Books

Writer Natalie Robins. Her new book, "Alien Ink: The F.B.I.'s War on Freedom of Expression," (published by William Morrow & Co.) is about the secret files the FBI has kept on American writers like Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, E.L. Doctorow, and Grace Paley. The author obtained access to the files going back to writers like Jack London and Lincoln Steffens. The files are still being kept and many writers are unaware that they exist.

Author Adam Ulam (OO-lom) ("om" as in bomb) Director of the Russian Research Center and Gurney Professor of History and Political Science at Harvard. His new book is "The Communists: The Story of Power and Lost Illusions 1948-1991." (published byScribner's). He's also the author of "The Bolsheviks.

Baseball great Tom Seaver. He was recently voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the largest vote in baseball history. His new book is "Great Moments in Baseball."

Money Trader Andrew Krieger. He resigned in 1988 from his position at Bankers Trust where he specialized in trading currency-options, and in taking long-term riskier positions for the bank. The bank so believed in his strategies that they entrusted him with $700 million of bank funds, whereas other individual traders usually worked with $50 million. He's co-authored a new book, "The Money Bazaar: Inside the Trillion-Dollar World of Currency Trading." (published by Random House.)

Homeless expert Joel Blau (rhymes with "plow"). Blau spent years as a policy analyst for the city of New York, trying to solve their homeless problem. He eventually became disillusioned with government's approach to dealing with the homeless. He explains the fallacy of some of our basic assumptions about the homeless in his new book, "The Visible Poor: Homelessness in The United States." (It's published by Oxford University Press).

James Adams, the Washington bureau chief for the Sunday Times of London. His new book, "Bull's Eye," is the story of Gerald Bull, the man who invented the huge canon called the Supergun, his dealings with Iraq, and his assassination. (It's published by Times Books). Adams is a longtime expert on the international trade.

Writer David Wise. He's written extensively on intelligence and espionage. His new book is "Molehunt: The Secret Search for Traitors that Shattered the CIA," (published by Random House) about the CIA's search for Soviet spies within in their own ranks.

Journalist Douglas Frantz of The Los Angeles Times. He has reported extensively on the BCCI scandal and has co-written a book about it, "A Full Service Bank: How BCCI Stole Billions Around the World." (published by Pocket Books, co-written with James Ring Adams).

Writer Teresa Carpenter. Carpenter's new book, "Mob Girl," is the true life story of Arlyne (pronounced "Arlene") Weiss, who worked her way the ranks of the New York mafia, and then began a second career as a government informant. Carpenter won a Pulitzer Prize for her article on the murder of Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten. That article was the basis for the movie "Star 80."

Writer, reporter, and animal rights advocate Roger Caras. Caras has written more than 50 books on pets and wildlife. His latest is called "A Dog Is Listening: The Way Some of Our Closest Friends View Us." Caras recently left his longtime position as a corespondent with ABC news in order to become president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)