it's nonfiction. you could call it nonfiction. this whole debate, you know, you looked at the nonfiction bestseller list, and the number one book was "america: a fake history of the united states," by jon stewart. never one book on the bestseller book. it was a book of made-up facts, and no one has a problem with that being called nonfiction. and then i write a book that's all true but written in a cinematic way, and people want to writing articles about it. it's bizarre. but anyways, earliest memory, i'm trying to remember something really early -- >> host: well, you just think about that as we move on, and this is an e-mail from todd margo. what does ben mezrich mean when he says he approaches nonfiction from the perspectiveover a thriller? perspective of a thriller? how does that impact the story? it implies he plays up something. >> guest: right. it's a great question. so when i go inside the story and i spend the month researching it, i try and find what the beats of that story are that matter to me and would matter in retell

the senate between four, almost 500 bucks. >> nonfiction. >> nonfiction, which, of course, in his biography, a history, and memoir. we will down at all summer. and then -- >> did you read all four to 500. >> we are required to. we are required to, and i did. discounts on a. -- scouts honor. >> who can be nominated for a national book award? >> in the american who has written a book in the last year, so you need to a -- >> can you nominate yourself? >> no, your publisher nominates you. >> with about self published. >> that i don't know. >> it's very interesting because you have 45 varied, smart, interesting people. we are reading areas that we do and don't know very much about but are able to basically to judge these books as laypeople and very dedicated leaves. a lot of give-and-take, a lot of honesty and a great deal of fun. it's like having a great book club. >> unanimous among the four or five judges for the lead tonight? >> yes. that's all i can say. tell us about your day job. >> professor of history at the university of pennsylvania. american history. i have been there for about 15 ye

there are finalists in the nonfiction category. fiction is also a category where they give an award for national book award, along with young on group -- young authors or young people's authors, and poetry. those are the for all boards that are given, plus a literary award is being given to ms. kaplan, the founder of the miami book fair international which is this weekend in miami. book tv will be live from miami as well, but in just a few minutes this room will start to fill up. we will broadcast live from the red carpet here. we will be talking with several of the authors who were nominated about their books, and then we will be bringing you on teefifteen, the entire ceremony live on our website. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] author walter mosley. >> i am going to enter this mix kaplan who is getting an award for, you know, his service to the community through literature and literary endeavors, specifically the may book fair, and everything else does. >> it's, of course a man is this weekend. have you ever b

via crude teach creative writing, nonfiction. >> nonfiction creative writing? >> creative nonfiction. >> creative nonfiction, there we go. >> journalism a little bit come as a running. >> leslie brody's been our guest was 45 minutes, herb most recent book is "irrepressible" the life and times of jessica mitford. leslie brody book.com is the web site. professor brody thank you. >> jena having a. >> we have a couple more hours of live call-in programs for miami coming up. by the way everything we have aired today on booktv from miami will re-air at midnight eastern time so you will be able to see everything. also there is a couple more webcast going on at otb.org. these are some light events happening at miami-dade college here at miami book fair. right now, and he is talking about the 50 funniest american writers. that is the webcast at chapman hall and you can watch that of otb.org. if you stick with us on booktv on c-span2 you will be able to talk with author, john avlon next about his new book, "deadline artists" america's greatest newspaper columns. we will

mezrich is the author of six nonfiction books. house came down in 2002 followed by the accidental billionaires' which you may know came out in to those of mine. his most recent? >> guest: there's dhaka it used to be a physical exchange you would stand in the pit and all the tickets flying and we've seen it on like the moving etch creating places, where you are standing matters. it's about three listed in the changing ekstrand and there was one guy there is a trader but he was a very small to score close to just hold him in the pit said he didn't get trashed by the others. he gone to oppressiveness school in brooklyn. they inherit a spot on the trading floor and its trade it is very insane. they don't have a lot of education, it is very much gambling, it's about the market and this guy that had a foot in two worlds, the hartford school and brooklyn goes to work and setting up an exchange in dubai that minutes so he set up the exchange in dubai and it was kind of the story but it's a fascinating story about how oil gets treated. som

