As the Sami community (Norway) struggles to protect ancestral lands from the building of a damn in 1979, Oslo detective Hans Sorensen arrives in the north of the country to investigate sabotage on a damn. < Back If the Owl Calls Sharon White November 19, 2025 As the Sami community (Norway) struggles to protect ancestral lands from the building of a damn in 1979, Oslo detective Hans Sorensen arrives in the north of the country to investigate sabotage on a damn. Then a body is discovered, and Sorensen has to delve into his own past and heritage. He is Sami but no longer immersed in the culture, and Sorensen is also mourning the recent death of his wife, so he’s hesitant to return to his hometown. He ends up following the trail of two women, a journalist and a musician, and discovers the writings of a relative, a real-life Sami author who wrote about his struggle to survive. If the Owl Calls (Sharon White, WTAW Press 2025) is a fascinating mystery filled with Norwegian and Sami history, about identity and memory. Sharon White is an award-winning author whose work spans nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. She has written extensively about nature, place, and memory, bringing a lyrical and reflective voice to her storytelling. Her books include Vanished Gardens, the AWP Award in Creative Nonfiction winner; Boiling Lake, winner of the Italo Calvino Prize in Fabulist Fiction; and Minato Sketches, a Rosemary Daniell Prize winner. White received her BA in English Literature from Colby College and spent a year studying at Manchester College, Oxford University. She has an MFA from Goddard College, where she was a member of the first class of graduates in Ellen Bryant Voigt’s innovative program. She holds a PhD in English Literature from the University of Denver. An Associate Professor Emerita at Temple University, White has dedicated her career to writing and teaching. A passionate traveler, she draws inspiration from diverse landscapes and cultures. In Scandinavia she researched the life of Danish painter Emilie Demant Hatt, and in 2019, as an artist-in-residence in Dunedin, New Zealand, she immersed in the region’s literary and artistic culture. She has also taught creative writing at Temple University Japan. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Scott Masker. When not working or traveling, she loves to garden and take walks around the city. She also enjoys skiing and biking. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Hailey Gelman just learned that her soon-to-be ex-husband was murdered in his home. < Back We Would Never Tova Mirvis February 11, 2025 After her husband Jonah asks for a divorce, Hailey Gelman’s difficult life in Binghamton turns into six weeks of litigation and custody battles in Tova Mirvis’s new novel, We Would Never (Avid Reader Press 2025). After she files a motion to move with their young daughter to Florida, the tension escalates, and Jonah is suddenly murdered. Hailey is the prime suspect. Hailey’s father, who had to rebuild his life after his academic advisor took credit for his work is dying of Parkinsons; her mother, whose reason for living is to make sure her family is safe, makes reckless decisions, her brother Nate, the troublemaker who managed to graduate from medical school and works in his father’s dermatology practice. tries to protect his sister, and her other brother Adam, can’t stand their mother’s interference, moves to Maine, and refuses to participate in family events of any kind. Based on a true story, We Would Never is about family loyalty, the damage of divorce, and the fierceness of parents’ love for their children. Tova Mirvis grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and attended Columbia College in New York City, followed by the Columbia School of the Arts where she received an MFA and was a teaching fellow. Her first novel The Ladies Auxiliary, which was set in the Memphis Jewish community, was a national bestseller and an Independent Bookstore bestseller. She is also the author of the novels The Outside World and Visible City. Her memoir The Book of Separation stemmed from an essay she wrote for the New York Times “Private Lives” column and was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and excerpted in the New York Times Modern Love Column. She has been a visiting scholar at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University and a fellow at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center. Her essays have appeared in many publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe Magazine, Real Simple, and Psychology Today, and her fiction has been broadcast on NPR. She lives in Newton, MA with her family where she is working on a new novel. When she is not writing, she enjoys running, learning to play tennis and talking to her dog. