Books & Literature

Former National Security Adviser to President Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski has written a new book about the state of global politics, called "Out of Control." He warns we must change our values and realize our global interdependence.

O'Toole is the star of "Lawrence of Arabia," "The Lion in the Winter," and "My Favorite Year." He has a new autobiography about the start of his career, called "Loitering with Intent.

Gaines wrote "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" and "A Gathering of Old Men." He talks about growing up in rural Louisiana and his new novel, "A Lesson Before Dying," which brings together two black men -- one a teacher, the other a death row inmate.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony," a novel by critic Roberto Colasso that retells several Greek myths.

Stegner died today. We remember him with a rebroadcast of our April, 15, 1992 interview, which coincided with the publication of his book "Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs."

Larry Colton has a new memoir called, "Goat Brothers." it's about he and his faternity brothers at the University of California at Berkeley in the early 1960s and what happened to them. They were superjocks who are unprepared for life after college. One reviewer writes, "a gripping, often painful look at lives that went right and awry in about equal measure."

Crowe was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents Reagan and Bush. He's now chair of Clinton's foreign intelligence advisory board. In the late 1980s, Crowe developed an unusual friendship with his Soviet counterpart, Marshal Sergei F. Akromeyev, who later committed suicide after being accused of taking part in the Soviet coup. Crowe urged Bush to delay the start up in the Gulf War. And later, he endorsed Clinton for president. His new book is called, "The Line of Fire"

A reading by Gary Paulsen from his new book, "Eastern Sun, Winter Moon." It details a harrowing story of the violent way his mother protected him from a potential predator.

Dillinger is a longtime peace worker, editor and author. He was jailed for civil disobedience a generation before Daniel and Philip Berrigan. He was part of the "Chicago Seven," the group of seven antiwar demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention which erupted into violence between demonstrators and police. Dellinger has written six books. His latest is an account of his spiritual journey, "Fram Yale to Jail."

Russ Rymer is a journalist who has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. He has just written his first book, "Genie," about the discovery in 1970 of a thirteen year old girl who had lived her entire life locked in a room of her parent's house. Genie had no language or social skills. Her discovery coincided with a raging debate among scientists about the origin of language. Michael Dorris writes about the book, "At once a scientific detective story and an examination of professional ethics. . .

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Remembering Denny," the new book by Calvin Trillin. It's about the passing of Trillin's friend who was a middling social scientist and troubled homosexual.

The Pulitzer-prize winning columnist for The New York Times writes about issues and events that affect women and families. She has a new collection of her work, "Thinking Out Loud."

Book critic John Leonard reviews "A Philosophical Investigation," a new science-fiction book by British writer Philip Kerr

Hall has been an actor, a private detective and a screenwriter -- he wrote the horror movie C.H.U.D. Now he is a novelist, writing mysteries featuring Stanley Hastings, a failed actor turned detective.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the author's newest book, "Operation Shylock." Leonard says its insights into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "may even be profound."

Kim Rich has written a new memoir, "Johnny's Girl," about growing up in Anchorage, Alaska during the oil boom years. Her father was a notorious underworld figure in the city who operated illegal gambling houses and massage parlors all over the city. He was eventually murdered.

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."