Books & Literature

Chong is the author of "The Concubine's Children." It's a history of her family, beginning with her grandmother, May-Ying, a concubine brought to Canada by Chong's wealthy grandfather. May-Ying had two daughters in China, and Chong's mother in Canada -- three sisters who hadn't met until Chong persuaded her mother to take the trip to China when she was writing this book. "Publisher's Weekly" says "this superbly told saga of family loyalties and disaffections reads...like a novel."

Rudnick wrote the movies "Jeffrey" and "Addams Family Values." His alter-ego is Libby Gelman-Waxner, "Premiere" magazine's film critic, who "The New York Times" described as "a guerrilla movie fan, happily throwing brickbats and valentines at the screen." Rudnick has published a new book of Libby's best columns, called "If You Ask Me."

It's been almost six years since the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a death sentence against the author. Since then, Rushdie has lived in hiding, continuing to write and making a few semi-public appearances. His book, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories," published in 1990, was a fairy tale written for his son. His new book is collection of stories about the line that divides East and West, called "East, West."

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews the new biography "Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom," by Jack Fruchtman, Jr.

Commentator Dagoberto Gilb talks about his brush with literary celebrity during his recent book tour.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the novel "A Feather on the Breath of God," about a second-generation immigrant born to Chinese and German parents.

Carter has written eight books since his presidency, including several memoirs. His newest book is a collection of his poems, "Always a Reckoning: and other Poems." Terry will talk with him about his poetry, and about his diplomatic work, including the recent agreements he brokered in Bosnia and Haiti.

Editor-in-Chief of Billboard Magazine Timothy White has written a new book that traces the evolution of the "myth" of Southern California through the lens of the Beach Boys and the Wilson family. It's called "The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, and the Southern California Experience."

Biologist Edward Golub's book "The Limits of Medicine," explores the history of medical advances and argues that medicine's new goal should be to extend health, not life span. There will be no "magic bullet" for today's major illnesses like there was for earlier scourges like polio, smallpox and diphtheria, he says. Golub was a professor of biology at Purdue University for twenty years and a director of research in the pharmaceutical industry for five years.

Journalist Dennis Covington has written a new book about the practice of snake handling in a Southern Appalachian church. Practitioners use snake handling as a kind of anointing -- a belief that the Holy Spirit comes down to protect them from fear and danger in handling the poisonous snakes. Covington's book, Salvation on Sand Mountain, is both a journalistic endeavor and an exploration of his own faith.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Paperboy," a new novel about from Pete Dexter. She says its sole flaw is the lack of complex women characters.

Redgrave appeared in over 50 films, including "Morgan!", "Blow Up", "Julia" and "Howards End". Her stage work has included Shakespeare, Chekhov, Noel Coward and Tennessee Williams. She comes from a celebrated theater family, and her daughters are both actresses. Redgrave is also well known for her political activism, including support for Nuclear Disarmament and Palestinian causes. Her memoirs have just been published by Random House.

In her new book "Bird by Bird," Lamott talks about the nuts and bolds of how to write, but also how to live a writer's life. Her last book was the memoir "Operating Instructions."

The Washington Post has called Lebowitz "the funniest woman in America." She's come out with her first children's book, "Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas." In 1978 she wrote the critically acclaimed essay collection "Metropolitan Life." Lebowitz joins Fresh Air to talk about how her relationship with writing has changed now that she's middle-aged.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Patricia Meyer Spacks' new book called "Boredom: The Literary History of a State of Mind," published by the University of Chicago Press.

Humorist and NPR commentator David Sedaris charms us with "Santaland Diaries." The piece comes from Sedaris' book "Barrel Fever," and first ran on NPR's Morning Edition a few days before Christmas 1992. Even though Sedaris has achieved national fame and movie contracts for his humor writing, he still cleans apartments during the day, because, he says, he can only write at night.

Musicians Ann Rabson, Gaye Adegbalola and Andra Faye McIntosh, who make up the blues group Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women. The "Chicago Tribune" says "these women have [attitude] in abundance," in their songs about "domestic violence, self-respect and being a woman." Their fourth album is "Old, New, Borrowed & Blue."

Theologian Harvey Cox. His new book is "Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-first Century." It is estimated that by the year 2010, there will be more Pentecostals than all other non-Catholic Christians put together. Cox traces the growth of the religion from its origins in a converted stable in Los Angeles in 1906 to its present membership of 410 million worldwide.

Payn's new memoir is about his life with the the legendary theater songwriter. Coward is the author of "Hay Fever," "Private Lives," and "Blithe Spirit." Payn met him as a child, when he acted in Coward's "Words and Music" in 1932. The two were friends for thirty years until Coward's death in 1973.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "Kind Relations" by Robert Liddell. She says Liddell is the only male writer who reminds her of Jane Austen.