Books

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Intellectual Memoirs," by Mary McCarthy. It's the last book by McCarthy and its about her years in New York 1936-1938.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Bride Price," by Grete Weil. The book is half autobiography, and half biblical story. (published by David Godine)

Book critic John Leonard reviews "The Secret Defector," the new novel by Clancy Sigal.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is an African-American historian. He attended Yale University in the late '60s. The New York Times describes Gates as "a 41-year-old academic entrepreneur who has been one of the most sought-after scholars in the country in the last decade." Gates has taught at Yale, Cornell and Duke. Now he's been recruited to revitalize Harvard's African-American studies department, serving as its new chairman. He's written for Newsweek, Time, and The Nation.

Author and Senior Fellow at the World Wildlife Fund, Roger D. Stone. He's on his way to Rio de Janeiro for the Earth Summit. His book, "The Nature of Development: A Report from the Rural Tropics on the Quest for Sustainable Economic Growth," (by Knopf) in which he theorizes that the only way to protect an environment is to provide economically viable, ecologically sound alternatives for the the people who live there.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Strange Loyalties," the latest novel by William McIlvanney.

Journalist and lawyer Wendy Kaminer (cam-AH-ner). Her new book, I'm Dysfunctional, You’re Dysfunctional, is a critical look at the recovery and self-help movement. Kaminer believes that the movement tends to trivialize suffering by refusing to distinguish among levels of suffering or victimization (for instance, one recovery expert suggests that childhood is a holocaust.) Kaminer also considers the political implications for democracy if people view themselves as victims. (by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company).

Journalist Bill Buford. He traveled for eight years with "soccer thugs" -- England's hardcore soccer fans known for their violent outbreaks surrounding England's soccer games. Buford witnessed "lads" urinating on fellow spectators, commuter trains being demolished, a pub being robbed, and saw stabbings. He wanted to understand the violence that has caused many deaths (including the death of 66 fans asphyxiated in a crush of people trying to get out of a stadium in Glasgow in 1971).

Maureen Corrigan looks at a series of books and a movie with canine heroes: the "Taxi Dog" books and "Beethoven."

Marty talks with science writer Seth Shulman about how the military has left toxic wastes in bases all across the country. His new book is "The Threat at Home: Confronting the Toxic Legacy of the U.S. Military." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)