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Contact mystery author and recipe creator, G. P. Gottlieb and follow her on social media. NBN Podcast Episodes Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb Short Story Collections September 2, 2025 The Beauty and The Hell of It and Other Stories Lynda Williams The Beauty and the Hell of It and Other Stories (Guernica, 2025) conjures up images of women who struggle through difficult transitions, unpleasant encounters, or ghastly boyfriends and husbands. Listen to Episode Buy Book August 12, 2025 The Dime Museum Joyce Hinnefeld The Dime Museum is a novel told in stories that span from the 1920s, when Dime Museums were a way for people to gawk at human differences, through 2020, during the ravages of the Coronavirus Pandemic. Listen to Episode Buy Book June 4, 2024 Displaced Persons: Stories Joan Leegant Set around the globe in the U.S., Europe, and Israel, Leegant’s characters face loneliness, illness, difficult relationships, horrible memories, unfaithful husbands, and uncaring or dying parents. These are moving stories about recognizable people, all facing displacement in one way or another, trying to live their lives. Listen to Episode Buy Book April 16, 2024 The Forgetters Greg Sarris Greg Sarris, PhD and tribal leader serving his sixteenth term as Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, about his latest story collection, The Forgetters. The stories are connected to two sister crows who sit all day and night on Sonoma Mountain talking about the creation of the world, human frailty, silliness, and suffering. One crow sister can only ask the questions, and one can only answer in tales about Native American Indians struggling to remember the stories that made them who they are. Listen to Episode Buy Book February 13, 2024 Cravings Garnett Kilberg Cohen Garnett Kilberg Cohen’s 4th story collection is about people of all kinds who confront past failures, previous mistakes, or moments they wish they could do over. A man recalls a fall that changed his family’s life, a woman thinks about an abortion that went bad, an aging hippie confronts the death of his best friend – these are detailed, well-told, poignant stories that will stay with you. Listen to Episode Buy Book January 30, 2024 The Half-White Album Cynthia Sylvester Cynthia Sylvester's The Half-White Album (University of New Mexico Press 2023) is a collection of stories, flash fiction, and poems revolving around the journey of a travelling band, The Covers. Listen to Episode Buy Book April 18, 2023 Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi’s novel Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories (Amistad 2022), is a moving and unforgettable collection of stories that span a lifetime. Listen to Episode Buy Book May 27, 2019 The Book of Jeremiah Julie Zuckerman Julie Zuckerman’s moving and engrossing debut novel-in-stories, The Book of Jeremiah, tells the story of awkward but endearing Jeremiah Gerstler—the son of immigrants, brilliant political science professor, husband, and father. Listen to Episode Buy Book May 1, 2019 The Genuine Stories Susan Smith Daniels The Genuine Stories is a linked collection centered around Genevieve “Genuine” Eriksson, a woman with an uncanny ability to heal people. Her gift begins to unfold at the age of eight despite the lingering disbelief of her parents. Listen to Episode Buy Book February 14, 2019 To Lay to Rest our Ghosts Caitlin Hamilton Summie Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s award-winning collection of short stories is peopled with characters who leave home, return home, or dream of home. The stories alternate between sweet, thoughtful, and sad, all expressing a universal longing for family, friendship and connection. Listen to Episode Buy Book December 5, 2019 Grace: Stories and a Novella Dan Burns Personal and insightful stories about our connections to each other and the world, our attempts to weave the past and present into a meaningful future, and our varying ways of seeking redemption. Unforgettable characters encounter gorgeous landscapes, nasty betrayals, shocking technology, a heartless future, and a decaying city neighborhood. Listen to Episode Buy Book October 6, 2020 A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son Sergio Troncoso Troncoso fills these 13 linked stories with the struggles and triumphs of Mexican/American immigrants or their children who’ve settled in the United States. In a nod to philosophical perspectivism, the view that perception changes according o the viewer’s interpretation... Listen to Episode Buy Book May 17, 2022 Geographies of the Heart Caitlin Hamilton Summie Three members of a loving Minnesota family have a voice in Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s new thought-provoking novel-in-stories. Listen to Episode Buy Book Load More

