that is what i was really interested in in writing the novel. as an individual, what are your obligations? do you take on what your group has done? there has been a lot about muslims, why they will not stand up and denounce terrorism? the answer is i am an american just like you, so why do i have to say something extra to make you feel ok? tavis: what is fascinating to me is that it does not make a statement about muslims and think about how we treat them, but it also makes a statement about us. it is not just them. in the competition that mo wins, they do not know that he is a muslim until they open the envelope. they selected the best design. his design is the design that they think is best, and when they open the envelope, then they discover that he is a muslim, and then all hell breaks loose. tell us what you like to say about us putting mo in the position of having to defend or apologize or denounce. >> i was really interested in the period after 9/11. i think there were lots of questions about which of our values to be hold on to and which

. >> i think it is our national novel. if there was a national novel of week, this would be it for the united states. i think it's the favorite book of almost everybody you meet. >> the first time in my life that the book had sort of captured me. that was exciting. i didn't realize that literature could do that. >> i remember reading a copy of my aunt's in jamaica queens. it was the first book ever written by a white writer that discussed racism in ways that was complicate and sophisticated. -- complicated and sophisticated. >> a touchstone in american literary and social history. it's a story gently tugged at the issues of racism. >> she was a champion of people who helped us get liberated from racism in this country. >> harper lee's first and only novel. >> a masterpiece is masterpieces not because they're flawless but because they tap into something essential to us, at the heart of who we are and how -- >> a masterpiece and a mystery. >> of course, one kept hoping and waiting for the next novel. sadly, that never came.

that i probably will never write, it will be a courtroom novel. and scott didn't invent the genre. neither did john grisham. earl stanley gardner was writing courtroom drama in the 1930's and 1940's. "anatty of a murder" came out in 1958. first we have "to kill a mockingbird," which most lawyers and most lawyer authors will tell you is kind of the seminal work of why we got interested. and i started writing a novel as i was approaching my 40th birthday. i wrote most of it on a ferry going to and from work every day. it took me three years. and that book became "special circumstances," story of a murder in a big law firm. it came out in 2000 and spent seven weeks on "the new york times"' bestsellers' list. so for those of you who have bought my books, i thank you, because now i don't have to practice law full-time anymore. >> but all kidding aside, you know, i think crime novelists and readers of crime novels whether it's lawyer books or whether it's private detectives or cops, you know, in my world i'm like -- unlike tony's, i can control the outc

and jim wrote a novel that is still thought of as one of the great war novels of very different cup of tea. and jim wrote to ms. appreciation and he recounts relieve the ninth circle of hell and as his platoon had been taking terrible casualties the insides were crawling with the bad water we had been drinking. in the midst of the misery and death, he hears someone shouting from the foxhole saying you have to read this. and it is a tattered copy of "catch-22". webb had read the book of growing up but he said he devoured it. saying it did not matter to me at all i was reading a book that these are his words, protesting the very war i was fighting. but what mattered is i had found a soul mate. someone who understood. jim webb is a very, very tough customer but a book that can reach jim webb and bertrand russell that may explain why it sold 10 million copies since 1961 although he will never take credit for at least 1 billion of them. >> but to add one thing to our discussion, we all talk about it as if the enemy in the war but also remember is a very serious anti-capitalist book and a lo

i'm saying then novels became about the little guy. and if anything is one of the many themes of "catch-22," it's the hatred of authority and officers are the bastards, the most-hated people in the book. and it weirdly started to work on us. they were all our pals, but the guys playing the officers, they found themselves sitting at different tables. >> [inaudible] >> not invited to things. yeah. [laughter] we hated them. they were officers. >> that's so great. >> but i think that joe when you think that he did both "catch-22" and "something happened," that he was the opposite of what he appeared to be. he was a complex, sophisticated, elegant man masquerading as an ordinary guy. in fact, the joke about him was they thought he'd found the manuscript on a dead soldier because he didn't -- they couldn't see the person who had written the book. but over time, of course, he was the only person who'd written the book. >> he was different things at different times. i met him in 1958 which was three and a half years before the book was finishe

