Night-table Reading

Whoopi Goldberg (performer): Jazz, by Toni Morrison (Knopf), and Race, by Studs Terkel (New Press). "Between Morrison and Terkel, the ills of the world are succinctly answered. I just love them both. "

Howard Jones (musician): The Heart of the World, by Alan Ereira (Jonathan Cape). "I found it incredibly moving that the Kogi Indians, totally cut off from society, yet so affected by it, are begging the world to stop destroying the planet. "

Kirk Douglas (actor, writer): The Words of Albert Schweitzer (Newmarket). "I find that his ideas— reverence for life, familiarity with death, the sleeping sickness of the soul—influence my writing. "

Jennie Livingston (director): Divine Horsemen, by Maya Deren (McPherson & Co.). "She was a filmmaker who went to Haiti and ended up a Voudoun worshiper; this is essentially how an artist became transformed by her own work. "