A Strange and Influential Work.

Comedienne Joy Behar. She can be seen regularly on the ABC women's talk show, "The View." She also appears as a neurotic patient on "Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist for Comedy Central." She has a new book, "Joy Shtick: or What is the Existential Vacuum and Does it Come with Attachments?" (Hyperion)

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

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic. He is part Serbian, and was born in Belgrade. He emigrated to the U.S. as a teenager over 40 years ago. His new collection of poems is "Jackstraws" (Harcourt Brace). SIMIC also edited and translated an anthology of Serbian poetry, "The Horse Has Six Legs" (Graywolf Press, 1992)