Booktalk with Diana Korte

Host Diana Korte speaks with award-winning journalist Becky Aikman about her new book, “SPITFIRES. The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger During World War II.” This is a fast paced true story of the 25 US women who flew the world's most dangerous aircraft through the treacherous skies of Britain during World War II eighty years ago. Another fifty years would pass before the first American woman piloted a US fighter plane in combat.They were crop dusters and debutantes, college girls and performers in flying circuses — all of them pilots who wanted to serve in World War II. Because they were women, their own country turned them away. But Great Britain, in a desperate fight for survival, would let anyone — even Americans, even women -- fly warplanes. Twenty-five of them bolted for England in 1942. They became the first American women to fly perilous missions in military aircraft. In England these “spitfires” lived like women decades ahead of their time. They risked their lives in one of the deadliest jobs of the war, flying new, barely tested fighters and bombers to air bases and returning shot-up wrecks for repair. Many transport pilots died in crashes or made spectacular saves.  

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 plan to resume uranium mining along the Navajo Nation border. Tensions around the official's arrival escalate when the body of a stranger is found nearby. Is it coincidence that a cult with a propensity for violence arrives at a private camp outside Shiprock the same week to celebrate the summer solstice?Anne Hillerman was approached several years ago by Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin to create the popular tv series, “Dark Wind,” now in its third season that is based on her and her dad's (Tony Hillerman) crime novels.            

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 wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and slept in your house for hours on end during the day and gave birth to baby hares in your study. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality.Raising Hare chronicles their journey together and serves as a reminder that the best things, and most beautiful experiences, might arise when we least expect them.

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, one of the fastest-rising, most radical white supremacist groups operating in the US. Payne spent 28 years in law enforcement investigating cases against drug trafficking organizations, human traffickers, outlaw motorcycle clubs, gangs, public corruption, and domestic terrorists. He was also a SWAT team operator and instructor for firearms, tactics, and undercover operations.

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 "Prairie Witch,” whose body serves as a bank vault for peoples' memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch's apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a talkative scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the town's secrets and its fate. Russell's “climate change” fiction in novels and short stories, includes the bestsellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. Author of six books, she has received MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. 

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: Don't call Mom. Hint #2: Forget a fake drowning. Hint #3: Never Google yourself.)This classic interview took place several years ago. 

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 they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods.  The death has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering their combined skills and friendship make them stronger together.      

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 evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. Now, ten years later, Traci is a high-profile influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire the best detective she can find: Elvis Cole. Elvis heads to Rancha where an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter, Anya, might have a line on the missing man.  But when Elvis finds himself shadowed by a gang of vicious criminals, the missing persons cold case becomes far more sinister. He calls his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, for help, and they follow Tommy Beller's trail into the depths of a monstrous, hidden evil.     

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 not a failure of our minds. It's not even a benign glitch. It is, in fact, good for us—and, alongside memory, it is a required function for our minds to work best.   As frustrating as a typical lapse can be, it's precisely what opens up our minds to making better decisions, experiencing joy and relationships, and flourishing artistically.

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 Women: 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 Putnam Jacobi, MD (1842-1906), who altered the course of American history while uplifting the lives of women.   She was one of the most important physicians, female or male, of the nineteenth century. Her scientific research dismantled some of the myths about women's bodies, transformed medicine, and laid the groundwork for the future advancements of women, including the right to vote.     Lydia Reeder's previous award-winning book is “Dust Bowl Girls. The Inspiring Story of the Team that Barnstormed its Way to Basketball Glory.”

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 geographic checklist: visiting all 3,143 U.S. counties, for example, or all 936 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Or how about the computer whizkids behind Google Maps and other geo-technologies.   Ken Jennings was a map nerd from a young age himself, you will not be surprised to learn, even sleeping with a bulky Hammond atlas at the side of his pillow, in lieu of the traditional Teddy bear.   

