Florida - Fiction; Saudi Arabians - United States - Fiction; Sex-oriented businesses - Fiction; Life change events - Fiction; Older women - Fiction; Mothers and daughters - Fiction; Stripteasers - Fiction
Andre Dubus discusses his book, “The Garden of Last Days.” He begins by discussing the central character of the book, April. April is a single mother who works in a strip club to support her and her daughter. The plot thickens when April...
Women detectives - California - Los Angeles - Fiction; Government investigators - Fiction; Los Angeles (Calif.) - Fiction
April Smith discusses her novel, “North of Montana.” She begins by talking about how her book is about an FBI agent whose cousin gets murdered, so she decides to take in her cousin’s children and raise them. She describes another character...
Conduct of life;
Responsibility;
Quality of work life
Olive Gallagher discusses her book, “A Simple Path to the Good Life.” She begins by explaining that she writes for an advice column, and responds to a lot of ethical questions and problems people have. She doesn’t tell anyone what to do,...
Micheline Aharonian Marcom discusses her novel, “The Daydreaming Boy.” She begins by talking about why she decided to write the book from a man’s point of view during the Armenian genocide. She discusses life in Beirut in the early 1960s...
Don Bachardy discusses his book, “Stars in My Eyes.” The book contains diary entries that were written during portrait sittings. Bachardy shares stories about Bette Davis, Alice Faye, Mia Farrow, Jill St. John, Vicente Minelli, Lawrence...
Andrew Dornenburg discusses his cookbook, “The New American Chef.” He begins by explaining that American cuisine today includes many worldwide influences from different cultures. He specifically looks at the cuisines of Japan, Italy, Spain,...
Man-woman relationships - Fiction; Relationship addiction - Fiction; London (England) - Fiction; New York (N.Y.) - Fiction
Davitt Sigerson discusses his novel, “Faithful.” He begins by explaining that his book is about a woman who falls in love with her ex-boyfriend again while she is married to a new man. He talks about how two people can change when they have a...
Parent and adult child - Fiction; Fathers and daughters - Fiction; Middle class men - Fiction; Middle-aged men - Fiction; Suburban life - Fiction; Air pilots - Fiction; Long Island (N.Y.) - Fiction
Chang-rae Lee discusses his book, “Aloft.” He begins by explaining that his book is about middle-aged people who suddenly find themselves unhappy with their lives. Martinson asks Lee to read a passage from the book about couples who fight...
Giacometti, Alberto, 1901-1966; Artists - France - Biography
Laurie Wilson discusses her book, “Alberto Giacometti.” She begins by explaining the early life of the Surrealist sculptor Alberto Giacometti. She talks about how the artist grew up in Switzerland, and decided to become an artist because his...
Corporate power; Organizational behavior; Success in business
Art Kleiner discusses his book, “Who Really Matters.” He begins by explaining the importance of a core group, an inner circle of elite members who make an organization run. He talks about several strategies for running a company, and that the...
Wood, Natalie; Motion picture actors and actresses - United States - Biography
Gavin Lambert discusses his biography, “Natalie Wood.” He begins by explaining that he was a long-time friend of the late actress Natalie Wood, and wrote the screenplay for the film, “Inside Daisy Clover.” He talks about how Wood was a...
Lawrence H. Schiffman discusses his book, “Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls.“ He begins by explaining that two boys who found the first scrolls in 1947, and since then eleven caves have been found in Qumran. He talks about how the caves were...
Nina Vida discusses her novel, “Scam.” She begins by explaining that her book is about people who are involved in an equity funding scam. She talks the importance of mother-daughter relationships to her novel. She describes rare book thieves...
Elaine Feinstein discusses her novel, “The Border.” She begins by explaining that her book is about a Jewish couple who live in Vienna during World War II and must survive the Nazi invasion. She talks about how many Jews would lie to...
Basketball players - Fiction;
Foster children - Fiction
Peter Barsocchini discusses his novel, “Ghost.” He begins by explaining that his book is about a young basketball player who grows up in a bad neighborhood. He talks about other books he’s worked on including a biography of Merv Griffin. ...
Communists - China - History - Biography; China - History - Civil War, 1945-1949; China - History - 1949-1976; United States - Biography
Sidney Rittenberg discusses his book, “The Man Who Stayed Behind.” Rittenberg says he learned Chinese in the army and joined the Chinese Communist Party. He describes Mao Zedong and the Gang of Four and his imprisonment and solitary...
John Sayles discusses his book, “The Anarchists’ Convention.” He explains that the book is a collection of short stories that depict ordinary people living in extraordinary times. Some of the characters include a lone child traveling west, a...
World War, 1939-1945 - France - Fiction; Revenge - Fiction; Betrayal - Fiction; Man-woman relationships - Fiction
Jacqueline Briskin discusses her book, “The Naked Heart.” Briskin talks about the two protagonists, Ann, an American girl, and her friend, Gilberte, the daughter of French nobility. Briskin describes the French climate during World War II and...
Galicia (Poland and Ukraine) - Ethnic relations; Holocaust survivors - Galicia (Poland and Ukraine); War criminals - Germany; Jews - Persecutions - Galicia (Poland and Ukraine); Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) - Galicia (Poland and Ukraine)
Simon Wiesenthal discusses his book, “Max and Helen.” He begins by explaining the plot of the book, which chronicles the tale of Max and Helen who are Holocaust survivors who were separated during the war, and both end up in Concentration...
Mortimer J. Adler discusses his book, “A Guidebook to Learning: For a Lifelong Pursuit of Wisdom.” Adler says that one must create a guide to learning after he or she leaves school. He believes that students should receive a general liberal...