As the book opens, sometime in the nineties, widowed Marty (Margaret) is happily living with a wonderful divorced winemaker and his four children in the hills above Santa Cruz. Line (Caroline) and her husband have returned home to Santa Cruz after several years abroad. And Paul, still in Minnesota, is grappling with his wife’s cancer. < Back So Are You to My Thoughts Connie Kronlokken July 6, 2020 So Are You to My Thoughts (Lightly Held Books, 2020 is the seventh novel in a series about the Mikkelson siblings and loosely based loosely on the author’s family. Kronlokken’s earlier novels in the series began with stories from the 1950’s and this latest installment brings us into the new century. As the book opens, sometime in the nineties, widowed Marty (Margaret) is happily living with a wonderful divorced winemaker and his four children in the hills above Santa Cruz. Line (Caroline) and her husband have returned home to Santa Cruz after several years abroad. And Paul, still in Minnesota, is grappling with his wife’s cancer. As the decade unfolds, children grow up and move on, problems are confronted, spirituality is explored, and the loving bonds of this large family continue to pull them all together. Connie Kronlokken grew up in a large Norwegian/Dutch family and spent her childhood in small towns across Minnesota, North Dakota, and Iowa. She went to a Lutheran College and completed her master’s in library science at the University of Michigan. In 1969 she and her husband moved to San Francisco, where she worked as an office manager in large architectural firms and a database manager at a wine brokerage. She studied filmmaking in Denmark, and writes two blogs. Kronlokhen published two novels and a book of essays before embarking on the So Are You to My Thoughts series. Now living in Los Angeles, she enjoys cooking and gardening, and has studied yang style tai chi for over thirty years. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

The story opens in Savannah, Ga with ninety- year-old Audrey Thorpe living in her historic mansion on palm-tree-lined Victory Drive, determined to retain her independence. When her health begins to fade and she stumbles at a fund-raising event, her granddaughter hires fellow mom Laurel to be a part-time caregiver. Laurel and Audrey seem to bond—until Audrey disappears. < Back The Good Luck Stone Heather Bell Adams February 23, 2021 Heather Bell Adams’ first novel, Maranatha Road (West Virginia University Press 2017), won the gold medal for the Southeast region in the Independent Publisher Book Awards and was selected for Deep South Magazine’s Fall/Winter Reading List. Her short fiction, which has won the James Still Fiction Prize and Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Award, appears in The Thomas Wolfe Review , Atticus Review , Pembroke Magazine , Broad River Review , The Petigru Review , Pisgah Review , and elsewhere. Originally from Hendersonville, NC, Heather lives in Raleigh with her husband and son. She works as a lawyer and volunteers on the Raleigh Review fiction staff. She loves hot yoga and does not love cooking. The Good Luck Stone (Haywire Books, 2020) appears on Summer Reading Lists for Deep South Magazine , Writer’s Bone , The Big Other and Buzz Feed. The story opens in Savannah, Ga with ninety- year-old Audrey Thorpe living in her historic mansion on palm-tree-lined Victory Drive, determined to retain her independence. When her health begins to fade and she stumbles at a fund-raising event, her granddaughter hires fellow mom Laurel to be a part-time caregiver. Laurel and Audrey seem to bond—until Audrey disappears. As the story moves between the verdant jungles of the war-torn Philippines, where Audrey served as a nurse, and glittering modern-day Savannah, friendships new and old are tested. Along the way, Audrey grapples with one of life’s heart-wrenching truths: You can only outrun your secrets for so long. