Terry Gross

Kyle Smith is book and music review editor at People Magazine. He's making his debut as a novelist with the new book Love Monkey. It's about a 32-year-old New Yorker who dares to be "average" and whose credo is to "think and act like a 13-year-old boy at all times." Smith is also a Yale graduate and a Gulf War veteran.

Cole is an authority on modern Islamic movements. He is professor of modern Middle East and South Asia history at the University of Michigan. His most recent book is Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shi`ite Islam. The book collects some of his work on the history of the Shiite branch of Islam in modern Iraq, Iran and the Persian Gulf region.

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.

Taubman is a political science professor at Amherst College and an expert on Russia. This week he received a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of the Russian ruler Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era.Enter Me

Jack Miles is a former Jesuit seminarian and literary critic. In 1996 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his book, God: A Biography. In the book he examines God as a character — the protagonist — of the Old Testament. He is currently a contributing editor at The Atlantic Monthly, a director of Trinity Press and a senior adviser to the president of the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles.

The New York Times' James Bennet discusses the situation in the Middle East following the Israeli military's assassination of the founder and spiritual leader of the militant Palestinian group Ham

McGeary's article "Inside Hamas," in which she interviews several leaders of the Palestinian militant group, appears in the current issue of Time magazine. On March 22, the Israeli military assassinated the group's spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

He's starring in the new film The United States of Leland. His other films include Boogie Nights, Ocean's Eleven and Traffic.

From Showtime's drama The L-Word, actor Jennifer Beals and creator Ilene Chaiken. Beals became a star for her role in the 80's dance classic, Flashdance. She's also starred in Devil in a Blue Dress, The Last Days of Disco and The Anniversary Party. On The L-Word, she plays Bette Porter, a gay art curator. Chaiken's previous TV work includes writing Damaged Care and Dirty Pictures. The L-Word wraps up its first season this weekend.