This Weekend's Show

Bob Edwards Weekend, November 19-20, 2011

HOUR ONE:

Los Angeles Times columnist Doyle McManus joins Bob to discuss the latest political news.

On November 18, 1978, more than 900 people killed themselves in a jungle in Guyana. A new book titled A Thousand Lives: the Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown tells the story of five of those who willingly followed pastor Jim Jones to South America and to their own demise. Author Julia Scheeres joins Bob to discuss the tragedy.

In this week’s installment of our series This I Believe, we hear the essay of Jocelyn Fong.  The United States is a nation of immigrants, and no holiday acknowledges that cultural history more than Thanksgiving. For Jocelyn Fong, Thanksgiving meant gathering at her Chinese grandmother’s house with all of her cousins, and piling her plate high with rice — topped with gravy. Fong says her family is an “American blend of a Chinese past and a multicultural future.”

HOUR TWO:

Writer and literary critic Umberto Eco is most famous for his international best-seller In the Name of the Rose.  His most recent novel, The Prague Cemetery, is a literary whodunit that was recently criticized by both a Vatican backed newspaper and by the Chief Rabbi of Rome.  Set in Europe in 1897, the story follows secret agent Captain Simone Simonini as he investigates an assassination and political intrigue.

Bob hears about new books for a winter reading list from Salon.com senior book critic Laura Miller.

Bob Edwards Weekend is heard on Sirius XM Public Radio (XM 121, Sirius 205) on Saturdays from 8-10 AM EST.

Visit Bob Edwards Weekend on PRI’s website to find local stations that air the program.