Diverse Voices Book Review contributor Amanda Moore interviewed, Renee Watson, the author of skin & bones. Through a series of profound vignettes, her new novel tells the story of a woman who tries to live and thrive in a world that never truly sees the beauty that she has learned to love within herself.  Renée Watson is also the author of the young adult novel, PIERCING ME TOGETHER, which received a Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Honor. You can find out more about Renee at reneewatson.net. Diverse Voices Book Review Social Media: Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreview Instagram ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Larry Tye, author of THE JAZZMEN: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America.  From the publisher: This is the story of three revolutionary American musicians, the maestro jazzmen who orchestrated the chords that throb at the soul of twentieth-century America..  What is far less known about these groundbreakers is that they were bound not just by their music or even the discrimination that they, like nearly all Black performers of their day, routinely encountered. Each defied and ultimately overcame ..read more

In 2014, Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Danielle Allen about her newly published book, OUR DECLARATION: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality. Featured on the front page of the New York Times, her book publisher writes in its description of the book: "Our Declaration is already regarded as a seminal work that reinterprets the promise of American democracy through our founding text. Combining a personal account of teaching the Declaration with a vivid evocation of the colonial world between 1774 and 1777, Allen, a political philosopher reno ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review host interviewed Walter Mosley about his latest Easy Rawlins novel, FAREWELL, AMETHYSTINE. Set in 1970 finds Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, LA’s premier Black detective, at 50 years of age despite all expectations.  He has a loving family, a beautiful home, and a thriving investigation agency.  All is right with the world… and then Amethystine Stoller, his own personal Helen of Troy, arrives. Her ex-husband is missing. A simple enough case. But even as Easy takes his first step in the investigation he trips.  He falls into the memory of things past ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Meg Gardiner, author of the thriller SHADOWHEART, a crime fiction pick of the month.  SHADOWHEART is the fourth book in Gardiner's UNSUB thriller series featuring FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix. In the thriller, Hendrix is  tracking a serial killer that appears to be following the modus operandi of a jailed serial killer.   In the interview Gardiner discussed the vulnerability of her protagonist, how she drives the pace of her novels, and how she uses different point of view characters to allow readers to understand and empat ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed award winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed, author of ON JUNETEENTH. In the interview, Gordon-Reed discussed the historical significance of Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in Texas. She also shared her personal experiences and perspectives on the holiday's origins, evolution, and cultural significance. Born and raised in Texas, Annette Gordon-Reed is a history professor at Harvard University and the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning THE HEMINGSES OF MONTICELLO.  Her web site is https://ann ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Abir Mukherjee, author of the new thriller Hunted.  Hunted, Mukherjee's sixth novel, follows the paths of a terrorist group in the U.S. planning and executing bombings in the U.S., the efforts of the FBI to stop them, and the search for two of the young adults in the group by their parents who hope to prevent catastrophe.  The novel has a multicultural cast of characters providing points of view from a U.S. and international perspective.  In the interview, Mukherjee discussed the use of crime fiction as a medium for social ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed historian Manisha Sinha, author of The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920.  In the interview, Manisha explained her decision to focus on Reconstruction as the central theme, tying it to various other historical events and movements including the women's suffrage movement, the destruction of indigenous sovereignties, the Industrial Revolution, and labor conflict. Manisha Sinha is the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut and a leading authority ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review contributor Chaitali Sen interviewed Gemini Wahhaj, author of the debut novel The Children of this Madness.  In The Children of this Madness, Gemini Wahhaj pens a complex tale of modern Bengalis, one that illuminates the recent histories not only of Bangladesh, but America and Iraq. Told in multiple voices over successive eras, this is the story of Nasir Uddin and his daughter Beena, and the intersection of their distant, vastly different lives. Gemini Wahhaj is a Bangladeshi American writer living in the US. She wrote her debut novel The Children of This Madne ..read more

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Steven Han, author of Illiberal America: A History.  In the interview they discussed the realities behind American history's myths, touching on progressive thinking's complexities, wealth concentration, and public good concepts. They also examined the impact of political strategies like the Southern strategy, and the Supreme Court's role in economic rights protection and the aftermath of Obama's election. Steven Hahn is a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian who studies American political and social movements. His acclaimed works includ ..read more