Ng's first novel, "Bone," is about three sisters brought up in San Francisco's Chinatown. One reviewer writes, "I learned a lot from "Bone" about the high cost of living in two worlds;" another writes that the story is "beautifully conceived, full of feeling and the sound of the streets."
Journalist Robert Cullen was Newsweek's Moscow bureau chief in the Soviet Union. He has a new book The Killer Department." It's about one detective's eight year hunt for the man known as "the most savage serial killer in Russian history." Cullen is also the author of, "Twilight of Empire: Inside the Crumbling Soviet Bloc," about the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Officer Jim Galipeau works with gangs in Los Angeles, and is currently trying to raise money for a program for older gang members. He'll talk with Terry about the truce between gangs that began last spring, just before the riots; the differences between Hispanic and Black gangs, and inner city and suburban gangs; the impact of the riots, and the possibility of riots in the future. Galipeau has been a probation officer for 27 years. He's a Vietnam vet, and when he was a teenager, he was a street fighter and drug addict.
Professor Marc Roberts is a professor of Political Economy and Health Policy at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Kennedy School of Government. He'll discuss the economics of health care and health care reform in America.
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews CB4, the new satirical comedy produced by Nelson George, and starring Chris Rock and Phil Hartman of Saturday Night Live.
Professor Robert Jay Lifton is distinguished professor of psychiatry and psychology and director of the Center on Violence and Human Survival at John Jay College, City University of New York. He's been studying cults and fundamentalist groups for many years. Lifton will talk about the armed cult in Waco, Texas run by David Koresh of the Branch Davidians--how typical they are, and what can be done to deal with them.
Roth is best known for his books "Goodbye, Columbus" and "Portnoy's Complaint." Since the publication of his first book, Roth has been controversial for his treatment of Jewish themes. Some readers think his satirical take is anti-Semitic. His novel "Portnoy's Complaint," a sexual autobiography of a young lawyer, was labeled obscene by some because of its descriptions of masturbation and sexual conquest.
Executive producer and writer, Tom Fontana. He was writer and producer for the TV show, "St. Elsewhere." He's currently executive producer, along with filmmaker Barry Levinson, of "Homicide: Life on the Street," a new cop drama on NBC. Reviewers say it goes beyond formula to offer a "more complex psychological portrait" of crime fighters and criminals.
Writer and professor Mary Jo Weaver teaches Religious and Women's Studies at Indiana University. Her new book is, "Springs of Water in a Dry Land." It's about the double bind that many Catholic women find themselves in, of either living within a institutionalized and oppressive church structure, or rejecting a church which is a source of spiritual enrichment. Weaver argues that it is possible for a woman to be a feminist and remain Catholic.
Maureen Corrigan reviews, "The Dialectic of Sex," by Shulamith Fireston. First published in the 1970s, it serves as an important document of second-wave feminism.
Attorney and writer Mary Frances Berry. She's a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and a professor of history and law at the University of Pennsylvania. She's written a new book about the tradition of "mother-care" in our society, the notion that women have principal responsibility for childcare.
Medical writer Robin Marantz Henig is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, Mirabella, and Vogue. Her new book, "A Dancing Matrix" is about the work being done to understand viruses. The field has taken on new urgency since the spread of the AIDS virus. Hening says scientists have realized that emergence of a new virus is not as rare as previously though, and that it's caused mostly by human error rather than genetic mutation.
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the debut album by the hip-hop group, Digable Planets, which is quickly garnering critical acclaim and a growing fanbase.
Journalist Ray Bonner lived in Africa from 1988 until January of this year. He has a new article in "Mother Jones" about why the U.S. sent Marines into Somalia. He questions our role as the world's "missionary." Bonner also reported from Central America. Just recently he was exonerated for reporting on a massacre in El Salvador. Officials denied the event, but archeologists have since uncovered a mass grave.
New York Times journalist Jane Perlez has been covering Africa since 1988 and has been credited with recognizing stories before the rest of the media. She was reporting on the trouble in Somalia, and the threat of famine a year ago, long before it became the focus of world attention.
