All About Books

A presidential candidate is assassinated at San Francisco’s swanky Claremont Hotel in 1944. Homicide detective Al Sullivan was having a drink in the bar downstairs. This begins the historical thriller “The Golden Gate” by Amy Chua. Hear a review of this best-selling author’s debut novel.

Political columnist Max Boot took on the task of writing a monumental biography of conservative icon Ronald Regan. Combining interviews with the President’s aides, friends and family as well as newly available documents, this new biography details Regan’s life beyond just the political years. Hear a review of “Reagan: His Life and Legend” by Max Boot

On a harsh but beautiful island off the coast of Wales, a young woman looks after the home for her father and younger sister after their mother dies. In the novel “Whale Fall” by Elizabeth O’Connor, the dreams of venturing out into a bigger world come into conflict with community obligations.

At the start of WWII, the U.S. found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. To hire the experts needed,the government looked to academia for recruits. English professors, librarians, and historians were suddenly pulled into spy craft. This history is detailed in the new book “Book and Dagger” by Elyse Graham.

Set in a starkly beautiful North Dakota community, “The Mighty Red”, a novel by Louise Erdrich, reveals ordinary people who are complicated and contradictory as they struggle, dream, and love.

This week on All About Books” Pat Leach talks with author Kevin Shinn a former collegiate pastor, chef and restaurateur. His lifelong spiritual journey eventually led him to his typewriter where he worked out his latest book, “A Different Metaphor: Faith That Imagines The Impossible.”

It’s a day in the lives of a team of 6 international astronauts as they orbit the earth. There are mundane daily tasks, solitude, as well as profoundly moving vistas of the fragile earth below. “Orbital: a Novel” by Samantha Harvey, winner of the 2004 Booker Prize, is reviewed on this week's "All About Books."

Two women with opposite personalities share a house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961. Suspicion between them becomes obsession in the novel “The Safe Keep” by Yael van der Wouden, a tale about the legacy of World War 2 and the darker corners of the past.

It’s 1921 in Panang Malaysia where the novel “The House of Doors” introduces real events and people, like the writer Somerset Maugham, along with fictional characters. The sunset of British Empire is the backdrop for this tale about the complicated nature of love and friendship.

“How to Read a Book: a Novel” by Monica Wood is an honest and hopeful story of struggling with guilt, second chances, and how books can change a life.