Singer, guitarist, and author Alex Kapranos is the frontman for the Glasgow-based indie rock quartet Franz Ferdinand. The band, best known for its single "Take Me Out," has produced two hit CDs. Kapranos has a new book about eating on tour, called Sound Bites. The book is compiled partly from his column in London's Guardian newspaper about his gastronomic adventures.
English comedian and actor Sacha Baron Cohen is best-known for his characters. They include a journalist from England named Ali G, and Bruno, a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion reporter. His most famous character is Borat, a Kazakhstan reporter who stars in the controversial film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. All three characters were part of his Da Ali G Show.
Novelist Robert Stone has written a new memoir that begins with a stint in the Navy in the late 1950s, continues through his work as a journalist in Vietnam and then includes his counterculture years in the 1970s, taking hallucinogenic drugs, cross-country road trips, and hanging out with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. His memoir is, Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties. Stone's novels include Dog Soldiers (which was adapted into the film Who'll Stop the Rain), and Outerbridge Reach.