Confronting Violence in American Culture – an Interview with Rachel Wagner
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April 8, 2025

Cowboy Apocalypse: Religion and the Myth of the Vigilante Messiah, a new release by Rachel Wagner from NYU Press, charts the myth of the “good guy with a gun,” connecting America’s frontier beginnings with visions of the end of the world. In the midst of widespread mass shootings in America, a common motif stands out: the perpetrators of these attacks often view themselves as vigilante… [Read More]

Finding Courage – an Interview with Sondra Brooks
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February 11, 2025

In Not Good Enough Girl, amidst the control, confusion, and chaos caused by her eight-times-married mother, Sondra Brooks’ story spans the extreme emotions of a mother-daughter relationship, touching on cyclical family dysfunction, addiction, and forgiveness. Beginning at the age of five, Sondra spends decades auditioning for the role of her authentic self. Her dazzling mother casts her as confidante and co-conspirator in her affairs and… [Read More]

Writing and Listening — an Interview with Brooke Randel
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November 5, 2024

As a young girl Brooke Randel knew little about the Holocaust—just that it was a catastrophe in which millions were murdered, and that her grandma Golda Indig barely escaped that fate. But her Bubbie never spoke about what happened, and the two spent most of their time together making pleasant memories: baking crescent roll cookies, playing gin rummy, and watching Baywatch. Until an unexpected phone… [Read More]

The History of Bookstores in Ithaca
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August 1, 2023
Swenson Book Development - Sharon Yntema

After years of research and writing, author Sharon Yntema has published her latest book, Ithaca Area Bookstores: Two Hundred years of Bookstore History in Tompkins County 1819-2019. A compendium of retail operations dedicated to purveying books offers a history of a reading community through the lens of bookstores. Sharon agreed to an interview about her new release. Q: When were the first bookstores opened in Ithaca? The… [Read More]

Reflection Through Writing – An Interview with Rica Ramos
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April 11, 2023

How far should a daughter go to fix a fraught relationship with her mother? Rica Ramos-Keenum examines this question in her forthcoming memoir, Nobody’s Daughter: A Memoir of Healing the Mother Wound, which releases from She Writes Press on May 9. In her early forties and about to remarry, Rica Ramos realizes that starting over could mean leaving her mother behind. She longs to heal… [Read More]

Keeping History Alive—an Interview with Bett Fitzpatrick
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November 15, 2022

In the pre-dawn hours of February 18, 1942, three American warships zigzagged in convoy along the south coast of Newfoundland. Caught in a raging blizzard, the three ships ran aground on one of the most inhospitable stretches of coastline in the world—less than three miles apart, within eight minutes of each other. The Wilkes freed herself. The Truxton and Pollux could not. Fighting frigid temperatures, wild surf, and a heavy… [Read More]

An Evening of Spiritual Wisdom with Alice McDowell
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March 15, 2022

Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca is very excited to host local author Alice McDowell for an evening of readings and conversation about her newest book, Dance of Life: Christian, Sufi, and Zen Wisdom for Today’s Spiritual Seeker. Q&A to follow, led by Maureen O’Brien. Event date:  Sunday, March 27, 2022 – 7:00pm to 8:00pm McDowell writes about the spiritual journey as a captivating dance. In a clear and… [Read More]

Launch Out of the Cave
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August 3, 2021

The MIT Press releases Out of the Cave: A Natural History of Mind and Knowing by Mark Johnson and Don Tucker on August 17. What do we know, and how do we know it? I can’t think of any more essential question to the human experience. Or to the scientific method. Objectivity and subjectivity. Thoughts and emotions. Big ideas. Mark Johnson and Don Tucker responded to my… [Read More]

Becoming Our Whole Self – an Interview with Jeannine Ouellette
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December 15, 2020

You can tear a thing apart and tape it back together, and it will still be torn and whole. There is no other way. In her fiercely beautiful memoir, Jeannine Ouellette recollects fragments of her life and arranges them elliptically to witness each piece as torn and whole, as something more than itself. Caught between the dramatic landscapes of Lake Superior and Casper Mountain, between her stepfather’s… [Read More]

Human Connection is Universal – a Q and A with Therese Tappouni
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September 22, 2020

“Caught Between Worlds is a fantastic story set in Iraq in 1980 about a kidnapping—except instead of a kid, it’s his father who is taken hostage when war breaks out with Iran. Tom O’Hara’s father is taken by armed militants shortly after they move to Baghdad. Grieving the loss of his mother a year ago, Tom relies on his memories of her, an anthropology professor, and… [Read More]