A political book entitled Prince of Darkness could be about so many things. I’m not sure why veteran reporter Robert Novak chose that name for his memoirs, but it certainly does pique your interest. Novak, who has been reporting in Washington for fifty years now, was most recently embroiled in the Valerie Plame outing, and before that, his 2005 dismissal from CNN, but it goes so much deeper than that. He has covered every president since Truman, and broken some of the biggest stories of the century. During the late 60s and 70s, his columns on Vietnam and Watergate were closely read for inside information, as they were in the 80s, when he wrote the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Most interesting, though, are the candid stories throughout, stories about the Kennedys, a drunk LBJ, Deng Xiaoping, Ezra Pound, Reagan and his first meeting with President Bush that, before now, Novak had kept close to his chest.

Maybe you’ll hear one of those zany stories during his interview with Diane Rehm, which you may listen to here.

From the NPR website: ” Some years ago, acclaimed novelist Mary Gordon wrote a memoir about her father, revealing how the man she had loved as a Catholic intellectual was actually a converted Jew, a rabid anti-Semite and an academic fraud.”

I tried to rewrite that, but could think of no other way to put it. Now, in Circling My Mother Gordon tackles the other half, and casts mom Anna Gagliano Gordon in a more favorable light. Spurred by Anna’s death in 2002 at the age of 94, Gordon began tracing the major events of mom’s life, from contracting polio at age three, enduring both World War II and immigration to the United States, and successfully bringing up Mary on her own (Dad died early on) while holding down a steady job. The result is this memoir, a loving testament to the woman. “I write about her,” says Gordon, “because I am a writer and it’s the only way that I can mourn her.”

Gordon appeared yesterday on NPR to discuss the project. Listen to the full interview.

As anyone who has set foot in a Barnes and Noble over the past month now knows, Jeffery Eugenides’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Middlesex was the Oprah Book Club’s pick for July. As it is now August, I felt I should make one last effort to direct you over to the supplementary material on Oprah’s website, which now includes a fireside chat between O and Eugenides, a Q and A in which reader questions are answered, and Mediterranean-style recipes to serve at YOUR next get-together.

Everything you ever wanted to know is here.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden is late. John Edwards has three books out. Obama has two. Hillary has at least one and dozens more written about her. Even Mitt Romney got a book out before Biden did. But slow and steady does win the race, I suppose. Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics, the Delaware Senator’s first memoir has just recently been released, and was featured on Today yesterday. Having been in the Senate since 1973, Biden has seen his fair share of congressional combat, and lovingly renders every moment of it, from the tail-end of Vietnam through the fall of the Soviet Union up to the current conflict.

Watch the interview and read the excerpt.