Book Nook

By Vick MickunasArts Books

Book Nook episodes

July 14, 2018 Book Nook: The Pride of the Yankees by Richard Sandomir
If you are a regular reader of the New York Times you have surely read the writing of Richard Sandomir. He has been with that newspaper for many years. I have always wanted to interview him and I finally got the opportunity with the publication of the paperback edition of his book "The Pride of the Yankees - Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper, and the Making of a Classic." Lou Gehrig was one of the great stars of those New York Yankees baseball teams of the late 1920's and early 1930's. Lou's stamina and
51 min
July 12, 2018 Book Nook: Southernmost, by Silas House
Silas House returned to the program to discuss his new novel "Southernmost." The last time we had Silas on the show it was when he had just published his novel "Clay's Quilt." That was far too long ago. House grew up in a small town in Kentucky and he frequently sets his stories in the Appalachian region. "Southernmost" opens in rural Tennessee. A minister named Asher Sharp is living in a small town. He's the preacher at an evangelical church. He is married to a woman who seems perfectly suited
29 min
July 10, 2018 Book Nook: The Fruit Forager's Companion, by Sara Bir
When Sara Bir takes daily strolls though her neighborhood in southeast Ohio she keeps an eye out for delicious foods. These foods are all around us but most of us don't bother to notice them. Sara is a fruit forager. She finds all kinds of tasty things that are growing right out there in the open and many of these delectable treats end up as food for wildlife or they are wasted by being left to rot on the ground. In her handy guide "The Fruit Forager's Companion: Ferments, Desserts, Main Dishes,
49 min
July 02, 2018 Best of the Book Nook: A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq, by Christopher Hitchens
Over the years that I have been interviewing authors on WYSO I have made some observations about writers. One thing I have noticed is that there are a variety of trajectories that a person's career can take. I have interviewed many people who were just starting out and in most cases, barely being noticed. Then we can go to the other end of that potential trajectory to find the writers who have had that one big book, now years in the past, still hoping to rise to those heights once again and
29 min
June 29, 2018 Best of the Book Nook: The Passion of Artemisia, by Susan Vreeland
In 2002 Susan Vreeland returned to the program to discuss her novel about Artemisia Gentileschi, an Italian painter of baroque masterpieces. "The Passion of Artemisia" was the followup to her extraordinary collection of linked stories "Girl in Hyacinth Blue." Vreeland's depiction of an artist who fought to overcome a sexist society now seems remarkably prescient during our current wave of #MeToo awakenings throughout our culture. If you browse through our Book Nook podcast archive you can locate
51 min
June 27, 2018 Book Nook: No Good Alternative - Volume Two in the Carbon Ideologies, by William T. Vollmann
William T. Vollmann has now published the second half of his massive Carbon Ideologies. Volume Two is called "No Good Alternative" and in this one the author continues his examination of our energy consumption and the growing concerns that our fossil fuel usage is ultimately going to cause drastic changes in the world as we know it. He spent a lot of time in coal country USA in places like West Virginia and Kentucky. He found a landscape that has been altered and devastated by mining practices
29 min
June 20, 2018 Best of the Book Nook: Girl in Hyacinth Blue, by Susan Vreeland
Over the years that I have been reading books and listening to music I have found that the creative processes of writing fiction and writing music have something in common when it comes down to preserving the literature or music which is being created; some authors have just one really great book to write and some musicians have just one really great album to record. Life is funny that way. I suppose that these creative people sometimes get all their really good stuff out in just that one
50 min
June 18, 2018 Book Nook: How It Happened, by Michael Koryta
When Michael Koryta was a teenager in Bloomington, Indiana an abduction and homicide took place just down the road from where he was living. A young woman had been riding her bicycle in the area when she vanished without a trace. The police were baffled by the crime. Later on a confession was made by someone who claimed to have been involved in her abduction. When they attempted to verify the details of that confession in the hope of locating the victim they discovered that the confession had
29 min
June 17, 2018 Book Nook: What Did You Do in the War, Sister? by Dennis J. Turner
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
50 min
June 15, 2018 Book Nook: Maggie Boylan by Michael Henson
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
29 min

About Book Nook

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Listen to the Book Nook with Vick Mickunas for intimate conversations about books with the writers who create them.Vick Mickunas introduced the Book Nook author interview program for WYSO in 1994.…