Parenting & Families

Critic Owen Gleiberman reviews the director's new movie, a violent tale about young love. Despite an excellent performance by female lead Laura Dern, the film fails to capture balance of innocence and weirdness found in Lynch's other work.

Commentator Patricia McLaughlin remembers how the tail end of summer left her listless; but, as a busy grown-up, she longs for such uninterrupted stretches of time to relax.

Historian William Taubman edited and translated a biography of the last years of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, as told by Nikita's son, Sergei. The book, titled Khrushchev on Khrushchev, gives new insights into the elder Khrushchev's fall from power after repudiating Stalinism, and his final days as a virtual pariah in the Soviet Union.

Kirby has had prominent roles in films like Good Morning, America, The Godfather II, and When Harry Met Sally. He stars in a new, mob-themed comedy called The Freshman. His father is fellow movie actor Bruce Kirby.

Almereyda's first feature film, Twister, about a Cleveland family caught in a storm in Kansas, was based on Mary Robison's book Oh!. It stars Crispin Glover and Harry Dean Stanton.

Rooker appears in two recently-released films -- the big budget action flick Days of Thunder, and the independently produced Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. He was born into a poor, predominantly white town in Alabama, and later moved to a black neighborhood in Chicago. After growing up among people working 15-hour days, it took Rooker until his early twenties to believe that acting could be a real job.

The African American film director is best known for Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which added a political dimension to the black action movie genre. Van Peebles says that, unlike his own work, the blaxploitation films that came later were apologies for systems of oppression, not critiques of them. Prior to his career in film, he lived in France as a writer. His new book, coauthored by his son Mario, is called No Identity Crisis.

Writer Richard Ford. He's just published his fourth novel, "Wildlife." It's published by Atlantic Monthly Press.

Jazz drummer Tony Williams.

Musicians Tom and Ian Spanic. Together, the pair form the rock and roll band, The Spanic Boys. The band plays a country-twang influenced type of rock and they just released their first album, also called "The Spanic Boys." It's on Rounder Records.

Spiritual teacher RAM DASS. Ram Dass' book, "Be Here Now," was a widely used spiritual guide during the early 70s. Ram Dass followed that book up with several others, among them "The Only Dance There Is" and "How Can I Help?" Ram Dass started out as Harvard professor Richard Alpert. While at Harvard in the early 60s, Alpert joined with Timothy Leary and others in the early psychedelic experiments. That led him to investigations of meditation and spiritual practices.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the new book by British writer Fay Weldon, "The Cloning of Joanna May." Weldon has also written, "The Life and Love of a She-Devil."

Journalist Itabari Njeri (it-tah-BAR-ay en-jerry). Her new book, "Every Good-bye Ain't Gone," is a touching and at times humorous memoir of growing up black in Harlem and Brooklyn during the 50s.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Daddy, We Hardly Knew You." It's writer Germaine Greer's memoir of her father. He spent the first 5 years of her life away in the Australian Air force during World War 2. Upon his return, and until his death in 1983, he was quiet, distant, and would never talk about the war. This book is both Greer's memories of her father's life, and her investigation into what he did during those missing five years.

Writer Le Anne Schreiber. A successful journalist at the New York Times, and their first woman sports editor, Schreiber left her career at the Times to go live in rural upstate New York. Then she found out her mother had cancer and was given only a few months to live. Schreiber kept a journal during the period of her mother's illness until she died. This journal served as the basis for Schreiber's memoir about her mother's death, "Midstream: The Story of a Mother's Death and a Daughter's Renewal."

Author Linda P. Brown is co-author of "Birthbond: Reunions between Birthparents and Adoptees--What happens After." In the 1960's BROWN gave up her own daughter for adoption. The book is based on interviews with 30 birthmothers -- from a variety of backgrounds -- who were reunited with their adult children. And it looks at the challenges these mothers face after the reunion. "Birthbond" is published by New Horizon Press, Far Hills, N.J. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)

Novelist Anne Lamott. Her latest novel, "All New People", is an account of growing up in a Northern California railroad town in the midst of the cultural dislocations of the 1960's. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Near the Magician: A Memoir of My Father, Edmund Wilson." It's a memoir of the great 20th century critic written by his daughter, Rosalind Baker Wilson.

Poet Michael Ryan. Ryan's poems have earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship and a nomination for the National Book Award. He's just released his third collection of poems, called "God Hunger."

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Isara" (ih-sare-ah) Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka's (wolly Soy-enk-ka) memoir about his father.