Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession

Anne Rice is best known to the world as the vaguely Wiccan author of the Vampire Lestat novels, which are among the top-selling books of the 20th century. But as Rice's new memoir shows, she is the product of what she describes as a devoutly religious Irish Catholic family from New Orleans.

>br> "Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession" describes how Rice emerged from this deeply religious youth, and fell in with a decidedly non-religious crowd in the infamously skeptical city of Berkeley, California.

Rice's re-creation of her youth in New Orleans is vivid, and the book concludes with Rice returning again to the powerful Christianity she experienced in her youth. In fact, Rice suggests that her books have always, to some degree, been about the search for salvation.

Price: $24

Pages: 256

Publisher: Knopf

The Longest Trip Home

Another best-selling author of Irish descent is looking back at his youth. John Grogan, author of the best seller "Marley and Me," has written a memoir of what he describes as his "boisterous Irish-Catholic" family during the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s.

Entitled "The Longest Trip Home," it avoids the downfalls of certain Irish-American memoirs, with their overemphasis on grimness and drabness. Grogan grew up near Detroit and finds joy amidst the troubles he has in answering life's larger questions, before he finally gets an opportunity to return to the unresolved conflicts of his youth.

Price:$25.95

Pages:352

Publisher:Morrow