The older I get, the more I fall behind the modern culture.  For example, while taping a Just Read It segment on Colm Toibin’s fictionalized biography of Thomas Mann, I was stunned to learn that one of my young guests knew little about one of the twentieth century’s greatest

A discussion of The Lincoln Highway, a novel by Amor Towles, will air this fall on Just Read It. It’s part of the 10th anniversary of the book talk show.  Two local writers will be with me to celebrate and review the novel. Earlier, they joined me for a discussion of Towles’, A G

“I still don’t have what I want,” says Rita Moreno, star of stage, screen, and television and also a winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an Oscar, and a Kennedy Center Honor recipient. (“The Queen,” by Erik Maza, Town&Country, March 2022, pg. 84.) I understood w

Lily Tomlin once said, “I always wanted to be someone, but now I realize I should have been more specific.” I know the feeling.  Nearly ten years have passed since writer Susan Stoner and I began the book talk show, Just Read It. I had dreams of becoming the next Bill Moyers. How

“We are a storytelling species, every bit as much as a tool-using one,” writes the author of The English Professor Who Foresaw Modern Neuroscience.   I agree. As a teacher, I would tell my students, “If you want to see how your mind works, write something.”  Composition exp

As a writer, I read voraciously. Anyone who claims to be a writer but reads little is delusional. Each journey through another person’s mind is a data point that increases our knowledge. Failing to keep up with new ideas invites trouble. For example, a woman on Facebook referred to

“Video and audio are the hottest media,” writes Clive Thompson, a reporter for the tech magazine Wired. ( “Every Word You Say,” by Clive Thompson, Wired, May 2021, pg.15,)  I have to agree.  My Write Away blog is approaching its 11th anniversary and enjoys a respectable numb

I mentioned on Facebook recently that I’d been privileged to interview best-selling author, Anne Hillerman.  The daughter of Tony Hillerman, she picked up writing his popular Southwest Indian mysteries that featured detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.  This April, Anne Hillerman

My mother’s imminent death and the disruption Covid-19 caused me to forget an important anniversary in May of this year.  Just Read It, my YouTube review of the New York Times bestsellers in fiction and memoir turned 5. I want to thank the local writers who joined me during this ti

I’m thinking today about the ways Covid-19 has rendered our society dysfunctional. We seem to blame the virus for much of what’s happened of late.  For example, I scheduled a  phone conference at 10 a.m. last Friday with one of my computer gurus. We had planned to do a trial run