Johnny, is saved by a mysterious stranger. Years later, Johnny stumbles upon Hero living on the streets and wallowing in self-pity. He invites the superhero into his office, where she tells him her life story, which is filled with abuse, poverty, and anxiety. While telling her life story, she reveals to him her real identity, the identity of her fr…

Author: Aaron Fischman Book: A BASEBALL GAIJIN: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back Publishing: ‎ Sports Publishing (June 18, 2024) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Aaron_Fischman_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): Like many American boys, Tony Barnette yearned to one day make it to “The Show,” playing baseball professionally. The A…

The Adventures of Sheila and Gaston the Cat is a true story about the travels of the Tracey family and Gaston, their cat. They travel to and explore Mexico, Canada, France, and Germany from 1966 to 1967, which takes eighteen months. Both parents are artists and teachers, and the children are also artists. Their mother, Francoise M. Tanguy, is the f…

In this episode, we sit down with British Cycling CEO Jon Dutton OBE for an exclusive interview, following the organisation’s much-anticipated update on implementation of the 43 recommendations put forward by the elite road racing task force. The task force was charged with developing recommendations for British Cycling to implement in 2024 and bey…

9.21.24 - Dana Eness // Marcelle Bienvenu by Crosstown ConversationsBy Crosstown Conversations

Author: Solomon Schmidt Book: LEGAL GLADIATOR: The Life of Alan Dershowitz Publishing: Skyhorse (August 20, 2024) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Solomon_Schmidt_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): The only biography of America’s most controversial lawyer. Legal Gladiator is the story of perhaps the greatest lawyer in American his…

Author: Rosanne Parry Book: A HORSE NAMED SKY Publishing: Greenwillow Books (August 29, 2023) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Rosanne_Parry_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): An instant New York Times bestseller! A stand-alone companion to the national bestsellers A Wolf Called Wander and A Whale of the Wild. Exiled from his band…

A mysterious cargo plane, flanked by a squadron of Russia’s most lethal fighters, has just taken off from a remote airbase. Closely monitored by the United States, no one inside the Pentagon has any idea where it’s going or what it’s carrying.A high-level Russian defector, a walking vault of secrets that could shatter the West, seeks asylum in Norw…

9.14.24 - Angela Dodson // Karen Carvin Shachat by Crosstown ConversationsBy Crosstown Conversations

Author: Paul M. Sparrow Book: AWAKENING THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA: FDR’s War of Words with Charles Lindbergh – and the Battle to Save Democracy Publishing: Pegasus Books (June 4, 2024) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Paul_M_Sparrow_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): A powerful new work of history that brings President Roosevelt, his …

Waite “Schoolboy” Hoyt’s improbable baseball journey began when the 1915 New York Giants signed him as a high school junior, for no pay and a five dollar bonus. After nearly having both his hands amputated and cavorting with men twice his age in the hardscrabble Minor Leagues, he somehow ended up the best pitcher for the New York Yankees in the 192…

9.7.24 - Melissa Bauld Rome // Steve Dumez by Crosstown ConversationsBy Crosstown Conversations

#1 New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson is out with her first stand-alone mystery in many years! The life-longAgatha Christie aficionado, who has delighted countless critics and fans with her Truly Devious series featuring teen sleuth Stevie Bell, now offers DEATH AT MORNING HOUSE. Johnson’s latest features Marlowe Wexler, a queer teen…

Author: Peter Heller Book: BURN: A Novel Publishing: ‎ Knopf (August 13, 2024) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Peter_Heller_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): From the best-selling author of The Dog Stars and The Last Ranger, a novel about two men—friends since boyhood—who emerge from the woods of rural Maine to a dystopian count…

Kristy Ventura is a teenage girl with the deepest of emotional and psychological problems. From family drama (her mother left her at a young age, and she blames her dad) to constantly starting fights with people, Kristy has a hard time keeping herself in check and out of trouble, and as a result, she lost what she considered her best partner, Viole…

Scores of biographies have been written about Winston Churchill, yet none examine his frequent, sometimes furtive, trips to the White House, where he resided for weeks on end—the (often unclothed) visitor who “dropped out of the sky.” Drawing on years of research, Robert Schmuhl not only contextualizes the days Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and…

