New York

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Nanny Diaries (St. Martins Press) by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new CD Wish You Were Here: Love Songs for New York, a new anthology of songs recorded in reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

T.V. critic David Bianculli previews the CBS special 9/11,which airs Sunday at 9:00 ET/PT. Filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet captured footage of the collapse of the World Trade Center from the inside. Robert DeNiro narrates the special.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan has her holiday season literary gift list. This year, all the books revolve around New York City: Manhatten Unfurled (2001) by Matteo Pericoli; A Walker in the City (1951) by Alfred Kazin; A Drinking Life (1994) by Pete Hamill; Terrible Honesty (1995) by Ann Douglas; Down 42nd Street: Sex, Money, Culture, and Politics at the Crossroads of the World (2001) by Marc Eliot; My New York (1993) by Kathy Jakobsen.

Novelist Richard Price reflects on life in New York City post September 11th. He reads an excerpt from an article he wrote for the 11/11/01 Sunday New York Times Magazine, about advice he gave his daughter. Price is the author of the novels Clockers and Freedomland.

Documentary film director Ric Burns. He directed the 7-part Emmy-awarded winning PBS series, New York: A Documentary Film. The last two episodes of the series air on most stations September 30th and October 1st. Also commentator Peter Quinn who appears in the film. Quinn is a novelist, essayist and third generation Irish-American. He is the author of the historical novel Banished Children of Eve.

Book Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews McSorleys Wonderful Saloon by Joseph Mitchell.

Iranian born novelist Salar Abdoh. His first novel The Poet Game, (2000, Picador USA) is a fictitious account of an Iranian secret agent sent to New York City to investigate rumored terrorist plots, in the wake of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The main character, Sami Amir poses as a terrorist to try and stop the attacks. Salar Abdoh fled Iran with his father and brothers following the revolution in 1979. Abdoh earned a master degree in Creative Writing from the City College of New York. He lives in New York City.

Garbage expert Benjamin Miller discusses the history of rubbish in New York. He’s the former director of policy planning for the New York City Department of Sanitation. He’s just written a book on the subject, entitled “Fat of the Land: Garbage in New York – The Last 200 Years.” (Four Walls Eight Windows) Miller says that the dumping of garbage has literally shaped New York City as it took over surrounding islands and bulked up Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Dreamland" (HarperCollins) the new novel by Kevin Baker about New York City in the early 1900s.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan interviews historian and author Mike Wallace. He's co-authored a monumental new history of New York City, "Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898" (Oxford University Press). Wallace is a Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Hours" (FS&G), Michael Cunningham's literary tribute to Virgina Woolf.

Lehman is the series editor of "The Best American Poetry." His new book "The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets" (Doubleday) is a cultural history about a group of poets in the 1950s who he says helped to reinvent literature, like John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler. They took their cue from the Abstract Expressionistic painters of the time who were also in New York.

New York City is celebrating its centennial this year. Perhaps the man most responsible for the shape of the city and for its parks, expressways, and bridges is Robert Moses. Moses held 14 state, regional, and city offices ranging from city parks commissioner to construction coordinator. Our guest, Robert Caro, won a 1975 Pulitzer Prize for his book about Moses called "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York." In the January 5th edition of the New Yorker, Caro wrote about Moses' impact on New York City.

Writer Brendan Gill died Saturday at the age of 83. We'll remember him with a excerpt from a November 1987 interview. He's best known for his work with The New Yorker magazine, for which he was hired in 1936. He wrote 15 books including biographies of Charles Lindberg, Cole Porter, and Tallulah Bankhead, and his best-seller "Here at the New Yorker." He was also an active campaigner for historic preservation in New York City. (REBROADCAST from 11/12/1987)

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Gay Metropolis" (Houghton Mifflin) by Charles Kaiser.

Commissioner for New York's Child Welfare Agency, the Administration for Children's Services Nicholas Scoppetta. He recently called for an expansion of foster care for the city's children, including "neighborhood based" care. Scoppetta understands well the struggles of children in foster care. As a five year old boy, he was taken out of his home in New York's Little Italy for neglect, and lived in several foster institutions for six years.

Kelly worked as a construction worker for ten years, three of which he worked on the Third New York City Water Tunnel alongside other "sandhogs," Irish and West Indian urban miners who dig soft ground tunnels in the city. He also holds a master's degree from Harvard University. His first novel "Payback" tells the story of two Irish-American brothers living in 1980s New York among the Irish mob and the construction workers' unions.

The sixty-year-old writer talks with Terry Gross about his new book "Angela's Ashes." The memoir recounts his childhood experience growing up in the slums of Ireland. McCourt lives in New York.