It’s been several years since we launched “Book Club with Michael Smerconish.” The original idea was to command a local ballroom or theatre and procure an A-list author whom I would interview in front of a live audience. The audience would come for the candid discussion and leave with a signed book they purchased from a bookseller on site.
Along the way, we have hosted some extraordinary and diverse figures – everyone from best-selling fiction author Nelson DeMille to economist Steven Levitt to chick-lit author Jennifer Weiner. Last year alone we welcomed an exceptional group, including Ted Gup, Jack Bogle, James Kaplan, Jane Leavy and Del Quentin Wilber.
At the Scottish Rite Auditorium on March 7, we're upping the ante by hosting FIVE local authors in one night. "The Geater" Jerry Blavat ("You Only Rock Once"), George Anastasia & Glen Macnow ("The Ultimate Book of Gangster Movies"), Bernie Parent ("Journey Through Risk and Fear") and Larry Kane "Death by Deadline") will all join us for an unprecedented session of Book Club! Click "Add to Cart" below to order your tickets -- you'll receive confirmation via Pay Pal and your e-tickets will arive ONE WEEK prior to the event.
Take a look at past offerings below, and watch the video to the left for a taste of what happens at Book Club. Tickets will cost $20 for each event. Hope to see you on March 7 and beyond!
- Michael A. Smerconish
On January 19, 2012, Book Club with Michael Smerconish will be back in session, as Michael welcomes Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” to the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood, New Jersey to discuss his New York Times best-seller “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero.” Click “Add to Cart” to order your tickets! THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT! ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF JON FALK.
According to Publisher’s Weekly: “Out of his gut interest in politics and love of reading biographies of American heroes, Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball, probes the details of the 35th president’s life and career to find out what Jack was like…Drawing on interviews with friends and former staffers, as well as on such familiar biographical incidents as Kennedy’s rescue of the PT-109 crew and his resulting back injury, Matthews reveals a man who through inner direction and tenacious will created himself out of the loneliness and illness of his youth and who taught himself the hard discipline of politics through his own triumphs and failures…Matthews’s stirring biography reveals Kennedy as a “fighting prince never free from pain, never far from trouble, and never accepting the world he found.”
On January 25, Michael will welcome legendary investigative reporter and journalist Ted Gup to Philadelphia to discuss his latest book, "A Secret Gift: How One Man’s Kindness –- And a Trove of Letters –- Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression." Click "Add to Cart" to purchase your tickets! THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.
The story: Shortly before Christmas 1933 in Depression-scarred Canton, Ohio, a small newspaper ad offered $10, no strings attached, to 75 families in distress. Interested readers were asked to submit letters describing their hardships to a benefactor calling himself Mr. B. Virdot. Gup's grandfather Sam Stone was inspired to place this ad and assist his fellow Cantonians as they prepared for the cruelest Christmas most of them would ever witness.
Moved by the tales of suffering and expressions of hope contained in the letters, which he discovered in a suitcase 75 years later, Gup initially set out to unveil the lives behind them, searching for records and relatives all over the country who could help him flesh out the family sagas hinted at in those letters. But as he uncovered the suffering and triumphs of dozens of strangers, Gup also learned that Sam Stone was far more complex than the lovable- retiree persona he'd always shown his grandson. Gup unearths deeply buried details about Sam's life-from his impoverished, abusive upbringing to felonious efforts to hide his immigrant origins from U.S. officials-that help explain why he felt such a strong affinity to strangers in need.
On February 28, Vanguard founder and former CEO John C. Bogle returns to Book Club to lay out his newest book, "Don’t Count On It! Reflections on Investment Illusions, Capitalism, “Mutual” Funds, Indexing, Entrepreneurship, Idealism and Heroes." Click "Add to Cart" to purchase your tickets! THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.
The story: Throughout his legendary career, John Bogle-founder of the Vanguard mutual fund group and creator of the first index mutual fund-has helped investors build wealth the right way, while, at the same time, leading a tireless campaign to restore common sense to the investment world.