In sports, not all the long shots who succeed are athletes. In 1984, Tom Hammond, a forty-year-old sportscaster who had primarily worked in Kentucky and the Southeast, got an unlikely opportunity to appear on the NBC Sports telecast of the inaugural Breeders' Cup. Assigned to report from the stall area on what was supposed to be a single broadcast,…

8.31.24 - Robert "Tiger" Hammond III // Clancy DuBos by Crosstown ConversationsBy Crosstown Conversations

Author: Ellen Hopkins Book: SYNC Publishing: Nancy Paulsen Books (August 27, 2024) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Ellen_Hopkins_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): From #1 NYT bestselling author Ellen Hopkins comes a new heartbreaking young adult novel in verse about twins separated in the foster care system and the different pat…

In LONG HAUL: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers (Mariner Books), veteran FBI special agent, NBC News National Security Contributor, and bestselling author Frank Figliuzzi takes us inside his year-long quest to understand the mysterious subcultures of long-haul truckers, sex trafficked victims, and the crime analysts trying to stop the killing. “Pa…

8.24.24 - Tyler Bridges // Renée Gros by Crosstown ConversationsBy Crosstown Conversations

In TOM CLANCY SHADOW STATE, Jack Ryan, Jr. finds himself on the run after confronting a Chinese spy ring operating within the American technology supply chain. The vibrant economy of the new Vietnam is a shiny lure for Western capital. Not wanting to be left behind, Hendley Associates sends Jack to acquire a rare earth mining company operating in t…

Author: M.P. Woodward Book: TOM CLANCY SHADOW WAR: A Jack Ryan Jr. Novel Publishing: G.P. Putnam’s Sons (August 20, 2024) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/MP_Woodward_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): Surviving a helicopter crash in the Vietnamese Highlands is only the start of the challenges facing Jack Ryan, Jr., in the latest …

THE HATERS, by bestselling author Robyn Harding, tells the story of high school guidance counselor and newly published author Camryn Lane. After years of struggle and rejection, her first novel is published. Her editor is happy, her friends thrilled, and her teenage daughter proud. All is right with the world; Camryn is living her dream.Until she r…

8.17.24 - Gian Smith & Vera Warren-Williams by Crosstown ConversationsBy Crosstown Conversations

Author: Pedro Domingos Book: 2040: A Political Satire Publishing: BookBaby (August 20, 2024) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Pedro_Domingos_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): “I told you not to read books like this.” ―Your Mom When AI and the culture wars collide, hilarity ensues. The 2040 presidential election is unlike any in U…

Adam Plantinga, currently a sergeant with the SanFrancisco Police Department, has written two acclaimed nonfiction books revered by mystery and thriller writers—400 Things Cops Know, an Agatha Awardnominee, and Police Craft. Plantinga's debut novel is called THE ASCENT. A high-security prison fails, forcing a down-on-his-luck cop and the governor’s…

8.10.24 - David Marcello, Todd Reynolds, Scott Howard & Joseph O. Evans III by Crosstown ConversationsBy Crosstown Conversations

This is a collection of short stories written over many years. Some are more or less contemporary, a few are set in the 19th Century, and a few others were inspired by the work of other people. Harry Hutchins has been interested in folklore, mythology, history, fantasy and science fiction for a long time. His home is largely decorated in full bookc…

Author: Steve Wiegand Book: THE UNCOMMON LIFE OF DANNY O’CONNELL: A Tale of Baseball Cards, “Average” Players and the True Value of America’s Game Publishing: Bancroft Press (July 30, 2024) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Steve_Wiegand_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): In “The Uncommon Life of Danny O’Connell,” the author explor…

For thousands of years before America’s founding, Nativepeoples made their homes in the Mississippi watershed, regarding it with awe and adorning its banks with mounds and silhouetted effigies of animals, humans, and spiritual beings. They respected the “great river” and lived peaceably alongside it. However, when European settlers arrived—and late…

THE LIGHT OF BATTLE begins in the closing months of 1943, when Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in Tehran to negotiate Allied strategy against Germany and Roosevelt's surprise selection of Dwight Eisenhower to lead the invasion of France that would mark the beginning of the end of Hitler's Germany. Paradis brings Eisenhower vividly alive as a c…

8.2.24 - Leslie-Claire Spillman // DiQuan Forcell by Crosstown ConversationsBy Crosstown Conversations

