The Roundtable

Albany, NY – Jim Dale's is a voice that many Harry Potter enthusiasts recognize It's accompanied them on car trips, airplane rides, and maybe even just relaxing a relaxing afternoon at home. He is the narrator of the Harry Potter audio books.

Albany, NY – Emerson Spartz is the 20 year old man behind the mugglenet.com website, which he started when he was a home-schooled 12 year old. Currently, Spartz is a business major at the University of Notre Dame. In advance of the arrival of the final Book 7, a number of staff members authored the reference book Mugglenet.Com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7, a published collection of unofficial predictions.

Albany, NY – From perfume to fashion; clean burning candles to the grease that drove the industrial revolution, much of American culture has been shaped by a single industry: whaling. It is something we don't hear much about these days, but the history of the whaling industry is a fascinating, and often disturbing topic. Eric Jay Dolin is a Fisheries Policy Analyst at the National Marine Fisheries Service and the author of the new book Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America.

Albany, NY – Can one feel patriotic for more than one country? Today, essayist Nell Strizich spreads her nationalism with a wide net.

Albany, NY – A Western Massachusetts man has devoted much of his life to collecting WWII memorabilia about the Navy's patrol torpedo boats. PT boats are 80 foot wooden boats that went up against much larger Japanese warships in the Pacific. The private collection is now on display in Springfield, MA and WAMC Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill tells us more.

www.springfieldmuseums.org

Albany, NY – Scott Meyer, owner of the three Merritt Bookstores in Millbrook, Cold Spring, and Red Hook, shares some book picks.

www.merrittbooks.com

Albany, NY – The Mount, Edith Wharton's Estate and Gardens in Lenox, MA, has designed an innovative exhibit to highlight her novel, The Fruit of the Tree, and explore the contrasts between mill owners and mill workers. The exhibit is titled The Mills Come to the Mount, and Stephanie Copeland, President of The Mount, tells us all about it.

www.edithwharton.org

Albany, NY – Legendary producer Chuck Barris' latest project is the novel, The Big Question, about a game show where contestants vie for a hundred million dollars, and are executed on TV if they lose. Barris is taking the oppurtinity to explore the idea that maybe TV has gone too far.

The Big Question, by Chuck Barris.
Published by Simon and Schuster.

Albany, NY – Susan RoAne, author of several editions of How to Work a Room, has some tips for speaking to people who are less vertically gifted.

How to Work a Room: Your Essential Guide to Savvy Socializing, by Susan RoAne.
Published by Harper Collins.

Albany, NY – A religious pilgrimage won't be part of most American's summer vacation plans this year, but for essayist Richard Frisbie, it was an important part of his recent trip to Spain. He shares his journey "on the road" to Saint James.