A collection of essays based on speeches delivered to professional groups and college students in recent years, Don't Count on It is organized around eight themes
Illusion versus reality in investing
Indexing to market returns
Failures of capitalism
The flawed structure of the mutual fund industry
The spirit of entrepreneurship
What is enough in business, and in life
Advice to America's future leaders
The unforgettable characters who have shaped his career
On March 7, New York Times bestselling author and biographer James Kaplan visits Book Club to discuss his book, "Frank: The Voice." Click "Add to Cart" to purchase your tickets! THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.
The story: Frank Sinatra was the best-known entertainer of the twentieth century—infinitely charismatic, lionized and notori¬ous in equal measure. But despite his mammoth fame, Sinatra the man has remained an enigma. As Bob Spitz did with the Beatles, Tina Brown for Diana, and Peter Guralnick for Elvis, James Kaplan goes behind the legend and hype to bring alive a force that changed popular culture in fundamental ways.
Sinatra endowed the songs he sang with the explosive conflict of his own personality. He also made the very act of listening to pop music a more personal experience than it had ever been. In Frank: The Voice, Kaplan reveals how he did it, bringing deeper insight than ever before to the complex psyche and tur¬bulent life behind that incomparable vocal instrument. We relive the years 1915 to 1954 in glistening detail, experiencing as if for the first time Sinatra’s journey from the streets of Hoboken, his fall from the apex of celebrity, and his Oscar-winning return in From Here to Eternity. Here at last is the biographer who makes the reader feel what it was really like to be Frank Sinatra—as man, as musician, as tortured genius.
On April 11, Book Club With Michael Smerconish rolls on with Jane Leavy, New York Times bestselling author and creator of the critically acclaimed comic novel "Squeeze Play." Leavy will visit Philadelphia to discuss her latest book, "The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood." Click "Add to Cart" to purchase your tickets! THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.
The story: Drawing on more than 500 interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, Leavy delivers the definitive account of Mantle's life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.
On May 23, Book Club With Michael Smerconish will pick up with Del Quentin Wilber, the accomplished Washington Post and Baltimore Sun reporter and author of "Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan." Click "Add to Cart" to purchase your tickets! THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.
The story: On March 30, 1981, President Reagan walked out of a hotel in Washington, D.C., and was shot by a would-be assassin. For years, few people knew the truth about how close the president came to dying, and no one has ever written a detailed narrative of that harrowing day. Now, drawing on exclusive new interviews, Del Quentin Wilber tells the electrifying story of a moment when the nation faced a terrifying crisis. With cinematic clarity, we see the Secret Service agent whose fast reflexes saved the president's life; the brilliant surgeons who operated on Reagan as he was losing half his blood; and the small group of White House officials frantically trying to determine whether the country was under attack. Most especially, we encounter the man code-named Rawhide, a leader of uncommon grace who inspired affection and awe in everyone who worked with him.
Ronald Reagan was the only serving U.S. president to survive being shot in an assassination attempt. In Rawhide Down, the story of that perilous day—a day of chaos, crisis, prayer, heroism, and hope—is brought to life as never before.
On June 1, Michael will welcome journalist, novelist and short story writer Pete Hamill to Philadelphia to discuss his latest book, “Tabloid City: A Novel.” Click "Add to Cart" to purchase your tickets! THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.
The story: In a stately West Village townhouse, a wealthy socialite and her secretary are murdered. In the 24 hours that follow, a flurry of activity circles around their shocking deaths: The head of one of the city's last tabloids stops the presses. A cop investigates the killing. A reporter chases the story. A disgraced hedge fund manager flees the country. An Iraq War vet seeks revenge. And an angry young extremist plots a major catastrophe.
The City is many things: a proving ground, a decadent playground, or a palimpsest of memories-- a historic metropolis eclipsed by modern times. As much a thriller as it is a gripping portrait of the city of today, TABLOID CITY is a new fiction classic from the writer who has captured it perfectly for decades.
