Rhodes won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his book, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb." His book, "A Hole in the World," an account of his abused childhood, was critically acclaimed. His new book, "Making Love," is a sexual autobiography, an account of how he used sex to help him work through the trauma of child abuse. It's been called, "A stunning act of self-revelation, bound to create a stir."
Salas is the author of three critically-acclaimed novels. His new book, "Buffalo Nickel," is a novelistic autobiography. Salas's mother died when he was 11 and he was left in the primary care of his two older brothers, Al, a Golden Gloves champion, and Eddy, a college student. Al became involved with drugs and crime; Eddy committed suicide.
Lowry's new non-fiction book, "Crossed Over" was her way to understand the life and death of her son, Peter, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident. The book interweaves Peter's story with that of Karla Faye Tucker, a woman on death row in Texas. Both had happy early childhoods but became troubled teenagers, rebellious, angry and out of control.
TV critic David Bianculli reviews "The Kennedys" a new documentary on PBS about the political family. He says it evokes not just their history, but the many television shows made about them.
Antin just made a silent film called "The Man Without a World." It's set in the late 1920s, in Poland, in a Jewish shtetl. The movie appears to be a made by the an imagined, exiled Russian film director, Yevgeny Antinov, and it's supposedly just been rediscovered in some forgotten archive.
Alderman's new book is about mostly conservative pundits -- the likes of George Will, Sam Donaldson, and William Safire -- who appear on TV and write newspaper columns, affecting political discourse in this country. Alterman's new book is called "Sound and Fury: The Washington Punditocracy and the Collapse of American Politics."
Weddington is the lawyer who represented Jane Roe in the Supreme Court. Weddington was in her 20s when she argued the landmark abortion case. She has a new memoir called "A Question of Choice."
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews Woody Allen's latest film, which draws inspiration from the director's troubled, real-life relationship with co-star Mia Farrow.
Lehrer is the cohost of "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour." He has a new autobiography, "A Bus of My Own." He talks to Terry about how he found time to write the book despite his grueling schedule.
Essman will be one of the hosts on the new HBO comedy show, "One Night Stand." She appeared in the 1988 HBO comedy special, "On Location: Women of the Night II," and in the films, "Punchline, and Crocodile Dundee II."
Transplant surgeon pioneer Thomas Starzl. Last June he supervised the surgical team that transplanted a baboon's liver into a 35 year-old man who was dying of hepatitis B. It has since become known that the patient was HIV-positive, though he showed no symptoms of the disease. The case raised questions about whether it's ethical to "experiment" on a person who is HIV-positve. Starzl has a new book, called "The Puzzle People."
Book critic John Leonard reviews "The Secret History," by Donna Tart. She's associated with the young crop of writers from Bennington, including Bret Easton Ellis, to whom her novel is dedicated.
Anne Soukhanov is the Executive Editor of the new "American Heritage Dictionary of English Language, Third Edition." She's been a lexicographer and editor of reference books for over 20 years. She joins Fresh Air to talk about what new words say about changing culture.
Bergman is responsible for the new hit "Honeymoon in Vegas," starring Nicholas Cage, James Caan and Sarah Jessica Parker. He also wrote and directed "The Freshman," and has a long list of screenwriting credits, including "Blazing Saddles," "Fletch," "The In-Laws," and "Soapdish," to name a few.
Many listeners will know Clennon from his role as Miles Drentell on the ABC TV show "thirtysomething." He received and Emmy nomination for the part. Now he plays a drug dealer in the new Paul Schrader film "Light Sleeper" along with Willem Dafoe and Susan Sarandon. He's also been in the films "Missing," "the Right Stuff," "Sweet Dreams," "The Thing," "The Paper Chase," and many others. Offscreen, he's very active in Central American politics.
The debut writer's first book of short stories is "The Boy Without a Flag: Tales of The South Bronx." It's an autobiographical collection about the people in his neighborhood. He has said, "I write about the rancid underbelly of the American Dream." He's also in a punk rock band called Urgent Fury.
Isaacson has just written an extensive book about the life of Secretary of State and Nobel Prize Laureate. The writer takes us from Kissinger's boyhood in Germany, his family's flight to America in 1938, through his army career, his years at Harvard as a student and later a professor, and his rise to political power. Isaacson notes Kissinger's many accomplishments, but also portrays him as secretive, paranoid and duplicitous.
