Books

Editor in Chief of Variety magazine Peter Bart. He's written a new book about what the summer blockbuster means to the film industry, and the resources that go into making them. His new book "The Gross: The Hits, The Flops-The Summer That Ate Hollywood" (St. Martin's Press) takes a look at the 1998 summer season. Bart is a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He's also a former Paramount studio executive.

Journalists Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew. They are the authors of the new book, "Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage" (PublicAffairs). The two spent six years researching secret submarine missions like how the Navy sent submarines wired with self destruct charges into Soviet waters to tap crucial underwater telephone cables. Sontag covered government and international affairs for the National Law Journal and has worked at the New York Times, and Drew is a special projects editor at the New York Times.

Galen Cranz is a Professor of Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley. She's the author of the new book, "The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design" (W.W. Norton)

Satirist Harry Shearer. His new book is "It's the Stupidity, Stupid: Why (Some) People hate Clinton and Why the Rest of Us Have to Watch." (The Library of Contemporary Thought, The Ballintine Publishing Group). He'll discuss the Impeachment proceedings.

Historian Ian Kershaw. He's written volume one of a new biography of Hitler, "Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris" (W.W. Norton). It's being said that the new book will "become the standard Hitler biography for the next generation." In it, Kershaw blends biography with social history to understand how Hitler was able to obtain power over the German people. The book draws on new sources: a new edition of Hitler's speeches and writings, and the recently discovered diaries of Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels.

Pulitzer Prize winning author, David Halberstam has turned his attention to Michael Jordan's impact on American culture in his new book "Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and The World He Made." (Random House) His other books include: "The Best and the Brightest," "The Powers that Be," "Summer of 49," and "The Amateurs." Halberstam says Jordan is the most popular human being in the world.

Reknowned naturalist and film maker Sir David Attenborough. His new book and (upcoming PBS special is "The Life of Birds" (Princeton University Press). He examines birds from rainforests to desert, to cities and isolated wildernesses, the flying and the flightless, the seed eaters and the meat-eaters. The series was broadcast on the BBC last fall and will be presented on PBS sometime this year. The book is currently available.

Journalist Mark Hertsgaard. He traveled around the world examining environmentally-damaged places. His new book about it is, "Earth Odyssey: Around the world in Search of Our Environmental Future" (Broadway Books). Hertsgaard also writes for the New York times, The New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, and the Nation.

Satirist Al Franken, former writer for Saturday Night Live, and creator of Stuart Smalley (author of "I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!"). His new book is "Why Not Me: The Inside Story of the Making and Unmaking of the Franken Presidency" (Delacorte Press). It's the story of America's first jewish president, himself, Al Franken!

Music writer Peter Guralnick has written volume two of his biography of Elvis Presley. "Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley." (Little, Brown and Company). Part One of his biography is, "Last Train to Memphis."