the non-fiction voice which fades into memoir is so engaging and extremely interesting, the kind of writing i do for the new york review of books which is so hospitable a place with many other wonderful publications that published literary reviews and i am sinking into a nice warm wonderful dimension where the mind opens up and you are so interested in what you are reading i could sit forever and read really fought for reviews and essays. is different -- when i am working on a novel they are not my own voice but something as representative of the fiction, the world of fiction so the characters in the novel's setting have come together to create the music that is appropriate so that each book of mine is quite different. whereas the reviewing voice is my own foists and the one i go back to. i feel a real kinship with all of you and i thank you very deeply. [applause] >> i had the pleasure of the committees this year, our slides accompany my notation of finals. the first of which was wendy's the hindus, an alternative history. and forgotten jungles city, metropolitan books. richard holmes at t

you want to make a case, if you have an argument to make is not in a novel's form but is also in non-fiction. you made that point. >> i don't think that i could make it my aim to beat the reader around the head with a moral case about climate change because i think the place far is the monograph of the non-fiction book. what i can show, i hope... >> rose: al gore. >> yes. you can... there are clearly ways of doing this in reportage and argument. what the novel these do, i think, is investigate human nature or at least lay out the terms, as it were, of the problem for human nature. and i think really that's why we... that's what's so interesting about literature. at its best or even at its medium it reflects rather than directs >> it seems to me if i hear you... because that's certainly what i hear, what i agree with. it is the notion that the success of achieving the hoped for results of big ideas can be compromised, encouraged, caught up in all the things that everybody deals with. all the range of human emotions that can get at the pursuit of noble things and less-than-noble things. >> sci

he also tops the best-seller list in the non-fiction for "the new york times" book reviewed this morning, and is our guest this week at 8:00 p.m. this evening. florida, karen, on the republican line. caller: hi, good morning. i'm calling from pembroke pines. host: are you making political donations? caller: this year i might be. i donated and supported a certain person when he was running for governor -- crist. i am an independent. the only problem is, i'm not sure he would be able to get anything done if he gets into congress because we have moved from a moderate congress to the republican party becoming very far right and vitriolic. i do not like the hate that i feel there. i do not like the reversal of our country back to the hate and vitriol of the 1950's and 1960's. i was not a big a obama supporter, but i do like with the guy is doing in office. he is really tried to get things done. this idea to get out all moderates could do not support him is bringing the country to a standstill. i'm watching this guy in may support the democratic party this time around. host: jim, oklahoma. cal

so i wrote -- i left to write a story about it, a non-fiction story. it was always trying to explain what had happened on wall street to make these sort of jobs possible, to make them so lucrative. but i really did think when i wrote it that this was it. in the 1980's, it was a strange episode in american history. it was going to end, and these seats would be less valuable. so you had to get the story down on paper so future generations would believe it. little did i know people would pity me for how little i made when i was there. the sums paid on wall street had gotten so big that that just looked quaint. >> first person in your book is meredith whitney that seems to have a rather strong importance. can you tell us who she is? >> she is a catalyst for me in this story. she was until very recently was a an analyst. she worked for a wall street firm that offered stocks to the public. she worked for a firm called oppenheimer. she was a bank analyst, a financial sector analyst. and meredith, who i had never heard of, starts saying things. in late 2007 wa

. >> moyers: the first non-fiction you did about your pregnancy and your child's birth. that first year of that child. >> "the blue jay's dance." >> moyers: "the blue jay's dance." and what was the metaphor there? >> it was a blue jay's dance of courage in front of a hawk. and i saw it from the window as i was nursing my baby, i saw outside the window this... i kept feeders and all sorts of birds came down. i saw a blue jay. and then a hawk came down and missed it. and the blue jay knew it was doomed. but it started to dance at the hawk. and it so startled the hawk that the hawk sort of adjusted its vision, i think, because the blue jay was confusing it. this dance of an inferior bird against a superior raptor finally so mortified the hawk that it flew away. >> moyers: so this is the mother's role, the blue jay's dance to keep the aggressive hawk at a distance, right? >> i never really thought of it exactly that way. it may be that i thought about it in the book, but... yes. well, it's the advantage so many of us have, in a small way. it's the advantage of behaving in a

that includes the 2004 non- fiction book of the year award from booksense and several others. "reading lolita in iran" has earned literary distinction and built an enthusiastic leadership. the readers have been captivated by the story and characters framed in this alluring and confounding place. the book is an incisive exploration of the transformative powers of fiction in a world of tyranny. azar nafisi is a visiting professor and executive director of cultural conversations at the foreign policy institute of johns hopkins university school of advanced international studies in washington, d.c. she is also a professor of aesthetics, culture, and literature. she teaches courses on the relation of literature and politics. she has conducted a series of lectures and culture and the important role of western literature and culture in iran after the revolution in 1969. she taught at university of tehran before her return to the united states in 1997. she has earned respect and international recognition for advocating on behalf of intellectuals, youth, and especially young women. in

. >> do you know yet what your non-fiction problem-- will be? >> i'm talking just simon & shuster about a couple of different products. i am thinking is seriously about another book on oil. i read-- wrote a controversial book, it is not made by's-- fossil fuel. i would like to advance that in another book and simon & shuster is talking with me about another book on obama. maybe we will write another comprehensive look of obama after a couple of years in office and evaluate whether the biographical details of how they actually play forward into the administration. >> thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. >> more live coverage of the 2010 annapolis book festival here in booktv. coming up next the panel on the world's water situation with mark kurlansky, and orrin pilkey professor emeritus at the nicholas school of the environment at duke university and author of the rising sea. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inau

so i read very generally and i read fiction as well as non-fiction and some older fiction. recently been going back and reading a lot of the old crime books. maltese falcon and those forties' novels. i love that riding. i read very broadly all the time. >> to you know yet for sure next nonfiction project will be? >> talking with simon shuster about a couple different projects. i'm thinking very seriously about another book on oil. remember i wrote to a stranglehold, very controversial where i said it will is not dinosaurs soup, it's not -- it is abiotic not made by fossil fuel. i like to a dance that in another book. and simon shuster is talking with me about a book on obama, maybe another kind of comprehensive book on obama after a couple of years in office. evaluate the biographical details and how they actually played forward with the administration. >> thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] more live coverage of the 2010 annapolis book festival on booktv. coming up next a panel on the world's water situation with mark kurlansky author