Rhythm and Blues Pioneer Chuck Willis

Anna Quindlen writes the syndicated column "Life in the 30's," which originates in The New York Times. Her work focuses on the ordinary, everyday aspects of day-to-day life. Her columns are collected in a new book called Living Out Loud. She joins Fresh Air to talk about her career, motherhood, and her controversial column about amniocentesis.

Musa Mayer's memoir explores her relationship with her father, painter Philip Guston. Mayer and Guston were close; she says she was his confident. But Mayer didn't really know who he was as a person until she interviewed family members after Gunston's death.

Book critic John Leonard reviews historian Jonathan Spence's newest work, about a Chinese convert in France who is institutionalized by a Jesuit priest name Jean-Francois Foucquet. Leonard says that the historical novel feels more like a poem about history.