"Ham: Slices of a Life" --- Essays and Stories by Sam Harris

On this installment of ST, our guest is Sam Harris --- who grew up in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and who is widely known and admired for his work as a singer and songwriter, and for his appearances on Broadway, film, and television; his legendary performances on TV's Star Search led to a multi-million-selling recording career. Harris --- who grew up, by the way, with Rich Fisher, our program's host --- has a new book out, an autobiographical collection of essays and stories called "Ham: Slices of a Life," and he tells us about this book on today's show. Harris is currently on a musical-inspired book tour, in which he reads from his memoir while also pausing here and there to belt out a few songs; he performed at a "stop" on this tour here in Tulsa over the previous weekend. Publishers Weekly (in a starred review) has called "Ham" a "vividly crafted series of essays [and] a charmingly candid collection" --- and, after reading just a few pages of this volume, it's easy to see why.