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Urrea joined MPR News host Kerri Miller to tell stories about his mother and her fellow Donut Dollies. It’s a conversation about the power of friendship, the trauma of war, and why laughter might be the most important human quality.

Guest:

• Luis Alberto Urrea is the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 19 books. His latest novel is “Good Night, Irene.”

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Shy, the teenage boy at the heart of Max Porter’s latest novel, defies classification.

He is moody and violent, traits which heartbreak his mother and get him sent to the Last Chance boarding school.

He is also sensitive and vulnerable, a boy who seems to be missing a layer of skin to protect himself from the world’s hypocrisy and starkness.

This paradox is at the heart of “Shy” — and in fact, the heart of most teenagers. Porter took pains to not describe Shy’s inner world but to transcribe it. His novel is a collection of jumbled thoughts, inner speak, lyrics and beats from the night Shy attempts to escape the boarding school.

Like a cut, “Shy” stings and reminds us we are alive.

Don’t miss this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, when host Kerri Miller talks with Porter. It’s a conversation that ranges from parenting teenage boys to junglist music, to the importance of literacy and the essentialness of trees.

Guest:

• Max Porter is a novelist. His latest book “Shy.”

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Shy, the teenage boy at the heart of Max Porter’s latest novel, defies classification.

He is moody and violent, traits which heartbreak his mother and get him sent to the Last Chance boarding school.

He is also sensitive and vulnerable, a boy who seems to be missing a layer of skin to protect himself from the world’s hypocrisy and starkness.

This paradox is at the heart of “Shy” — and in fact, the heart of most teenagers. Porter took pains to not describe Shy’s inner world but to transcribe it. His novel is a collection of jumbled thoughts, inner speak, lyrics and beats from the night Shy attempts to escape the boarding school.

Like a cut, “Shy” stings and reminds us we are alive.

Don’t miss this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, when host Kerri Miller talks with Porter. It’s a conversation that ranges from parenting teenage boys to junglist music, to the importance of literacy and the essentialness of trees.

Guest:

• Max Porter is a novelist. His latest book “Shy.”

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

When Ruby Ishimaru and her family are sent away from Hawaii to a mainland internment camp in 1942, Ruby packs her treasures — photographs, seashells and the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She finds comfort in Laura’s adventures even as she and her family are thrust into the frightening unknown.

On the other side of the world, the unknown is also baring down on Japan, where young Koji Matsuo watches the country rally for war from his home in Hiroshima.

When Ruby and Koji eventually meet in California, their love story begins. But can their traumas be overcome?

It’s a question familiar to author Kent Matsumoto, who together with his wife, Constance, mined his own family history to tell the stories of Ruby and Koji. Their new novel, “Of White Ashes,” tells a fictionalized version of his parents experiences in World War II. Destined to become a classic in the classroom, it artfully depicts the frustration of American citizens being incarcerated by their own country and the horrors of the atomic bomb.

MPR News host Kerri Miller was joined by the Matsumotos on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, to talk about how they did their research, their realizations and their hopes for “Of White Ashes.”

Guests:

• Constance and Kent Matsumoto’s novel is “Of White Ashes.”

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

When Ruby Ishimaru and her family are sent away from Hawaii to a mainland internment camp in 1942, Ruby packs her treasures — photographs, seashells and the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She finds comfort in Laura’s adventures even as she and her family are thrust into the frightening unknown.

On the other side of the world, the unknown is also baring down on Japan, where young Koji Matsuo watches the country rally for war from his home in Hiroshima.

When Ruby and Koji eventually meet in California, their love story begins. But can their traumas be overcome?

It’s a question familiar to author Kent Matsumoto, who together with his wife, Constance, mined his own family history to tell the stories of Ruby and Koji. Their new novel, “Of White Ashes,” tells a fictionalized version of his parents experiences in World War II. Destined to become a classic in the classroom, it artfully depicts the frustration of American citizens being incarcerated by their own country and the horrors of the atomic bomb.

MPR News host Kerri Miller was joined by the Matsumotos on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, to talk about how they did their research, their realizations and their hopes for “Of White Ashes.”

Guests:

• Constance and Kent Matsumoto’s novel is “Of White Ashes.”

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

“Cancer took my mother. But religion would take my life.”

So writes journalist Rachel Louise Snyder in her new memoir, “Women We Buried, Women We Burned.”

It recounts with brutal honesty how the death of her mother upended her previously peaceful world, launching her father into a new marriage within the confines of a strict, fundamentalist Christianity. Violence and rage became her new norm, until she was kicked out at age 16 for refusing the obey the many rules her father imposed.

But that dark moment turned out to be a gift. Snyder found support in unlikely places and forged a new path, one where light and dark coexist and where forgiveness is not synonymous with exoneration.

This week, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Snyder joins MPR host Kerri Miller to talk about her journeys. They discuss how the prosperity gospel dismantles human agency, how her work investigating violence led her to think about her own, and how travel can heal past wounds and open up new vistas.

Guest:

• Rachel Louise Snyder is a journalist and a professor of creative writing and journalism at American University. Her memoir is “Women We Buried, Women We Burned.”

Use the audio player above to listen to the podcast version of the conversation.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.