One of the most impressive works of non-fiction that I read during 2017 was the book "Glass House - the 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town" by Brian Alexander. Alexander's hometown of Lancaster, Ohio has seen the once vital industrial core of the community withering. Like many towns in the region known as the Rust Belt Lancaster's manufacturing base has shriveled and this once vibrant little town has been dealing with the aftermath of this decline in local employment and all

During the early 1990's a crime reporter for the Dayton Daily News named Cheryl Reed was investigating the crack cocaine epidemic that was underway during that period. Reed was able to interview some young women who were using crack. Reed had been assured by the local police that she would not find any users of one particular race, young white girls, that they simply did not exist in Dayton. Their claims were dubious. As Reed was in the process of disproving that theory a tragedy took place; one

Harry Dolan returned to the program to talk about his delightfully deceptive new mystery novel "The Man in the Crooked Hat." Dolan is a masterful plotter and this story is brilliantly conceived. Our protagonist is Jack Pellum, a reluctant private investigator and former cop who is obsessed with identifying the person who killed his wife. Pellum suspects that is was a mysterious man who had been spotted in the vicinity. This fellow had been wearing the "crooked hat" of the title. While the killer

Some interviews can make a powerful impression. One interview that has stood the test of time is the one that I had in 1998 with Dr. Leonard Shlain about his book "The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image." Nearly twenty years later listeners will still mention it. Leonard had a brilliant mind. When he spoke the flow of information and his ability to present it concisely and in an entertaining way was quite amazing. He was passionate about his work. There are

Clifton Fadiman was one of my boyhood idols. I admired him-to my young mind he epitomized wisdom and savoir faire. He was quick and witty and so very erudite. I hadn't thought about him in years. Then last summer an advance copy of a memoir crossed my desk. It was a book by Anne Fadiman, Clifton's daughter, and the book is mostly about her relationship with him. I was intrigued and I immediately contacted her publicist to request an interview with the author upon the publication of her book.

When you live in a state like Ohio you have to deal with many mistaken notions. Some people on the east coast don't really have a comprehension of what it is like out here in flyover country and that can be a good thing. Allow me to explain. Book publicists frequently contact me by e-mail to see if I'm interested in interviewing authors who will be in my area. Or at least they think that will be the case. Ohio is a big state so when I get a pitch from a publicist wondering if I can talk to an

We live in an affluent consumer society. Many of us have too much stuff and we are obtaining more of it with every passing day. Is your stuff becoming an issue for you? Do you feel like perhaps your life could be better with much less? Rose Lounsbury got to a point in which she realized that she had too much stuff and that it was having a negative impact on the quality of her life. She decided to do something about that. Her inspirational story might inspire you to address any extra stuff that

The Irish writer Maeve Binchy passed through Dayton on book tour in 1999. Maeve and her husband Gordon Snell came out to Yellow Springs for a live interview in our studios. During that conversation she explained that she had never come to America before on a book tour because some health issues had been preventing it. The author was here to publicize the hardcover release of her novel "Tara Road." The following year after the paperback release of the novel Binchy, who was already a beloved

Back in 1999 Mike Wallace appeared on the program to discuss the first volume of his massive history of New York City. That book ended with the year 1898. Wallace was the co-author of that work. It is a massive volume and was highly praised. The book went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. The second volume was originally intended to cover the years from 1898 until the end of World War Two. Wallace was the sole author of this second book and he realized that he would need to be slightly less

"Righteous" by Joe Ide Joe Ide returned to the program to talk about his second book in a series that features a fearless sleuth named I.Q. In his first book, the eponymous "I.Q.," we learned the back story of this young man who investigates crimes in a hardscrabble neighborhood in Los Angeles. He had been devoted to his older brother and after his brother was killed in a traffic accident that tragedy left the younger brother devastated and alone. Fortunately I.Q. has one fellow, a former drug