Robert Ward's New Novel Could Have Used a Merciless Red Pen

The NPR broadcast journalist was co-host of the award-winning news magazine "All Things Considered" for fourteen years and the host of the Sunday show "Weekend Edition" from its inception in 1987. She's collected her favorite interviews from the past two decades in a new book, called "Talk."

Spark has been said to "uphold the great tradition of the English Catholic novel." She's a prolific writer, having written 19 novels, including "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," and "Momento Mori." Spark has a new memoir about her first 39 years, called "Curriculum Vitae." It includes stories about school teacher Miss Christina Kay (the character of Jean Brodie was based on her), Spark's marriage at 19 to a man 13 years her senior, their life in Africa, and Spark's early literary career. She's now 74 years old.