is there a nonfiction author of what you like to see featured on booktv? send us an e-mail at booktv@c-span.org or tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >> next, roya hakakian talks about the 1992 killing of four iranian-kurdish dissidents in germany and the trial that followed. this is about 45 minutes. >> good evening. what a lovely place. i think this was or could stein's concept that they brought to life here at this bookstore, books & books in miami. a cafÉ and restaurant and courtyard. magnificent. thank you so much for having me. this is an absolute pleasure to be here in this wonderful, beautiful place. so, this will not shock you because you don't know me, but i started out as a poet, and the idea of writing about a crime is the farthest thing that has ever been from my mind. i have never pictured myself in any way, shape, or form interested in guns, dead bodies, and i tried to stay away from them for as long as i can and as far as i can. and usually even when we are watching tv at home and someone draws out the gun, i'm the first person to reach for th

>> this is a work of nonfiction as it stands. my previous work in english was a memoir. and actually, after i pieced this together undecided this is really what i want to do at least for the foreseeable future. that what i love doing is going out and finding these stories that are immensely significant that have either fallen by the wayside, never made it to the headlines or were dismissed or shoved under the rug. i might sound paranoid here but perhaps conspiratorial reasons. who knows? a found that i love the notion of finding these stories and some of them at least in this case are so fabulous that you could hardly come up with fiction that can outdo this. we will find out if i did it justice but if i have done it justice than you agree with me that it is so beautiful, so astounding that just in the way that it unfolded to have fictionalized it would have been to diminish it. i also found that in some great way there were several dozen of these political assassinations that had taken place and i only write about one and that is because this one happened in a magical w

. >> is there a nonfiction author a book you would like to see featured a booktv? send us an e-mail at booktv@c-span.org. or tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >> and now robert auerbach talk to booktv about his book, "deception and abuse at the fed." this interview, part of booktv's college series was recorded at the university of texas at austin. >> welcome on your screen out is professor of robert auerbach. is a professor of public affairs at the university of texas lbj school. professor gould is also the author of this book, deception and abuse at the fed, henry b. gonzalez battles alan greenspan's bank. first of all, or faster auerbach, who was henry gonzalez, for those who may not don't? >> he was the first mexican-american to be elected from texas to the u.s. congress. he was also in the senate here, and he is from san antonio. spin and he was chairman of the house banking to me for a long time, greg? >> chairman of house banking committee, that's correct. >> what was his relationship with the various fed chairs? >> he was cordial, but he kept them at arms leng

yes, it's categorized as nonfiction.who practice it base everything we write, if we are honest people, on incontrovertible documents, on letters, on diaries, on contemporary reports. and from these presumably undeniable, incontrovertible documents we construct the true stories, in quotation marks, of what happened. but the older i get and the more biographies i write, and the more obsessive i get about checking every single fact, even if i described the smell of flowers on a particular day in theodore roosevelt's life, or the expression on ronald reagan's face when he said something, i never write these things and thus i have the documentary evidence. even so, even though i have this philosophy, which all of my professional colleagues do, the older i get the more i begin to understand that all this ficti fiction. i was reading this morning in the library of congress, a couple hours ago, they got some letters of thomas of edison, who is my current next, my next subject. and i found this letter handwritten in 1914 by thoma

and the ardela literary composition prize in creative nonfiction. her work has been published in several an tholologies including our cheers to muses. in addition to writing and performing she published and hand bound artist books and is a photographer and print maker. lives and creates in oakland. i would like to introduce ahmwa. [applause] flesh of my flesh. the woman who invented clothes was a woman. she knew the power of a well placed leash. knew there was no looking back. once man laid himself upon her he was cleave into her. need the clay of her. she knew then shield always need a sheath. a shield from shame. the early pain of having been divided. >> first sin. forgive me for coveting my mother's breast until it bled iodine to deceive me. 165. you cried when i left for california. you and bastand figure the driveway. i didn't expect that from you. wasn't prepare for the weeping that would last until i cross the the state border. when i got to oakland my emotions leaked like a wildfire. they are the kind that destroy you, your security your she