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back Rhys Bowen Molly Murphy Series, Royal Spyness Series Rhys Bowen Over twenty years ago, before e-readers and long before I considered writing mysteries, I'd randomly choose three or four books at the library each week. After picking up Murphy’s Law (on the new books shelf for 2001), I was swept into the world of Rhys Bowen. Since then, I’ve read many of the charming Molly Murphy books (about an Irish maid in early 20th-century New York City), and also enjoyed several of her lighter, Royal Spyness series, about sharp Lady Georgie, who is 35 th in line to the British Crown. Of her stand-alone books, the last one I read was Venice Sketchbook. Then, I went back to reading books in her series. Rhys Bowen (winner of Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity awards) is the pen name for Janet Quin-Harkin (b 1941 in Bath, England). She has won dozens of awards, is a best-selling author, and all my mystery-writing friends adore her. She and her husband, John Quin-Harkin, move between California and Arizona. I was delighted to meet Rhys (and her daughter Clare Broyles, who has continued writing the Molly Murphy series) in person at the 2023 Left Coast Crime conference in Tucson, when I was invited to join the Desert Sleuth chapter of Sisters in Crime for drinks. I usually don’t care about getting autographs or meeting famous movie stars and authors – I prefer to preserve the magic of their art – but the thrill of hugging Rhys Bowen will stay with me forever. Anyone who loves cozy mysteries or wants to learn how to write solid mysteries must read at least one of Rhys Bowen’s novels. Previous Next

If the question is "How quickly can I get dinner on the table?" then this is the perfect recipe for you. < Back Sage-Mint Chicken October 1, 2019 Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 45 Minutes Serves: 6 Servings Tags: Entrees About the Recipe Ingredients 1 onion, thinly sliced 1 cup of sliced mushrooms 1 1/2 pound (or so) boneless chicken thighs 1 to 2 tsp ground sage 1 to 2 tsp dried mint 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1 cup (or so) broccoli florets 2 TBSP olive oil Juice of 1/2 lemon Preparation In a large pan, sauté sliced onions in 2 TBSP of olive oil on medium heat As onions soften, add sliced mushrooms and stir Sprinkle both sides of chicken with salt, pepper, sage and mint Add chicken to pan, pushing aside onions and mushrooms, about 4 minutes on each side until lightly browned Add broccoli florets, lower heat and stir until broccoli is bright green Turn off heat, squeeze lemon juice over everything, and let sit until you’re ready to serve Nice one-dish meal, serve with a sprig of fresh mint if you have it Previous Next

The one I made nearly every Friday while my kids were growing up! < Back Apple Crisp May 25, 2019 Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 60 Minutes Serves: 9 Servings Tags: Baking, Cakes & Pies & Icing About the Recipe p.214 Battered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery “You were the one who told me about Hector-Schaf Electronics in the first place,” said Frank, chewing the crisp slowly and smiling the same way she did when she was eating something extraordinary, “but you neglected to say anything about Joan being blackmailed.” “I’m sorry,” said Alene. “It was a long time ago.” “Do you know if anyone else received a demand for money?” Frank asked. “Like your ex-mother-in-law?” “Mitzi never mentioned it,” said Alene. “She is an honest person and she wouldn’t have tolerated illegally obtained money. I told Gary that she’d probably have tossed Patrick out of her bed and her life if she knew he’d done something illegal such as helping Joan embezzle money.” Alene’s jaw had nearly dropped to the floor when Gary had asked if she thought Mitzi had tossed Patrick overboard on their cruise. Gary had also been on board when it happened. “She’d have called the police no matter what the blackmailer threatened her with,” Alene told Frank. “I once heard her rail against Neal when he couldn’t tell her what charities he supports.” “What about Neal’s father?” Alene said, “Well, you know that he died after falling off a cruise ship, right?” “That was very unusual and suspicious,” said Frank. “Yeah, it was weird, but the entire cruise industry changed their rules because of it,” said Alene Ingredients 7-8 tart apples (like Gala, Granny Smith or Fuji) - peeled and sliced thin) Juice of about half a lemon 1 tsp lemon zest 1 TBSP pure maple