BookSpeak Network

The summer of 1859 serves as a crossroads for three women of divergent lives, and a hotel in Bedford, Pennsylvania is the backdrop for a pivotal time in American history. Kris Schaale (Shaw-Lee) debuts on the Catamount Press imprint with Summer of Meteors. At the luxurious Bedford Springs Hotel, Harriet Lane, a niece of President James Buchanan, Anne McCoy, a Quaker widow, and Juba, an enslaved nu...

Joshua Penrod brings late 19th Century Pennsylvania to life in These Restless Hills . It is the time of the Gilded Age, however, it is anything but that for most of the residents in and around the city of Johnstown in 1889.  Thomas Houghton, a Civil War veteran who has not completely left the conflict behind is an inspector and enforcer for the infamous Coal & Iron Police, who follow the biddi...

Joe Farley's short stories, poems and novellas dip into the supernatural, the paranormal and the strange. His new collection,  Beware the Cartoonist , on Alien Buddha Press is a series of tales spanning back several years.  In this episode, Joe returns to discuss these works, including the title piece, and offers insights into his inspirations and writing style.  His previous collections incl...

Mike Stack was born into a Philadelphia political family, and followed his father and grandfather into the "Ring of Fire." After a series of defeats, Stack served in the Pennsylvania Senate, and later as Lieutenant Governor from 2015-19. In his new book,  City of Brotherly Blood: My Political Adventure of Power, Corruption and Redemption in Philadelphia,  Stack pulls no punches in his an...

The product of an eight-year-long investigation, Failure Factory: How Baltimore City Public Schools Deprive Taxpayers and Students of a Future examines how one of the most highly-funded school systems in the US has failed not only its students, but taxpayers as well. In 2024, despite a budget of $1.7 billion, only 10 percent of Baltimore City students tested as proficient in mathematics.  Through...

Football has ingrained itself into Pennsylvania's history since the late 19th century, and at the high school level, one program stands out for its enduring success. Established in 1962, the Southern Columbia Tigers, based in Catawissa, PA have seen hard times in its past which nearly caused its end. Since 1979, however, there has been one head coach, Jim Roth--more than 500 regular season vi...

The Mortal Guardians are preparing for war, but for Raven Naelo, this battle is personal. A necromancer has taken a fellow Guardian captive, and stolen the corpse of Raven's sister.  Raven's rescue mission is underway, but it's going wrong. In a world where allies are scarce and the enemy is at hand, Raven's magic has now become erratic, even dangerous.  Raven must decide wheth...

A bomb rips apart the home of an older couple in Bloomington, Illinois during an otherwise peaceful summer evening. The target: a Jewish couple who found love in the Sobibor concentration camp during World War II. Motivated by antisemitism at a time when the American Nazi Party challenged the US Supreme Court, the perpetrator, Michael undergoes an experience and possibly, a transformation. In &quo...

On this edition of "The History Stacks," Dr. Lawrence Knorr invites Brady Crytzer to discuss the American Revolution and his quest to not only keep this part of history alive, but to make it accessible for those interested. A professor of history at Robert Morris University, Crytzer is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Revolution , and winner of the 2023 Judge Robert K....

Hilary Hauck has created detailed, researched, and yet thoughtful novels that take the reader to parts of the world they may have only read about or seen in films. She has firsthand experience; self-described as an "Italian-speaking Brit living in the US," Hilary has traveled throughout the world and lived in Italy for twelve years. Her writing encompasses historical fiction, adventure,...

In a life of service, Rev. Dr. Reginald Davis feels a nation's problems must be solved by one and all, and his belief that through the Word of God this can be attained. "We Need Each Other--To Transform America--The Call for Unity to Solve Our National Problems Together," from the Scriptoria Press imprint, examines what Dr. Davis has experienced, a program he takes to chruches, univ...

Steven Richard Smith has lived through several "careers," all which have led to literature, both as an author and a teacher. A former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent in the 1990's in California, Smith returned to Ohio to seek his twin passions. Smith earned his Master of Arts in English from the University of Akron. He created the game  Sentence Smackdown to teach gram...

