Books & Literature

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Scott Spencer's new book, Men In Black, about a novelist, and how his success affects his family life.

Amis is the author of The Information. The book is about rivalry in the literary world, which some have said parallels Amis' own life. Britain's literary world was shocked when Amis demanded a half-million pound advance on The Information, supposedly to pay for his divorce and costly dental work, and then dumped his long-time agent, who was also the wife of his best friend. The New York Times has called The Information "an uncompromising and highly ambitious novel that should also be a big popular hit."

Allende has published her first work of non-fiction, Paula. It's about her 28 year old daughter, who fell into an irreversible coma. Paula began as a letter to her dying daughter and turned into an autobiographical work about Allende's childhood in Chile, her exile in Venezuela and her move to San Francisco.

The two time Pulitzer Prize winning novelist joins us to talk about his new book Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery. Mailer says we must ask "Who was Oswald?" as a prelude to asking "Who killed JFK?" The book profiles Lee Harvey Oswald's life. It's Mailer's 28th book.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan review Martin Amis's nimble, cynical novel, The Information.

McNamara has written a book, In Retrospect, which contains the long awaited admission that he felt U.S. policy in Vietnam was wrong and the war was unwinnable. He details the behind-the-scenes decision-making that escalated the war, and the atmosphere of the times which made policymakers feel they had no choice but to do so.

Kenyon died Saturday of leukemia. She and her husband, poet Donald Hall, had both been struggling with cancer for years. Many of their works were inspired by their battles with the disease. Their last book of poems, entitled Constance, is about Hall's surgery and recovery. We replay our 1993 interview with the couple.

David Fisher is the author of the book Hard Evidence, which lays out how the FBI examines evidence to track down bombing suspects.

Writer Scott Peck and his father Colonel Fred Peck. The younger Peck has written his first book, All American Boy, a memoir of his life growing up in an abusive home with his step-father and the rebuilding of his relationship with his father after a fourteen year estrangement. Peck was thrust on the national scene in May 1993 when his Marine Colonel father spoke against gays in the military to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Col. Peck went on to say his oldest son, Scott, was gay, and though he loved him, he should not be able to serve in the military.

Architecture and Design Critic Thomas Hine has written a new book, The Total Package: The Evolution and Secret Meanings of Boxes, Bottles, Cans and Tubes. He explores the effect packages have on consumer emotions and purchases.

Journalist Steven Waldman is National Correspondent for Newsweek. His new book "The Bill" follows Bill Clinton's plan to revamp the college loan system, from idea to implementation. Clinton first talked about his plan during the presidential campaign, and once he was in the White House, work began on what became AMERICORPS.

Penny was in Congress for twelve years. He's just written a new book about the cultures that modern lawmakers bring to Congress which he says "have gnawed away at the sturdy foundations of republican democracy and trustworthy service that our Founding Fathers bequeathed." Penny's new book is Common Cents, which he wrote with journalist Major Garrett. Penny is now spokesperson for the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan coalition that promotes fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction.

Cartoonist Bill Griffith traveled to Cuba last fall, which became the inspiration for "Cuba Uncovered", a month long series of Zippy strips on the Cuban situation. He created the strip over 25 years ago; it is currently syndicated in over 200 newspapers. Griffith is also one of the cartoonists interviewed in the new documentary, "Crumb."

Scorsese is one of the most influential men of contemporary film. He's helped restore four classic films from the 1950s which he says had a profound influence on his own work: "Force of Evil," "Johnny Guitar," "Pursued" and "A Double Life."

Terry Gross talks with the Croatian writer about her book Have a Nice Day: From the Balkan War to the American Dream. Part memoir, part short story collection, the book chronicles the writer's transplanted life as a lecturer in Middletown, Connecticut, a world away from the brutal Balkan war.

In light of the release of the first full-length biography on the African American baseball player, commentator Gerald Early reflects on the life Jack Robinson.

Biographer Tad Szulc has a new book called Pope John Paul II: The Biography. It details the Pope's early years in Poland through his climb to the papacy after being elevated to archbishop in 1963. Szulc traveled with the Pope extensively, had access to many of his private papers and interviewed many of the Pope's old schoolmates, friends and fellow priests. Szulc is a former New York Times bureau chief.

Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Krik? Krak!," the new short story collection by acclaimed novelist Edwidge Danticat.

Kaminer's new book, It's All the Rage offers insights into our culture's larger questions of individual responsibility, victimization, punishment, innocence and guilt. Kaminer is also a contributing editor to the Atlantic Monthly and Public Fellow at Radcliffe College.

Wertheimer has been with NPR since the network first went on the air with All Things Considered, May 3, 1971, which she now hosts. Wertheimer has come out with a book that looks back at some of the key events in American history as they were covered by NPR sations, called Listening to America.