Estleman's gritty, Detroit-based mysteries feature the detective Amos Walker. Estleman was a crime reporter before he became a fiction writer. He joins Fresh Air to talk about his hardboiled influences, inside jokes in his books, and getting knocked unconscious.
The pop star has a new direct-to-video collection of short films featuring songs from throughout his career. Rock critic Ken Tucker says its artistic value is almost nil, but it's worth watching at least once to marvel at the spectacle of it all.
Heinemann served for one year in Vietnam. The experience was so intense that he has built a literary career about it. His book, Paco's Story, won the National Book Award. After releasing two novels, he's working on a nonfiction book about post-traumatic stress disorder.
Fresh Air broadcasts a portion of Dmae Roberts's upcoming radio documentary, Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, produced for the Soundprint program. The feature includes interviews with teenagers about their attitudes toward school, relationships, drugs, and sex.
Wilson received a lifetime appointment from Ronald Reagan to head the National Archives. The agency became an independent entity after being part of the General Services Administration.
Benet worked as a longshoreman in San Francisco until gentrification and automation rendered his labor unnecessary. He says he mourns the workers' culture more than the job itself. Benet later went to graduate school and became a novelist and poet. His newest book is called A Short Dance in the Sun.
Director Michael Crichton's latest, a cop thriller called Physical Evidence, stars Burt Reynolds and Theresa Russell, who fail to breathe life into the film's clumsy script. Critic Stephen Schiff wonders if Crichton was having an out-of-body experience when he directed the movie.
Rock critic Ken Tucker says that few comeback albums from aging rock stars in the 1980s have been good. The late Roy Orbison's Mystery Girl is an exception.
Despite some recent, low-level controversy around the Indiana nickname, linguist Geoff Nunberg says that "hoosier," like several other regional nicknames, has lost its offensive bite. The term connotes location more than a particular cultural identity.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz says he actively seeks out performances and recordings of the orchestra, which has been revitalized by conductor Christoph von Dohnányi. Schwartz reviews two new CDs Dohnányi helmed, featuring symphonies by Mendelssohn and Schumann.
Writer Eva Hoffman moved with her family from Poland to the Canada when she was thirteen. Her new book about assimilating into the culture of her new country is called Lost in Translation. Hoffman is also an editor for the New York Times Book Review.
Writer and theologian Harvey Cox says the current rise of religious fundamentalism stems in part from a disillusionment with modern technology. He has also witnessed the increasing politicization of religious messages. Cox joins Fresh Air to discuss the current state of interfaith relations in the United States and abroad.
Freberg created several humorous and memorable ad campaigns for television and radio, and continues to work in the trade today. His new memoir, the first of two volumes, is called It Only Hurts When I Laugh.
Book critic John Leonard reviews the new detective novel Ratking, by Michael Dibdin. Leonard says the narrative, set in Italy, keeps the mystery genre alive by confronting bourgeois life and corrupt politics.
Rock historian Ed Ward says the 1960s Mod movement started in working-class London, and was rooted more in fashion than rock music. But the amphetimine-fueled subculture was short-lived, and many Mods became hippies. The re-emergence of Mods in the 1970s didn't last long, either.
As a reporter, Ward Just covered the Vietnam War and, later, Washington politics. Now, he devotes himself to fiction writing. While his novels often draw on his knowledge of D.C. culture, Just is careful to invent his own characters, rather than use fictionalized versions of real politicians.
Peter Nabokov cowrote a book with Robert Easton about the dwellings of American Indians, which he uses as a lens through which to learn more about their lives and traditions. For his research, Easton lived near several reservations and visited the homes of Native American families.
TV critic David Bianculli reviews Shining Time Station, a kids' show starring Ringo Starr and acted out with tabletop train sets. Bianculli says he liked it almost as much as his toddlers did.
Davies began his working life as an actor in England. At the start of World War II, he returned to his home country of Canada and became a journalist. Now a popular author best known for his Deptfod Trilogy, Davies says he still only "squeaks by" as a writer.
