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Alison Bechdel, cartoonist and author of the graphic memoir Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama, reflects on the creation of memoirs, her long-running comic strip "Dykes to Watch Out For" and her approach to graphic novels.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn may have book tour coincide with her stumping for the 2013 Mayoral race.

Joe Blair talks about his memoir, By the Iowa Sea, an unsentimental account of a family crisis and a natural disaster. After setting aside his dreams, Joe found himself middle-aged, with four kids, including a severely autistic son, and a marriage on the rocks. His memoir is the story of the changes his family went through to stay together.

Pico Iyer examines the closeness he has always felt to the English writer Graham Greene.  In The Man Within My Head, he follows Greene’s trail from his first novel, The Man Within, to his later classics like The Quiet American looking at all he has in common with Greene: an English public school education, a lifelong restlessness and refusal to make a home anywhere, a fascination with the complications of faith.

Michael Oher, the football star made famous in the book and movie The Blind Side, talks about rising above the circumstances of his youth. In I Beat the Odds, Oher looks back on how he went from being a homeless child in Memphis to playing in the NFL, and looks at how he broke out of the cycle of poverty, addiction, and hopelessness that trapped his family.

United States Congressman John Lewis discusses how his experience as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement can offer guidance on how to live virtuously and work to change the world. In Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change, Lewis revisits the lessons of the 1960s to help the electorate once again confront questions of social inequality.

Hugo Hamilton read from his book, “The Speckled People,” as part of the PEN World Voices Festival on May 3. Hear Hamilton comment on and read from his memoir at Ireland House.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discusses the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia—the country where she was born—and the events of World War II that shook her life before she turned twelve. Her memoir Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War: 1937–1948 draws on the memories of her and her family, her parents' written reflections, interviews, and newly available documents to give an account of the most tumultuous 12 years in modern history.

Ovarian cancer is called the silent killer. Most women don’t receive a diagnosis until the disease has spread, until the chances for survival have dwindled. Once diagnosed, the treatment might be just as bad as the disease, as Dr. Vivian Bearing, the main character in Margaret Edson’s play “Wit," explains: "I am in isolation because I am being treated for cancer," she says. "My treatment imperils my health. Herein lies the paradox." Like Vivian Bearing, Susan Gubar is a professor of English, coping with ovarian cancer. Yet Professor Gubar's story of diagnosis and treatment is quite different from the one Margaret Edsons chronicles in "Wit."

Joe Bastianich describes his culinary journey from working in his parents’ red-sauce joint to becoming one of the country’s most successful restaurateurs. His memoir Restaurant Man recounts learning the ropes from his parents, Lidia and Felice Bastianich, his time in Italy, and joining forces with Mario Batali.

Lizz Winstead, comedian, social critic, and co-creator of The Daily Show, tells how she fought to find her own voice, both as a comedian and as a woman, and how humor became her most powerful weapon in confronting life's challenges. In Lizz Free or Die she tells about her childhood longing to be a priest, her role in developing The Daily Show, and her habit of diving into everything head first.

Rosecrans Baldwin talks about living and working in Paris for 18 months and finding the experience completely unlike what he expected. His memoir Paris, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down, is a comic, personal account of observing the French capital from the inside out. 

Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez discuss their careers, relationship, family, and faith. Their dual memoir, Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son, tells stories about more than 50 years of family history and reflect on their life journeys.

Dame Daphne Sheldrick is the first person ever to have successfully hand-reared newborn elephants. In her memoir Love, Life and Elephants: And African Love Story, she tells about her pioneering work saving countless elephants, rhinos, and other baby animals, and about her love and partnership with David Sheldrick, the famous Tsavo Park warden.

Auma Obama talks about her life in Africa and Europe, and her relationship with her brother, Barack Obama. Her memoir, And Then Life Happens, tells the story of her meeting Barack Obama for the first time in the 1980s, and how they built a lasting relationship, traveled together in Kenya, and researched their family history, and how she supported him in his political aspirations.

Writers, directors, and producer Garry Marshall discusses his journey from the Bronx to Hollywood and his time creating the television hits "The Odd Couple," "Happy Days," "Laverne & Shirley," and "Mork & Mindy," and movies like "The Flamingo Kid," "Beaches," "Pretty Woman," and "The Princess Diaries." His new memoir is My Happy Days in Hollywood.

Loung Ung talks about coming to terms with her violent childhood in Cambodia's notorious killing fields. Her new memoir, Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness, is the final in a trilogy that started with First They Killed My Father, about being forced by the Khmer Rouge, and continued with Lucky Child, about her life as a refugee in Vermont. Lulu in the Sky is about her daily struggle to keep darkness and depression at bay while pursuing a life in America.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault talks about being one of two black students who forced the University of Georgia to integrate in 1961, and about her new book,  To the Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement.

Major league pitcher Jim Abbott talks about his unlikely success story—he was born without a right hand, but chose a profession that didn’t allow him to hide his disability. He’s remembered for throwing one of the most dramatic no-hitters in major-league history, in September at Yankee Stadium. His new memoir is Imperfect: An Improbable Life.

Benjamin Busch talks about his memoir Dust to Dust, a meditation on life and loss, peace and war. He writes of his childhood in rural New York, his deployment during the worst of the war in Iraq, and acting in the HBO series “The Wire.”