The British author's new book Night: Night Life, Night Language, Sleep, and Dreams is about the dark and the night, literally and figuratively. He examines night terrors, dreams, sleep research, fear of the dark, and "the dark night of the soul." He's also a poker enthusiast.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the new recording of Kurt Weill's "The Seven Deadly Sins," featuring the New York Philharmonic and soprano Angelina Reaux.
Pollster Stanley B. Greenberg was senior advisor to Bill Clinton's presidential campaign and currently works for the Democratic National Committee. He is credited with recognizing, nearly ten years ago, the dissatisfaction among middle class voters with the two political parties. Greenberg has a new book about the historic forces that put Bill Clinton in the White House, and consequently led to 1994's midterm Republican landslide. It's called Middle Class Dreams: The Politics and Power of the New American Majority.
Manchevski, now based in the U.S., went home to make his first feature film, "Before the Rain." One critic at the Venice Film Festival said the film is "written and directed with surprising skill and ability, wonderfully filmed." Manchevski is also well known for directing the music video, "Tennessee" by Arrested Development which won an MTV video award in 1992.
Louganis has written a book, "Breaking the Surface," detailing the private life behind his diving persona. In 1988 he became the first diver in history to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in both the 10 meter platform and 3 meter springboard events. In 1994 he admitted he was gay. He has since revealed he has AIDS and knew it prior to the '88 games.
David Von Drehle has written a new book, "Among the Lowest of the Dead: the Culture of Death Row." He looks at the current capital punishment debate using historical and personal observations and accounts of death row inmates, victims and survivors, and the people in charge of the executions. He says keeping people in prison is a bargain compared to the price of death row appeals and the fact that only 5% of death row executions actually occur. Von Drehle is arts editor of the Washington Post.
Thomas directed the new movie, "The Brady Bunch." The film is adapted from the TV series that ran from 1969-74. But there's a twist: the innocent family is transported with all its 70's values and fashion into the 90's. Thomas also directed "Only You" and "My Breast," and played Sergeant Lucy Bates on the TV series "Hill Street Blues."
Chicago police officer Eric Davis, known as "21" in the rap group the Slick Boys. Davis and two other officers founded the group in 1991 to provide positive role models for the inner-city kids they encountered on their jobs every day. The group has received national acclaim for their songs about the importance of getting an education and staying off of drugs and out of gangs. Davis grew up in the Cabrini-Green development of Chicago, where the three officers work.
Engineer Fred Cuny is a relief worker for the International Rescue Committee. He worked in Sarajevo to restore gas and water to civilians in early 1994. He just returned from Chechnya, where he was evaluating the humanitarian situation.
Clinical neurology professor and doctor Oliver Sacks is the author of six books about his patients, people with autism, Parkinson's Disease, Tourette's Syndrome, and other neurological disorders. Sacks was portrayed by Robin Williams in the 1991 film version of his book "Awakenings." His other books include "A Leg to Stand On," and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat." His newest is "An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales," which tells the stories of the disorders of seven of his subjects.
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Mr. Payback," a new interactive film. He says that, despite multiple viewings and multiple outcomes, he had a hard time following the plot.
The Canadian writer has a new novel called "The Cunning Man." It follows the life of a Toronto-based doctor during World War 2 who witnesses the death of a father at the High Altar. The Washington Post has called it "one of [the] author's most entertaining and satisfying novels." Davies, now 81, has had three successive careers -- he began as an actor, then was a journalist and newspaper publisher, and in 1981 retired as professor of the Massy college at the University of Toronto.
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the new book, "Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s" by Ann Douglas, a critical look at cultural figures from the jazz age.
