Host Diana Korte speaks with Douglas Preston, author of "THE LOST TOMB." Some of the stories in this book have taken him from the haunted country of Italy and the largest tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings to the booby-trapped Money Pit on Oak Island in Nova Scotia and a cannibal site in the American Southwest.

Listeners might be familiar with some of his other 40 books including "Lost City of the Monkey God" and his co-authored fiction series featuring FBI special agent Pendergast.

TUNE IN for, what he found when he was the first to enter an Egyptian burial chamber that had been sealed for millennia, why many of his books include archeologists, and his one piece of advice for would be writers that might be quite difficult to accomplish.

Cary Elwes, who was then age 23, played the dashing character known as Westley in this cult movie classic. He talked about the behind-the-scenes making of the movie in his book, “As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride” when we spoke in 2014.

The continued unexpected popularity of this happy movie made 36 years ago didn’t begin until ten years after it was released, thanks to the new VHS and cable tv then and the streaming internet today. 

Tune in for the name of Cary Elwes’s favorite fan, his biggest challenge—the inconceivable one—in making the movie, and what it took to create that great sword fight.  

Today I spoke with the James Beard Award-winning  Fuchsia Dunlop about her 7th book, “Invitation To A Banquet. The Story of Chinese Food.”  

Based in London, she speaks, reads, and writes Chinese and has traveled, often writing down recipes, for 30 years all around China.

Rather than another cookbook, “Invitation to a Banquet” is an exploration of the history, techniques, and philosophies of Chinese cuisine. She presents this through a "menu" of thirty dishes from different parts of the country including Mapo tofu, drunken crabs and stir-fried greens. 

TUNE IN for what many non-Chinese people most misunderstand about Chinese food along with a glimpse into Fuchsia Dunlop’s adventures as the first westerner to train at the influential Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine in mainland China. 

Author of more than a dozen books, historian Nathaniel Philbrick’s “Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War” details the perilous ocean crossing the European pilgrims made.  Imagine the struggle of moving 2 mph for 3,000 miles over two months. 

Yes, the Native American Wampanoags shared bounty with the Pilgrims at that first tense Thanksgiving, but unlike what many of us learned in grade school, it was an overwhelmingly Native affair.  As for the menu, probably yes to turkeys, ducks and venison but no to cranberry sauce and pumpkin pies. The author describes these and many other new facts about this epic time in American history.    

This Booktalk program dates back to 2007.

Host Diana Korte speaks with Alexander McCall Smith, the author of more than 100 books sold around the world in 40 languages. This includes the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels, plus other series and stand-alone books.  

His newest title in this cozy series, the 24th, is From a Far and Lovely Country featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe and her world of familiar characters. 

In this latest installment two cases compete for Mma Ramotswe's attention—and she may need to call in back up. But no worries, there’s always time for red bush tea and fruitcake. 

Tune in for just how many hours a day Scotsman McCall Smith spends writing his 5 books a year, why the series takes place in Botswana, and what happens when Assistant Detective Charlie gets his first case.    

At age 84 Madeleine Albright passed away last year. She was the first woman US Secretary of State, US Ambassador to the United Nations, and author of numerous books including PRAGUE WINTER. 

  She came to the US with her family as a political refugee, a daughter of a diplomat, and spent her teen years in Colorado. She spoke of the indispensable role of international diplomacy as the world often faces multiple crises. Like now.

In our last conversation in 2012 about her book, “Prague Winter,” she reminisces about her early days in Czechoslovakia. She goes on to describe a family secret that she didn’t discover until she was age 59 and with characteristic candor, details some of the political predicaments that were occurring a decade ago and somehow still seem familiar today.  

Taras Grescoe, author of  “THE LOST SUPPER”, his eighth book, explores an understanding that is quickly spreading among chefs, food producers, and scientists: that the key to sustainable eating lies not in looking forward, but in looking back to the foods—many of them forgotten or on the verge of extinction—that have sustained us through our half-million year existence as a species.

Grescoe is a widely read commentator on the interplay of food, travel, and the environment. His journalism has been published in many newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Guardian, and National Geographic. 

 Tune in for details about the insects that fueled the diet of the Aztecs, the value of farmhouse cheese, and how to start your own journey to the food varieties of the past.  

Craig Johnson, author of a Wyoming mystery series featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire is back with his 19th in the series, THE LONGMIRE DEFENSE.  This long running string of books is not only a bestseller in the book world, but continues as a popular TV show, Longmire, on Netflix despite being cancelled some years ago.  

This new novel takes readers deep into the heart of the Wyoming countryside where Sheriff Longmire is called to a crime scene like few others that he has seen. This crime and the old rifle that is found at the site bring up issues that go back to his grandfather Lloyd Longmire’s time in Wyoming. And the revelations he learns about Lloyd offer clues and motives for Walt’s investigation. 

Tune in for what's up with the tv show, where Johnson gets his book ideas, and what's coming next.

In 2018 former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor, author of BLOWBACK: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump wrote an anonymous opinion piece in The New York Times from inside the Trump administration. He revealed publicly what Trump’s cabinet was saying privately: the president was dangerously unfit for office. 

He unmasked himself 2 years later to urge Americans to vote against Trump in 2020 and launched the largest alliance of ex-officials in United States history to take down the president who appointed them.

In the world of national security — the world Taylor comes from — there’s a term to describe the unintended consequences of our actions, of failing to see what’s around the corner if we make the wrong choice: BLOWBACK.

Tune in for why Trump’s supporters are so loyal, what is the worst part of being a political target, and what only citizens can do to keep the US a strong democracy.     

James McBride’s newest book is THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them.

As the story begins, it’s 1972. Workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania are digging the foundations for a new development, and the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. 

When the truth is finally revealed about what happened and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community— heaven and earth— that sustain us.

James McBride is an award-winning writer, musician, and screenwriter, the author of eight books, and brother to 11 siblings. His landmark memoir, The Color of Water, published in 1996, has sold millions of copies.  Considered an American classic, it is read in schools and universities across the US.