Over the 26 years that I have been talking to authors about their work I have spoken to many writers who had just published their first books. Many of them have gone on to successful careers while creating impressive bodies of work. Some others never wrote a second book or they wrote just a few more then faded back into the woodwork.
Chris Wallace just published "Countdown 1945 - the Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days that Changed the World." This is his first book. I was astonished to realize he had never written a book before this one. He's an exception to the unknown author with a first book trend however because Chris is a well known journalist with a huge audience for his program on Fox News. And I think we can expect many more books from him. He's got a winning formula here-this one was an instant best-seller.
It wasn't easy to get an interview with Chris. He's a busy fellow. His publicist told me I could only have 15 minutes for the interview. When I called Chris he said hello, you have ten minutes. We got straight to the interview. I'm a long form interviewer so we barely scratched the surface of this explosive topic. I didn't even have time to mention that one of my dearest friends had asked me to say hello to Chris. Ken Bode worked with Chris at NBC News and he told me a story about the time that he and Chris and a couple of other well known reporters were riding in a golf cart outside of a political convention site when a guy in a pickup truck almost plowed right into them. After their narrow escape Ken recounted that Chris had made a humorous comment. Chris, if you are reading this, Bode sends his regards.
And since we had lots of extra time after my eleven minutes with Chris (hey, I got him to talk for an extra minute!), I decided to fill out the rest of the program with another book about the nuclear attacks that took place 75 years ago.
A Best of the Book Nook Bonus Segment "Nagasaki - Life after Nuclear War" by Susan Southard
Hiroshima was the first city that underwent a nuclear attack. Nagasaki was bombed just a few days later. Hiroshima seems to get most of the attention. Here's Chris Wallace with yet another book about Hiroshima. Susan Southard wanted people to know about what happened to the people of Nagasaki when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on their city. Five years ago as we observed the 70th anniversary of those nuclear attacks she published "Nagasaki - Life after Nuclear War." This powerful book went on to win the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
The Book Nook on WYSO is presented by the Greene County Public Library with additional support from Washington-Centerville Public Library, Clark County Public Library, Dayton Metro Library, and Wright Memorial Public Library.
