Books & Literature

National Guard Lt. Paul Rieckhoff is the founder and executive director of the organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (formerly Operation Truth). One of the group's aims is to see that troops in active duty and veterans are properly provided for.

He has written a memoir about his tour in Iraq shortly after the occupation: Chasing Ghosts: A Soldier's Fight for America from Baghdad to Washington.

Poet David Tucker is the assistant managing editor of The New Jersey Star Ledger and was part of the team that won the Pulitzer last year for breaking news. His new collection of poems is called Late for Work.

Clark Kent Ervin, former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, earned a reputation for being critical of the department while he was there. He was appointed in January of 2003, but after 18 months was not reappointed. He brings his perspective to the page with the new book Open Target: Where America is Vulnerable to Attack.

Psychologist and family therapist Dr. Dan Gottlieb's new book Letters to Sam is a collection of lessons on life he wrote to his grandson. Two decades ago, Gottlieb became a quadriplegic in an automobile accident. His grandson is autistic, and the letters have lessons about what it's like to be different.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Poem That Changed America: 'Howl' Fifty Years Later, a collection of essays by writers about their first encounters with the famous poem by Allen Ginsberg.

When journalist Pete Earley's son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, it sent him on an effort not only to get his son properly diagnosed and treated, but to understand the nation's mental health system. Earley's book about the experience is Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness.

Author Stephen McCauley first made a splash with The Object of My Affection, the novel that was later made into a movie starring Jennifer Aniston. His new novel, Alternatives to Sex, concerns a a gay fortysomething realtor with an addiction to cruising the Internet in pursuit of casual sex.

In his new memoir, writer Ken Foster talks about his experience in recovering and sheltering lost animals. His book is called The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets who were Left Behind. Foster also contributed to and edited the collection Dog Culture: Writers on the Character of Canines.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, And the Making of a Nation by Jon Meacham. His previous book, Franklin and Winston, was about the friendship between FDR and Churchill.

Hughes was counselor to President George W. Bush until she stepped down to spend more time with her family. She also ran his presidential campaign and was his communications director during his stint as governor of Texas. Now she's back advising the president on his re-election campaign. Hughes has written the new memoir, Ten Minutes from Normal.

If a child's parents are of two races — particularly if the mother is a former Black Panther member and the father is white — growing up can be a unique experience. Writer Angela Nissel mines those experiences in her memoir, Mixed. Nissel is a writer and consulting producer for the NBC TV show Scrubs.

Danielle Trussoni's just-published memoir is Falling Through the Earth. In the book, Trussoni explores the damaging legacy of her father's military service in Vietnam. Book critic Maureen Corrigan says the memoir is also an unusual testament to the father-daughter bond.

A middle-aged woman awakens one morning to a sense of dread, a malaise so deep that she studiously analyzes her life — both past and present — to uncover its source. So begins Hilma Wolitzer's new book, The Doctor's Daughter.

Allegra Goodman's new novel is Intuition.

Science fiction writer Octavia Butler died Feb. 28 at the age of 58. The cause of death has not been determined. Because she was black and female, Butler was considered atypical of science fiction. But she was also among the genre's most talented writers.

A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan is the new history from Michael Kazin. Bryan has been described by Kazin as "one of the most crucial Americans never to win a presidential election."

Not long ago, "new journalism" referred to changes in approach and style, ushered in by such writers as Hunter S. Thompson and Joan Didion. They're the subject of Marc Weingarten's new book.

Twilight of the Superheroes: Stories is a collection of short stories by Deborah Eisenberg that describe the attack on the World Trade Center and its aftermath.

The new book While They're At War is the product of dozens of interviews with husbands and wives of those serving in the military. The stories collected by journalist Kristin Henderson, herself the wife of a veteran, describe wives waiting at home in a haze of anticipatory grief.

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, forced many Americans to reshape their lives. For New Yorkers whose plans and priorities were cast loose, the shocking losses were followed by a challenge: what to do next. That dilemma is at the heart of Jay McInerney's The Good Life.