Booktalk with Diana Korte

Host Diana Korte speaks with award-winning journalist and novelist Anne Hillerman , author of 18 books, whose newest title is SHADOW OF THE SOLSTICE (#10 in her Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito series). In the new book, Navajo Nation police are on high alert when a U.S. Cabinet Secretary schedules an unprecedented trip to the little Navajo town of Shiprock, New Mexico. The visit coincides with a pla...

Host Diana Korte speaks with bestselling author Chloe Dalton who rescued and reared a wild hare in the English countryside during the Covid lockdown  about her memoir, Raising Hare . Imagine you could hold a baby hare (similar to rabbit, but bigger and wilder) and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wa...

Host Diana Korte speaks with  former FBI Agent Scott Payne, author of the memoir, “CODENAME: PALE HORSE: How I Went Undercover to Expose America’s Nazis.” A decorated agent dubbed the “Hillbilly Donnie Brascoe,” Payne takes readers along with him on some of the most terrifying and riskiest assignments in FBI history. His book begins in 2019 on a hot summer’s day in Georgia where he joins the Base,...

Host Diana Korte speaks with award-winning  Karen Russell  about her newest book, THE ANTIDOTE   , which begins on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm in the 1930s ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing—not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the dust bowl drought but beneath its own violent histories.   The book follows five characters--a "P...

Host Diana Korte speaks with Elizabeth Greenwood , author of  Playing Dead. A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud , tells us just how hard it is to permanently disappear or fake your death.  She should know. Dealing with $100K in college loans, Elizabeth dabbles with the notion herself, details the how to make it happen, and describes the common pitfalls that interfere with success.  (Hint #1...

Host Diana Korte speaks with award-winning novelist Marie Benedict , author of nine books, whose newest title, QUEENS OF CRIME, features the 5 greatest women writers of the Golden Age of Mystery (1920s-1930s) and their bid to solve a real life murder.     That murder is the death of May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, who seemed to vanish into thin air as...

Host Diana Korte speaks with Crime Writer Robert Crais , whose books have been translated into 42 languages, about his private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner Joe Pike who race to find a terrifying, unidentified killer in this unpredictable thriller, THE BIG EMPTY .   Traci Beller was thirteen when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The...

Host Diana Korte speaks with Neurologist  Scott Small about his debut book “FORGETTING. The Benefits of Not Remembering” in a 2021 conversation. Who wouldn’t want a better memory?  Until recently, most everyone—memory scientists included—believed that forgetting served no purpose. But new research in psychology, neurobiology, medicine, and computer science tells a different story. Forgetting is no...

Host Diana Korte speaks with author Lydia Reeder whose research and writing brings to light the stories of little-known or forgotten pioneers in their professions and daily lives. Her newest book is “The Cure for Wome n: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women's Lives Forever."   It   shines a light on the first women doctors in America, especially Mary Pu...

Diana Korte spoke with Game Show Host and author Ken Jennings , probably better known now for his more recent appearances on Jeopardy . He authored " MAPHEAD: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks" about a dozen years ago when we met up to chat about this new book. You map nerds know who you are. Travelers, road geeks, map collectors. Some of you crisscross maps working an endless geog...

Host Diana Korte speaks with Musicologist and Washington University Professor of Music Todd Decker,  who specializes  in commercial US popular music, about the first of his five books, “Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz.”                                             Is stunning dancer and singer Fred Astaire also one of the great jazz artists of the twentieth century? He is best known for his u...

Host Diana Korte speaks with New Zealand-born, Australia-raised, Brooklyn-based writer Ella Morton  who co-authored the first title in this book collection, the “Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide To The World’s Hidden Wonders.” For sure this is not your usual travel guide. In a 2017 conversation with me, Ella describes the book’s beginnings and how it came to be filled with some 700 sights you’ve...

Salman Rushdie , author of more than 20 books, spoke with me in 2019 about his “Quichotte: A Novel, ” a  contemporary story about chaotic political times that live on today.  He takes readers on a road journey across America in a Chevy Cruze.  Rushdie’s road traveler, Quichotte, is a simple man who has watched too much television.   Perhaps because of that, it’s an anything-can-happen sort of trip...

