Books

All Things Considered host Noah Adams. After dropping out of college he began his radio career as a DJ. He was also a car salesman. Adams came to National Public Radio over twenty years ago as a writer and tape editor; he started working for "All Things Considered" soon after he was hired. His new book, "Noah Adams on All Things Considered," discusses his involvement with ATC and how the show and his journalistic style have changed.

Coontz has just written the book, "The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap." She uses historical evidence to dismantle the myths about so-called "family values." She says that many of the family problems prevelent today have always been around, and that the survival of the family depends on recognizing and dealing with diversity.

Maureen Corrigan, who is a lapsed Catholic herself, reviews the book Catholic Girls, a collection of essays by other lapsed Catholics. The writers' feelings about being raised Catholic range from nostalgic to angry.

John Leonard reviews Ellroy's "White Jazz," the final installment of his tetralogy of crime novels. The story reveals the darkest elements of Los Angeles life in the 1950s.

Professor of Political Science John Schwarz of the University of Arizona has just co-written a new book called "The Forgotten Americans: Thirty Million Working Poor in the Land of Opportunity." The authors challenge conventional wisdom: they found that the working poor are neither uneducated nor unskilled, that they encompass all age, ethnic, and racial groups in the U.S.; and that the situation can't necessarily be blamed on declines in domestic manufacturing or decreases in industrial productivity.

Judis was a radical in the Sixties, and came to appreciate the intellectualism and dialogue in the conservative movement, a topic he pursued as a journalist. He considers the current splintering of that movement, and where President Bush fits in.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan on Madonna's new book of photograph's, "Sex." Corrigan says it does what Madonna does best: gets people to say her name.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews the reissue of Norman Mailer's autobiographical work, first published in 1959.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "The Secret History," by Donna Tart. She's associated with the young crop of writers from Bennington, including Bret Easton Ellis, to whom her novel is dedicated.

Writer Norman McLean died in 1990, leaving behind an unfinished manuscript about firefighters who died during the Mann Gulch Fire in Montana. It's just been published, and critic Maureen Corrigan has a review.