Books & Literature

David Savage is the Supreme Court reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He's just written a book called "Turning Right: The Making of the Rehnquist Supreme Court," (John Wiley and Sons) about how the Supreme court turned conservative in the 80s, and what future decisions the court will make.

Writer Aram Saroyan ("AH-rum"). His father was William Saroyan; his stepfather is Walter Matthau. In the Sixties, he went through a minimalist poetry writing phase. Then he turned to autobiographical narrative, concentrating on his parents' turbulent marriage, his father's death, and his own family. His new book is called "Friends In The World: The Education of A Writer." (Coffee House press)

Robert Bly is one of the founders of the modern men's movement. He wrote the movement's most influential book, "Iron John." Terry asks him if the men's movement is in conflict with the women's movement. Robert Bly is also a poet, critic essayist and translator. (Bly's book "Iron John" is published by Vintage).

Book critic John Leonard reviews "New York in the Fifties," a new memoir by Dan Wakefield. (Published by Houghton Mifflin)

Pollster David W. Moore is the Director of the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire, where he also teaches political science. His polling results have been picked up by all the T-V networks and most of the major newspapers and newsmagazines in the country. He's written a new book about the history of polling, called "The Superpollsters: How The Measure and Manipulate Public Opinion." (Four Walls Eight Windows Press)

Anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis. He's the founder of Cultural Survival, an organization that that helps indigenous peoples whose ways of life are threatened by development. He's hosting a new PBS series called "Millennium," which starts tonight, and he's the author of the companion book, also called "Millennium." The series and the book seek to gain tribal wisdom for the modern world. (The book is published by Viking.)

Monologuist, actor and writer Spalding Gray. His latest monologue "Monster in a Box" is about all the distractions that prevented him from completing his novel, "Impossible Vacation." Now the monologue has been made into a film of the same name. It's also out in book form, and on top of that, "Impossible Vacation" has just been published. (The book "Monster in a Box" is published by Vintage Press, the book "Impossible Vacation" is published by Knopf, and the film "Monster in a Box" is distributed by Fine Line Features.)

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One, 1884-1933" by Blanche Wiesen Cook (Viking press).

Writer Jess Mowry. His novel, "Way Past Cool," is about an Oakland gang. He works with inner city youths in Oakland, California. Mowry used to be in a gang himself. In 1988, he bought a used typewriter for 10 dollars and started writing. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc.) (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Monday's Warriors" by Maurice Shadbolt, about Maoris fighting the British Imperialists in New Zealand. (published by David Godine)

Writer Gail Sheehy became famous for her bestselling book Passages, in which she described the changing phases of an adult life. Now she's focussed on one phase of a woman's life that no one wants to talk about -- menopause -- in her new book, "The Silent Passage." (Random House) (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Bob Simon is the CBS News correspondent who was taken prisoner during the gulf war and held for six weeks. He's just written a book about the experience called "Forty Days." (Putnam) In it, he describes the indignity and loss of control he felt as a captive. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

We air our previously scheduled interview with Patti Davis, Ronald and Nancy Reagan's daughter. While the Reagans stressed family values while in the White House, their daughter says they didn't practice them. Davis has a new autobiography called "The Way I See It." (G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Irish screenwriter and novelist Shane Connaughton co-wrote the screenplay for "My Left Foot." Now he's written the screenplay for the new film "The Playboys," starring Aidan Quinn and Albert Finney.(Samuel Goldwyn) He also has a new novel out called "The Run of The Country." (St. Martin's Press)

Sue Halpern has written the new book "Migrations to Solitude," which explores the other side of privacy: seclusion. She visited a monastery in Kentucky, whose monks have vowed a life of silence, a prisoner in solitary confinement, and others, drawing out what it's like to be inescapably alone, and how people's versions of privacy differ. (Pantheon Books)

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "City of Quartz" by Mike Davis (Vintage), a non-fiction look at the city of Los Angeles.

Writer David Marc. He's the co-author of the new book, "Prime Time Prime Movers," about how TV's producers are the ones who most influence its creative and ideological direction. They cite such examples as Stephen Bochco, the creator of "Hill Street Blues," and "L.A. Law," and "Cop Rock." (published by Little, Brown & Co.)

Novelist Toni Morrison. She has a new novel "Jazz," (published by Knopf) and a new book of essays, "Playing in the Dark," (by Harvard). Her novel, "Beloved," won a Pulitzer prize. She's written six novels in all.

Michael Tolkin, who wrote the novel and screenplay for the new Robert Altman movie, "The Player" (Fine Line Features, opening wide tomorrow), gives a screenwriter's take on the way Hollywood works -- or doesn't. Tolkin also wrote, directed and produced the film, "The Rapture," now available on home video.

Our classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz has a new collection of poems, "Goodnight, Gracie," (published by Phoenix Poets). David Lehman calls this new collection, "a moving and inventive collection, his best and most ambitious to date." LLOYD is also music editor of The Boston Phoenix and is co-director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Massachusetts.