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Book Nook: The Good Lord Bird, by James McBride (Riverhead Books)

Henry Shackleford begins his tale in the Kansas Territory. The year was 1856 and Henry was a slave. Soon the abolitionist John Brown appears on the scene. Brown is all fired up about fighting slavery. When he encounters Henry he thinks she's a girl named Henrietta. And he quickly coins an affectionate nickname for him (her): Onion. From that point onward Onion dresses like a girl. Many years later, when Henry was 100+ years old he told someone about his crazy adventures with John Brown.

This enchanting book is narrated by Onion as he describes the fateful chain of events that garnered him a role in John Brown's raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Onion's yarn is fabulous. You'll laugh when you read it. In this interview James McBride described what it felt like to write  this marvelous story. This is one of the best novels of 2013.

Vick Mickunas introduced the Book Nook author interview program for WYSO in 1994. Over the years he has produced more than 1500 interviews with writers, musicians, poets, politicians, and celebrities. Listen to the Book Nook with Vick Mickunas for intimate conversations about books with the writers who create them. Vick Mickunas reviews books for the Dayton Daily News and the Springfield News Sun.