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"For safety reasons we need to know the weight of all items onboard the aircraft," Air New Zealand says. Numbers from the scales won't be displayed and will remain anonymous, the airline says.

From excessive hygiene to low-fiber diets, author Theresa MacPhail explores the deep-rooted causes of rising allergy rates in her new book Allergic.

Former President George W. Bush sits down with host David Greene to discuss his new book, 41, a biography of his father and fellow former President George H.W. Bush.

Some companies are helping their employees become more creative and increasing their productivity, says science writer Jonah Lehrer in his new book, Imagine.

Bret Anthony Johnston's novel starts with a boy being found years after he was kidnapped. Johnston wanted to explore the question, "How do you relate to each other after the worst has happened?"

Scott Weems' book HA! explores the science of when we laugh and why. He describes the part of your brain that's active when you laugh, and the controversy over whether ducks are funnier than chickens.

Animals are smarter than you think and our place in the world is not as secure as you might imagine. In fact, authors Karen Joy Fowler and Jeff VanderMeer say we're living on an alien planet.

Michael Benedikt was an exemplary poet, a dedicated editor and an agoraphobic recluse. His work was almost lost forever — until two poets rescued his archive and published a selection, Time is a Toy.

In China's Second Continent, Howard French explores the Chinese presence in 15 African countries. The relationship goes beyond economics: more than a million Chinese citizens have migrated to Africa.

Blanco, who read his poem "One Today" at Obama's second inauguration, is the first immigrant, Latino and openly gay poet chosen to read at an inauguration.

When Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie moved from Nigeria to the U.S., she was suddenly confronted with what it meant to be a person of color in America. Her novel explores race in contemporary America.

With intricately composed photographs, designer Dinah Fried puts readers at the table for 50 of her favorite literary spreads. Her new book is called Fictitious Dishes.

A new volume of Robert Frost's collected, unexpurgated letters reveals that the poet thought a great deal about how people read him — and was hurt when his modernist friends didn't approve of his raw, sincere style. Reviewer J.P. O'Malley says the collection gives readers greater insight into Frost the poet and Frost the man.

Virginia furniture owner John Bassett III was determined to beat out foreign competitors. Author Beth Macy documents him, and the collapse of the U.S. furniture industry, in her new book, Factory Man.

American Muslim author Haroon Moghul was bound and determined to go to his high school prom — and he wrote about it for the new essay collection, Salaam, Love: American Muslim Men on Love, Sex and Intimacy. Moghul tells NPR's Rachel Martin that he thought the experience might help him understand himself better.

Two new books consider the complicated world of bees: Laline Paull's debut novel The Bees imagines humble worker bee's hive adventures, and A Sting in the Tale considers focuses on the bumblebee.

Mary Rickert's new magical realist novel stars women often pushed to the edges of narrative: the elderly. Reviewer Amal El-Mohtar calls it a lovely, uplifting book of friendship, sadness and healing.

Over the past 30 years, the growing divide between rich and poor has become an American crisis, Timothy Noah writes in his latest book. The Great Divergence is part descriptive, laying out shifting economic trends, and part prescriptive, offering several solutions to help ease the crisis.

The popular MSNBC host talks about her start in broadcasting, her life and her new book Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, in which she argues that America's national defense has become disconnected from public oversight.

On the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, journalist Aaron Glantz talks about the challenges American service members face in accessing disability and other benefits. Glantz says there is a backlog of 900,000 claims and that the average waiting period is 273 days.

In a new memoir, Grace Coddington explains how she grew up on a remote island off the coast of Wales, started modeling as a young woman and ended up as creative director at Vogue magazine. Coddington speaks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about her life in the fashion industry.

Cartoonist Ellen Forney documents her bipolar disorder in Marbles, a graphic memoir that sustains its honesty and humor through both manic and depressive phases. No matter what she's experiencing, Forney wants you to be there with her — and chances are you'll want to be there, too.

President Obama has been re-elected. Democrats and Republicans have maintained their respective majorities in the Senate and in the House. So does this mean there will be more partisan gridlock? Fresh Air talks with political analyst Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute.

Criminologist David M. Kennedy's strategy for reducing gang violence has dramatically reduced youth homicide rates nationwide. In his new memoir, Don't Shoot, Kennedy outlines how community meetings and interventions have worked to curb youth violence in more than 70 cities.

Most Americans think of the bow and arrow as a tool for hunting or sports. But writer and craftsman Joseph Marshall III has always seen the bow and arrow as a source of spiritual guidance. For Native American Heritage Month, host Michel Martin speaks with Marshall about his book The Lakota Way of Strength and Courage.