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The intricacies of accounting fraud can be confusing, if not dull. But not always. New York Times writer Kurt Eichenwald's new book on corporate deceit and betrayal in the Enron scandal, Conspiracy of Fools, is full of riveting detail. He tells Jennifer Ludden about the reporting process.

The Polish poet, a Nobel Prize winner in 1996, died Wednesday in Krakow, Poland. Szymborska was an ironist who deployed whimsy and a light touch, even when exploring weighty themes. Critic David Orr praises her as a writer of "dry-eyed, athletic precision."

In a new book, historian Harold Holzer explores the carefully calibrated timing and delivery of Lincoln's ultimatum to the rebellious states. Though the proclamation has been criticized as weak, Holzer says that Lincoln did what he had to do to make the order palatable in a perilous time.

When an intern accused author John D'Agata of embellishing the facts in an essay, the two began wrestling over the writer's responsibility to the truth, and even the meaning of truth itself. The Lifespan of a Fact is the real-life record of their debate (or is it?).

In her first broadcast interview in decades, novelist Anne Tyler introduces us to her new book, The Beginner's Goodbye; her Baltimore; and her definition of heaven.

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Mark Greenberg of the Migration Policy Institute about the rise of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the southern border.

Joe Kennedy lectures burping baby Ted on political ambition while teenagers Joe Jr. and John wrestle for the presidency. Cartoonist Kate Beaton irreverently recasts history and classic literature in her new book, Hark! A Vagrant.

Critics originally described it as a "housewife's choice" when it won the Booker Prize in 1987, but the feisty female protagonist in Penelope Lively's Moon Tiger is a "little wife" to no one. Author Moni Mohsin explains why the unexpected verve of this novel is worth its weight in pages.

Jonathan Gottschall is an English professor fed up with academia's ugly jargon. He recommends three books that help writers with their prose. Has a book ever helped you with your composition skills? Tell us about it in the comments.

The Senate will debate a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 bill and aim to pass it using a process that avoids a Republican filibuster. A battle over efforts to raise the minimum wage still splits Democrats.

Johnson & Johnson's vaccine ships this week. It is 66% effective at preventing mild to moderate cases of COVID-19, and 93% effective at keeping people who do get the disease out of the hospital.

An unknown number of people are still without drinking water in Jackson, Miss., after a winter storm two weeks ago. In some areas, service has been restored but they're still under boil water notices.

If Amy Chua's tale of overachievement, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, left you looking for a different image of an Asian-American family, writer Ben Ryder Howe recommends Mother on Fire. Sandra Tsing Loh tells the story of her refreshingly "average" Asian-American family.

English is definitely changing, but whether it's declining or evolving depends on who — ahem, whom — you ask. Writer Robert Lane Greene recommends three books about what it means to speak and write "well" — when the definition of "well" is a moving target.

Swedish author Henning Mankell has become famous for his Kurt Wallander detective stories. Now, he is back with the 11th and possibly last installment, The Troubled Man.

In 2008, the faltering economy sent Starbucks a wake up call. Former CEO Howard Schultz returned to the company's helm, and led the coffee giant in some corporate soul searching. He describes the process in his new book, Onward: How Starbucks Fought For Its Life Without Losing Its Soul.

Writer David Foster Wallace's last work, The Pale King, will be published this month. The book, his editor says, attempts a challenge no novelist has taken on: to write about the boring parts of life.

If you've ever typed Oprah Winfrey and your smartphone texted "orca whale," or said "Your mom and I are going to divorce" instead of "going to Disney," you've been the unfortunate victim of an autocorrect blunder. The author of a new book, Damn You, Autocorrect! shares her favorite mistexts.

In 2008, Robert Mugabe carried out a campaign of violence and terror against the people of Zimbabwe. In The Fear, African journalist Peter Godwin takes on the story, chronicling his travels through the country. Critic Susan J. Gilman says this chilling portrait turns us all into witnesses.

In her new, stunning visual biography, Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout, Lauren Redniss describes (and draws) the marriage and discoveries of the famous scientific couple.

Claude Monet, William Butler Yeats, Giuseppe Verdi and Georgia O'Keeffe created some of their great work late in life. In his new book, Lastingness, Nicholas Delbanco explores the work of creative artists who worked into or past their 70s.

Marable's life work, published just days after his death, casts Malcolm X's legacy in a new light. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention explores the Muslim leader's personal relationships and encourages a re-examination of his assassination.

In Tayari Jones' novel Silver Sparrow, two young girls grow up as secret sisters. They are daughters of the same man, but have different mothers. And just one of them knows that the other exists.

Daily Beast and Newsweek editor Tina Brown highlights a book and a pair of articles that take us through life — from creating it and raising children to growing up an only child to a writer's reflections on his battle with cancer.

Kamila Sidiqi braved Taliban restrictions and an oppressive environment to open a dressmaking shop in her home, eventually employing over 100 women. Journalist Gayle Tzemach Lemmon wrote about Sidiqi's business and social venture in her book, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana..