BookSpeak Network

Everyone knows the story of Jerry Sandusky, the serial pedophile, the Monster. But what if that story is wrong? What if the former Penn State football coach and founder of the Second Mile is an innocent man convicted in the midst of a moral panic fed by the sensationalistic media, police trawling, and memory-warping psychotherapy? The Most Hated Man in America reads like a true crime psychological thriller and is required reading for everyone from criminologists to sports fans.

“If potential readers are convinced that Jerry Sandusky is guilty, they need to read The Most Hated Man in America. This meticulously researched, provocative, and wonderfully written book by Mark Pendergrast, an enormously important contributor to the repressed memory debate, will certainly make them see another side. Maybe they will think twice.”

-- Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor of Psychology & Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, author, The Myth of Repressed Memory and other books.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Independent scholar and science writer Mark Pendergrast is the author of many critically acclaimed, deeply researched works of non-fiction, including Memory Warp, The Repressed Memory Epidemic, Victims of Memory, Uncommon Grounds, Inside the Outbreaks, Mirror Mirror, and For God, Country and Coca-Cola, among others. He lives in Vermont and can be reached through his website, www.markpendergrast.com

David Harshada Wagner has been teaching meditation and self-empowerment to people all over the world in all kinds of venues for more than 20 years. Classically trained in the Indian wisdom traditions of Yoga, Bhakti, Vedanta, and Tantric Shaivism, his teachings come from his decades of personal transformation and his experience serving others to find their authentic path to deep happiness.

David serves on the faculties of YogaGlo, Kripalu, and Omega Institutes, and travels widely training teachers and working with people from all walks of life. He is a proponent of “Inner Yoga” and is deeply dedicated to teaching the consciousness expanding, heart-healing practices and teachings of the Indian mystical traditions. His teaching style is bold, dynamic, and unique, approachable to students from all walks of life.  He is the author of BACKBONE – the Modern Man’s Ultimate Guide to Purpose Passion and Power, and is currently authoring a book based on the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. David currently splits his time between his home in Ojai, California and New York City. For more, visit http://davidhwagner.com

Susan continues the conversation about how our loved ones are always with us, angels guiding us, and how we are never alone in the second part of "Messages from the Other Side" with returning guest, Spiritual Counselor, Annemarie Heckert.

Sherry Knowlton is the author of the Alexa Williams series of murder mysteries including Dead of Autumn, Dead of Summer, and Dead of Spring. 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. 

In today's podcast, Joan and Sherry interview Robert Walton about the latest in his Harry Thursday series, Wish to Die. When Robert appeared on the Milford House Mysteries podcast a few months ago, he told us about his upcoming new release.  Now that Wish to Die has hit the bookshelves, we asked him back to tell us about this new thriller. Set partly in modern-day Greece, with a rollicking plot that involves World War II, Nazis and the famous Amber Room of Russia, we can't wait to hear more about Walton's new thriller.  Please join us for the podcast.

The Final Years of Hazelton Saint Gabriel's Basketball

In the spirit of the movie Hoosiers, Trumpet Call to Victorytells the story of a small parochial high school located in the Pennsylvania coalfields that reached the summit of basketball glory in the late 1960s. Glorious victories and heartbreaking defeats are chronicled on Saint Gabriel’s path to capturing multiple state championships. Unsung heroes and scholastic superstars take center stage during what, in the last five years of the school’s existence, can only be described as a ‘golden age.' The feats of the greatest player in the region’s history are chronicled as is the beginning of a career for a coach who arranged to have a young Bobby Knight address his state championship team at the school’s sports banquet. That coach, Richard “Digger” Phelps, recently recalled his first head coaching job in a tweet which read, “St. Gabes was my first step to ND. They made it happen.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JOE FARLEY was born and raised in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the last class to graduate from Hazleton Saint Gabriel’s High School where he demonstrated his academic prowess by graduating thirty-seventh in his class of forty. While attending Saint Gabriel’s, Mr. Farley was the starting point guard on the school’s 1970 state championship basketball team. He then attended Bloomsburg State University where, after four dimly remembered years, he graduated with a degree in education.