also "matterhorn," a novel. karl marlantes, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, it was a pleasure. >> for a d.v.d. copy of this program call 1-866-662-7726. for free san francisco scripts or to gives -- for free transcripts or to give us your comment about this program, visit q&a.org. also available on podcasts. upcoming guests on "q & a" include -- >> next, live, your calls and comments on "washington journal." then live, maryland governor martin o'malley talks about the 2012 elections. live at noon, the presidents and c.e.o. of blue cross blue shield talks about the future of health care. >> most people probably think of it as a broadcaster on short waves listening in on a radio, listening to the door if the police might come. that's kind of an out of date image now. >> on the changing face of the d.o.a. >> we are on facebook, on twitter, on satellite tv. we're on f.m. radio. we have a lot of affiliates now around the world. stations, radio, a washington news bureau for them. so we're finding a l

gates says novel couldn't deliver the program in time for the rollout. novel says later it sold word perfect for a $1.2 billion loss. >>> still ahead, do not turn your back on kids for one second because this might happen. >> what are you doing? oh, boy. >> oh, boy, is right. how and what happenice wor k, ke nice work, kids. we'll tell you coming up. [ male announcer ] if you're ready to get more from your tv service, now's a great time to get at&t u-verse tv. make the switch! [ female announcer ] call to get u-verse -- now with free hd -- only 25 a month for six months -- our lowest price ever. plus get up to 182 channels with hbo and cinemax free for three months. [ male announcer ] u-verse tv lets you record up to four shows at once on a single dvr. and you can record and play back your shows from any room. plus get an hd-ready dvr included at no extra charge. [ female announcer ] call to get u-verse -- now with free hd -- only 25 a month for six months -- our lowest price ever. plus get up to 182 channels with hbo and cinemax free for three months. [

>> it was in the novel.he novelist, herself, said, no, it is make believe. >> reporter: and the police closure notice? wartime bomb damage, says maggs, not a dangerous spector. so, why do the ghost hunters who flock here want to believe? >> i suppose people are maybe a little bit dissatisfied with the world that they see around them and want something else to be there. i'm really sort of baffled. i don't get it. >> reporter: is their search for something, anything, inevitable in an increasingly godless society? or, as some say, are we reading too many spooky novels? watching too many ghostly carto cartoons, tv shows? >> got a slight increase in the elect electromagnetic field around here. >> reporter: no one can prove ghosts don't exist. >> we've gathered paranormal evidence here in terms of, again, temperature pluck raxs, people have been touched. >> reporter: but not even barri has proved that ghosts do exist. >> i don't think i'm going to find ultimate proof even before i die. i'm just going to carry on.

, the best-selling novel of 1991.to more of his books immediately claimed the number one spot on that list, the pelican brief and the client. mr. grisham is written about one legal fiction book a year, nine have been turned into movies and he is also written about other diverse subjects such as baseball and aging football quarterback and christmas. mr. grisham's nonfiction book, the innocent man, symbolizes and as i understand that galvanize his commitment to the goal of exonerating the wrongly convicted and inasmuch involved today actively in the innocence project nationally. in 1996 mr. grisham took a break from writing to fulfill a promise he had made to represent the family of a railroad brakeman who was killed when pinned between two cars. he earned his client jury awarded $683,000 it reminds us of of us of some of the best lawyering in his books. is now my great honor to present the inaugural prize for legal fiction to john grisham. [applause] [applause] >> thank you dean randall for this award in thanks also to

[applause] >> this is a scene from my novel [inaudible]. it seemed like a great opportunity to get to do this here. okay. what time is the first reader anyway? i didn't like bars this crowded. someone elbode me in the back. when i turned around i didn't know who the elbow belong said. relax. i didn't expect there to be this many people i thought they would be at the bar with the travel writers. i thought they the be with the hip sters i guess we are not hip sters we can't guess who they are into. we lessened the hipster intimidation factor and picked out the smart guy. this year we selected postmen pausal writers on the meaning of life. here i was, the city never fails to surprise me much the crowd was quieting. people were pointing toward the stage. i woman of 60 clamored on to it. she had silver hair and had a long velvet skirt. i'm senora watson. there was applause. she lowered her head slightly to indicate her humility. i must confess i was surprised to be invited tonight. i'm embarrassed to say i didn't know young people were drunkenly

