Books

Writer Laurie Garrett has been a science reporter for NPR, New York "Newsday," "Omni," and other publications. She wrote the new book, "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance." It explores the emergence of new infectious viruses like AIDS and Ebola, and the new strains of known diseases that are resistant to many treatments. Garrett examines the conditions that favor the spread of these microbes and looks at possible solutions to stop the diseases.

Mamet's plays include "American Buffalo," "Speed-the-Plow," "Glengarry Glen Ross (for which he won a Pulitzer), and "Oleanna." His movies include, "Homicide," "House of Games," and "Things Change." Mamet is best known for his style of writing, which New York Times theatre critic Frank Rich described as "burying layers of meaning into simple precisely distilled idiomatic language." Mamet has written several books of essays; he's just published his first novel, "The Village."

In 1989, there was a small outbreak of an extremely contagious virus, the Ebola virus, in a lab in Reston, Virginia. The Army was brought in to stop the spread of the disease. The disease causes its victims to bleed to death. Richard Preston has written a new book about the incident, called "The Hot Zone."

Author Peter Guralnick has written the first of a two part biography of Elvis Presley, retelling the story of the King's childhood "soberly, thoroughly and unsensationally" (says the ALA Booklist). "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley" tells much of the story through quotes both from Elvis and people who knew him then. It attempts to portray Elvis' human side, rather than the mythical figure he has become.

In 1990, an American Association of American Women survey found that the self-esteem of young girls plummets during adolescence. A year later, journalist Peggy Orenstein was commissioned to do a follow-up study, which resulted in her new book, "Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap." Orenstein talked to girls in two junior high schools, and examined some of the factors that influenced their feelings about themselves, including schooling, family, and class.

Sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot has written a new book about the Black middle class, called "I've Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation." She follows the lives of six middle-aged, African American people on the "necessary losses" they paid for their privilege. Her book was written, in part, as a response to the 1957 book "Black Bourgeoisie," by the black sociologist Franklin Frazier.

Psychiatrist and novelist Roderick Anscombe. He oversees a psychiatric ward at a hospital outside of Boston, and has written a new novel that retells the Dracula myth, called "The Secret Life of Laszlo: Count Dracula." Anscombe says he wanted to "humanize" Dracula by making him more a man than a monster. In writing the book, Anscombe drew on his previous experience working with the criminally insane.

Writer Colin Escott talks about his new book, "Hank Williams, The Biography." He's also the author of "Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records & The Birth of Rock & Roll", and he produced and annotated the CD Collection "Hank Williams: The Original Singles Collection...Plus."

Marty Moss-Coane talks to the Turki about his youth in Palestine and how the Israeli-Arab conflict influence his politics. His new book is called "Exile's Return." Turki now lives in the United States.

Physician Mike Stroud and his companion Ranulph Fiennes were the first people to cross Antarctica on foot. Their 95-day expedition culminated in 1993. Stroud has just written a book, "Shadows on the Wasteland," about the 1350-mile journey. Stroud is a nutritionist and survival consultant to the British Ministry of Defense, and has participated in other Polar expeditions