"What happens when the saviors of the world are falling apart at the seams?" Fifteen years ago, six college housemates unwittingly opened a portal which unleashed monsters upon the world. Of the six, only Charlie touched this portal, and has paid the price, in the loss of his family. In addition, his friends' memories of the incident were erased. Now the Nowhere Men are coming home,...

Michael L. Hawley has become an authority on the mass murderer known as Jack the Ripper, and his contributions have brought us closer to finding out his true identity. He is the author of several books on the subject and related matters, which you may find at his author page . His titles include  Jack the Ripper Suspect Dr. Francis Tumblety,  and  The Watchmaker Revelations  series. Hawley write b...

The second volume of The Castatine Chronicles,  Into the Red Realm carries on Joseph Mazerac's series that effortlessly combines young adult fiction, coming of age, adventure and fantasy on Sunbury's Milford House Press imprint. In book one,  Into the Attic of the World, Charles Miller and his friends join the ageless Captain Kid on an adventure through layers of reality in an effort to...

Philadelphia, 1950. Ben Green, a war veteran, soon to be college graduate, aspiring author and a husband with a child on the way finds himself at a crossroads in his 25th year. Ben finds himself pulled in different directions, with a need to find a job to support his family, an old-school Jewish culture that he finds himself both at odds with and respectful of, and questions about what he really w...

The roots of baseball and the avenues the national pastime has taken are not only a part of American history, but also politics. J. B. Manheim is the author of several books on the "Deadball Era," uncovering tales of names who left those footprints for superstars to follow, which you can find out about here . Manheim speaks with Dr. Lawrence Knorr about his decades of research, and past...

Author and historian Wylie McLallen returns to the BookSpeak Network to discuss his life, career, and biographies, which have left a lasting impression when considering the subject matter. Growing up in Memphis, McLallen earned a degree in History and English. He studied under Professor Robert Drake, a close friend of Flannery O'Connor, who exposed his students to poet and novelist James Dick...

In this episode of The History Stacks, we hear from Carol Schultz Vento, political science professor, attorney, and chronicler of the life of a father whose real-life exploits were immortalized in film. Vento is the daughter of World War II veteran Arthur "Dutch" Schultz, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and a paratrooper whose experience in the D-Day invasion was portrayed in the...

A foremost authority on the American Revolution, Eugene Procknow is the author of a series of scholarly articles for the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Revolution.  Speaking with Sunbury Press Books founder and program host, Dr. Lawrence Knorr, Procknow discusses how his career as a management consultant with one of the largest global firms allowed him to transition to becoming a writer and...

A love of baseball, its players, characters, and quirks has sparked numerous books over the decades, including a series by Chris Williams. In an avowed tongue-in-cheek manner, Williams bestows "honors" on players who were members of some of Major League Baseball's greatest teams but didn't necessarily stand out in terms of stats.  The Flip Side of Greatness: The Baseball Bozo A...

The BookSpeak Network debuts a new podcast, dedicated to history and those who have devoted their time and lives to keeping the world's past alive. Dr. Lawrence Knorr, founder and CEO of Sunbury Press Books, invites a familiar voice to be his inaugural guest. Mark Carlson is a lifelong student of military history. For the past two decades, Carlson has regularly contributed to more than a doze...

The term "Summer Reading" is often tossed about, and on June 21st, 2025, the season was welcomed in during an event that highlighted independent Young Adult Fiction and the value to communities of not only public libraries but also the local bookstore. The Book Bar in downtown Palmyra, Pennsylvania, offers the best of two worlds: fine books curated by owners Brittany and Nick, plus the p...

Sherye Green returns to the Sunbury Press Books Show to discuss her latest work, Through a Dark Valley: The Timothy House Chronicles Book Two, on Scriptoria Press.  Green's protagonists, Abbie Richardson and Keith Haliday, who we first met in Book One,  Abandon Not My Soul,  are doing their best to recover from personal losses. As their romance develops, they find hope while teaching at Timot...

Chloe Miller is dead, missing since 1932, with no body to be found. Her ghost, however, remains in Sterben House, and she is not alone. Despite her whispered warnings, people have come to live here, only to flee in terror from the evil that dwells within. Still another family moves into Sterben House. Alex knows of Chloe's death and decides to solve the mystery. Will Chloe's spirit be fr...