Memoir

Writer and professor Gayle Pemberton. She is associate director of Afro-American Studies at Princeton University. Her new book, The Hottest Water in Chicago: on family, race, time, and American culture, is a collection of autobiographical essays. Pemberton was born into a northern black middle-class family in the late 1940s. (by Faber & Faber)

Frances Lear founded Lear's Magazine. At one time she was married to TV producer Norman Lear, and though her life, from the outside, seems quite pleasant and successful, her new memoir "The Second Seduction" details a life full of pain.

Writer Aram Saroyan ("AH-rum"). His father was William Saroyan; his stepfather is Walter Matthau. In the Sixties, he went through a minimalist poetry writing phase. Then he turned to autobiographical narrative, concentrating on his parents' turbulent marriage, his father's death, and his own family. His new book is called "Friends In The World: The Education of A Writer." (Coffee House press)

Book critic John Leonard reviews "New York in the Fifties," a new memoir by Dan Wakefield. (Published by Houghton Mifflin)

Bob Simon is the CBS News correspondent who was taken prisoner during the gulf war and held for six weeks. He's just written a book about the experience called "Forty Days." (Putnam) In it, he describes the indignity and loss of control he felt as a captive. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

We air our previously scheduled interview with Patti Davis, Ronald and Nancy Reagan's daughter. While the Reagans stressed family values while in the White House, their daughter says they didn't practice them. Davis has a new autobiography called "The Way I See It." (G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Writer Geoffrey Wolff. His new collection of essays, "A Day At The Beach" (Alfred A. Knopf), is about the worst vacation ever. It started with over-priced dinners and ended in open heart surgery. Wolff is best known for his book "The Duke of Deception," a memoir about being the son of a con man.

Book critic John Leonard reviews "Talking To High Monks In The Snow," Lydia Minatoya's memoir of growing up a Japanese American (It's published by Harper Collins).

Former Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne. She’s written a new memoir of her years in Chicago politics, called My Chicago. It’s published by W.W. Norton).

Social Worker Sattareh Farman-Farmaian (sa-TAH-ray FAR-mahn far-m'YAN). She's the daughter of an Iranian prince of a fallen dynasty. She spent her childhood in a harem in Persia in the 20s and 30s. She's 70 years old and has spent a life time challenging Iran's conventions. She became the first Persian to study at the University of Southern California where she earned an advanced degree in social work. Returning to Iran she founded the Tehran School of Social Work.