Books & Literature

Book critic John Leonard reviews the new historical novel, "The Rape of the Rose," by Glyn Hughes, about the Luddite rebellion in England.

What does 'artistic temperament' really mean? In her new book, "Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament," Kay Jamison has studied the psychological makeup of many of our most revered artists--Byron, Tennyson, Van Gogh, Hemingway--and linked their genius to manic-depression. Jamison looks at current treatments for manic-depression, and considers their affect on a patient's ability to create. Kay Jamison is Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Carlisle is the granddaughter of renowned Russian writer Leonid Andreyev. She grew up in Paris, but travelled to Russia in the 1960s, where she befriended that country's most prominent writers. For 20 years she was exiled from Russia because of her friendship with Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose work she published in the west. She returned to her native country in 1989 to find it vastly changed. Her new memoir is "Under A New Sky: A Reunion with Russia."

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews the author's debut crime novel, "Bucket Nut."

Price wrote and produced the new movie "Mad Dog and Glory," which stars Robert Deniro, Bill Murray and Uma Thurman. His most recent novel is the best seller, "Clockers." Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of The New York Times wrote "the signal achievement of "Clockers' is to make us feel the enormous power of these giants that are drugs, alcoholism, poverty." Price also wrote the screenplays for "The Color of Money," "Sea of Love," and Martin Scorcese's section of "New York Stories."

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "A Trifle, a Coddle, a Fry," a collection of recipes of Irish authors' favorite foods.

Professor of African-American studies, Gerald Early. He'll talk with Terry about the dilemma of being a middle-class African American intellectual, and how that kind of life can separate a person from the black community. His new book is "Lure and Loathing: Essays on Race, Identity, and the Ambivalence of Assimilation."

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Culture and Imperialism" by the Palestinian-born scholar. The book revisits several themes first explored in Said's now-classic "Orientalism."

Elkin has been called "one of the most entertaining stylists in contemporary American fiction." His novels include, "The MacGuffin," "The Magic Kingdom," and others. His latest collection of of novellas is "Van Gogh's Room at Arles." Elkin was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis twenty years ago. He'll talk about his writing and his life and how it's changed since the disease has progressed.

Ng's first novel, "Bone," is about three sisters brought up in San Francisco's Chinatown. One reviewer writes, "I learned a lot from "Bone" about the high cost of living in two worlds;" another writes that the story is "beautifully conceived, full of feeling and the sound of the streets."

Journalist Robert Cullen was Newsweek's Moscow bureau chief in the Soviet Union. He has a new book The Killer Department." It's about one detective's eight year hunt for the man known as "the most savage serial killer in Russian history." Cullen is also the author of, "Twilight of Empire: Inside the Crumbling Soviet Bloc," about the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Roth is best known for his books "Goodbye, Columbus" and "Portnoy's Complaint." Since the publication of his first book, Roth has been controversial for his treatment of Jewish themes. Some readers think his satirical take is anti-Semitic. His novel "Portnoy's Complaint," a sexual autobiography of a young lawyer, was labeled obscene by some because of its descriptions of masturbation and sexual conquest.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "The Passion of Michel Foucault," by James Miller, a biography of the French philosopher.

Maureen Corrigan reviews, "The Dialectic of Sex," by Shulamith Fireston. First published in the 1970s, it serves as an important document of second-wave feminism.

Attorney and writer Mary Frances Berry. She's a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and a professor of history and law at the University of Pennsylvania. She's written a new book about the tradition of "mother-care" in our society, the notion that women have principal responsibility for childcare.

Investigative journalist Tom Powers has written a new book about the German attempt to get an atomic bomb, the threat that terrified American scientists and military during World War II. The book is "Heisenberg's War." At the center of the story is German physicist and Nobel laureate Werner Heisenberg. While other preeminent scientists left Germany with the rise of the Reich, Heinsenberg chose to stay to defend what was left of "good science." The program weapons program failed.

Journalist, professor, and historian Christopher Simpson teaches at American University in Washington, D.C. Last month the U.N. Security Council voted to create a new international tribunal to try those accused of war crimes in the Balkan conflict. Simpson has written a new book about the use of mass murder as an instrument of state power, beginning with World War I, called "The Splendid Blond Beast." Simpson shows how those who commit such crimes are rarely punished, like high-ranking SS killers from World War II.

Writer and filmmaker Stephen Trombley's latest project is a book and documentary, "The Execution Protocol: Inside America's Capital Punishment Industry." The book has little to do with the morality of taking a life; rather, It's about the practical considerations involved with performing executions.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews, "The Children of Men," about a 21st centurey world wherein all men have become sterile.

Award-winning historian Michael Beschloss just co-authored a new book, "At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War." He and co-author Strobe Talbot were in contact with officials in both American and Soviet governments, and in NATO. They show the close tie between George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, which "eventually caused both men to lose touch with their domestic constituencies."