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 unforgettable dancing in the movie musicals of the 1930s, but in Music Makes Me, Todd Decker argues that Astaire's work as a dancer and choreographer—particularly in the realm of tap dancing—made a significant contribution to the art of jazz.   In 30 films from the 1930s to the 1950s, he danced elegantly—often to jazz--with the leading women dancers of the day including 10 times with fan favorite Ginger Rogers. Among his most popular movies were the timeless classics Top Hat,You Were Never Lovelier, and Swing Time.          

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 likely not seen. Not many people have. Such as the Stairway to Heaven in Hawaii, the secret apartment in the Eiffel Tower and that flaming hole in the Turkmenistan desert. The most recent book in the Atlas Obscura collection, published in 2024, is “Wild Life: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Living Wonders.”              

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 sprinkled with cyber-spies, opioids, science fiction, racism of course, all mixed in with heavy doses of family ties real or imagined.    Born in India, mostly educated in England, and a current long-time resident of New York City, Rushdie's published work includes novels, books of non-fiction, a memoir and children's books. 

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 believed to be the first US woman to teach at a state university. But the Victorian social mores in 1878 forced her to lead two very separate lives. She was both a professional woman and a mother, hiding both her husband and child in Germany.    Author Silvia Pettem has a knack for pulling intriguing women out of the past through her books on history, biography, missing and unidentified persons, and true crime. She lives with her husband and two cats in the mountains west of Boulder. 

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 wind of a local public hearing that would discuss “book content,” she knew what was at stake.    Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGTBQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves. Amanda would be damned if her community were to ban stories representing minority groups. She spoke out that night at the meeting. Days later, she woke up to a nightmare that is still ongoing.   But Amanda Jones wouldn't give up without a fight: she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance. That lawsuit is now at the Louisiana Supreme Court. 

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 became a pilot herself at the age of 54.   A few years after the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903, Bessie—the daughter of a woman born into slavery—was working the Texas cotton fields with her family when an airplane flew over their heads. It buzzed so low she thought she could catch it in her hands. Flying became her dream.  

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 Holocaust survivor.   Award-winning author and journalist Gayle Forman has written several bestselling novels, including those in the Just One Day series, Where She Went, and the #1 New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than forty languages and was adapted into a major motion picture. 

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 biggest known tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma, on May 31, 2013. The author also shares some tips and warnings to wannabe storm chasers.

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, actors, old soldiers, comedians, and of course, Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, all who declined to go into decline just because they were eligible for Social Security.      

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 years—and it isn't pretty. Elwood has worked for a murderer's row of questionable clients, including Gaddafi, Assad, and the government of Qatar. In All the Worst Humans, Elwood unveils how the PR business works, and how the truth gets made, spun, and sold to the public—not shying away from the gritty details of his unlikely career.

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. His continuing story has been told in two dozen books. #24 is “Clete,” published this year. Another 2024 title is “Harbor Lights,” a book of 8 short stories that move from the marshlands on the Gulf of Mexico to the sweeping plains of Colorado. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

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 coffee shop 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 his path toward one of the most spectacularly successful writing careers of the 21st century.  My personal favs in this interview are how he feels about selling 70,000,000 books and the tale of the Nobel Prize for Literature.    --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

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, who traveled the world as highly celebrated stars in their field and whose legacy was erased from history until now. Karlya Shelton-Benjamin began dancing at age 4 with the Colorado Concert Ballet (currently Colorado Ballet). At 17, she became the first person of color to represent the United States in the prestigious Prix de Lausanne ballet competition in Switzerland. Her ballet sisters also featured in this book are Lydia Abarca, Gayle McKinney-Griffith, Sheila Rohan and Marcia Sells. Together they describe their triumphs and challenges of being Black ballerinas back in the day when many people didn't know they existed. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

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 details his own experience as life and love crowd his time to fish. And, since this is fly fishing, after all—there's always the possibility of abject failure and leaping, glorious reward. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

