Lee Child made his fourth appearance on the program to discuss his latest Jack Reacher thriller "The Midnight Line." During this interview I told Lee that I think this is his best book yet. And I mean it. This novel is a bit of a departure for him. In this one Reacher is on a quest. He found a ring in a pawn shop and he wants to return it to the original owner. When he meets the person who owned the ring he is overcome by compassion. We don't think of Reacher as the emotional type. In "The

In 1929 the Soviet dictator Stalin began the process of what was known as the collectivization of agriculture in the Soviet Union. There was a lot of resistance to this effort especially in the breadbasket region of the Ukraine. Stalin was determined to crush the Ukrainian nationalist movement and his agricultural policies served to do this quite effectively. As Anne Applebaum describes it in her book "Red Famine - Stalin's War with Ukraine" during the period 1931 to 1933 over five million

John Sandford returned to the program to talk about his latest offering in the series that features his crime investigator Virgil Flowers. John has appeared on the program a half dozen times over the years and while we do spend a lot of time discussing each book and the story lines we also have had some conversations that have taken us to some other interesting places. In an interview many years ago John talked about something he enjoyed doing in his spare time; conducting archaeological digs in

If you ask me to name my favorite writers to interview Julie Klam would be high on the list. In her latest book Julie delves into our cultural obsession with celebrities. Have you ever wondered why some of us seem to be so fascinated by people who spend most of their time trying to impress us with their talent, their beauty, their conspicuous consumption, their wealth, or their celebrity? Julie peels back the layers of our attractions to these people to uncover the roots of our interest and she

14 years ago I booked an interview with an author who had just published his first book. Gary Shteyngart was on book tour for the paperback release of "The Russian Debutante's Handbook" and he came out to Yellow Springs for a live interview. I had really enjoyed the book and was looking forward to meeting him. Gary arrived and from the very start of our exchange that day I realized that I was in the presence of one of our great humorists. I have interviewed Gary for every one of his books and if

Fourteen years ago Calvin Trillin came out to Yellow Springs to do a live interview with me. I had not listened to the recording we made that afternoon until just recently and had forgotten how much fun we had had that day talking about food. I have had a number of food writers on the show over the years but I cannot think of any other guest who indulges in various gustatory delights with such gusto and obvious pleasure as Trillin does. And it was one of those rare opportunities. I have never

Now and then a listener will ask me how I go about obtaining interviews with authors? The majority of the interviews that I book, probably 90%, are obtained by contacting publicists who work for the publishers of particular books. The most competent publicists will often send me advance copies of books that they think might be of interest to me. That gives me time to read books before they are actually available to the public. If I like a book then I will have an opportunity to contact a

Back in 2003 I was contacted by a book publicist in New York who wondered if I would be interested in interviewing a writer from Scotland who was going to be coming through Dayton on book tour? The author's name is Ian Rankin-he is the creator of a series of crime novels featuring an Edinburgh police detective, Inspector John Rebus. I had heard of the series but I had not read any of the books yet. I agreed to an interview and began reading "Resurrection Men" which was Rankin's current book at

A new book by James McBride is an event. The last time he appeared on this program he had just published his novel "The Good Lord Bird." That extraordinary book went on to win the National Book Award. If you have not read it, you are missing out. McBride's latest book, "Five-Carat Soul," is a collection of stories. In these tales the author transports us to the waning moments of the Civil War as a young orphan wonders if is father really is Abraham Lincoln. We are taken on a quest to locate the

When the Irish writer Nuala O'Faolain was in her fifties she published her first book. It was a memoir called "Are You Somebody?" She came out to WYSO for an interview during her book tour. Her memoir is breathtakingly fabulous. And so was she. We had a lovely chat that day. I never expected to see her again. But fortunately I did see her again and we had more interviews. The response to her memoir was so positive that Nuala decided to give this book writing thing another try. She was a