PD and former BJ pop culture critic Mark Dawidziak’s latest book, “The Shawshank Redemption Revealed: How One Story Keeps Hope Alive,” is on Amazon.com.

$15.39 for the Kindle version and $29.95 for the hardcover version.

The release of Mark’s Rowman & Littlefield’s Lyons Press book coincides with the 25^th anniversary of “The Shawshank Redemption,” based on a Stephen King book. The 1994 film co-stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.

It didn’t do much in the theaters but cable and home video made it one of the top-rented movies of 1995.

“Shawshank” keeps creeping up in the all-time rankings of movies.

Mark’s subtitle is “how one story keeps hope alive.”  
Among the 70 interviews that Mark did for the book were with author Stephen King, director-screenwriter Frank Darabont, the film’s stars Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Clancy Brown, Bill Sadler and Jeffrey DeMunn.

Mark added:

“Everyone, from King to extras hired to play convicts, had great stories to tell. If this book is any good, it’s because everyone had great stories to tell. All the stories behind the story were wonderful. And they hopefully add up to one great story. I was having so much fun listening to these stories, I easily and happily could have done 70 more interviews.”

Mark will be discussing, signing and selling his “Shawshank” book at 7 p.m. Thursday, September 19 at the main branch of the Akron-Summit County Public Library at 60 S. High Street in Akron.

Mark lives in Cuyahoga Falls with wife Sara Showman and daughter Becky. Mark and Sara founded the Largely Literary Theatre Company that performs shows based on Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens.

Mark came to the BJ from Tennessee in 1983, where his Television Editor was John Olesky, and grew up on New York City’s Long Island. Previously, Mark's career took him to the Kingsport Times-News in Tennessee, the Bristol Herald Courier in Virginia, the Associated Press’ Washington bureau and Knight-Ridder Newspapers’ Washington bureau.