Memoir

Novelist, journalist and columnist Pete Hamill. He's written seven novels, including "Flesh and Blood," and "Loving Women." Most recently he was editor-in-chief at the New York Post. He's latest book is a memoir of the years he spent drinking, "A Drinking Life: A Memoir," (Little, Brown & Co.) Hamill quit drinking twenty years ago. One reviewer in Publishers Weekly writes about Hamill's new memoir, "This is not a jeremiad condemning drink, however, but a thoughtful, funny, street-smart reflection on its consequences."

Former Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the former Editor-in-Chief of "Connoisseur," Thomas Hoving. He's written a new book "Making the Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Met is probably the richest museum in the world, with three million works of art, and artifacts that span 50 centuries. Hoving was with the Met for ten years and has been credited with transforming it from a somber monolith into a friendly and exciting place.

Author Lorenzo Carcaterra is managing editor of the CBS weekly series "Top Cops." He's written a memoir, "A Safe Place," about growing up, the son of a violent, loving, murderous, and generous father. They lived in New York's Hell's Kitchen during the 50s and 60s. Lorenzo found out at the age of 14 that his father had murdered his first wife when she threatened to leave him. Lorenzo's father went on to terrorize his second wife, beating her and Lorenzo. Yet his father also could be warm and affectionate to his family.

Writer and Vietnam veteran Lewis Puller's Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, "Fortunate Son," is now out in paperback. His father, Chesty Puller, was a famous Marine. Lewis also joined the Marines in 1967, and was badly wounded in Vietnam.

Tharp studied ballet with George Balanchine, and modern dance with Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Paul Taylor. In 1965 she formed her own company, Twyla Tharp Dance, which she ran for more than 20 years with over 70 works created and performed. She's collaborated with Mikhail Baryshnikov and David Byrne. She has a new autobiography, "Push Comes to Shove."

Williams grew up in an abusive family; they didn't know she was autistic. Williams has been labeled "deaf," "retarded," and "crazy." She ran away from home at a young age, lived on the streets, and managed to put herself through college. When she was 25, she learned the word "autistic," and set out to articulate to others her experience living in "a world under glass." Her autobiography is called "Nobody Nowhere."

Caine has made over 70 films, from Alfie to Sleuth to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels to Hannah and Her Sisters. He has a new autobiography called "What's It All About?," and will be appearing in the upcoming Muppet's Christmas movie.

Lyn Nofzinger was an official in the Nixon administration and was Reagan's press secretary and later his aide in the White House, where he was known as a "hatchet-man". He has a new political memoir, called "Nofziger." He Fresh Air to talk about Reagan's recent decision to campaign for President Bush.

Rivers has a new autobiography, "What Did I Do?" He's known by art historians as "a great figurative painter," "the father of Pop Art," and is recognized as the first American artist to use vulgar objects in an artistic context. Rivers was part of a loosely knit association of poets and painters in New York in the 50's. His book looks back at his work as a jazz saxophonist, his drug use, and his unashamed interest in sexuality.

Lessing is the author of more than thirty books, including, "The Fifth Child" and "The Golden Notebook." She grew up in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), but was exiled for twenty-five years when she began to speak out against the oppressive white-ruled government. Lessing has just written a new book, "African Laughter," a personal story about the trips she took to Zimbabwe between 1982 and 1992.