Lois Walker West remembers the way things used to be. In her memoir "The Appalachian Way in Coal Country" she recalls a simpler life that her family lived in a remote hollow in Kentucky during the waning days of the Great Depression. The family lived on a hillside. There was no electricity and no running water. They burned coal for heat and went to their spring house for water. You could not drive to their house. They did not own a car. The family grew lots of their own food. They had a big

If you are someone who looks for author interviews on the radio, TV, internet or wherever then you probably have noticed many programs tend to feature mostly fiction or primarily non-fiction. Over the years that I have been talking to authors I have tried to include a variety of selections from both fiction and non-fiction categories. Non-fiction can sometimes take us to different levels of learning and insight. When we look at history we can experience many aspects of our humanity that are

Shuly Cawood returned to the program for her fourth interview in less than two years. The first time I had her on the show it was to talk about her memoir "The Going and Goodbye." Shuly returned to the program last year to share some of her poetry with us. Then late last year we had Shuly back on again for her book "52 Things I Wish I Had Told Myself When I Was 17." When I heard that Shuly would be back in her hometown of Yellow Springs for a book signing I simply had to ask her back for yet

The Miami Valley has been a hotbed for aviation ever since the Wright Brothers were making test flights on a prairie that is now located on Wright Patterson Air Force Base. One of the lesser known local aviation stories is that of the pioneering aviator Neal Loving. Loving was a long-time resident of Yellow Springs and back in 1996 he stopped by our studios to do an interview about his memoir "Loving's Love: A Black American's Experiences in Aviation." He described how he developed his passion

During the 1850s rural Athens County, Ohio was briefly a center for some spiritualist activities. The spiritualism movement had begun to sweep across America during the late 1840's and Jonathan Koons became something of a rock star on the scene as he demonstrated his psychic powers for hundreds and possibly thousands of people who made the difficult journey to his farm in southeast Ohio to spend time in his spirit room. In her book "Enchanted Ground - the Spirit Room of Jonathan Koons" Sharon

A century ago the suffragettes who were trying to win the right to vote were drawing closer to victory in their long campaign. The Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was finally passed as the state of Tennessee became the last state needed to ratify for the cause to be won. The drama that took place in Nashville was truly amazing. Elaine Weiss tells the tale of what happened that summer. It is a stirring story and one that is not very well known 100 years later. There were many

A free press is one of the key elements in maintaining a healthy democracy and in-depth investigative journalism is a crucial aspect of a free press. Elaine Shannon is one of our truly gifted investigative reporters. It was really a pleasure to interview her about her new book. Here's my review of it which ran recently in the Cox Ohio newspapers: When I picked up a copy of "Hunting Leroux - the Inside Story of the DEA Takedown of a Criminal Genius and His Empire" by Elaine Shannon I was

Charles Cumming made his first appearance on the program recently when he called in to our studios from London, England. I was somewhat embarrassed to admit to Charles that I had not been aware of him before reading his latest spy novel, "The Moroccan Girl." Now I have some catching up to do; Charles has been penning novels for some time and has amassed an impressive body of work. The author had some fun with this story. One captivating aspect of espionage novels and the people who create them

I just perused the fiction best-sellers in the Sunday New York Times and I see that "Cemetery Road" by Greg Iles made a debut on the list at #2. Wow, that's fabulous and totally deserved. Greg's new book is set in a fictional Mississippi town and it is a short book for him; only 600 pages. It is a story about family secrets and one very dark secret that Greg doesn't think any readers will be able to guess until they arrive on the shocking page which reveals the horrible truth. The author

For the past 15 years at the end of each year I have written columns for the Cox Ohio newspapers which list my favorite books from the preceding year. By December I usually have a very good notion of which books will make the final cut. This past December I was reading an advance copy of "The Border" by Don Winslow and I was loving that book so much that when I finished reading it I thought that this incredible final book in the author's trilogy about Mexican drug cartels is probably going to be