Author: Brian Freeman Book: Robert Ludlum’s THE BOURNE SHADOW: A Jason Bourne Novel Publishing: G.P. Putnam’s Sons (July 16, 2024) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Brian_Freeman_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): When secrets from Bourne’s past come to light, he may be the next thing that’s buried in this latest entry in the legen…

Award-winning historian and best-selling author Allen C. Guelzo has published highly acclaimed books on Gettysburg and Robert E. Lee, but he is best known as one of the most respected Lincoln scholars in the world. Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment is a return to his greatest passion and expertise. An intimate study…

For decades, Nick Burns has been haunted by a decision he made as a young soldier in World War I, when a French artist he’d befriended thrust both her paintings and her baby into his hands—and disappeared. In 1974, with only months left to live, Nick enlists Jenny, a college dropout desperate for adventure, to help him unravel the mystery. The jour…

7.26.24 - Marc Morial // Candice Divine Henderson // Dr. Giulia Monticone by Crosstown ConversationsBy Crosstown Conversations

As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed …

From TJ Alexander, a 3-time Indie Next Pick recipient and author of the Lamda Literary Award-nominated “urgent and intimate” (New York Times) Chef’s Choice, comes TRIPLE SEC , starring a jaded bartender who is wooed by a charmingly quirky couple in this fresh and sizzling polyamorous rom-com, set in the glamorous world of high-end cocktail bars. AB…

7.19.24 - Cheryl Sutton, Diedre Meredith & Jerika Richardson by Crosstown ConversationsBy Crosstown Conversations

Author: K.A. Cobell Book: LOOKING FOR SMOKE Publishing: Heartdrum (June 4, 2024) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/KA_Cobell_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): In her powerful debut novel, Looking for Smoke, author K. A. Cobell (Blackfeet) weaves loss, betrayal, and complex characters into a thriller that will illuminate, surprise,…

When Vin Scully passed away in 2022, the city of Los Angeles lost its soundtrack. If you were able to deliver a eulogy for him, what might it include? What impact did he have on you? What do you carry forward from his legacy? Sixty-seven essayists—one representing each season of his career calling games for the Los Angeles Dodgers, from 1950 throug…

7.12.24 - Rory Schmitt // Denise Augustine // Sallie Ann Glassman by Crosstown ConversationsBy Crosstown Conversations

In the dark days after the devastating Pearl Harbor attacks during the spring of 1942, the United States was determined to show the world that the Axis was notinvincible. Their bold plan? Bomb Tokyo. On April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25s, known as the Doolittle Raiders, hit targets across Japan before escaping to China. The eighth plane, however, did no…

Author: Ruth Bonapace Book: THE BULGARIAN TRAINING MANUAL Publishing: CLASH Books (June 4, 2024) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Ruth_Bonapace_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): The Bulgarian Training Manual is a comic novel that tells the story of Tina in her quest to find her true parents and jeans that fit. With the help of a …

From the New York Times bestselling author of Satchel and Bobby Kennedy, a sweeping and spellbinding portrait of the longtime kings of jazz—Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie—who, born within a few years of one another, overcame racist exclusion and violence to become the most popular entertainers on the planet. Larry Tye is the New Y…

Who doesn’t like vacations with ultimate relaxation preferences? The type of vacation a person takes depends upon individual desires. Most folks like to be wined-n-dined and pampered as if they’ve snuck into the 1/10 of 1% demographic. A few eccentrics prefer different vacations. Developing the ability to ignore inconveniences that’s like a gym rat…

Winters in Montana can be deadly, but it wasn’t the cold that was killing Matthew Redd . . . Gavin Kline, executive assistant director of the FBI’s Intelligence Directorate, is escorting a high-value prisoner with the intel to bring down a global conspiracy when their plane comes under attack. In the aftermath, muchof Kline’s team is dead, but he r…

Author: Mark Greaney Book: SENTINEL Publishing: Berkley (June 25, 2024) https://kscj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Mark_Greaney_to_air.mp3 Synopsis (from the Publisher): An African coup may force Josh Duffy to choose between his mission and his family in this intense thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Gray Man series. Jo…

Johnny Mize was one of the greatest hitters in baseball’s golden age of great hitters. Born and raised in tiny Demorest, Georgia, in the northeast Georgia mountains, Mize emerged from the heart of Dixie as a Bunyonesque slugger, a quiet but sharp‑witted man from a broken home who became a professional player at seventeen, embarking on an extended t…