Books

New York Times reporter Douglas Frantz and his wife, journalist Catherine Collins. They've collaborated on a new book about their two years living in Celebration, the city Disney built from scratch in Florida. Their book is "Celebration U.S.A.: Living in Disney's Brave New Town" (Henry Holt & Co.)

Bob Zmuda ("ZMOO-da")is the co-executive producer of the new film "Man on the Moon" about the late comic Andy Kaufman. Zmuda was also Kaufman's writer, co-conspirator, and close friend. In the 1970s Kaufman was best known for his portrayal of the sweet-natured foreign-born Latka on the TV sitcom "Taxi." On stage he took on mind-bending personas like an obnoxious master of ceremonies, or a wrestler who fought women and challenged them on stage, or an Elvis impersonator. Often he left his audience perplexed as to whether or not he was for real.

Botanist Margaret Lowman. She's a pioneer in research on forest canopies, i.e, the treetops - their inhabitants, flowers, fruits and morality. Her new book is "Life in the Treetops: Adventures of a Woman in Field Biology" (Yale Book News). LOWMAN is director of research and conservation at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida.

Writer and flight attendant Elliott Neal Hester. He writes the bimonthly column "Out of the Blue" for the online magazine, Salon. He's also working on an upcoming book about flying the "not so friendly skies."

Writer Richard Davenport-Hines is the author of the new book "Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin" (North Point Press) which traces the history and evolution of the Gothic sensibility. Davenport-Hines is the author of five other books including "Auden" He's written for The (London) Times, The Observer, and The Independent.

Boston Globe sports writer Dan Shaughnessy who has written the new book "Fenway: A Biography in Words and Pictures." (Houghton Mifflin) The baseball park is scheduled to be torn down and rebuilt in early part of the next century. Shaughnessy has also written "The Curse of the Bambino," "At Fenway," "Seeing Red," "Ever Green," and "One Strike Away."

Journalist Paul Solotaroff is a former editor at The Village Voice. He's written a new book that follows the progress of a group in therapy in New York City. It's called, "Group: Six People In Search of a Life." (Riverhead Books)

Writer Andrew Smith has written a new book about the food that is a staple at movie theatres - popcorn. It's called "Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America" (University of South Carolina Press).

Birder and naturalist Scott Weidensaul author of "Living on the Wind" (North Point Press) discusses the habits of migratory birds, what makes them do what they do, and how they're able to do it.

Scott Dikkers is editor-in-chief of The Onion, an alternative weekly based in Madison, Wisconsin. He along with the editors of The Onion, have published the new book "Our Dumb Century" (Three Rivers Press) It's a parody of newspaper headlines spanning this century.