Books - Non-Fiction

Huffman Prairie is just down the road from our studios in Yellow Springs. Have you ever been there? It is located at Wright Patterson Air Force Base and that is the spot where the Wright Brothers perfected their flying machines. In fact if they had not accomplished this modern miracle at that location Huffman Prairie as it is today would surely not exist.

Chris Hedges returned to the program to discuss his latest book. Over the years that I have been interviewing him I have discovered that his books are serious critiques of our society. He is thoughtful, articulate, and determined. This latest book is one of the most essential books that I have read in many years. Hedges speaks his truth and that can be profoundly depressing.

Sara Bir returned to the program to discuss her cookbook of recipes from all over Ohio. We live in a big state with varied cuisines. The food you'll find in Cleveland will be quite different from what you might discover to eat in Cincinnati. And then there are all those places in between. The author did a great job of assembling a wide variety of recipes that reflect the diversity and culinary excitement that you can find in Ohio.

Dylan Taylor-Lehman moved to our area and became a reporter for the Yellow Springs News. His experiences as a journalist provided him with some insights into life in this unusual small town. Ohio is a state that has a form of government by townships. Dylan was sent to cover a meeting of the Miami Township Board of Trustees. Yellow Springs is located in Miami Township.

By the time he was in the fourth grade my older brother had amassed quite a collection of comic books. I was in the second grade then and early in the mornings while my brother was still asleep I would sneak a few comics out of his stash and huddle up next to the heat vent and read them until it was time for breakfast and then our walk to school. I truly enjoyed those moments and it was always a bit crushing when my father, who was my hero, would notice me there, absorbed in my reading, and he would often make scornful comments like; "you'll never find a job reading comic books."

Most of you are familiar with the expression "the third time's the charm." But what does that mean, exactly? Well, in the case of Mark Bernstein it means that I have interviewed him three different times for the same book and that on the third try we finally got things right. Actually, that isn't entirely true. Here's what happened: we got things right during the previous century when his book "Grand Eccentrics - Turning the Century: Dayton and the Inventing of America" was originally issued in 1996 and I interviewed him for the first time.

Bill Felker, the host of Poor Will's Almanack on WYSO returned to the Book Nook to discuss his latest project. Recently Bill decided to engage in another book publishing venture in addition to his annual almanacks. Over the years Bill has been keeping meticulous daily journals of his thoughts, observations, and meditations. Bill decided to take his voluminous daily records and compile them into monthly editions that are now available for readers to peruse and savor.

One century ago Dayton, Ohio was a hotbed of industry and innovation. In his book "Grand Eccentrics - Turning the Century: Dayton and the Inventing of America" Mark Bernstein looked back at some of the men who were instrumental in making this area a thriving place during that period.

One of the stranger trends in publishing recently has been the spate of self-help books espousing Scandinavian lifestyle advice based upon practices that are embedded in the cultures of countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and most recently, Finland.

If you are a regular reader of the New York Times you have surely read the writing of Richard Sandomir. He has been with that newspaper for many years. I have always wanted to interview him and I finally got the opportunity with the publication of the paperback edition of his book "The Pride of the Yankees - Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper, and the Making of a Classic."