A New Director Reflects on His Acting Career

Kingston's new book, Tripmaster Monkey, is about a fifth-generation Chinese American man in the 1960s, who tries to find a balance between his two cultures. She joins Fresh Air to talk about her life as a first-generation immigrant, her relationship with her mother, and how she developed her voice as a storyteller.

The queen of New Orleans soul would have been a bigger star if she had moved to New York or Los Angeles earlier in her career, argues rock historian Ed Ward. Despite her local success, Thomas only had a few national hits. But by all accounts, she's happy now, performing in regional blues circuits and raising her four children.

Book critic John Leonard says the historian's newest work, called Citizen, is intellectually reprehensible, ignoring both past and present scholarship to craft a familiar and tired narrative of French democracy. Yet the writing is lovely, and propelled Leonard to the end of the book, kicking and screaming.