Books & Literature

William Langeweische is a writer and a pilot. He grew up around planes and learned to fly when he was a child. His father, a test pilot, wrote a text that is considered to be the bible of aerial navigation ("Stick and Rudder"). Langewiesche has written his own book about flying from a different perspective, called "Inside the Sky: A Meditation on Flight."

The truth about vultures, with Wayne Grady and Mike Wallace. Grady's new book, "Vulture: Ghastly Gourmet," (Sierra Club Books) describes in words and photographs the life of the vulture. Wallace is the Los Angeles Zoo's vulture specialist. He is the Curator of Conservation and Science at the zoo, as well as being the Condor Species Survival Program Coordinator for the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.

Jury consultant Jo-Ellan Dimitrius. She's consulted in over 600 trials, including O-J Simpson's and Rodney King's. Dimitrius' company, Forensic Technologies International, uses techniques like random phone surveys to learn about public attitudes. In jury questionnaires and interviews, Dimitrius says he can get potential jurors to reveal their pre-dispostions. In her new book, "Reading People: How to Understand People and Predict Their Behavior," (Random House) she discloses some of the tricks of her trade.

In the tradition of the documentary "Sherman's March," Geoff Dyer has written a book about trying to write D.H. Lawrence's biography. "Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling With D.H. Lawrence" (Farrar Strauss Giroux) ends up being both a biography and an autobiography. Dyer lives in Oxford, England, and has published several other books, including "Ways of Telling," a critical study of the art critic John Berger.

Malachy McCourt is best-selling author Frank McCourt's ("Angela's Ashes") younger brother. He's just written a memoir of his own, entitled "A Monk Swimming." (Hyperion) It picks up where Frank's left off, in 1950s America. Malachy is also an actor and has had featured roles in the films "The Devil's Own," "She's the One," and "The Bonfire of The Vanities."

Joshua Quitner and Michelle Slatalla are authors of "Speeding The Net: The Inside Story of Netscape and How It Challenged Microsoft." (Atlantic Monthly Press) Quittner is the computer columnist for Time magazine and an assistant managing editor at Time Inc's on-line site Pathfinder. Slatalla writes a technology column for The New York Times. They have also collaborated on the books: "Masters of Deception," "Flame War," "Mother's Day," and "Shoo-Fly Pie to Die."

Peter D. Goldsmith is author of "Making People's Music: Moe Asch." (Smithsonian Books) The book explores the history of folk music in America. He uses the life of Moe Asch who was the founder of Folkways Records to tell that story. Asch recorded with such legendary folk singers as: Pete Seeger and Woody Gutherie. Peter D. Goldsmith is an anthropologist who grew up to listening to Folkways records. He currently an adjunct associate professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan gives her recommendations for books to read this summer.

Novelist Richard Bausch's newest book is "In the Night Season." (Harper Collins) some of his books include: "Good Evening Mr. and Mrs America and All the Ships at Sea," "Rebel Powers," and "Violence." He is also known for his stories which have been published in "The Atlantic Monthly," "Esquire," "Harper's," "The New Yorker," "Playboy," and "The Southern Review." Bausch lives in rural Virginia.

Armistead Maupin is the author of "Tales of the City." It depicted San Francisco gay and straight lifestyles in the 1970's. In 1994 "Tales of the City" was adapted into a controversial PBS miniseries. His second novel from 1980 "More Tales of the City" (Harper Perennial) has been adapted into a Showtime channel miniseries that begins airing this month.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Bridget Jones's Diary," a novel by Helen Fielding that began as a newspaper column. It has been the best selling novel in Great Britain for six months and has just won the British Book Award of the Year.

Author Diane Wood Middlebrook has written "Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton." (Houghton Mifflin) It traces the life of jazz musician Billy Tipton who passed as a man most of her life. Middlebrooke also wrote "Anne Sexton: A Biography." She is a professor of english at Stanford University in California.

Nicholas Papandreou is the son of former Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. Nicholas as written the novel "A Crowded Heart." (Picador) It is a fictional retelling of his own childhood in Greece. Born in Berkeley, California, he now lives in Athens, Greece.

U.S. Peace negotiator Richard Holbrooke. He was the chief architect of the Dayton Peace Accord that ended the war in the former Yugoslavia. He has just returned from the region. His new book will be published in June "To End A War." (Random House)

Gospel singer Cissy Houston has released her biography titled "Cissy Houston, How Sweet The Sound: My Life with God and Gospel." (Doubleday) Cissy Houston won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Soul Gospel album for "Face to Face." She is the minister of music at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey and lives in Fort Lee, NJ. Her daughter is the singer Whitney Houston.

Writer Ron Chernow has written a new biography one of America's most powerful men. His book is "Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr." (Random House) Chernow has also written: "The House of Morgan," "The Warburgs," and "The Death of the Banker." The New York Times this month called Titan "a triumph of the art of biography."

Novelist Richard Price talks about his latest book "Freedomland". (Broadway Books) It's a story that examines race relations in a fictional urban New Jersey town. Inspired by the real life Susan Smith incident in which she alleged a black man carjacked her and took her two children. Price's story follows a similar theme and how the events affect the community. Price's earlier novel "Clockers" about life in the inner city world of drug dealing was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award.

British novelist Nick Hornby, the author of the best-selling comic novel "High Fidelity" about a 30-something record collector, and top-ten list maker who is afraid of commitment. His newest novel "About a Boy" (Riverhead Books) is about a 36 year old man who pretends to be a single parent in order to meet women who are single parents. Robert DeNiro has just optioned "About a Boy" for a film. "High Fidelity" is about to be made into a film starring John Cusack.

Saxophonist, guitarist, and musicologist Allen Lowe. He's the author of the book "American Pop: from Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893-1956" (Cadence Jazz Books) which is an examination of the roots of pop by way of recorded music.

President of the University of Cape Town Mamphela Ramphele. During the 1970s she was a leader in the struggle against Apartheid, and was a colleague of Steven Biko. Later she became his lover. Biko was murdered while in detention and Ramphele was pregnant with his child. Ramphele is also a medical doctor and anthropologist. Her new memoir is "Across Boundaries: The Journey of a South African Woman Leader" (The Feminist Press)