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On how the deaths affected her

I know that I've already forgotten things about us growing up, and [my brother's] not there to remind me or to verify things or to help me get things correct. It's difficult, but it's part of the reason why I wanted to write the book, too.

... I know it sounds trite when I say it, but [the deaths] made me realize that I don't have a lot of time and that I'm not promised tomorrow. I hear that all the time at home, I guess because everyone in my community has lost a young person that they love, you know? So everyone always says that all the time: You're not promised tomorrow; you don't have tomorrow. So it does, it sounds trite, but it's true. It made me feel that I wasn't promised some long life where I would die when I was 60 or 70 or 80 or 90. That's not a given for me, and so it actually brought me to writing.

... When I write about what was happening at the time, in the book, I can certainly see how I was suffering from that mindset too, especially during those years. I was reckless and I did a lot of drugs and I drank a lot and I did stupid things because a part of me despaired at that idea and did think, "What's the point?"

On how she ended up attending private school

My mother worked for a white family that lived in one of the mansions on the beach. The husband in the family was a lawyer; he worked for a firm in New Orleans. So when the lawyer was home my mother would have conversations with him about her kids, of course. And so at the time, in fifth grade, I was dealing with a lot of bullying in the public schools I went to — I went to two public schools that year and I was being bullied. My mother told her employer this and then he asked if she would be interested in sending me to the school that his children went to, which was a private Episcopalian school. She said yes and then he offered to pay for it, to fund it basically, as a scholarship. ... So from sixth grade on I was a student at that private Episcopalian school.

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New Memoir Recounts Black Lives 'Reaped' Too Young

Miami-based Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise operator, reported a third-quarter profit nearly a third lower than a year ago following a series of embarrassing and deadly mishaps involving its ships.

Carnival turned a $934 million profit for the period June through August, down 30 percent from the same quarter in 2012.

The company owns several cruise lines, including Carnival, Holland America, Princess and Costa, whose Costa Concordia liner wrecked on the Tuscan coast last year, killing 32 people. Carnival also has had its share of problems, including fires and power outages at sea that became public relations disasters for the parent company.

Carnival Chairman Micky Arison acknowledged Tuesday that it could take as long as three years for the company's brand and reputation to rebound from the Costa Concordia wreck and other problems.

"There are a lot of great brands that have had setbacks and they've recovered ... but the economic situation in southern Europe isn't helping," Arison said at a news conference Tuesday in London, according to Reuters.

"Costa is already beginning to recover, studies of acceptance suggest it [the brand] has recovered nicely," Arison said, according to the news agency. He added that it would take "two to three years" to get the brand back to where it was.

Arison's comments come a week after the completion of a massive operation to right the capsized Costa Corcordia, which has been lying on its side since the accident on Jan. 12, 2012. The liner's captain is on trial in Italy on charges of manslaughter and abandoning his stricken vessel.

Testifying on Monday, Capt. Francesco Schettino blamed the ship's helmsman for steering the wrong way as he tried unsuccessfully to avoid hitting a reef off the coast of the island of Giglio.

On Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, Schettino got "some support during his trial from an unexpected corner: representatives of the tragedy's many victims."

"' Schettino is the only defendant, but he's not the only one responsible,' said Daniele Bocciolini, a lawyer for several survivors in a civil suit attached to the criminal trial, according to the news agency. 'He's not responsible for the lifeboats that couldn't be launched nor for the emergency generators' that failed."

The question of the day isn't what President Obama will speak about when he addresses the opening session of the U.N. General Assembly shortly after 10 a.m. ET.

Among the subjects he'll address are some rather obvious topics: the crisis in Syria; the Middle East peace process; the terrorist attack on a mall in Kenya; and the West's relations with Iran.

President Obama spoke at a memorial service Sunday to honor the 12 victims of Monday's Navy Yard shootings.

"The tragedy and the pain that brings us here today is extraordinary. It is unique," he said.

But Obama also noted Monday's incident is the fifth mass shooting he has witnessed as president. "Once more, our hearts are broken," he said.

The president said he worried that there is a resignation that these types of tragedies are bound to happen.

"We must insist here today: There is nothing normal about innocent men and women being gunned down where they work," he said.

He called on the nation to address gun violence, saying that resignation sometimes comes from a sense of political stagnation.

"By now, though, it should be clear that the change we need will not come from Washington, even when tragedy strikes Washington. Change will come the only way it ever has come, and that's from the American people," he said.

Before the Sunday afternoon service, the president and first lady Michelle Obama met with families who lost loved ones in Monday's attack. The violence took place less than three blocks away from the Marine barracks in southeast Washington, D.C.

The private memorial was held on the facility's parade grounds, where some 4,000 people attended. Speakers recalled the sense of duty and purpose of the victims, who ranged in age from 46 to 73.

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Early reports from the scene describe a mix of uniformed officers and civilians. Those in attendance included Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Earlier Sunday, gun rights activists took to the morning talk shows to speak against making new attempts to curb Americans' rights to own guns.

The head of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, said that more personnel at military facilities should be armed to try to stop such attacks.

Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press today, LaPierre said that in the case of the Navy Yard shooting, the problem was that too many people at the facility were unarmed.

"All these brave men and women that are trained in firearms, that signed up to serve in the military, they're largely disarmed on our military bases," LaPierre said. He recommended policy changes that would keep more military personnel armed.

"The problem is, there weren't enough good guys with guns," he said. "When the good guys with guns got there, it stopped."

LaPierre has made similar arguments in the past, including after the shootings last December at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

That tragedy, in which school children lost their lives, prompted a push by the president and his allies to change America's gun control laws. But legislation that sprang from the effort failed to get out of the Democratically controlled Senate.

NPR's Liz Halloran noted the uncertainty over the nation's gun laws in a post earlier this week:

"The massacre of 20 school children and six adult school employees at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last December took the nation to a place of horror that it had never visited.

"Yet little has changed since, leaving the political component of the debate in an uneasy state."

Update at 5:27 p.m. ET. President Obama Speaks:

The president made a point of saying this shooting was not "routine," but that it "echoes other recent tragedies." He noted that he has grieved with five communities at mass shootings as president, all of which "occur against a backdrop" of daily shootings.