Read Beat (...and repeat)

Encouraged to create recipes without dairy and meat when her husband’s research pointed to the impact of diet on reversing disease, Ann Esselstyn began feeding her family creative, plant-based meals more than thirty years ago. Now Ann and her daughter, Jane Esselstyn have written “Be a Plant-Based Woman Warrior,” a collection of 125 recipes, many of which are desserts, that involve no meat, no dai...

The history of roller derby dates back to 1935 when Leo Seltzer, a Chicago promoter, drew 20,000 people to the Chicago Coliseum to view roller skaters in action. That’s just some of the action that Michella Marino relates in “Roller Derby,” a book that covers the sport through its ups and downs right to the present. The deputy director of the Indiana Historical Bureau in Indianapolis, Marino, who...

Raymond Loewy left his imprint on this world in a lot of ways. Born in Paris in 1893 and trained as an engineer, Loewy revolutionized 20th-century American industrial design.  John Wall explores the Loewy legend in “Streamliner,” tracing the evolution of an industry and the path that Loewy took to becoming a national brand. He created bright, smooth, and colorful logos for major corporations that...

Horrific wildfires in California have dominated the news in recent years. We think of the heroic efforts of those who fight these fires, the torment of those who have lost family and homes and to the dangers of drought and climate change. Katherine Blunt, an energy reporter for the Wall Street Journal who has covered the story of California wildfires in recent years, adds another element to the st...

Most of us assume the motion picture camera was brought to us by Thomas Edison or the Lumiere Brothers out of France. But Paul Fischer makes a case for Louis LePrince, "a self-taught generalist" who lived in France, England and the United States. In fact, Fischer notes in his book, "The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures" that LePrince was on his way to join his family in New Yor...

Another book on the Titanic? Daniel Stone, the author of "Sinkable," admits there's a fixation with that ship that collided with an iceberg in 1912 and, regrettably, sank. But that's the focus of the book: it's about shipwrecks and the most famous of them all remains the Titanic. Stone, a former staff writer for the National Geographic, wonders aloud what is it about the T...

When John Ikerd talks about industrial agriculture in the United States, the professor emeritus at the University of Missouri is referring to a farm system supported by big business, the government and most schools of agriculture across the nation. “We are told that industrialization is the inevitable consequence of human enlightenment and technological progress,” said Ikerd. “But the industrializ...

Those Vietnamese refugees able to escape from their war-torn homeland in the 1970s found a refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast where they engaged in shrimping, something they knew from experience. Their story is described by Kirk Johnson in "The Fishermen and the Dragon" as these shrimpers run up against the opposition of the white fishermen who resent the arrival of the Asian newcomers. In a...

The NRA is characterized by NPR investigative reporter Tim Mak as "the most powerful political advocacy group in the country" but he adds it's also an organization that's stumbled badly in recent years. In "Misfire," Mak relates some of the problems--lavish spending by NRA executives including CEO Wayne LaPierre--while rank-and-file employees of the NRA, a non-profit,...

An enrolled member of the Ottawa Tribe and a former U.S. Air Force officer, D.J. Eagle Bear Vanas talks about the concept of the Native American warrior spirit.  “A true warrior is not the toughest or bravest person in the room,” Vanas told Steve Tarter. ”A true warrior is committed to self-mastery, transforms setbacks into opportunities for achievement, refuses to quit, and most importantly, alwa...

In an effort to boost literacy, Maya Payne Smart has written a book to help parents get children started on the reading road. "Reading For Our Lives" is a guide book for parents, particularly helpful since the brain architecture for reading develops rapidly during infancy. Early language experiences are critical to building it, she told Steve Tarter.  "Many people believe that at so...

It occurred to historian David Stewart, who has written extensively on the founding of America (books on James Madison, Aaron Burr and the U.S. Constitution) that, when asked by readers who the most important person was in the forming of America, his answer was George Washington. "After giving that answer a couple of dozen times, I realized I might be missing the point," Stewart told Ste...

Douglas Wolk has read all 27,000 Marvel comics. He says it's all one big story but who among us would dare to complete such a story with all its mutants, monsters and mysteries? "All of the Marvels" is Wolk's book celebrating the feat. It's also a tidy comic history that dates back to 1961 when Marvel burst upon the scene with eight issues a month (now they produce 50 a mo...