Silvia Pettem has published more than 20 books. Her newest title, “SEPARATE LIVES. Uncovering the Hidden Family of Victorian Professor Mary Rippon” is the true story of a pioneer woman educator who lived and worked in the male-dominated world of 19th century academia at the University of Colorado in the then small frontier town of Boulder.      Mary received wide acclaim for her teaching and is be...

Host Diana Korte speaks with award-winning Librarian Amanda Jones who decided to stand up for the right to read and stage a war against book bans and censorship in her small Southern town. THAT LIBRARIAN is part memoir, part manifesto.       One of the things small town librarian Amanda Jones values most about books is how they can affirm a young person's sense of self. So, in 2022 when she caught...

Host Diana Korte speaks with United Airlines pilot and author, Carole Hopson,  who has crafted a riveting, adventure-filled historical novel, A PAIR OF WINGS. It’s based on the remarkable true story of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, a Black woman who received her pilot’s license almost two years before Amelia Earhart, and found freedom in the air. Hopson was so inspired by Bessie’s story, she be...

Host Diana Korte speaks with Gayle Forman , author of her 13th book, NOT NOTHING , a story of hope, compassion, and forgiveness.    In this intergenerational middle grade novel, a 12-year-old boy who has been assigned by a judge to spend his summer volunteering at a senior living facility learns unexpected lessons that change the trajectory of his life, especially after he meets a 107-year old Hol...

It’s summer and the tornado season is upon us, the movie Twisters  is in theaters, and now it's time to re-air a favorite program. Host Diana Korte speaks with journalist  ⁠Brantley Hargrove⁠ , author of  ⁠The Man Who Caught the Storm: The Life of Legendary Tornado Chaser Tim Samaras⁠ .  He describes Colorado native Tim’s life and interests, his key weather invention, and how he died in the bi...

Host Diana Korte speaks with  Mo Rocca ,  co-author with English professor Jonathan Greenberg, of ROCTOGENERIANS . They introduce us to the people past and present who peaked when they could have been puttering—breaking out as writers, selling out concert halls, and attempting to set land-speed records.   Enjoy dozens of profiles of late-in-life achievers in this book from activists, artists, acto...

PR Operative Phil Elwood is a man who used to pull the strings, but who is now pulling back the curtain in his DC tell-all book, ALL THE WORST HUMANS. After nearly two decades in the Washington PR business, Elwood wants to come clean, by exposing the dark underbelly of the very industry that’s made him so successful. The first step is revealing exactly what he’s been up to for the past twenty year...

Host Diana Korte speaks with James Lee Burke who is the author of about 40 books written over more than 50 years.   He’s best known for two series. One is about the Holland family that’s featured in this program about “The House of the Rising Sun.”  We chatted about this book several years ago. The other series that he is best known for features former New Orleans police officer Dave Robicheaux. H...

Host Diana Korte speaks with  Daniel Handler --perhaps better known for 25 years as his alter ego Lemony Snicket--who has authored his 30th book,   “And Then? And Then? What Else? " It’s a fully engaging memoir from who’s that guy in the cafe wearing big headphones while scribbling on index cards to details of his love of books always, along with advice for aspiring writers. Woven through is...

Host Diana Korte speaks with Karlya Shelton-Benjamin, a Swan of Harlem herself who is one of the dancers featured in " The Swans of Harlem . Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years Of Sisterhood, And Their Reclamation Of A Groundbreaking History” written by Karen Valby . It’s the forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas, the first principals in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, wh...

Host Diana Korte speaks with  David Coggins , author of his fourth book,  "THE BELIEVER" . He brings readers along for an enchanting year of fly fishing in Patagonia, Cuba, Belize, Spain, Scotland, Norway, and the U.S. And of course, it’s about more than just the fishing. He deftly mixes travel, local cultures, further fishing challenges (some knee-buckling in their disappointment) and d...

Host Diana Korte speaks with US Senator Tim Kaine from VA and former Democratic vice-presidential candidate. He is the author of a new memoir-- Walk, Ride, Paddle that describes a bit of history along with adventures and misadventures on the road including too many bear encounters.  In 2019, he commemorated both his sixtieth birthday and his twenty-fifth year in public office by exploring Virginia...