BookSpeak Network

The Last Ride of the Iron Horse: How Lou Gehrig Fought ALS to Play One Final Championship Season

Last Ride of the Iron Horse tells the tale of Lou Gehrig's final year in the Yankee lineup, as he dealt with early effects of the paralytic disease ALS. For much of the 1938 season, the legendary Gehrig -- dubbed the Iron Horse for his strength and reliability -- struggled with slumps and a mystifying loss of power that shook his confidence. Fans booed and sportswriters called for him to be benched. Then, as the Yankees battled for the pennant in August, Lou began pounding home runs like his old self -- a turnaround that in retrospect looks truly miraculous. It may have been a rare case of temporary ALS reversal.

About the Author:

Dan Joseph is a journalist and author living in the Washington, D.C. area. He is a graduate of Indiana University and has spent nearly 20 years working for the Voice of America, most as an editor in VOA’s central newsroom. He previously co-authored “Inside Al-Shabaab,” a study of the East African terrorist organization. A member of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research), he is also a lifelong baseball fan and one of the few living people under 50 to have attended a Pittsburgh Pirates World Series game.

JOEL BURCAT

Joel Burcat is the author of environmental legal thrillers, speculative thrillers, and imaginative stories about everything from beer to murder. 

As a practicing environmental lawyer, Joel Burcat writes environmental legal thrillers that are both electrifying and accurate. His published shorter works range from thrillers about “the best beer I’ve ever had” to a middle-aged lawyer running off to Italy, jeopardizing the lives and careers of his young associates.

Burcat’s writings explore many facets of life, although he has a true fascination with unexpected twists. His characters’ reasons for doing things are as important as their actions. From the person lying in bed next to you to psychopathic strip mine operators, each has an underlying motive to be explored and revealed.

Burcat has completed five novels. Three of them are environmental legal thrillers, DRINK TO EVERY BEAST, AMID RAGE, and STRANGE FIRE. Watch for DRINK TO EVERY BEAST, published by Headline Books and available at bookstores, Amazon, and Kindle in May 2019. Watch for AMID RAGE coming soon!

Burcat grew up in Philadelphia. He now has two grown daughters, and lives with his wife in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the place that provides the setting for many of his stories.

PRAISE for Drink to Every Beast

“…A fast-paced and compelling story.”

– DP Lyle, MD, award-winning author of the Jake Longly and Cain/Harper thriller series

“…a fast-paced environmental legal thriller with smart, engaging characters and a level of complexity that serious readers of the genre will undoubtedly enjoy.”

– Jeff Gunhus, USA TODAY bestselling author 

“…a spine-tingling thriller that will make you want more.”

– Don Helin, award-winning author of Devil’s Den and Secret Assault

“In a world haunted by aggression, violence, and betrayal, ‘You Are Not Alone’ serves as a campfire around which we can gather, united in our commitment to alter the trajectory of sexual violence and reclaim the dignity of our lives. It illuminates the resilience of the human beings who've lived through the trauma of sexual violence and inspires all of us to become more evolved and compassionate in our intimate connections.” -- Dr. Paul L. Hokemeyer, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, New York, NY www.drhokemeyer.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Jyssica Schwartz is a thirty-something writer, editor, and book coach living in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and a very fluffy cat. She has 10 years of corporate sales and business development experience before she quit her job in early 2017 to pursue being a full-time writer. Building and refining her business has been a challenge and a joy. Jyssica is often found curled up with a cat and a book, posting pictures of food and cats on Instagram, pithy notes on Twitter, or discussing random thoughts on her Medium blog when she probably should be working. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida and has always been a writer, even before she was getting paid. Jyssica loves music, traveling, rollercoasters, the Yankees, and the Offspring. Check out her website at www.jyssicaschwartz.com, blog at medium.com/@jyssicaschwartz, and join her mailing list for rare notes on writer-y things.

About the Book:

Set in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Only You . . . relates Eileen Obser’s personal experience growing up in Queens, New York—her doomed-to-fail marriage at eighteen to a nineteen-year-old boy from their candy store crowd. Eileen shows how two naïve, uninformed teenagers were influenced by social and religious pressures, to disastrous consequences.

About the Author:

EILEEN OBSER holds am MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Stony Brook University. She also has a BA in Writing and Literature from SUNY Empire State College. Eileen has written many free-lance articles, short stories, and essays published in The Washington Post Magazine, New York Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, Newsday, The Village Voice, The East Hampton Star, Proteus, The Southampton Review, Coast Lines anthology, Love Alters (anthology) and other publications.

Obser was born and raised in Glendale, Queens, New York and has resided in East Hampton, New York since 1975.

BANDSTANDLAND: HOW DANCING TEENAGERS TOOK OVER AMERICA AND DICK CLARK TOOK OVER ROCK & ROLL by Larry Lehmer*******

American Bandstand, one of the longest running shows in television history, spotlighted well-scrubbed, properly dressed, mostly all-white dancing teenagers on every show.  They mirrored the show's perpetually youthful host, Dick Clark, who spun the music Clark often described as "the soundtrack to our lives." 

