Forthcoming on The Bob Edwards Show (Sep 30 – Oct 4, 2013)

The Bob Edwards Show, September 30 – October 4, 2013

Monday, September 30, 2013:  For over five decades, writer Lois Duncan has been scaring and entertaining young readers with books like her 1973 novel I Know What You Did Last Summer.  This fall, Duncan’s first book, Debutante Hill (1958), is being reissued by the new imprint, Lizzie Skurnick Books, which is giving new life to some half-dozen 20^th century teen classics.  Duacan’s most recent book is One to the Wolves, On the Trail of a Killer.  Then, after writing an award-winning cookbook about Vietnamese cuisine, it makes sense that writer Kim Fay’s first novel is about the region she knows best.  Set in Cambodia in the 1920s, The Map of Lost Memories follows a museum curator on her search for the lost civilization of Angkor Wat.  The Map of Lost Memories was a finalist for the 2013 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and is available in paperback.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013:  Bach’s music is ubiquitous, from commercials to ring tones, and it still sells out concert venues worldwide.  Paul Elie reexamines the life of one of the greatest composers of all time in his book Reinventing Bach, which is now available in paperback.  Then, American historian Harlow Giles Unger takes a fresh look at our nation’s sixth president in his biography John Quincy Adams.  Raised by John and Abigail Adams to be a great leader, Quincy Adams’ career spanned the administrations of George Washington to Abraham Lincoln.   His book has just been released in paperback. 

Wednesday, October 2, 2013:  The Cold War is over and with the collapse of the Soviet Union, there is little threat of an all-out, mutually destructive nuclear war.  But investigative journalist Eric Schlosser points out in his new book that most of those weapons are still out there…and many of them are still on hair-trigger alert.  In Command and Control, he writes that school children no longer practice to “duck and cover” — even as the danger of an accidental war or accidental nuclear detonations may have increased. Drawing on thousands of pages of recently declassified government documents and on interviews with scores of military personnel and nuclear scientists, Schlosser writes about our illusion of safety when it comes to today’s nuclear weapons.

Thursday, October 3, 2013:  Year after year, American students rank in the bottom third in international rankings of math and science scores. In reading, the U.S. doesn’t even make the top ten, trailing Canada and Estonia among others.  In her new book, investigative journalist, Amanda Ripley, follows the lives of three American exchange students who spent a year studying in countries that consistently receive the highest marks to find out why children in Finland, Poland, and South Korea do so well.  Her new book is titled The Smartest Kids in the World.  Then, the end of World War II brought a flood of optimism and dreams of great aspiration, both for the country as a whole and for many individuals. This is the back drop of Mark Helprin’s novel, In Sunlight and in Shadow.  It’s a complicated love story that pairs a former paratrooper with an heiress in Manhattan.  It’s now out in paperback.

Friday, October 4, 2013:  Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times, joins Bob to discuss the latest political news.  Next, young adult author Jack Gantos follows up his Newbery Medal and Scott O’Dell Award winning novel Dead End in Norvelt with a sequel, From Norvelt to Nowhere.  Gantos talks with Bob about these two almost-but-not-quite true books, as well as his own surprisingly true tales from his unusual past.  Finally, the latest installment of our ongoing series This I Believe.