syrup ¼ cup fruity or berry liqueur or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 1 cup chopped toasted almonds or pecans (or mix them together) 2 cups quick oats ¼ cup whole wheat flour, almond flour, or gluten-free flour ½ cup brown sugar 2 tsp cinnamon Pinch of salt ¼ cup canola or coconut oil Preparation Preheat oven to 350 degrees F Mix dry ingredients with oil in a bowl or a zip locked bag In a large bowl, whisk syrup, lemon, zest, cinnamon, vanilla or liquor. Add apple slices and stir gently with a large spoon to evenly coat apples Spray square or pie glass pan and pour in apple mixture Press nut mixture gently over the apples to cover the entire top Bake covered with foil for about 40 minutes Uncover and bake an additional 20 minutes until browned on top Previous Next

It’s 1966, and Bernice’s husband has either died or abandoned her. Her brother Floyd invites her to join him as a servant working for white owners of an old plantation house in Mississippi. Floyd warns Bernice about the housekeeper, Silva, who lives there with her two young sons. The owner and his wife don’t speak much and there seem to be secrets hidden in every corner. < Back Pale Edward A. Farmer July 31, 2020 It’s 1966, and Bernice’s husband has either died or abandoned her. Her brother Floyd invites her to join him as a servant working for white owners of an old plantation house in Mississippi. Floyd warns Bernice about the housekeeper, Silva, who lives there with her two young sons. The owner and his wife don’t speak much and there seem to be secrets hidden in every corner. The Mister works, fishes, reads the paper, and eats. When the Missus, a sickly, vindictive woman, sets her plan in motion, Bernice tries to mitigate the pain that will reverberate through everyone involved. In his novel Pale (Blackstone, 2020), Farmer tells a slowly bubbling, heartbreaking story that shows a household infected by the scourges of jealousy and vengeance. Edward A. Farmer is a native of Memphis, Tennessee where he journaled and cultivated stories his entire childhood. He is a graduate of Amherst College with a degree in English and Psychology, and recipient of the MacArthur-Leithauser Travel Award for creative writing. He currently lives and writes in sunny Pasadena, California, where he is able to hike whenever he’s not reading or writing. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

In 1850, at age six, Dahlia Holt is taken from the only home she knows and moved into the big house to serve her two older sisters. They share a father, who owns the house and its slaves. On her sixteenth birthday, Dahlia gets to dress up in one of the sister’s discarded dresses for a trip to the city. There, she gets separated from her family, and meets a young Englishman who thinks she’s white. < Back What Passes as Love Trisha R. Thomas August 31, 2021 Today I talked to Trisha R. Thomas about her new novel What Passes as Love (Lake Union Publishing, 2021). In 1850, at age six, Dahlia Holt is taken from the only home she knows and moved into the big house to serve her two older sisters. They share a father, who owns the house and its slaves. On her sixteenth birthday, Dahlia gets to dress up in one of the sister’s discarded dresses for a trip to the city. There, she gets separated from her family, and meets a young Englishman who thinks she’s white. She introduces herself as an orphan without a family. It starts out as a lark, but her adventures could destroy those she left behind. Especially after her father puts a high bounty on her head, because she is, after all, a runaway slave. TRISHA R. THOMAS won the Literary Lion Award from the King County Library Foundation. Her first book, Nappily Ever After, was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature as well as being featured in O Magazine’s Books That Make a Difference. Her work has been reviewed in the Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and the Seattle Post Intelligencer. Her debut novel is now adapted to a feature film on Netflix. She’s had 11 novels published and continues to write from her home in California. When she’s not writing, she’s tending to her mini farm where she grows tomatoes, avocados, and lemons, all the perfect ingredients for guacamole and avocado toast. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Memory Feather, who was born with a misshapen hand and was able to communicate with animals, looks back to when she was a child living with her newly divorced mother in a dilapidated hotel far from home. < Back Beautiful Dreamers Minrose Gwin April 1, 2025 Memory Feather, who was born with a misshapen hand and was able to communicate with animals, looks back to when she was a child living with her newly divorced mother in a dilapidated hotel far from home. Her mother, Virginia cleans rooms and turns occasional tricks to support Memory until 1953, when she’s forced to return to the Mississippi Gulf Coast town where her difficult, bigoted parents live. Much to their disdain, Virginia’s childhood friend Mac welcomes Mem and her mother to live with him and offers Virginia a job in his antique store. As a gay man in the 1950s, Mac suffers harassment and violence, and even Memory’s cat Minerva knows that the good-looking hustler who’s moved in with Mac is evil. Mem recalls her anxiety, her fears, and her role in the series of events that changed her life forever. Minrose Gwin is the author of The Queen of Palmyra, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Book Award; Promise, shortlisted for the Willie Morris Award in Southern Literature; and The Accidentals, which received the 2020 Mississippi Institute for Arts and Letters Award in Fiction. She has also published a memoir, Wishing for Snow , about the collision of poetry and psychosis in her mother’s life, and four books of literary and cultural criticism, most recently Remembering Medgar Evers: Writing the Long Civil Rights Movement. She was coeditor of The Literature of the American South , a Norton anthology, and The Southern Literary Journal . She received the Society for the Study of Southern Literature Richard Beale Davis Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service to Southern Letters and the Wisdom/Faulkner Books-in-Process Award for Rescue , the novel she’s working on now. Like the characters in her novel Promise, Minrose Gwin is a native of Tupelo, Mississippi. She began her writing career as a journalist and later taught at universities across the country, most recently the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was Kenan Eminent Professor of English. She lives in Albuquerque, NM, with her partner, Ruth Salvaggio, cats Ella Fitzgerald and Frida Kahlo and a busy-body Chihuahua named Henry. In her spare time, she volunteers at the city animal shelter taking care of new-born kittens who have lost their mothers. minrosegwin.com Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

“Thanks for taking care of that and for having dinner with me,” said Tucker’s mom as she slurped her soup. Family members masticating like cows did nothing to improve his mood. Pounded: A Whipped & Sipped Mystery < Back Acorn Squash Soup August 14, 2025 Prep Time: 10-15 minutes to pull everything together and pour into bowls Cook Time: About 45-60 minutes to roast the squash, 10-15 minutes to process the soup and serve. Serves: 6 Tags: Soup, Vegan, Vegetarian About the Recipe I love the hint of color and sweetness from the apple and tartness of the orange. The first time I had a creamy squash soup was at my friend Susan's house in Carmel, CA. I wanted to keep eating it and skip dinner! Ingredients 1 medium acorn squash (also delicious with butternut squash) 1 medium onion, sliced 1 medium apple, seeded and sliced (I keep the peel on) 1 small orange or tangerine, peeled (I love the tiny bit of citrus flavor) 1 cup water (+ more depending on how thick you want the soup to be) 2 TBSP olive oil of any kind 1 tsp garlic powder (or 1 - 2 fresh cloves) 1 tsp ground ginger (use fresh ginger if you keep it in the freezer like me) 1 tsp ground cumin ½ tsp turmeric ½ tsp sea salt (or more to taste) Pepper to taste (the turmeric is peppery so you might not need extra) Preparation Preheat your oven to 350°F/180°C Place the whole squash on a baking pan and bake it for about an hour until soft Allow it to cool and remove seeds and skin (you can bake it the night before) Cut the onion and apple into slices Add oil to a medium pan and sauté apple and onion slices until everything is soft, about 10 minutes In a high-speed blender, combine onion, apple, orange/tangerine, garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, salt and pepper with water. Blend for about 2 -3 minutes (soup setting if you have it) until completely smooth and creamy. If your blender does not have a soup setting, place in a ceramic or glass serving bowl and microwave on high for a minute or two. Stir before serving. Taste, and add extra salt or pepper as needed, serve with a yogurt dallop sprinkled with chopped parsley (or just the parsley) Previous Next