Kazi 88.7 Fm Book Review

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Rachel Howzell Hall, author of WHAT NEVER HAPPENED. Set on the Catalina Islands in California, the protagonist "Colette “Coco” Weber has relocated to her Catalina Island home, where, twenty years before, she was the sole survivor of a deadly home invasion. All Coco wants is to see her aunt Gwen, get as far away from her ex as possible, and get back to her craft—writing obituaries." In the interview Hall explained how her novel explored the problematic issues that can plague friendships between black and white women, and the barriers erected to keep Blacks away from Catalina Island when the Wrigley family purchased it in 1919.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.comWeb site: https://diversevoicesbookreview.wordpress.com/ 

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Eli Merritt, author of DISUNION AMONG OURSELVES: The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution. DISUNION AMONG OURSELVES  tells the story of the deep political divisions that beset the Continental Congress during the American Revolution. So fractious were the founders’ political fights that they feared the War of Independence might end in disunion and civil war. In our interview, Merritt discussed the relevance of this history to the challenges American democracy faces today, and the dark path demagogues our driving America to. Eli Merritt is a political historian at Vanderbilt University where he researches the ethics of democracy, the interface of demagogues and democracy, and the founding principles of the United States.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.comWeb site: https://diversevoicesbookreview.wordpress.co

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed James Lee Burke, author of FLAGS ON THE BAYOU.   Set in Civil War era Louisiana, Burke’s novel provides a kaleidoscope of narrators that reveals the violence, pain, suffering, conflict, and beliefs that haunt the characters in this epic story.  Be sure to click on the hotlink  of James Lee Burke to learn more about the novel and author.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.com

In a two-part show, Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay first interviews Richard Z. Santos, editor of A NIGHT OF SCREENS: Latino Horror Stories, and Ruben Degollado, who contributed the story Migrants to the collection. In part two of the show, he interviewed Flor Salcedo, who authored the story La Llorona Happenings for the collection. The horror stories—and four poems—contains a wide range of styles, themes and authors. Creepy creatures roam the pages, including La Llorona and the Chupacabras in fresh takes on Latin American lore, as well as ghosts, zombies and shadow selves.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.com

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Kevin Strait and Kinshasha Holman Conwill, co-editors of AFROFUTURISM: A History of Black Futures.  The book is based on the exhibition of the same name at the National Museum for African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. The exhibition, according to its web site “immerses visitors in a conversation that reimagines, reinterprets and reclaims the past and present for a more empowering future for African Americans.” Kevin Strait  is a museum curator who has worked on the permanent exhibitions "Musical Crossroads" and the "Power of Place,” as well as leading the Afrofuturism exhibition. Kinshasha Holman Conwill is deputy director emerita of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.com

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed S.A. Cosby, author of the novel ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, published June 2023.  In the novel, the first Black sheriff of a small town in Virginia responds to a school shooting but discovers there are even more sinister town secrets and a serial killer on the loose.  Cosby said in our interview that ALL THE SINNERS BLEED was his attempt to talk about justice, race, and violence in the face of evil, and faith. With faith, he wanted to explore how the Sheriff, who is agnostic, and his father, who is a church going Christian, could have a strong relationship without being dismissive of each other despite their different opinions on faith.  Click the book title hot link for ALL THE SINNERS BLEED web page.  Please subscribe to Hopeton Hay Podcasts on your podcast streaming service of your choice.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookre

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Tananarive Due, author of THE WISHING POOL And Other Stories (April 2023). Due's second collection of stories includes offerings of horror, science fiction, and suspense. In the interview Due discussed how she focuses on scaring herself when writing her stories.  We also conversed about how the roots of many of her stories come from personal or family experiences.  Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.com

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Hannah Gabel, Literary Director of the Texas Book Festival (TBF).  Gabel, who joined TBF in March of 2023, discussed the process for selecting authors for the festival which is being held November 11 -12.  She also shared some of her favorite books including BABEL by R. F. Kuong and THE VIOLIN CONSPIRACY by Brendan Slocumb, and we also talked about her popular Instagram account bookmarkparty.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.com

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Ivy Pochoda, author of the new novel SING HER DOWN.  As described on her web site, "SING HER DOWN is a spellbinding thriller setting two indelible women on a path to certain destruction and an epic, stunning showdown."Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.comWeb site: https://diversevoicesbookreview.wordpress.com/ 

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Joe Ide, author of FIXIT, his latest crime novel featuring private investigator Isaiah Qunitabe, better known as IQ.  In the interview, Ide discussed the arc of his IQ character over six books, and how the character has changed because of the trauma he has experienced through his PI exploits.  FIXIT also looks deeply at the story behind the antagonist, assassin Skip Hanson.  Ide also explained why he introduced the character homicide detective Winnie Hando in FIXIT.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.comWeb site: https://diversevoicesbookreview.wordpress.com/ 