follow us for regular updates on our programming and news on nonfiction books and authors. twitter.com/booktv. >> up next, booktv interviewed jake reese, the owner of alabama booksmith, during our recent visit to birmingham, alabama, as part of our cities tour examining the literary culture of eight southern cities. >> in these tough economic times, how has business been? >> i'm almost embarrassed. it's been great. we, we have a unique situation, and we're selling the product, the thing, the books. you pay your $24.95 for your book or thereabouts, and you get your entertainment, pleasure from reading it. once you get through, you have a wonderful, warm, fuzzy book that's signed by the author to put on your shelf and, hopefully, someday it might send your grand kids to column. it's a sad thing when any bookstore closes whether it's a chain or a big box or one of our fellow independents. it's not good, a foreboding sign, but there are bookstores around the country contrary to what many of your viewers think that are thriving. our business is phenomenal, it's grown every year,

. >> every weekend booktv offers 48 hours of programming, focus on nonfiction authors and books. watch it here on c-span2. >> next, booktv talk to professor lewis gould about his book, "my dearest nellie." this interview is part of booktv's college of series. this month we visit the university of texas at austin. >> professor lewis gould on the cover of a book you edited this past year is a picture, who is in that picture of? >> the picture shows president william howard taft and his wife helen herron taft in a limousine. the task were one of the first presidential amnesty is the automobile. i was chosen to illustrate how close and loving this couple was and why president tapped wrote her one of 13 letters while he was in the white house. >> who is now a? >> nellie was her name, her affectionate name within her family and then by the president. he always addressed her as my dear nellie or my dearest nellie. that's how her intimate new herb. >> where did they need and how did they meet? how long were they married, et cetera? >> they both grew up in cincinnati. and knew each other

likewise the work i am doing most nonfiction books are not written by people who make a living at it. people are either connected to an organization, like kara rights and excellent book but does not make a living as a book writer. the book is something extra. another writer for the new yorker writes books as a supplement. talese is one and another is still working, but not many other people are out there. no new people are coming into writing nonfiction for a living because there is no living to be made at it. if it is not a celebrity biography, which maybe we think sarah palin is a celebrity biography, but basically that kind of books, the best nonfiction writers have always been interested in planting, the market seems to have disappeared, not entirely, not entirely. obviously there are good new books, but for the mid level the writer who is not a star or a guaranteed best seller, the publishers will not pay the money, the magazines are not there anymore so you need something like "the atavist" to keep this tradition of paternalism alive. >> and there are other forms of that. single

. >> host: how many nonfiction, how many fiction? >> guest: three nonfiction, 20 fiction. >> host: why? >> guest: gotta stay busy, man. [laughter] no, it's just what i do. it's a natural act to me to write, and i get fidgety when i'm not writing. it's not a, it's not something that i'm -- it's just what i do. i'm just so comfortable and so very much fulfilled when i'm writing, and i love the feel of a book, pieces of paper between two pieces of cardboard and having written it and look at it, put it in a book shelf and make me happy about myself. >> host: what's your role with the "newshour" today? >> guest: well, i'm still the executive editor. i'm there on most fridays doing mark shields and david brooks. i'm kind of on a glide path, have been for two and a half years. slowly, slowly gliding away. and i feel good about it. we have a team approach now. there's no, you know, huge billy bob wah wah anchor person. there's a team of anchors, senior correspondents who share the anchoring. and we're, we're there. it took a while to develop

. >> i want first to introduce margaret cooley who writes nonfiction and poetry. also with us from boston but having stepped off the plain from dublina daniel to be lynn a writer at emer son college. i want to start by reflecting back that those of you folks endeavored to reveal hidden histories of your family lives. we have spoken in advanced of today's conversation. it's clear to me you pursued the stories of your families histories for decades through genealogical work and writing and reflection. i'm wondering if can describe how you dot work you do and where the seeds of your curiousity, how they were planted and want compelled you to do this work. >> i would say that i was have much inspired since i lived in san francisco, california. we are a country of immigrants. in san francisco in particular, we have so many first generation americans. my husband is just became an american citizen a couple of months ago. i have friendlieds who are first generation from vietnam. palestine, israel. mexico, as i watch them struggling with their cultural identities and tryin

