Books & Literature

Writer Judith Miller. She's deputy media editor of The New York Times and author of the new book, "One, by One, by One: Facing the Holocaust." Miller visited six countries (including the U.S.) to examine how the Holocaust is remembered. (published by Simon & Schuster)

Writer Hanif Kureishi (kah-REE-she). He wrote the screenplays for the critically-acclaimed movies "Sammy and Rosie Get Laid," and "My Beautiful Launderette." Now he's just published his first novel, called "The Buddha of Suburbia." It's published by Viking.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Our Grandmother's Drum," by Mark Hudson. Hudson draws the novel from his experiences living with a small tribe in Gambia.

Novelist Sue Miller. She wrote the best-seller, "The Good Mother," which was made into a movie starring Diane Keaton. She has a new novel, called "Family Pictures." It's about a family coping with an autistic child. (It's published by Harper and Row).

Poet Mark Halliday reads two of his poems.

Author Hubert Selby, Junior. His first novel, "Last Exit to Brooklyn," was published in 1957. It's just been made into a movie, and Selby was an advisor and plays a small part in the film, which opened this week. Selby teaches at the University of Southern California, and is working on a new novel.

Writer John Banville. His new novel is called "The Book of Evidence." (published by Scribners). It's a story of crime and guilt. Banville is literary editor of the Irish Times.

Journalist and network news correspondent Charles Glass. His new book is "Tribes With Flags: A Dangerous Passage Through the Chaos of the Middle East." (The Atlantic Monthly Press). Glass was kidnapped and held hostage by pro-Iranian terrorists in 1987. He escaped from his captors 62 days later.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Absence," a new novel by Austrian writer Peter Handke.

Biographer Deirdre Bair. Her latest book is a biography of French writer, intellectual and feminist Simone De Beauvoir. Bair has also written a biography of Samuel Beckett.

Writer Jessica Hagedorn. Her debut novel, "The Dogeaters," is set amid the mixture of cultures that makes up the Philippines. Hagedorn herself was born and raised in the Philippines. Prior to this novel, she's been a poet, performance artist, playwright, and commentator for "Crossroads." ("The Dogeaters" is published by Pantheon).

Israeli journalist Ehud Ya'ari (A-hood yah-HAR-ee). He's the co-author of "Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising-Israel's Third Front." The book chronicles the events leading up to the Palestinian uprising, and it examines how the Israeli government misread, and misreported, the events surrounding the Intifada. Ehud Ya'ari covers Middle East affairs for Israeli television.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews two new autobiographies by women: "How I Became Hettie Jones," by Hettie Jones, and "Love and Other Infectious Diseases," by Molly Haskell.

Poet VIikram Seth (VICK-ram SATE) He was born in India and has lived in England, China and the U.S. He's just completed his first novel -- a novel written in verse, "The Golden Gate" (published by Knopf). David Rieff of "Vanity Fair" says of the book, "At once a bittersweet love story, a wickedly funny novel of manners and an unsentimental meditation on mortality and the nuclear abyss."

Journalist Morley Safer. His first book is "Flashbacks: On Returning to Vietnam" (published by Random House). In 1965 Safer went to Vietnam as CBS'S correspondent. His famous report of U.S. marines torching the Cam Ne hamlet in August 1965 angered the White House with threats to expose SAFER'S "Communist ties" unless CBS fired him. Safer went back to Vietnam in 1989 as a correspondent for 60 Minutes, and out of this trip came "Flashbacks," a look back at the war and an examination of Vietnam today.

Writer and critic Nelson George. George is one of this county's most prominent chroniclers of black music. He's the black music editor at Billboard, is a columnist for Playboy, and regularly writes for the Village Voice and Essence. George was the editor of a new book called, "Stop the Violence," a collaboration of today's top rappers working to end black on black violence. George's earlier books include a history of Motown called "Where Did Our Love Go?" and "The Death of Rhythm and Blues."

Book critic John Leonard reviews "The Quest for El Cid," by Richard Fletcher.

Photographer Jan Staller. His photographs capture the well-traveled outskirts of cities. His subjects are viaducts, tunnels, piers, and subway entrances - the places we pass on the way to somewhere else. He's just published a new collection of such photographs taken around New York over the past ten years, "Frontier New York" published by Hudson Hills Press. In the book's introduction Paul Goldberger writes, "To look at New York through Staller's photographs is to feel that the familiar city has become somehow mystical, ephemeral, almost haunted."

Baseball Hall-of-Fame pitcher Bob Feller. Some call him the fastest pitcher in history---taking the mound for the Cleveland Indians when just a teenager, Feller racked up 266 wins, struck out over 2500 batters, and pitched the only opening day no-hitter in major league history. In his new book, "Now Pitching, Bob Feller: A Baseball Memoir," he recounts his more 50 years in the game. (The book is co-authored with writer Bill Gilbert and published by Birch Lane Press).

Book critic John Leonard reviews Deirdre Bair's new biography of Simone de Beauvoir.