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's trails, bike tracks, and waterways. During weekends and in Senate recess weeks, Kaine—over a period of several years—hiked the 559 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Biked 321 miles along the Virginia Blue Ridge and canoed 348 miles on the James River. He's been a Virginia mayor, governor, and US senator and now a bonafide outdoorsy politician.   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Host Diana Korte speaks with Don Winslow, bestselling author of CITY IN RUINS, the last book in a trilogy featuring crime boss Danny Ryan. The lesson for him is as hard as it is true: sometimes you must become what you hate to protect what you love.   Now a billionaire gambling mogul, he builds an empire of glittering mega-hotels and casinos along the Las Vegas Strip. Battles of money, influence, and bribery soon follow.   After 26 books this is Winslow's last book as he's taking his talents to a new patriotic pursuit. But his books and numerous movies made from them live on. Austin Butler, in his first starring role since his Oscar nominated turn as Elvis Presley, will star as crime boss Danny Ryan in “City On Fire,” an earlier book in this trilogy.    --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Host Diana Korte speaks with Manal al-Sharif, author of DARING TO DRIVE, who grew up in Mecca, Islam's holiest city. In her teens she was a religious radical, by her twenties she was a college-educated computer security engineer. Then she lived for a while in Boston, learned to drive and became a women's rights advocate. Back home she was the first Saudi woman who defied the ban on driving and immediately put the video on YouTube. And, yes, she was arrested.   This interview originally aired June 23, 2017. One year later the Saudi government made it legal for women to drive. Yet several years later, the number of women who have licenses to drive is only a few percent.    --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Never one to shy away from controversial topics, Joyce Carol Oates' “The Sacrifice” is based on the story of Tawana Brawley of upstate New York who made headlines in the late 1980s with allegations of kidnapping and rape that were later proven false. When we spoke about this book in 2015, JCO was already the author of more than 100 books—novels, short story collections, a memoir, children's books, poetry, plays, even a libretto for an opera.   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Host Diana Korte speaks with New Mexico-based Michael Benanav, a photo-journalist known for searching out and living with nomadic tribes and bringing their compelling stories and images back from distant places.  In “Himalaya Bound: One Family's Quest to Save Their Animals–And an Ancient Way of Life” he travels to northern India to journey with the Van Gujjars, a tribe of forest-dwelling nomadic water buffalo herders during their annual spring migration into the Himalayas. In a book laced with stories of tribal cultures from India to Yellowstone, from Jordan to Kenya, Benanav deftly wends through the controversial terrain where Western ways of protecting the environment clash with indigenous understandings of nature. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Tracy Clark is an award-winning author of 6 crime novels including the Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series.  FALL is her newest book and second in the Detective Harriett Foster thriller series.   In this page-turner of a book, the Chicago PD is on high alert when two city aldermen are found dead: one by apparent suicide, one brutally stabbed in his office, and both with thirty dimes left on their bodies—a betrayer's payment. With no other clues, the question is, Who else has a debt to pay? Detective Harriet Foster is on the case before the killer can strike again. But even with the help of her partner, Detective Vera Li, and the rest of their team, Harriet has little to go on and a lot at risk. There's no telling who the killer's next target is or how many will come next.   TUNE IN for why Tracy Clark writes crime novels, what she likes best about Harriett Foster. and her advice for new writers.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Host Diana Korte speaks with R. David Edmunds, author of 12 books about Native Americans. His newest title is “VOICES IN THE DRUM that features 9 stories about these people spanning hundreds of years of history.  Times and places range from Mound City, AL as it existed a century or so before Columbus to what it was like for a job-hunting family in the 1950s to move from a reservation in the Dakotas to Denver CO.   TUNE IN for misconceptions non-Natives have about Indians, what it takes to be counted as a member of a tribe, and who are the unsung heroes in Native American history.     --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Host Diana Korte speaks with Douglas Preston, author of "THE LOST TOMB." Some of the stories in this book have taken him from the haunted country of Italy and the largest tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings to the booby-trapped Money Pit on Oak Island in Nova Scotia and a cannibal site in the American Southwest. Listeners might be familiar with some of his other 40 books including "Lost City of the Monkey God" and his co-authored fiction series featuring FBI special agent Pendergast. TUNE IN for, what he found when he was the first to enter an Egyptian burial chamber that had been sealed for millennia, why many of his books include archeologists, and his one piece of advice for would be writers that might be quite difficult to accomplish. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Cary Elwes, who was then age 23, played the dashing character known as Westley in this cult movie classic. He talked about the behind-the-scenes making of the movie in his book, “As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride” when we spoke in 2014. The continued unexpected popularity of this happy movie made 36 years ago didn't begin until ten years after it was released, thanks to the new VHS and cable tv then and the streaming internet today.  Tune in for the name of Cary Elwes's favorite fan, his biggest challenge—the inconceivable one—in making the movie, and what it took to create that great sword fight.       --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Today I spoke with the James Beard Award-winning  Fuchsia Dunlop about her 7th book, “Invitation To A Banquet. The Story of Chinese Food.”   Based in London, she speaks, reads, and writes Chinese and has traveled, often writing down recipes, for 30 years all around China. Rather than another cookbook, “Invitation to a Banquet” is an exploration of the history, techniques, and philosophies of Chinese cuisine. She presents this through a "menu" of thirty dishes from different parts of the country including Mapo tofu, drunken crabs and stir-fried greens.  TUNE IN for what many non-Chinese people most misunderstand about Chinese food along with a glimpse into Fuchsia Dunlop's adventures as the first westerner to train at the influential Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine in mainland China.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Author of more than a dozen books, historian Nathaniel Philbrick's “Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War” details the perilous ocean crossing the European pilgrims made.  Imagine the struggle of moving 2 mph for 3,000 miles over two months.  Yes, the Native American Wampanoags shared bounty with the Pilgrims at that first tense Thanksgiving, but unlike what many of us learned in grade school, it was an overwhelmingly Native affair.  As for the menu, probably yes to turkeys, ducks and venison but no to cranberry sauce and pumpkin pies. The author describes these and many other new facts about this epic time in American history.     This Booktalk program dates back to 2007. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Host Diana Korte speaks with Alexander McCall Smith, the author of more than 100 books sold around the world in 40 languages. This includes the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels, plus other series and stand-alone books.   His newest title in this cozy series, the 24th, is From a Far and Lovely Country featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe and her world of familiar characters.  In this latest installment two cases compete for Mma Ramotswe's attention—and she may need to call in back up. But no worries, there's always time for red bush tea and fruitcake.  Tune in for just how many hours a day Scotsman McCall Smith spends writing his 5 books a year, why the series takes place in Botswana, and what happens when Assistant Detective Charlie gets his first case.               --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