if you asked it which is harder, a novel or nonfiction book, was a nonfiction book because you cannotake it out. [laughter] >> is there another book -- the >> i'm going to take a little break, but i will say that i like to think that experience as a novelist told me in writing this book because you learn a lot along the way in terms of telling the story and trying to understand the character and i hope that certainly in this book as well. >> bill ballenger talked about your start as the michigan daily. would you just kind of give us a little overview of your career and what led you to the "washington post"? >> the question is how my career had evolved. i started off in michigan is a journalism major and went over and begin working on the daily my second semester in college and had a bunch of different jobs there and ended up as editor-in-chief. i was very fortunate and then i had two summer internships during my college years. i was lucky enough one of them was a dow jones newspaper fund copyediting internship and i spent that summer on the journal, which is in the newspaper and not b

red carpet interviews with the nonfiction finalist and the award ceremony starting at 6 p.m.eastern. >> saturday and sunday, november 19 and 20, booktv brings you live coverage from the miami book fair international in florida. ..

[applause] >> is a nonfiction author of book you'd like to see on booktv?send us an e-mail or twitter. >> here are this week's best selling nonfiction books according to publishers weekly as of november 1.

if they can grass -- grasp the story, the characters and even with nonfiction if they can understand why the sun is shining, why the water is flowing, why our earthquake sometimes splits and shakes. >> pete's mom asks him what did you do at school today? ed pete say -- and pete says. >> books are fun. reporting for abc2 news. >>> pete's looking lean these days, isn't he, kelly. awesome stuff. 50 at bwi. we've got humidity near 100%. visibility cut to 30% of normal. yeah. it was one gray scenario out there today, dim and dismal and misty. drizzle coming down heavy and steady. check out the practice field. wet weather scenario as they went out to practice. maryland's most powerful radar, showers beginning to drift towards cockeysville. going to get more steady drizzle. heavierer rain due in tomorrow and early wednesday morning. 40s west, 50s east. got a stalled front down the i-95 corridor. that's working to reduce those visibilities. tough to see. lose the low beams. humidity up around 100%, always a condition tributetor -- con contributor. it's a gray scenario. we'll continue to see

follow us for regular updates on programming and news on nonfiction books and authors.

[applause] >> is there a nonfiction offer or book you would like to see featured on booktv?end us an e-mail at booktv@c-span.org or tweak as at twitter.com/booktv. >> visit booktv.org to watch any of the programs you see here on line. type the author or book title in the search bar on the upper left of the page and click search. you can share anything you see easily by clicking share and collect the format. booktv streams online 48 hours every weekend with top nonfiction books and authors. booktv.org. now for the eleventh a

in nonfiction, you can only comment about what you know personally.ou cannot, you know, well, people pretended to make things up and got in trouble. they were not there. you have to keep to your own viewpoint. the reader then understands that everything that is going on is from this one viewpoint, the authors. that is different. there is this difference between the two kinds of truths. this is the nonfiction, a truth on the outside. fiction is all made up. it is actually true on the inside. >> are your parents still live? >> no. >> what did they do? >> my father was a high school teacher. then later he became the principal, much to my chagrin. i was in high school. my mother waited tables and was a bookkeeper. >> where did you get your interest in writing? >> you know, i think that i probably got my interest in writing from four high school english teachers. i was blessed with for english teachers that were extremely important. i acknowledged them in "matterhorn." they said you ought to think about doing this. have you ever thought about being a write

. >> host: how many nonfiction, how many fiction? >> guest: three nonfiction, 20 fiction. >> host: why? >> guest: gotta stay busy, man. [laughter] no, it's just what i do. it's a natural act to me to write, and i get fidgety when i'm not writing. it's not a, it's not something that i'm -- it's just what i do. i'm just so comfortable a

high energy we will be able to start looking for -- [applause] >> you are watching 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books on c-span2's booktv. >> tell us about the bad and what he is and what he does. he said he is the most complex individual that you have written about in any of your books. take that mark zuckerberg. [laughter] >> yeah. >> tell us a little bit about him and what mainly attracted you to tell his story? >> pat roberts basically came from a very hard background, very fundamentalist mormon family. he was kicked out of his house when he was 18 for admitting to premarital sex and then he decided he wanted to be an astronaut and he changed his whole life and became james bond and he majored in geology and physics and astronomy and he learned how to fly airplanes and scuba dive and spoke five languages. then he got into nasa's johnson space center. at the co-op's center for college kids but it's a feeder to the astronaut training program so he was achieving his dream. he was a standout there. is a big star. he became the social leader of the co-ops and then he fell in love wit

