Books

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the scholars's new book, You Just Don't Understand, which examines what the distinct speech patterns adopted by men and women say about gender roles and expectations. Corrigan says Tannen is insightful, and avoids any attempt to account for this difference.

Book critic John Leonard says Joseph Wambaugh's police thrillers vary in quality, though they're all enjoyable. The writer's newest book, The Golden Orange, about an ex-cop in Southern California, is a return to form.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews detective novelist Robert B. Parker's newest Spencer novel, "Stardust."

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Magic Lantern," journalist Timothy Garton Ash's account of the democracy movement in Eastern Europe.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams and Distortions," by historian Lucy Hughes-Hallett (It's published by Harper and Row).

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "Wildlife," the new novel by Richard Ford. (It's published by Atlantic Monthly Press).

Book critic John Leonard reviews "The Innocent," by British novelist Ian McEwan.

Book critic John Leonard reviews Barbara Ehrenreich's new collection of essays, "The Worst Years of Our Life."

Book critic John Leonard reviews the new novel "Markers" by Sidney Zion. Zion wrote a puffball biography of Roy Cohn a couple of years ago, Leonard says this novel, about the New York underworld, also draws from Cohn's life. It's published by Donald I. Fine.

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.