Louise Erdrich’s writing speaks softly and carries a big stick. She doesn’t shy away from challenging issues – death, rape, murder. But her characters and their story lines are so layered and complex the darkness draws readers into her suspenseful dilemmas.
When author Erik Larson started research for his latest book, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, about the 1915 sinking of the luxury ocean liner, he wasn’t expecting many surprises. As with the Titanic, everyone knows the ending: Almost 1,200 passengers died when a German submarine torpedoed the ship off the coast of Ireland.
Diane Rehm is at a crossroads in her life. Her husband, John, died in 2014 after years of living with Parkinson’s disease. She plans to retire next year from her National Public Radio call-in program, The Diane Rehm Show, ending a 37-year career in radio. In September, she will turn 80.
In a corner of Greg Dunn’s Spring Garden studio are two cabinets.
One holds the sources for the science – Cajal’s Butterflies of the Soul, a book of figures from the 19th and early 20th centuries focusing on the brain, and The Color Atlas of Anatomy.