this is a novel about marines.ou want me to make a $50 a copy and send it to a woman in berkeley california? he said i will pay for it. i said it was all right. she loved it. she gave in to tom. tom loved it. they decided to publish it. it is nonprofit. they have to go out by money. and their idea is that it is so hard to get good literature into the commercial marketplace. if they give the writer a product instead of a manuscript, he has a better chance of thing going to new york and selling it. he made 1200 copies. my pay was 123 copies to do what i wanted with. that is the first publisher. what happened was a series of women, starting with kit, my wife did the same thing. i still got the same reaction. it is too big. nobody's interested in it. my wife said no one will read it. i said yes. why don't you send it to contest? >> we do not have the staff to do that. if you figure it out, we will send it. it went to the barnes and noble discover great writer's contest. a woman reader loved the book. she sent it to new

you could often see him on levision, he wrote novels, he wrote plays.e directed his own plays and he became particularly celebrated for his coverage as a journalist for a series of prostitute murders, which happened in vienna. this is kind of 20 years ago, which he wrote about and became almost the police kind of liaison and go-to person. then he went to l.a. and wrote a ries, wrote an article for an austrian magazine about the sex industry and the sex trade in los angeles. and then they found later tha not only was he the one killing all the hookers,heas writing the stories. he also when he went to l.a., killed the of the prostitutes he interviewed. and in the very firs year after his release from priso he killed six proitutes. so that was a huge story in austria and this opera is based on the story of jack he was called. >> charl: whose idea was it to make it into an opera. >> me. because i knew the sto. martin -- come deducts out of vienna called the vienna academy and also one out of l.a. called music angelica. through our mutual friend who is a cus

thomas said he wanted to carry out what this underground novel intended to. author of the novel has said it's fiction, not meant to inspire violence or hate and that he does not want to see this happen, of course. >> warner: bizarre, indeed, as you said. greg blue and seen the of the associated press, thank you. >> thank you. >> suarez: finally tonight, the work of a scientist who spends his days tracking killer diseases. >> reporter: a nondescript office building in downtown san francisco may seem an unlikely headquarters for one of the world's most prominent virus hunters, but it's where stanford university biologist nathan wolfe has setup his war room to monitor and study new, and potentially deadly, viruses emerging around the globe. the 41-year-old wolfe is the founder and director of the global viral forecasting initiative. the mission sounds simple but it's not: detect pandemics and stop them before they spread. how wolfe and his team do that is a mix of high tech detective work and old fashioned on the ground epidemiology research and it's the subject

we have 1600 sites already. >> you have written this sizzling novel. why a novel?ot -- it's a great read. why not write a nondirection book about some of the things you are talking about. >> the news can be daunting. don't you think? sometimes you turn on the news it's like i have to turn it off. if we can have something that entertains us but yet walk away thinking i could get involved i could make a difference that's why. >> you made such a fabulous difference. >> thank you. >> thank you folks for watching at home. have a great week. see yoyoyoyo

we have 1600 sites already. >> you have written this sizzling novel. why a novel? why not -- it's a great read. why not write a nondirection book about some of the things you are talking about. >> the news can be daunting. don't you think? sometimes you turn on the news it's like i have to turn it off. if we can have something that entertains us but yet walk away thinking i could get involved i could make a difference that's why. >> you made such a fabulous difference. >> thank you. >> thank you folks for watching at home. have a great week. see yoyoyoyoyoyo >> good morning, everyone. hope you had a fantastic weekend. now it's monday again, november 7th. thanks for sharing your time. he may be leading the polls nationwide but iowa may not come easy. today, mitt romney heads back to the hawkeye state, a state that things haven't gone easily in the past. >> brian? >> thanks for the toss, steve. >> man, things have changed around here. >> let me hold on to it. are you busy, gretch? here we go. one of the most respected coaches wrapped up in a sex abuse scandal dating