Biography & Memoir

Duberman has written a memoir about being gay in the 1950s -- before the gay liberation movement, and at a time when homosexuality was considered deviant behavior by the psychiatrists. It's called "Cures: A Gay Man's Odyssey.

Lax has written a new biography of the prominent New York actor and director. Lax first interviewed Allen in 1971 during the filming of "Bananas," and over the next 20 years they kept up an on-going conversation.

Nugent has written an account of his trip to India and the Himalayas in search of one of the world's rarest birds.

Writer Sam Fussell was scared of living in the big city, so he decided he'd look like less of a target if he took up body building. He chronicles his four year transformation in his book, "Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Body Builder."

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Truth or Dare," the new documentary about pop singer Madonna. He says it reveals a lot about her carefully cultivated image, which finds power in sexuality.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan review Kitty Kelley's salacious Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography. Corrigan, who is no fan of the former first lady, says it's perversely entertaining.

Journalist Andrew H. Malcolm's new book, "Someday," is his first-person account of his decision to take his terminally ill mother off life support, a decision made ironic by the fact that Malcom often covers issues of medical ethics and the right to die for the New York Times.

Nature writer Rick Bass's new book chronicles his life in isolation on a remote ranch in Montana without electricity.

In 1971, writer Lorene Cary was one of the first black female students to be enrolled at St. Paul's, a private prep school in New Hampshire; Cary grew up middle class in Philadelphia. Her memoir about entering the privileged, elite world of the school is called "Black Ice."

The author and educator has written a new book call "A Man Without Words." It's a first-person account of her struggle to teach sign language to a deaf man who had reached adulthood without anyone making any effort to teach him how to communicate.

Author Franz Lidz. His new book, "Unstrung Heroes," is a memoir growing up with four crazy uncles. He writes regularly for Sports Illustrated.

Book critic John Leonard reviews a new Pablo Picasso biography, by the artist's friend John Richardson. The book reveals how Picasso was often cruel to women, deeply apolitical, and overworked.

Foreman faces federal felony charges for allegedly plotting to blow up power lines leading to a nuclear power plant. His organization Earth First! has been praised and vilified for its use of "monkey wrenching" -- acts of sabotage and civil disobedience against organizations that are hurting the earth. Foreman, who has since distanced himself from the group, has a new book, called "Confessions of an Eco-Warrior."

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews a new biography of the former slave, writer, and abolitionist by Pulitzer Prize-winning author William McFeely. The book fills in the many gaps and silences in all three of Douglass's autobiographies.

Marian Faye Novak was pregnant when her husband, David, a Marine, was sent to Vietnam. Her daughter, Jeannie is now an army officer serving in the Gulf war. We talk with Marian about her new memoir about the Vietnam War, Lonely Girls with Burning Eyes, and her feelings today about her daughter's military service. We also talk with David about what it's like for him to be waiting at the other end.

Say's brother is Terry Anderson, the Associated Press reporter who's been held hostage in Lebanon since March 1985. During the past five years, Say has worked to free her brother, and to keep the American government, and the American people from forgetting her brother's plight. Her new memoir documents that ordeal.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the new family memoir by the prolific novelist. He says it features many of the same themes found in Roth's fiction, like an obsession with memory, and one usually absent: love.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg foregoes his usual language commentaries to tell us a tale about being young and limber in Rome.

Book critic John Leonards says the Russian author is the greatest writer never to have received the Nobel prize. He reviews a new biography by Brian Boyd, which explores Nabokov's complex and unnerving mind.

Barkalow was among the first women to enter the military academy at West Point. Her new memoir, "In the Men's House," chronicles her rise from cadet to commander. She currently works in the Pentagon as a special assistant to the Army Chief of Staff.