The On The Bookshelf Podcast

Lt. Joe Kenda's latest novelization of true crime stories'First Do No Harm"

The year was 1978. This novel shows that “drug use is NOT a ‘victim-less’ crime”.

Joe Kenda and Lee Wilson are homicide detectives with the Colorado Springs PD, but they get brought into the investigation of a string of overdoses from Mexican brown heroin laced with an unknown substance. (They will later discover it is fentanyl, an extremely powerful and easily lethal painkilling drug.)

The first three deaths are unrelated except for the method: an Airman from the USAF base, a ski instructor, and a well-known Native American activist for veterans of the Vietnam War. It was the beginning of a string of deaths that would involve a sociopathic genius junkie anestesiologist, his unwilling assistant, the Mexican cartel, local drug dealers, and  lots of collateral damage.

It's an engaging read and a cautionary tale: know what your kids are doing, where they are going, with whom they're hanging out, and what they are doing. Don't teach your kids to lie by letting them get away with small ones; someday, Joe Kenda or someone like him will be asking them why they thought it would be fine to do something awful. 

Garry Ingraham exposes the pain of a lifestyle the way back to God

“Am I Gay? Coming Out of Cultural Christianity & LGBTQ+ Identity Into Authentic Faith in Jesus” by Garry Ingraham (Love & Truth Network)

If homosexuality is “innate”, if people are “just born that way”, why has the number of Americans who consider themselves gay leapt from 2% to 7.2% in a decade? The author says, “Most people who think they are gay, aren’t. Most are simply confused, hurt, and seeking love and affirmation in ways that create further self-harm.” He should know, for he spent decades trying to figure out his identity, only to finally realize that he, like all of us, can only truly find our authentic identity in Christ.

Ingraham grew up in the church and went to Bible School, but never found genuine acceptance. He spent years sad, lonely, feeling as though no one cared deeply for him. So, he buried his pain in alcohol, pornography, sexual self-abuse, and eventually fully embraced the “gay lifestyle”. It all left him miserable and broken.

Pre-teens who are small, less muscular, are often bullied or excluded from the normal play of other boys (You never forget being the last one chosen for every single game or team. I know.) Boys who are exposed to pornography at a young age can be permanently affected by it, distorting their understanding of women, and of relationships. Knowing what your children are doing and monitoring their online interaction closely is critical. So is showing them unconditional love.

He “meticulously identifies the stages of development of one’s identity, especially for males, and explains how rejection, wounding, or sexual abuse. An foster self-doubt, especially in formative years.”  Ingraham states, “The simple truth is, for good or bad, we are profoundly impacted by the environments” in which we grow up.” He is a firm believer in helping parents prepare for (and minimize) adverse childhood experiences.

“Anything outside of God’s design for sexual expression does damage to the people involved”, he explains. “It damages our soul—whether we realize it immediately or years later. God-given attraction is rooted in the differences between and the correspondence of, male and female. American culture has gone off the rails. Authentic hope is not found in discovering and living ‘your truth’. Rather, there is one Truth, and it comes from God alone.”

Ingraham survived years of self-abuse through alcohol and illicit sexual behavior, which left him drained and grieving. He takes us through his journey to wholeness in God through this painfully-honest memoir.

 

Jon Grinspan introduces the Wide Awakes of the 1860 US election

“WIDE AWAKE: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War” by Jon Grinspan (Bloomsbury)

164 years qgo, American politics was in state of dramatic change, as new parties were emerging that challenged the political status quo of the past two decades. The Republicans were tired of the tiny minority that controlled the nation politically, whose influence was curtailing free speech and running roughshod over the majority of Americans with their determination to control the narrative. (Sound familiar? In 1860 it was to continue Slavery, in 2024 it’s the invented issue of Gender Confusion.)

What arose from that political turmoil, with the Democratic party split into two halves (North and South) and a 4^th party running a candidate for president, was an energized Republican Party. That was greatly supported by a forgotten movement, the “Wide Awakes”. It was primarily an anti-slavery (or abolitionist) youth movement, involving young working men from age 16 to about 30. They were tired of being left out of the political conversation, tired of seeing politicians constantly fighting over the growth of slavery into new territories and states, so they decided to create an organization to encourage support of Republican presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. This they accomplished splendidly, growing in influence and size as the organization’s ideas spread across the Northern half of the USA that year.

