Parenting & Families

Miriam Toews has written her third book, A Complicated Kindness. One reviewer called it "a kind of Catcher in the Rye for Mennonite girls."

The latest book by Israeli author Amos Oz is A Tale Of Love And Darkness, a memoir of growing up in Jerusalem in the turbulent 1940s and '50s, when a war-torn Israel was achieving statehood. Oz's home life was as intense as the world outside.

The book follows Oz through his mother's suicide to a growing interest in politics and writing. Along the way, he chooses a new name for himself — Oz, the Hebrew word for strength — over his family's name, Klausner.

Caouette made his filmmaking debut with the autobiographical documentary Tarnation. He made it on his home computer for only $218. It includes snapshots, super-8 home movies, answering machine messages and dramatic reenactments from his chaotic upbringing in a dysfunctional Texas family.

The new documentary Tarnation chronicles writer and director Jonathan Caouette's turbulent childhood with a mentally ill mother. He made the film on his home computer for just a few hundred dollars. Critic David Edelstein has a review.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Wasp Eater, the first novel by William Lychack. Corrigan says the book, about a dysfunctional family splitting up in late '70s Connecticut, succeeds at a small goal: conveying the ordinary sadness of connecting with other human beings.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews We Don't Live Here Anymore, based on two novellas by the late Andre Dubus. The film centers on acts of infidelity between two couples in a small college town. Edelstein says the movie is "like a bad marriage greatest hits collection."

The son of the late President Ronald Reagan has been invited to speak at the Democratic convention next week. He and his mother have become outspoken proponents of stem cell research. Reagan has edited the book, If You Had Five Minutes with the President.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews An Unfinished Season, by Ward Just. He's known for weaving American history and politics into his fiction. This book is set in Chicago during the Eisenhower years.

He's been playing piano and singing at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City since 1968. He's considered one of the great cabaret singers of our time. The 79-year-old song stylist was slated to retire from the Cafe Carlyle this coming New Year's Eve, but he's extended his schedule, and he's not going anywhere for the time being. Short has been named a "living landmark" by New York's Landmark Conservancy and a "national living legend" by the Library of Congress.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the final episode of Fraiser.

Carley is the executive director of GRASP, The Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership. In 2000, he and his then 4-year-old son were diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. GRASP works to educate the public about the disorder.

He's best known for his cult films Tales From the Gimli Hospital, (1998) and Careful (1992). His short film The Heart of the World (2000) won a special award from the National Society of Film Critics and was voted one of the 10 best films of the year by J. Hoberman of The Village Voice and A.O. Scott of The New York Times. His new film The Saddest Music in The World stars Isabella Rossellini as a beer baroness in search of, aptly, the saddest music in the world. It also stars Mark McKinney, best known for his work with The Kids in the Hall.

Sokolove is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. His new book, The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw, is about the former baseball star whose drug addiction ended his career and the high school team he played for in South Central Los Angeles. Sokolove calls it the greatest assemblage of talent in the history of high school baseball.

His new book Little Children is a satirical take on parenthood and suburbia. Perrotta is also the author of the novels Joe College and Election. Election was made into the 1999 movie of the same name.

Terry Gross speaks with Kathie Russo, Spalding Gray's widow.

Kani, a South African, is best known for his apartheid-era, politically charged collaborations with playwright Athol Fugard. His new play — and his first as a solo playwright is Nothing But the Truth. It's a post-apartheid family drama inspired by the death of his brother, a poet who was killed by the South African police in 1985. Nothing But the Truth is currently playing at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre at Lincoln Center in New York City. (This interview continues into the second half of the show).

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Gatekeeper, the new memoir by British academic superstar Terry Eagleton. Also, his new book After Theory (to be published this month in the United States) is a recant of his widely read 1983 book Literary Theory: An Introduction.

Kahn was only 11 years old when his father, legendary architect Louis Kahn, died. We talk with Kahn about My Architect, the award-winning documentary in which he attempts to understand his father through his buildings and his relationships.

Shirley Glass discusses "the new infidelity crisis." She's studied extramarital affairs since the mid 1970's and has written a new book called "NOT Just Friends: Protect Your Relationship from Infidelity and Heal the Trauma of Betrayal." She says that the workplace has become the new breeding ground for extramarital affairs. GLASS is, by the way, the mother of Ira Glass, of public radio's "This American Life."

She earned wide critical and popular acclaim and an Emmy for her work on The Garry Moore Show (from 1959-62). The Carol Burnett Show debuted in 1967 and won 22 Emmys in a run of more than a decade. She has starred or appeared in a number of TV movies and specials. In December, she'll be a Kennedy Center honoree for her body of work. In 1981 she struck a blow for fellow celebrities by winning a lawsuit against The National Enquirer tabloid. Her memoir One More Time was recently republished in a paperback edition. There's also a DVD collection of The Carol Burnett Show.