The murder of a good friend and fellow law professor inspired M. Todd Henderson to write Mental State (Down and Out Books 2018; $17.95), his first mystery novel. “He was a professor at Florida State University and had just dropped of his kids and was pulling out of the driveway when he was shot,” says…
Muse of Nightmares: Second in the Epic Fantasy Series Strange the Dreamer
Strange the Dreamer, the epic fantasy series written by Laini Taylor, began as a dream. Now Taylor, a National Book Award finalist, has just released Muse of Nightmares (Little, Brown 2018; $19.99), the second book in the series. “The story has been in my mind for 20 years or more,” says Taylor, whose author photo…
A Cloud in The Shape of a Girl
Intrigued by the passage of time, the choices we make and the constraints life forces upon us, Jean Thompson, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist author, let a swirl of happenings and thoughts combine to create her latest novel, A Cloud in The Shape of a Girl (Simon & Schuster 2018;…
Not for Long: The Life and Career of the NFL Athlete
Robert Turner II was the first member of his family to go to college, attending James Madison University on an athletic scholarship. But he did so because of his love of football and a desire to play at a professional level. “I majored in communications because that’s what the other players did,” says Turner who…
Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump
As a Christian evangelical and an American historian, John Fea, chair of the History Department at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, sought to understand why 80 percent of evangelicals voted for Donald Trump and have deeply aligned themselves to one political party. “I wanted to explore what that means and how we’ve arrived at this time…
Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll: How Food Lovers, Free Spirits, Misfits and Wanderers Created a New Profession
Andrew Friedman calls himself a chef writer because, as much as he loves food, he’s passionate about the stories chefs have to tell. “My point of view is writing not so much about the food but about the chefs, that’s why I say I’m a chefie not a foodie,” he says. “I think too many…
Young Lincoln: Growing Up in Southern Indiana
Many people aren’t aware that Abraham Lincoln spent his formative years in Southern Indiana, moving there from Kentucky with his family at age seven, leaving with them when he was 21. It’s these years that Jan Jacobi, an avid Lincoln enthusiast and an award-winning educator who currently is teaching at St. Michael School of Clayton…