. >> that was "after words," booktv censure program in which authors of the lives nonfiction books are interviewed by judas, public policymakers, legislators and others familiar with the material. "after words" airs every weekend on the tv at 10 p.m. on saturday, 12 and 9 p.m. on sunday, and 12 a.m. on monday. you can watch "after words" on line. go to booktv.org. click on afterwards in the upper left side of the page. spent on the go, after which is available via podcast to itunes and xml. is a booktv.org and click podcast on the upper left side of the page. selects which broadcast you like to download and listen to "after words" what you travel. >> it is a booktv.org to watch any other programs you see here online. type the author or book title in the search bar on the upper left side of the page and click search. you can share anything you see on booktv.org easily by clicking share on the upper left side of the page and selecting the format. .tv streams live online for 48 hours every weekend with the top nonfiction books and authors. booktv.org. ..

>> this is my first nonfiction book. i have written a couple of novels.f you aspi which is harder, a novel or not fiction book come out with a nonfiction because you cannot make it a. [laughter] first i'm going to take a little break, but i will say that i like to think that my experience as a novelist help in writing this book because you learn a lot along the way in terms of timeliness taurean pacing and trying to understand a character and i hope that's well and in this book as bill ballenger talked about your startup is the michigan daily. would you give us an overview of your career and what led you to the "washington post"? >> the question was about how my career have evolved. i started off as a journalism major and went in again working on the daily my second semester in college and had a bunch of different jobs there and bill ended up as editor-in-chief. i was very fortunate in that i had two summer internships during my college years. one of them was a dow jones newspaper fund, copyediting internship and i spent that summer at the journal, which

first of all only 12 percent of nonfiction books make a profit and 2/3 are pre chosen by the publisher. we'd like to put our marketing arm behind us but your having to fight tear riz m to this. since i grew up in africa and worked pakistan for many years you never settle a deal without driving a hard bargain so i said if the hard cover doesn't do well, i'd like the subtitle changed later on for the paper back. julia and our other board relently pounded away month after month. i was in pakistan of december of 2006 and there was a new editor on the book and they said they decided to change the title to one man's mission to promote peace. the hard cover didn't do that well. sold 20,000 copies. while the paper back came out on january 30th of this year and since out it's been on the new york times best seller selling over 700,000 copies now. and it's one man's mission to promote peace. and they're still baffleed manhattan because they're scratching their heads the first month because there's only - well no big city book editor did it so to be a best seller you need new york times or the ch

[laughter] [applause] >> is there a nonfiction author or book you'd like to see featured on booktv? send us an e-mail at booktv@cspan.org or tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >> wednesday on booktv online, watch live streaming coverage of the annual national book awards from new york city, red carpet interviews with the nonfiction finalists and the awards ceremony starting at 6 p.m.

i've written two best-selling nonfiction books. >> right. >> but i had never written fiction before.knew there was a story inside of me but i had never explored that side. >> yeah. >> you really write what you know. i didn't need to stretch myself. i had the most soap opera-like life in the world. >> right. >> so if i think just play off my life, i could write a book of fiction. this book, "satan's sisters," has every plot line or character -- i should say every plot line and character is based on someone i worked with, worked for, interviewed, was interviewed by, or prosecuted. >> wow. >> and think about all of those people that i have encountered, i -- >> everybody. >> i have a plethora of people to choose from. >> okay so when the people are out there saying a backdoor to get back at "the view" one more time. >> honestly not. i don't tell one secret that occurred on "the view." there's not one thing that is indicative of any of my characters in "satan's sisters" that occurred to any of the women at "the view." that's not -- it did not happen. there are lots of conversations, dialo

