Dennis Turner was feeling perturbed about some things that have been happening in our country. Fortunately he found a distraction that took his mind away from current events. Turner heard about an archive of letters in Cincinnati-these missives penned by nuns who were living in convents in Europe during World War Two inspired him to write this book. "What Did You Do in the War, Sister? How Catholic Nuns in Belgium Defied and Deceived the Nazis in World War Two" is a fictional memoir. The

The opioid crisis is a national emergency. The scourge of opioid abuse and addiction has hit the Appalachian region especially hard. It has been documented that there's a town in West Virginia that was literally inundated with Oxycontin by the manufacturer. Southern Ohio has seen more than our share of overdoses and tragedy. Michael Henson, a former drug and alcohol abuse counselor, has observed the ravages of the opioid crisis up close. He has set "Maggie Henson," his collection of interlinked

After Sue Grafton died last December I put together a special memorial program in her honor. You can locate that program in our podcast archive. I took excerpts from my first interview with Sue for her book "M is for Malice" and my third and final interview with her for "W is for Wasted." Recently we digitized my second interview with Sue for her novel "P is for Peril." This conversation was recorded in 2001 and we find the author in her usual fine form. Her beloved Kinsey Milhone mystery series

The Star Wars movie franchise is alive and well after all these years and the physicist and Star Wars aficionado Patrick Johnson decided that it was high time Star Wars fans had a handbook to help them understand the physics that come into play in the films. So he decided to write one. In "The Physics of Star Wars - the Science Behind a Galaxy Far, Far Away" the author explains subjects like repulsorlifts, podracers, hover car traffic, hyperspace, lightsabers, ion cannons, death stars, frozen

Lake County, Florida used to be a very dangerous place to live. It wasn't because there was a high crime rate. In fact Willis McCall, the long-time sheriff of Lake County presented more of a hazard to some residents than any criminals ever would. In his book "Devil in the Grove" the author Gilbert King wrote about a horrible injustice that took place there and the crimes that were perpetrated by that corrupt and violent sheriff. When the author was on a publicity tour in the region for that book

Pamela Wechsler is a former prosecutor who has taken up a new career writing for television and penning crime novels. Her latest book is her third in a series set in Boston. Her protagonist is Abby Endicott, the chief homicide prosecutor for the city. The author is a former prosecutor in Boston so she is writing about matters that she knows rather well. In this one Boston is rocked by the news that a star player for the Boston Red Sox has been murdered. An investigation that involves Fenway, the

Gloria Stuart was a movie star in early Hollywood. Back in those days they would have called her a starlet. She left Hollywood and the movie business and began a second career as an artist and a maker of hand-made books. Today her work is in museums. Late in life she was contacted by James Cameron who was working on the casting for his movie "Titanic." He ended up casting Stuart in the role of "Old Rose." The movie went on to become a massive hit film and Stuart was suddenly back in the public

William T. Vollmann writes some massive books. His current offering is so enormous that his publisher had to split it into two volumes. The first installment is "No Immediate Danger-Volume One of the Carbon Ideologies." Volume Two, "No Good Alternative," will be published in June. I spoke to Bill Vollmann about the first volume-we had a sobering discussion about this very important book. Vollmann has written this book by taking the approach that he is leaving this text behind for some reader in

In 1999 I had the pleasure of conducting another interview with Virginia Hamilton. The first time I had Virginia on the program it was a rather unique experience because Virginia had been joined in studio for a joint interview with her husband the poet Arnold Adoff. For this second interview Virginia traveled the half mile or so from her home in Yellow Springs to our studios and I had the opportunity to converse with her again about her incredible body of work. At that time Virginia had just

John Scalzi is probably the best known writer who lives in our area. Here's a review of his latest book that I wrote for the Cox Ohio newspapers: John Scalzi just published "Head On," the follow-up novel to his 2014 book "Lock In." Scalzi, who resides in the village of Bradford (OH) is full of surprises and this book contains several. The author has recounted how years ago he determined at random whether to write mysteries or science fiction. Science fiction won out. Even so this new book