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Silvia Rodriguez Vega, author of DRAWING DEPORTATION: Art and Resistance Among Immigrant Children. In the interview Vega discussed her experiences working with immigrant children in Arizona and California, how detention and deportation were recurrent themes in the art of the children in Arizona, and the dark history of separation policies in the U.S.  Vega is an Assistant Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in the Department of Chicana/o Studies. Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.comWeb site: https://diversevoicesbookreview.wordpress.com/ 

Diverse Voices Book Review contributor Amanda Moore interviewed Cheryl Head, author of the novel TIMES UNDOING. TIMES UNDOING is "a searing and tender novel about a young Black journalist’s search for answers in the unsolved murder of her great-grandfather in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, decades ago—inspired by the author’s own family history." Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.comWeb site: https://diversevoicesbookreview.wordpress.com/ 

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Farah Jasmine Griffin, author of IN SEARCH OF BEAUTIFUL FREEDOM: New and Selected Essays.  IN SEARCH OF BEAUTIFUL FREEDOM brings together the best work from Farah Jasmine Griffin’s rich forays on music, Black feminism, literature, the crises of Hurricane Katrina and COVID-19, and the Black artists she esteems.  Griffin is a professor of African American and African diaspora studies and English and comparative literature at Columbia University. Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.com

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Jamie Kreiner, author of THE WANDERING MIND: What Medieval Monks Tell Us About Distraction."The digital era is beset by distraction, and it feels like things are only getting worse. At times like these, the distant past beckons as a golden age of attention. We fantasize about escaping our screens. We dream of recapturing the quiet of a world with less noise. We imagine retreating into solitude and singlemindedness, almost like latter-day monks..." from the book description for THE WANDERING MIND.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.com

Host Hopeton Hay speaks with Joe Lansdale about his latest novel THE DONUT LEGION.  In the interview, Joe discusses his deep dive into conspiracy theories and UFO cults in the book. In particular he discussed how normal people may get caught up in cults. Hopeton and Joe also discussed the unique characteristics of the main villain including his chimpanzee sidekick.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.comWeb site: https://diversevoicesbookreview.wordpress.com/ 

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Jesse Q. Sutanto, author of the novel VERA WONG'S UNSOLICITED ADVICE FOR MURDERERS.  In the novel, Vera Wong, an elderly but energetic widow, opens her tea shop in San Francisco's Chinatown one morning and discovers a dead body on the floor.  Rather than leave the investigation to the police, she embarks in amateur sleuthing, luring the suspects one by one to her shop.  In the wide-ranging interview, among the things Jesse discussed were the inspiration for the novel, how her mother was the model for the protagonist, and her journey as a writer.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.comWeb site: https://diversevoicesbookreview.wordpress.com/ 

Teen's Choice Book Show (TCBS) host Maya Hay interviewed Jumata Emill, author of The Black Queen. In the return of TCBS the topics of black identity, representation in the YA Mystery genre, white allyship, and The Real Housewives are explored!Insta: @teenschoicebookshowEmail: teenschoicebookshow@gmail.com

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Anastasia Curwood, author of SHIRLEY CHISHOLM: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics."Shaking up New York and national politics by becoming the first African American congresswoman and, later, the first Black major-party presidential candidate, Shirley Chisholm left an indelible mark as an "unbought and unbossed" firebrand and a leader in politics for meaningful change," from the publisher's web site, University of North Carolina Press.Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.comWeb site: https://diversevoicesbookreview.wordpress.com/  

Diverse Voices Book Review contributor Amanda Moore interviewed Wanda Morris, author of the crime novel ANYWHERE YOU RUN.  The plot as described on her web site: "...twenty-one year old Violet Richards finds herself in more trouble than she’s ever been in her life. Suffering a brutal attack of her own, she kills the man responsible. But with the color of Violet’s skin, there is no way she can escape Jim Crow justice in Jackson, Mississippi. Before anyone can find the body or finger her as the killer, she decides to run..." Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_reviewTwitter - @diversebookshayEmail: hbh@diversevoicesbookreview.comWeb site: https://diversevoicesbookreview.wordpress.com/ 

In their first podcast of 2023 Commissioner Travillion and host Hopeton Hay discussed some of the main issues he is focused on in 2023.  These issues include medical care for the underinsured, job training and job creation, and developing affordable housing.  Click the following links for more information on resources to assist Travis County, TX residents: Central Health Medical Access Program Workforce Solutions Capital Area Commissioner Jeff Travillion, Precinct One