Places & Travel

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Bone Woman, by forensic anthropologist Clea Koff.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the new DVD of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. The production was shown on TV in with Angela Lansbury, 25 years ago.

In addition to editing The Weekly Standard, Kristol chairs the neo-conservative group called Project for the New American Century. Kristol is also one of the architects of the blueprint for regime change found in the document Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces and Resources For A New Century. He advocated regime change in Iraq before Sept. 11.

Gen. Romeo Dallaire was commander of the U.N. peacekeeping forces in Rwanda 10 years ago during one of the worst massacres in modern history. Some 800,000 Rwandans were killed in 100 days. Most of them were Tutsi and moderate Hutu civilians. During that time Dallaire and his troops were denied authority to intervene. The experience changed him, tormented him, and filled him with guilt. He suffered from post traumatic stress syndrome, was suicidal and depressed. He's written a new account, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda.

Singer, an analyst at The Brookings Institution, is the author of the book Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry. He'll discuss the use of private military contractors in Iraq, especially in light of the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison where civilian military contractors were involved in interrogations. Singer is an Olin Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution and coordinator of the Brookings Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World.

Television critic David Bianculli reviews last night's series finale of the hit NBC sitcom Friends, and looks at the history of series finales.

He died Monday at the age of 75. In 1964, his book Last Exit To Brooklyn, shocked readers with its salty language and explicit portrayal of prostitutes, thugs, ex-cons and striking dock workers along the Brooklyn waterfront in the 1950s. Selby's other books included The Room, Requiem for a Dream, The Willow Tree and Waiting Period. (This interview was originally broadcast on May 4, 1990.)

Shadid is Islamic affairs correspondent for The Washington Post. For more than a year now he has reported from Baghdad and has just returned to the United States. He just received the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. Before working for the Post, Shadid was a correspondent at The Boston Globe's Washington bureau. He spent nine years with The Associated Press, five of them in Cairo. He is the author of Legacy of the Prophet: Despots, Democrats, and the New Politics of Islam.

He is the author of Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China. In the book, he chronicles the stories of three ordinary Chinese citizens who fought government oppression. They each fought locally but brought about national change. Johnson says economic reforms have created a space for dissent in Chinese culture. Johnson is the Berlin bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal. In 2001, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the Falun Gong.

He is the author of the memoir, Blue Blood that begins with his first days on the street as a cop in the New York Police Department and goes back three generations. His great-grandfather was an "officer of dubious integrity" during the Tammany-era NYPD. Conlon also wrote the "Cop Diary" columns in The New Yorker and is a graduate of Harvard. One reviewer writes, "No one has written a book that grabs readers by the scruff of the neck and tells them what the life of a cop is really like as well as Edward Conlon."

Kyle Smith is book and music review editor at People Magazine. He's making his debut as a novelist with the new book Love Monkey. It's about a 32-year-old New Yorker who dares to be "average" and whose credo is to "think and act like a 13-year-old boy at all times." Smith is also a Yale graduate and a Gulf War veteran.

The New York Times' James Bennet discusses the situation in the Middle East following the Israeli military's assassination of the founder and spiritual leader of the militant Palestinian group Ham

From Showtime's drama The L-Word, actor Jennifer Beals and creator Ilene Chaiken. Beals became a star for her role in the 80's dance classic, Flashdance. She's also starred in Devil in a Blue Dress, The Last Days of Disco and The Anniversary Party. On The L-Word, she plays Bette Porter, a gay art curator. Chaiken's previous TV work includes writing Damaged Care and Dirty Pictures. The L-Word wraps up its first season this weekend.

Sullivan is the author of the critically acclaimed books, The Meadowlands and A Whale Hunt. His new book is Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants. One reviewer writes, "in prose worthy of Joseph Mitchell, a... skittering, scurrying, terrific natural history." Sullivan is a contributing editor to Vogue and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker.

He's now the area security manager for KBR, a division of Halliburton, a private military firm. Vargas has been stationed in Tikrit, Iraq, for the past year. He talks about the capture of Saddam Hussein, which took place in Tikrit. Vargas is a retired Command Sergeant Major of the U.S. Special Forces. He's written the foreword to the new book Hunting Down Saddam: the Inside Story of the Search and Capture, by Robin Moore.

The Fresh Air book critic reviews three books about life in New York City: Love Monkey, by Kyle Smith, Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City and Thereabouts, by Charlie LeDuff, and Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan, by Phillip Lopate.

Weide is executive producer and a writer for HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. The show stars Larry David, who co-created Seinfeld, as himself. One reviewer calls Curb Your Enthusiasm "a comedy of hostility, resentment, paranoia and obsessiveness." The show is currently in its fourth season.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews "The Sopranos" - which begins its fifth season on HBO Sunday.

She has reported on Haiti for a number of years and is the author of the book The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier. She also edited and translated the book In the Parish of the Poor: Writings from Haiti by deposed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Wilentz is a contributing editor for The Nation, and a former associate professor of journalism at Columbia University.

Kathie Klarreich is a freelance writer who has covered Haiti for more than 15 years. She is a Christian Science Monitor stringer and op-ed writer — and is currently reporting for Time magazine. She'll talk to us from Port-au-Prince.