At age 84 Madeleine Albright passed away last year. She was the first woman US Secretary of State, US Ambassador to the United Nations, and author of numerous books including PRAGUE WINTER.    She came to the US with her family as a political refugee, a daughter of a diplomat, and spent her teen years in Colorado. She spoke of the indispensable role of international diplomacy as the world often faces multiple crises. Like now. In our last conversation in 2012 about her book, “Prague Winter,” she reminisces about her early days in Czechoslovakia. She goes on to describe a family secret that she didn't discover until she was age 59 and with characteristic candor, details some of the political predicaments that were occurring a decade ago and somehow still seem familiar today.   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Taras Grescoe, author of  “THE LOST SUPPER”, his eighth book, explores an understanding that is quickly spreading among chefs, food producers, and scientists: that the key to sustainable eating lies not in looking forward, but in looking back to the foods—many of them forgotten or on the verge of extinction—that have sustained us through our half-million year existence as a species. Grescoe is a widely read commentator on the interplay of food, travel, and the environment. His journalism has been published in many newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Guardian, and National Geographic.   Tune in for details about the insects that fueled the diet of the Aztecs, the value of farmhouse cheese, and how to start your own journey to the food varieties of the past.   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Craig Johnson, author of a Wyoming mystery series featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire is back with his 19th in the series, THE LONGMIRE DEFENSE.  This long running string of books is not only a bestseller in the book world, but continues as a popular TV show, Longmire, on Netflix despite being cancelled some years ago.   This new novel takes readers deep into the heart of the Wyoming countryside where Sheriff Longmire is called to a crime scene like few others that he has seen. This crime and the old rifle that is found at the site bring up issues that go back to his grandfather Lloyd Longmire's time in Wyoming. And the revelations he learns about Lloyd offer clues and motives for Walt's investigation.  Tune in for what's up with the tv show, where Johnson gets his book ideas, and what's coming next. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

