You can listen to the audio version here. The Michigan basketball team beat Loyola last weekend and made it to the NCAA finals. That was a minor miracle in itself. The team had almost no stars, with maybe one future NBA draft pick. They started the season slowly, with very weak defense, while playing one […]

This season, Michigan’s men’s basketball team has enjoyed another great turn-around. After a bad loss to Northwestern in early February, the Wolverines were stuck in the middle of the Big Ten – not the station of Final Four teams. But they haven’t lost since, rattling off a 13-game winning streak. That’s how you get to […]

I can’t recall March Madness starting with more mayhem. In the first round alone, the lower-seeded team pulled the upset in eight of 32 games – fully a quarter. And it only got crazier in the second round, when six of 16 lower-seeded teams beat the favorite – which is fully… more than a quarter, […]

Michigan West Coasters! Tuesday night at 6:30 I’ll be speaking at Forever Books in St. Joseph, Michigan, about The Great Halifax Explosion, followed by Q&A and signing, all the books you like. It’s all featured in this nice piece in the St. Joseph Herald-Palladium: http://www.heraldpalladium.com/features/the-great-halifax-explosion-a-forgotten-wwi-story-of-tragedy/article_8bbab2fd-0896-5a6f-89d5-ea6da4d59957.html On Wednesday night, I’ll be at the Lake Forest Book […]

Hello, Loyal Readers! Today’s topic is the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament: a lot of reasons to like, and more not to. Meantime, The Great Halifax Explosion is still going strong, and now we’re hearing about book clubs picking Halifax for their next meeting. I’ve even talked to a few of them. If your book […]

Hello, Loyal Readers! Today we’ll take an inside look at Olympic figure skating — and just how hard it actually is. Meantime, The Great Halifax Explosion is still going strong, and now we’re hearing about book clubs picking Halifax for their next meeting. I’ve even talked to a few of them. If your book club […]