You just can’t pass up a guidebook to smell. After all, they say smell is the sense that comes closest to pure perception. Smell can collapse space and time, unlocking memories and transporting us to worlds both new and as familiar as a whiff of the old gym.  We can recognize different smells--the bright tang of citrus, freshly sharpened pencils, the fish counter but do we understand how and why w...

Dwyer Murphy believes he has the dream job: "I get to read crime fiction all day long." As the editor of the CrimeReads website, a site that , as the title might imply, brokers a wide variety of criminal literature, book and movie reviews, profiles and feature articles on such subjects as the role of cheese in murder mysteries or a look at the works of TV producer Quinn Martin ("Fug...

When Ken Auletta wrote a lengthy profile on movie producer Harvey Weinstein for New Yorker magazine in 2002, Weinstein didn't like it. That was because Auletta pictured Weinstein as a brilliant moviemaker with a dark side, a bully who blew up frequently.  But Auletta said while he'd heard reports that Weinstein had gone too far in his dealings with a number of women, he hadn't been...

"Aurora" is the painful recollection of one of the nation's mass shootings, this one at the Aurora, Colo. theater outside Denver in 2012 when a troubled grad student opened fire on a packed movie house, killing 12 people and injuring 70. Dr. Lynne Fenton is the psychiatrist who had six sessions with gunman James Holmes before the shooting took place. Fenton relates the bizarre behav...

Mark Greaney's on a roll. His new book, "Armoured," is out and so is the first Gray Man movie. As the author of more than 20 books, three of them collaborations with Tom Clancy before the author's death in 2013, Greaney is enjoying unqualified success. But his Gray Man character took his time before making a movie debut. "The movie rights were actually secured when I wrote...

The Trump years--neatly cataloged in history now? Not so fast says one of the best chroniclers of the Washington scene, Mark Leibovich, whose new book, "Thank You For Your Servitude," whisks us through the tumultuous Donald Trump presidency with an emphasis on the followers, "the accomplices who make Trump possible," he said. Leibovich, who spent 10 years as the chief national...

Paul Hawken  has written books like “ The Next Economy ,” “ Growing a Business” and “ The Ecology of Commerce”. “Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution ,” co-authored with Amory Lovins, was referred to by President Bill Clinton as one of the most important books in the world.  He has served on the board of many environmental organizations including Center for Plant Conservatio...

Carpenter has been tending to his family's three kids as a stay-at-home dad since 2008 so he had plenty of experience to draw from for a manual for full-time fathers. "The Ultimate Stay-at-Home Dad" is a collection of tips, words of wisdom, warnings and ideas for the guys who stay home. There are even recipes (Carpenter planned on enchiladas the day he interviewed with Steve Tarter)...

Journalist and self-proclaimed “crappy gardener” Tamar Haspel is on a mission: to show us that raising or gathering our own food is not as hard as it’s often made out to be. For a decade she’s been a columnist at the Washington Post.and written about food for two decades, she told Steve Tarter in the interview. When Haspel and her husband move from Manhattan to the quaint community of Barnstable o...

After spending some 40 years at Eastern Illinois University, Charles Titus, a retired history professor, decided to share some of that history in his home state with readers. In his interview with Steve Tarter, Titus shares some of the highlights that he spotlights in his book, “Exploring the Land of Lincoln.” Titus shares views on 20 places across the state of Illinois including Cahokia, Lincoln...

The pandemic has brought a lot to light, perhaps most notably a new attitude towards work and one's behavior at work. A social psychologist at New York University, Tessa West has delivered a handbook on some of the bad behavior to watch for--whether you're back at the office or working remotely. She even provides a watch list of problem personalities you need to be aware of: the bulldoze...

In a world beset by supervillains, now we have a guidebook: “How To Take Over the World” by Ryan North.  It’s familiar territory for North, a comic (as in book not hah-hah funny) writer who’s been working on the graphic front for more than 20 years. The premise of this book is: what if the supervillain didn’t have to lose? So we have it—practical schemes and scientific solutions for the aspiring s...