Maureen Corrigan

Two new novels feature highly educated main characters who discover that too much knowledge is a dangerous thing. Maureen Corrigan reviews The Philosopher's Apprentice, by James Morrow, and The Soul Thief, by Charles Baxter.

Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, a new collection of short stories that chronicles the cultural alienation that exists between Indian-born parents and their American-born children.

The Library of America has published World War II Writings, a new collection of stories by A.J. Liebling. The volume, edited by Pete Hamill, includes three books, two dozen New Yorker pieces, maps and a chronology.

A bomb explodes in the campus office next door, and Lee, a math professor, becomes the primary suspect. Is he being targeted for revenge by someone in his past? Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews A Person of Interest, a new novel by Susan Choi.

It's January, the stock market is shaky, and the Hollywood writer's strike is still dragging on, but Fresh Air's book critic says there's at least one piece of good news this month: Sue Miller has a new novel out.

Fresh Air's book critic reviews the latest novel from the author of Nine Parts of Desire.

Fresh Air's book critic reviews Judith Freeman's new biography The Long Embrace, the story of Philip Marlowe creator Raymond Chandler and his marriage to a woman 18 years older than him.

Fresh Air's resident book critic surveys the shelves and offers a few recommendations for what the bibliomanes in your life might like to find inside the gift wrap. On her list are two examinations of the creative life, plus four titles from the 2X2 Series, a Feminist Press project pairing literature by men and women:
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley
The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World (25th anniversary edition), by Lewis Hyde

Writer Stewart O'Nan has nearly 20 works of fiction and nonfiction to his credit, but his name isn't too well known beyond a community of loyal readers and independent-bookstore prowlers.

But book critic Maureen Corrigan predicts that O'Nan's literary celebrity will grow in the wake of his latest book, Last Night at the Lobster. It's a little book, she says, that's making a big splash.

Culture critic Susan Faludi writes about the gender wars in America; her books Backlash and Stiffed, in particular, have sparked admiration and controversy.

Faludi's latest book, The Terror Dream, is already generating much the same critical reaction. It's an investigation of America's response to Sept. 11, 2001, in terms of the myths and stories our society — in particular, the media — grasped hold of for reassurance after that day's terrorist attacks.