Terry Gross

Actress and Comedian Whoopi Goldberg. She's just written "Book," (Rob Weisbach Books) a collection of life observations, insights, and Whoopi-isms in 25 vignettes. Goldberg received a Grammy for 1985's Best Comedy Album, as well as an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1990.

Author Don DeLillo on his new novel "Underworld." (Scribner) This 827-page work weaves in and out of the latter half of this century, incorporating modern icons such as Frank Sinatra, Lenny Bruce, and J. Edgar Hoover. The novel's first scene visits the Giant-Dodgers pennant game of October 3rd, 1951 -- also the date of the first nuclear test in the Soviet Union.

Director, writer, and producer Francis Ford Coppola. A five-time Oscar winner, Coppola is known for such films as "Apocalypse Now," "American Graffiti," and the "Godfather" trilogy. Coppola continues to create in other arenas, such as wine making, and a quarterly literary magazine "Zoetrope" which he publishes. He and his wife have bought and restored the Inglenook wine estate in Napa Valley. Coppola's new film "The Rainmaker" comes out in November.