In 2018 former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor, author of BLOWBACK: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump wrote an anonymous opinion piece in The New York Times from inside the Trump administration. He revealed publicly what Trump's cabinet was saying privately: the president was dangerously unfit for office.  He unmasked himself 2 years later to urge Americans to vote against Trump in 2020 and launched the largest alliance of ex-officials in United States history to take down the president who appointed them. In the world of national security — the world Taylor comes from — there's a term to describe the unintended consequences of our actions, of failing to see what's around the corner if we make the wrong choice: BLOWBACK. Tune in for why Trump's supporters are so loyal, what is the worst part of being a political target, and what only citizens can do to keep the US a strong democracy.            --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

James McBride's newest book is THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them. As the story begins, it's 1972. Workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania are digging the foundations for a new development, and the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.  When the truth is finally revealed about what happened and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community— heaven and earth— that sustain us. James McBride is an award-winning writer, musician, and screenwriter, the author of eight books, and brother to 11 siblings. His landmark memoir, The Color of Water, published in 1996, has sold millions of copies.  Considered an American classic, it is read in schools and universities across the US.     --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

“I Have Something to Tell You” by Chasten Buttigieg is the young adult adaptation of his candid bestselling memoir about growing up gay in his small Midwestern town.  This version is completely rewritten with new stories, including resources for readers, parents, and teachers. It focuses on the author's young years and his coming of age story. He also explores the support systems he's built and describes ways readers can build their own. He is on a 30+ stop nationwide in-person tour, including places where anti-LGBTQ legislation and book bans are on the rise.  Listen in as he describes the most common comments he hears on the road and explains the differences between questions he's asked at events depending on whether he's in a red, purple or blue state.    Chasten Buttigieg is the husband of Pete, a former Democratic presidential candidate, and dad to Penelope and Gus. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Jake Tapper regularly interviews world leaders and other newsmakers, but he also brings his knowledge of politics and the past to his political thrillers that are historically accurate.  “All The Demons Are Here” is set in 1977. The story revolves around a brother and sister, Ike and Lucy Marder, son and daughter of U.S. Senator Charlie Marder and Margaret Marder, a well-known zoologist. Ike is a U.S. Marine war hero, but AWOL when we meet him, while Lucy is an up and coming journalist at a Washington, DC tabloid.  Jake Tapper is the chief DC anchor and chief Washington correspondent for CNN; he hosts the weekday show The Lead with Jake Tapper and cohosts the Sunday public-affairs show State of the Union.  Tune in to discover Jake's earliest memories of politics, his opinion of tv news coverage after decades in the business, and how many issues of the 1970s repeat themselves today. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

