So one more for the year. First, my sincerest thanks to Olivia Witherite, our videographer and digital editor, and Pete Kerzel, our content editor. They are the best. Their earnest interest in Hitting ...

Can we even begin to understand what people went through in the Great Depression, World War I, World War II or the Dust Bowl? Are we so concentrated on the now that we fail to see how the "then" ...

There is no reason for the selection of "A Bullet for Cinderella" over the myriad of other works by John MacDonald. That is one of the great truths about his writing. Pick a book and you will enjoy.

Between 1860 and 1869, a most improbable venture would change the landscape of America and the world. The building of a transcontinental railway had long been discussed, but many felt the task ...

Dewayne Staats is the TV voice of the Rays. He has done play by play for the Astros, Cubs and Yankees in a career of some 40 years. A smile, a kind word and professionalism are always there. We have ...

Sometimes one needs to read just for the joy of it all. Such is the love for Agatha Christie's works that have survived multitudinous changes in societies worldwide. The 1975 publication of Christie's ...

George Mitchell should have been president. He was a U.S. Senator, the Senate majority leader, a Federal District Court judge, the lead negotiator in the Northern Ireland peace accord, the special ...

The Grand Master recognition for mystery writing is a major achievement in the profession. Lawrence Block has been so recognized - and has about every other award a mystery writer could accumulate. He ...

There are books in the upper echelon of make-you-think works. B.F. Skinner's controversial (to this day) book on human behavior, "Beyond Freedom and Dignity," is high on that list. Skinner was a ...

I guess sometimes you just know. Winston Churchill just knew he was going to be the prime minister of England, and early on he set our to show a nation that he was right for that job. For Churchill, ...

One of the great treats in doing the Hitting the Books blog this season has been the chance to discuss books with my broadcast cohorts. This week I sat down with Dick Bremer, the voice of the ...

As time moves on, we hear less and less about those baseball players who went into the service in World War II. As time moves on, fewer and fewer of them are still alive. Their sacrifice was neither ...