It was not without opposition. Some people who agreed with them were a little intimidated by hundreds of young men in black marching, accompanied by musicians, torches, fireworks and guest speakers. People who were offended by their antipathy to slavery, Southern Democrats who lived in the North, pro-slavery Congress members or merchants, racists and rowdies, and political opponents, responded violently. They were used to bullying the Silent Majority into unwilling compliance; they were NOT accustomed to people standing up boldly against them. These confrontations often grew vicious, with bricks and cobblestones hurled at the heads of Wide-Awakes, and increasingly the use of knives and guns. 

By the time Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated in March 1861, several Southern states had already seceded, and more were threatening. The Wide-Awakes realized their role as political advocates was ended. Many of them would enlist in the Union Army, and meet for reunions for years after war. Their history deserves to be told, as they might have been a key piece in why the war broke out when it did. The silent majority was no longer content to be silent, thanks to the bravery and the example of the Wide-Awakes. When politics got violent at “a moment of escalating regional and ideological tensions” in 1860, after decades of tensions amid tempers simmering, the forces that looked to disunion and civil war prevailed.

The author is a curator of political history at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Dr. Tony Jones shares "the God of Wild Places"

Tony Jones is a former rock-star Christian author and speaker whose pastoral career was crashed on the rocks of public opinion when his marriage imploded. Shaken, he retreated to the Great Outdoors, where he found peace and tranquility communing with the Creator. In his latest book he shares his hard-earned wisdom and his deep insight. Jones also takes groups hunting, fishing, canoeing and hiking in the Wild Places of Minnesota, to share the peace of God with them.

The Schenck Brothers, FIlm Pioneers & "Moguls" with Mike Benson & Craig Singer

The Schencks were responsible for metamorphosizing film, from its production and distribution to its star power, distribution via glitzy movie theatres, manipulating the headlines and celebrity narratives, and
even how films were sourced, shot, and regarded by the public. They infused mystique, money, glamour,danger, sex, and romance into film and were there at the fledging start of “talkies.” Responsible for growing the celluloid industry into a multi-million dollar empire right through the GreatDepression, one can draw a straight line from the efforts of the Schencks to today’s mega movie stars (hi,Tom Cruise!)
MOGULS features incredible movie morsels:
• The Schenck brothers created the Motion Picture Academy and the invention of The Oscars, and were involved in the launches of United Artists, MGM, and Twentieth Century Fox;
• They helped to launch the mammoth Loew’s chain and its opulent theatres around the country;
• They halted a Nazi takeover of the movie industry and a shakedown by the Mob in the 1930s;
• Marilyn Monroe was Joe’s “special friend,” responsible for her fantastic rise to stardom:
• Joe did four months in the fed pen for tax evasion (one of his deductions involved a menage a trois);
• Their pals included William Randolph Hearst, Lillian Gish, Jacob Paley, John Huston, Fatty Arbuckle, Douglas Fairbanks, Irving Thalberg, Irving Berlin, and TV’s Superman George Reeves (whose mysterious suicide is linked to the brothers )
MOGULS is a rollicking, entertaining romp through Hollywood’s unstoppable trajectory and its glitzy,sordid highs and lows, seen through the exploits of two brothers who made cinema history.
Michael Benson (Brooklyn, NY) is the author of more than sixty books, including the nonfiction history and crime titles Gangsters vs Nazis, Betrayal in Blood, Killer Twins, Mommy Deadliest, Who’s Who in the
JFK Assassination, and The Devil at Genesee Junction. He is the co-author, along with Frank Dimatteo, ofthe acclaimed American Mafia history books.  He regularly appears on ID: Investigation Discovery channel and is the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Award. Benson can be found on Facebook  @authorMichaelBenson.
Craig Singer  is an Emmy-nominated director, producer, writer and filmmaker. A Former Disney executive, he directed and produced the films A Good Night to Die (2003), Dark Ride (2006), Perkins' 14 (2009) and Animal Room (1995). His latest film, 6:45, earned multiple awards,
including Best Feature, Paris Independent Film Festival; Best Feature, Hollywood on the Tiber Film Awards; Best Horror Feature, Hong Kong Indie Film Festival; and Best Director, Catalina Film Festival. He was nominated for an Emmy in the interactive fiction category in 2008 and his series have been honored many times by the Telly’s and Webby’s.