The latest historical novel, LADY TAN'S CIRCLE OF WOMEN, from writer Lisa See who is the author of 12 books, is inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China whose remedies are still used today some 500 years later. According to Confucius who was influential at the time, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family in the late 1400s in China was raised by her grandparents to be a doctor.  Tune in to hear how Lisa discovered Tan Yunxian, details about the thousand-year tradition of foot binding in China, and why red-haired-and-freckled Lisa See writes books about Chinese women and their friendships.     --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Gloria Steinem, author of My Life on the Road, had an itinerant childhood. Based in New York City, she is now 89 and has never stopped traveling. When she was a young girl, her father would pack the family in the car every fall and drive across country searching for adventure and trying to make a living. The seeds were planted: Gloria realized that growing up didn't have to mean settling down. And so began a lifetime of travel, of activism and leadership, of listening to people whose voices and ideas would inspire change and revolution. “When people ask me why I still have hope and energy after all these years, I always say: Because I travel. Taking to the road—by which I mean letting the road take you—changed who I thought I was.”  This interview originally aired October 21, 2016. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Silvia Pettem's “In Search of the Blonde Tigress,"  dips into the world of sensationalized Chicago newspaper headlines in the 1930s that claimed Eleanor was not only “the blonde tigress,” but also “the most dangerous woman alive.”  But a closer look at her life shows that she was an otherwise ordinary woman who got caught up in a Chicago crime spree, then was convicted as an accomplice to murder, and sent to prison for 199 years. She escaped seven years later and managed to live out her life as America's longest-running female fugitive. Pettem's research led to police and prison records, court transcripts, and her theory of where the grave of the “blonde tigress” is today. Listeners might be familiar with some of her other 20 plus books including the recently revised "Someone's Daughter—In Search Of Justice For Jane Doe," which is also now part of a documentary series available on Hulu.   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Award-winning African ecologist Paula Kahumbu, author of SECRETS OF THE ELEPHANTS, is one of the world's preeminent advocates for elephant conservation and the fight against illegal poaching of elephants for the ivory trade.  Her gorgeous co-authored National Geographic coffee table book is a companion to the TV series of the same name. As big as a bus and weighing up to 11 tons, elephants have fascinated us for centuries. But only recently have scientists been able to observe their innermost workings as individuals, families, and herds. Kahumbu describes how she became committed to elephants, how they communicate with each other in ways unknown until recently, and which one of the four types of these animals is in grave peril.    --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

The always fun Lisa Scottoline is back with her 37th novel, LOYALTY, a historical novel about the beginnings of the Mafia on the island of Sicily in the 1800's.  Readers will be transported to the dramatic and ruggedly beautiful island of Sicily, the jewel of the Mediterranean, where lush lemon groves and mouth-watering cuisine contrast with a turbulent history of colonization and corruption.    Tune in for Italian American former lawyer/law professor Scottoline explaining what's missing from the movie The Godfather, why law and justice are often not the same thing, and why in some families loyalty is everything.  She has an amazing 30 million books in print and has been published in 35 countries.       --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Steven Simon, author of seven books, is currently a fellow at MIT after spending nearly 40 years specializing in the Middle East in a variety of high-level jobs both in and out of government.  In his newest book, “GRAND DELUSION: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East,” he is both candid and clear about the gap between US policymakers' fantasy and reality in this part of the world. He calls out the enormous and terrible consequences, particularly for the people in the region caught in the crossfire.  In our conversation he explains the origins of US interest in the Middle East, which president offered “The Deal of the Century” (chapters are organized by president), and what 2 countries in the region actually benefitted from the American presence. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Inspired by a 25-year-old New York Times article about World War II evacuated English children revisiting their U.S. foster homes as adults, Laura Spence-Ash tells her own well researched story, ⁠BEYOND THAT, THE SEA. The book follows the lives of two families over three decades. Their lives become intertwined when Beatrix, the eleven-year-old daughter of the English family, is sent to live with an American family during the height of the London Blitz. Bea's story begins as German bombs fall over London in 1940, and her working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send her to the United States for safety.  When she arrives in Boston, she meets her new family, Nancy and Ethan Gregory and their two sons with whom she'll live for five years.     --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message