These are the memories Clark carefully nurtured as he crafted the alternate teen universe of Bandstandland during the formative years of American Bandstand from 1952 to 1964.  Bandstandland was a mythical creation by Clark, who saw the show as a springboard to immense wealth rather than a tribute to teen culture.

Clark was a relentless businessman who once had ownership stakes in 33 corporations, most created by him.  He created rules to keep black teens off the show, promoted the teens that danced on the show when it served his purposes and banned them when it didn't and effectively turned American Bandstand into his own personal infomercial.

Bandstandland sheds light on the little-known backstory of the TV program that was America's top-rated daytime television show in its heyday and enjoyed a 37 year run from 1952 to 1989.

****Larry Lehmer is also the author of The Day the Music Died: The Last Tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens

In this episode, co-hosts Jody West and Sherry Knowlton interview Timothy Jay Smith, author of literary thrillers with a focus on social justice and foreign settings.  Jody and Sherry will talk to Smith about his writing journey, his experiences aroung the globe and his latest novel, The Fourth Courier. Smith's earlier, critically acclaimed novels include A Vision of Angels, Fire on the Island and Cooper's Promise. He also has written a number of award-winning screenplays and plays.  Tune in to hear Smith's perspective on literary thrillers, screenwriting and writing for the stage as well as his adventures abroad.

Milford House Mysteries Hosts - Sherry Knowlton is the author of the Alexa Williams series of murder mysteries including Dead of Autumn, Dead of Summer, Dead of Spring, and Dead of Winter. Joan West is the author of the Carlisle Crime Cases series including Dying for Vengeance, Courting Doubt and Darkness, Darkness at First Light, and Had a Dying Fall.

Back in the 1970s, a series of bizarre incidents occurred at what has since been known as "The Devil Tree."  Beneath this ancient denizen, evil was wrought by a sick serial killer, calling upon forces most evil and dark.  People were hung there ... and bodies buried there ... exhumed by the police.  Overcome by superstition, some tried to cut down the tree, to no avail.  Since then, it has stood in a remote section of a local park --- left to its own devices --- quiet in its eerie repose -- until now!

Best-selling psychological-thriller author Keith Rommel has imagined the whole tale anew. He's brought the tree to life and retold the tale with gory detail only possible in a fiction novel. Action-packed, with spine-tingling detail, this thriller is beyond parallel in the ground it uncovers ... one author's explanation of what may have really been said -- what may have really happened -- under Port St. Lucie's "Devil Tree."

http://www.keithrommel.com/

Music by Capitol recording artists BANG.       Copyright 1972/1973 by Bang Music, Inc.

Robert Friedman was born in the Bronx and lived in Puerto Rico for over 20 years, working as a reporter, editor, and columnist for the San Juan Star. He covered politics as the Star's Washington Correspondent until the paper folded in 2008. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Miami Herald among other publications. He reported from Puerto Rico for the NY Daily News as a special correspondent in the 1980s and 1990s. He is the author of four novels. Friedman lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. He has two grown daughters who were born in Puerto Rico.

In this episode, co-hosts Jody West and Sherry Knowlton interview Dr. Barry Libin, author of two thrillers about weighty subjects, the Catholic Church and Milton's Paradise Lost.  Jody and Sherry will talk to Dr. Libin about his writing journey, his affinity for religious history, and the inevitable comparisons of his books to those of Dan Brown. Dr. Libin's novels are Mystery of the Milton Manuscript and his recent release, The Vatican's Vault.

Milford House Mysteries Hosts - Sherry Knowlton is the author of the Alexa Williams series of murder mysteries including Dead of Autumn, Dead of Summer, Dead of Spring, and Dead of Winter. Joan West is the author of the Carlisle Crime Cases series including Dying for Vengeance, Courting Doubt and Darkness, Darkness at First Light, and Had a Dying Fall.

On Thursday, March 14 join co-hosts J.M. West and Sherry Knowlton on Milford House Mysteries when we interview author April Knight.  Knight’s newest book, Nobody Dies in Kansas, is a psychological thriller mystery set in 1950s – you guessed it – Kansas. The interview will also explore Knight’s prolific multi-form, multi-genre writing career, including some of her most recent novels: Dig the Grave First (mystery), Sweet Dreams (Romance), Stars in the Desert (Romance); her many short stories and magazine articles; her newspaper column; and her regular contributions to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

 

Milford House Mysteries Hosts - Sherry Knowlton is the author of the Alexa Williams suspense series, including Dead of Autumn, Dead of Summer, Dead of Spring and Dead of Winter. Joan West is the author of the Carlisle Crime Cases series, including Dying for Vengeance, Courting Doubt and Darkness, Darkness at First Light, and Had a Dying Fall.