Bookworm

Michael Lally Can't Be Wrong (Coffee House Press) Michael Lally--part Frank Sinatra, part William Saroyan--is an auditory seducer. This poet will leave you panting.

Robert Olen Butler Tabloid Dreams (Holt) The characters from supermarket tabloids reveal their inner truths in Pulitzer Prize-winner Butler's poetic stories..

Elena Poniatowska Tinisima (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Mexico's &quotpremiere; woman of letters" on Tina Modotti--photographer, model, revolutionary--the subject of this biographical novel.

Paul Theroux My Other Life (Houghton Mifflin) This autobiography is a supernatural story in disguise--hear Paul Theroux's Dr. Jekyll explain the demonic nature of Paul Theroux's Mr. Hyde.

Brad Gooch reveals the structure of the heroic quest that underlies this misunderstood and frequently reviled novel.

Junot Diaz's stories render the young-immigrant experience in harsh, unforgettable rhythms. Here he discusses the art of telling the truth.

Naked Sleeper (Harper Collins) Sigrid Nunez on gender and narrative strategy, the sub-genre known as the "woman's weepie."

Frank McCourt Angela's Ashes (Scribner) Memories have becomes trendy, but Frank McCourt's emotional masterpiece bucks the trend. A conversation about how this powerful work -- comprised of comedy and pain, told in the beautifully sustained tones of an Irish tenor -- finally came to be.

The Last Thing He Wanted (Knopf)   Part II of a special two-part interview with a novelist whose works have defined the essences of American places (Los Angeles, Miami, New York) and times (the sixties, the seventies, the eighties).  

The Last Thing He Wanted (Knopf)Part I of a special two-part interview with a novelist whose works have defined the essences of American places (Los Angeles, Miami, New York) and times (the sixties, the seventies, the eighties). Topics include the influences of T.S. Eliot, Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway, and her contemporary, Joyce Carol Oates, the nature of resonance and the role of accident and intuition in the writing of novels.