Dennis M. Clausen was born and raised in a Minnesota small town near the South Dakota border. His early years on the prairie provided the inspiration for his novels and other literary works that chronicle the struggles of these small towns to survive in modern America. In addition to writing and publishing since the early 1980s, he has been a professor of American literature and screenwriting at the University of San Diego for forty-six years. Currently, he is working with Sunbury Press on several literary projects. The Search for Judd McCarthy and The Sins of Rachel Sims, novels that feature the fictional character Ned Finley’s research into early-life and other human memories, are scheduled for publication in early summer of 2018. The Accountant’s Apprentice, a novel set in San Diego at a time when the homeless population was increasing dramatically, is scheduled for publication in October of 2018. My Christmas Attic, the story of a young boy struggling with dyslexia and the loss of his father in the Korean War, will be published in late November of 2018.

Chicken Bone Beach: A Pictorial History of Atlantic City's Missouri Avenue Beach

Cheryl Woodruff-Brooks has compiled this history of Atlantic City's racially segregated beach during its heyday from the 1920s through the 1960s and the residents who lived on the Northside near the established Missouri Avenue Beach. Included are images, research, and oral interviews of Atlantic City residents. Despite racial division in America, Chicken Bone Beach functioned as an African-American resort attracting celebrities, civic leaders, and other races.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Cheryl Woodruff-Brooks is a legislative assistant with the Pennsylvania House of Representatives who recently completed her Masters of Arts in American Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Cheryl’s passion for writing began as a child and won her a Martha Holden Jennings Essay Scholarship in high school and another essay scholarship from the National Black MBA Association while pursuing her Masters from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Cheryl is also a professional vocalist, writing songs for her own music projects as well as other artists. Cheryl was featured in Currents Magazine (PSU Alumni Magazine). Spring/Summer 2016 issue, discussing the exhibit of Chicken Bone Beach photographs.and the history of the beach.Cheryl resides in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania with her husband and son.

Have you ever thought about the critical role of an editor when you're reading a book?  Podcast hosts Joan West and Sherry Knowlton both like to think that they write the perfect manuscript for each of their novels.  But, truth be told, our editors not only dot the I's and cross the T's but make sure the story works in so many other ways. In this episode we're going to look behind the curtain at how an editor helps authors polish and perfect their novels with guest, Jennifer Cappello, Managing Editor at Sunbury Press. Tune in to hear Jen give us the inside scoop on what it's like to be a book editor -- and manage a staff of other editors - at a publishing house.

Milford House Mysteries Hosts - Sherry Knowlton is the author of the Alexa Williams series of murder mysteries including Dead of Autumn, Dead of Summer, and Dead of Spring. 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.

When a ninety-five-year-old World War II veteran from Utah agrees to reveal the untold details of his wartime experiences to a pediatrician from Brooklyn, an intense bond is formed between the two men, each of whom is taken on an unexpected journey in search of the truth.

Dreams of My Comrades chronicles the life of Murray Jacobs, a former Navy Seabee, who served in the Pacific Theater and was treated for PTSD until his death at the age of ninety-eight. He agreed to a series of interviews, under the strict conditions that his real name could not be used, and the details of the conversations could not be disclosed to anyone until after he was dead.

Murray’s story is not one of heroism, nor does he portray himself as heroic in his narrative. In the course of his dialogue with the author, Murray confesses to wartime atrocities the likes of which have never before been heard. Despite his advanced age, his recollections are entirely lucid, and he describes the events of his life in vivid detail. As the conversations progress, however, the author comes to recognize the challenges involved in trying to depict history based on the account of a single elderly man. Discrepancies lead to doubts, doubts lead to disbelief, disbelief leads to investigation, and after exhausting all possible avenues of research, unanswered questions linger and tantalize. This is a unique story, one that will not only appeal to connoisseurs of history but to anyone interested in the psychology of the human condition. It is unlike any narrative ever told about a veteran of the Second World War.

In this episode of Milford House Mysteries, Joan and Sherry will discuss some of the key elements of a mystery or suspense novel.  Plot, character, red herrings, plot twists and more.  Join us to hear our view of important components of mystery and suspense that grab readers and keep them on the edge of their seats.  J. M. West is the author of the Carlisle Crime Cases series at CarlisleCrimesCases.com.  Sherry Knowlton writes the Alexa Williams suspense series -- www.sherryknowlton.com