it is certainly a nonfiction. it is on as to a fault, this book. but i decided to tell my story -- is honest to a fault, this book. but i decided to tell my story by telling stories. it is like a series of mini dramatists -- dramas with me as the title character. they are all about acting, what i have learned stage by stage. tavis: how ud construct that at 35? -- how do you the construct that, at age 35? >> it was a very important year for me. for one thing, that white wife -- and met my wife. it was a logical intermission. if my life was a play, age 35 was my intermission. again, i did not plan in. i had never written anything that long before. before coming here i had written about -- i had written children's books, which were about 27 pages long. i set out early on finding a logical place to wrap up. tavis: something that may have surprised you, but when you are so busy living your life, you do not have time to process your life until you come to this moment. when you have to go back and come face to face with the life you have lived and hopeful

in the nonfiction category, it includes the now famous steve jobs' biography. >>> and news.com says it has internal apple documents showing apple store managers have been given special training sessions on what to do if their employees start talking about a union. employees at apple stores make many of the same complaints that other retailers do, pay, breaks, benefits. it's hard to imagine, guys, that apple has had its own stores for ten years now. back to you. >> all right, scott. thank you. >> appreciate it. >>> if you look up in the sky, you notice much bigger than a bird, a plane -- forget about it. we're talking about an asteroid. a big space rock will pass relatively near our planet. >> bob redell is at chabot space center saying there's no need to duck and cover. >> reporter: good news is that this thousand-foot wide chunk of rock that is getting ready to fly past us right now is going to miss us. the bad news is, of course, you're going to have to continue paying your bills and go to work tomorrow. why can't these things ever hit us? anyway, we're talking about 2005-yu-55. that

he was the author of 20 books, nonfiction and novels. tom wicker died at his adopted home in vermont. he was 85 years old. >>> at the white house tonight it's finally beginning to look a lot like christmas. the first daughters and the first dog came out to welcome the clydesdale-driven cart that delivered the official white house christmas tree. this year's is a 19-footer balsam fir from wisconsin. it will take up residence in the blue room as the center piece of the white house christmas decorations. when our broadcast continues, the war next door. an incredible new look at the dangers facing american farmer who are under constant threat because of where they live. >>> later, why it's a good time to be a kid -- better than average. the slew of family-friendly movies making a big comeback at the american box office. >>> we're back now with a frightening look at the dangers facing american farmers and ranchers living under the constant threat of violence, in constant fear all because of where they happen to live and work along our nation'

. >> is there a nonfiction opera but you would like to see featured on book tv? send us an e-mail at booktv.org. or tweet us at twitter dot com / book tv. >> on your screen is that tower in the center of the university of texas at austin campus. and book tv has been on vacation here at the university of texas conducting interviews with some of their professors you are also authors. every sunday during the month of november we would be bringing you those interviews at 1:00 p.m. eastern time as part of our university series. [applause] >> welcome back in july of 1926, 85 years ago this month, this country was celebrating its sesquicentennial, 150th national birthday. here in texas i imagine it was quite a big deal, but in fort worth texas, just away from here, the festivities were overshadowed somewhat by a brewing local battle that involve political, religious, business, and civic leaders. the catalyst of this particular battle was a preacher. the issues were both public and personal, and the citizens found themselves polarized. some talked about conspiracy and ot

edmundson also talks about the value of fiction and nonfiction literature. his 2004 booknotes program was the last in the 15 year series and mr. edmundson commented on several authors ideas and writing styles and shared clips of their remarks on previous pro-rams. this is about an hour.esse c-span: mark edmundson, why read? >> guest: why read? well, the compressed answer is, to change your life, to make it a little bit better than it is. c-span: when did you first star reading?>>ta >> guest: i started reading -- i started being read to, actually, by my father. and the first thing i can remember having read to me is "the rhyme of theth ancient mariner," which my r father read over and over againe until i successfully memorized it. orized it. and then we were through. >> you actually memorized it? >> well, it's not all that long and he knew it by heart so he thought i should too. >> can you still do it? >> absolutely not. >> how does reading change your life? >> well, the way i like to put it is this. we all get socialized one time around, by parents and teach