Books

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Runaway Bride, Elizabeth Kendall's book about women's portrayals and roles in the early era of film. The author says these women were allowed to be smarter, funnier and more self-respecting in ways that are uncommon today.

Pakistan-born, British journalist Dilip Hiro covers Middle East affairs. His forthcoming book on the Iran-Iraq war is called The Longest War. He says Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein gained power by receiving intelligence and material support from Western states, including the U.S. He says any conflict between the U.S. and Iraq could destabilize the region.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Two States - One Nation" by Gunther Grass, which collects the author's writings over the decades against German reunification.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the South African author's new epistolary novel, which uses cancer as a metaphor for apartheid. Leonard says it's baffling with a terrible beauty, that spares no one -- including blacks and white liberals.

Goodall has a new book, called Through a Window, about her unprecedented, three decade study of a single community of chimpanzees in Tanzania -- a body of work that one scientist called "one of the Western world's great scientific achievements."

Book critic John Leonard reviews the fourth, and final installment in John Updike's Rabbit novels, Rabbit at Rest. Leonard says the first book was nearly perfect; this one is too concerned with capturing every aspect of the 1980s -- whether or not those references serve the story.

Book critic John Leonard reviews The General in His Labyrinth, a fictionalized account of the last days of Simon Bolivar. Leonard says there is plenty of magical realism to be found alongside Marquez's strong, socially conscious writing.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the new book by ex-nuns Barbara Ferraro and Patricia Hussey, co-written with Jane O'Reilly. Ferraro and Hussey defied the Catholic Church's policies on abortion, birth control, and the ordination of women. Their convictions eventually led them to give up their vows.

John Leonard reviews Geoffrey Wolff's new, semi-autobiographical novel, about a young man's education in Princeton and subsequent life as a privileged adult.

Levy founded the new Citadel Underground press, which has been publishing new editions of books written by individuals from the 1960s counterculture. Levy was ten years old in 1968; witnessing radical social movements emerge as he grew up shaped the person he is today.