WYPL Book Talk

Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the current Chair of the Board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, as well as an associate professor of English at American University in Washington, D.C. However, for Book Talk listeners, she is a highly respected writer of fiction. Her debut novel was Wench, followed by Balm, and today we’ll be talking about her newest book, Take My Hand, which is published by Berkley. 

William Hazelgrove has written over twenty books including, Madam President: the Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson and Al Capone and the 1933 World’s Fair. Today we’ll be talking about his most recent title, Greed in the Gilded Age: The Brilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick which is published by Rowman & Littlefield. 

Mark Greaney returns to the program today. We’ve discussed his co-authoring some of and continuing Tom Clancy’s legendary Jack Ryan thrillers. He’s also written a best-selling military thriller with retired Marine Lt. Colonel H. Ripley Rawlings IV, entitled, Red Metal. But most readers know Mark for his successful Gray Man series starring burned CIA operative, Court Gentry. We’ll be talking about his 11th installment in the series, Sierra Six, which is now available from Berkley. 

We welcome Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky to the program today for the first of a two-part interview. Dr. Chervinsky is a presidential historian, as well as a columnist at Governing and Washington Monthly. She is the author of The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution which is now available in paperback from Belknap Press an imprint of Harvard University Press. 

In this episode, Dave Mason of Rhodes College and WYPL interviews Hasanthika Sirisena, Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Susquehanna University. She has published a collection of stories, The Other One. She and Dave discuss her collection of essays, Dark Tourist. which was recently published by Mad Creek/Ohio State University Press.

Brad Taylor is a retired Army Lt. Colonel who served in what is popularly known as Delta Force. After his service he became a thriller author, creating the Pike Logan series. We’ll be talking about his brand new one, End of Days, where a member of an international religious charity has gone rogue and is trying to bring about Armageddon. 

We welcome Daniel de Visé to the program today, in this second part of two episodes. Daniel de Visé is a journalist, writer and graduate of Wesleyan and Northwestern universities. He has worked at The Washington Post, The Miami Herald and a multitude of other newspapers in a career spanning 23 years. In 2001, he was the co-recipient of a team Pulitzer Prize, and has acquired over two dozen other national, as well as regional awards in journalism. He is the author of The King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King, which is published by Grove Press.