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In Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, the best-selling author writes about a 13-year-old amateur attorney. Grisham says writing his first book for young readers was a challenge because he didn't want to talk down to his audience. He tells NPR's Michele Norris that kids are "a tougher crowd" than adults.

The black vote is key in presidential elections, and candidates turn to black ministers for support. But one of the most powerful black preachers in the country says that, for him, the pulpit is not the place for endorsements. Bishop T.D. Jakes talks to Michele Norris about religion and politics.

The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Sweet is anything but sweet. In Jamaica Kincaid's first new novel in 10 years, she traces the unraveling of a marriage. See Now Then follows the joy, pain and destruction that time can wreak on a union.

A handful of airlines are introducing onboard Internet access, letting passengers surf the Web and check their e-mail — for a fee. For the airlines, it's a much-needed source of revenue. For some business travelers, it's a way to stay productive in the air. But critics have raised concerns about security and privacy. Commentator Eric Weiner also is worried — for different reasons.

According to author Elizabeth Berg, Beat This! is more than just a cookbook — it's a humor book, a self-help book and a kind of bible.

When author Simon Van Booy looks to puncture the solitude of writing life, he reaches for George, Being George, the oral biography of George Plimpton. Based on hundreds of interviews with his intimates and colleagues, the portrait of Plimpton reveals the richness and flavor of life that the actor and writer knew how to capture so well in his own work.

Author Helen Simonson risks her literary pretensions to admit a lifelong secret attraction to the Regency romance novels of Georgette Heyer. The dampened muslin dresses, the highly polished boots — for her, nothing beats these tales of heroines who require a man with a firm hand on the bridle.

It is perhaps stating the obvious to say that there is almost no money to be made in poetry. Some poets work as teachers, others in the corporate world. And even a Pulitzer Prize-winning former U.S. poet laureate needs a day job.

The clash between science and religious belief lies at the heart of Sarah Perry's new novel, set in a marshy, windswept English town menaced by a serpentine monster that may or may not truly exist.

Time and Again spans time, finds mystery, delves into Science-Fiction, grounds itself in Einstein's theories and ultimately, settles into romance fantasy. So what's the problem? Author Susan Jane Gilman explains her guilty addiction to this cult pop thriller.

Native-Americans have been influential in the U.S. military for more than 200 years. They assisted George Washington, served during the War of 1812 and have continued to defend the country into the 21st century.

In an online letter a day after James broke his scoring record, Abdul-Jabbar blamed himself for the contentious relationship between them, citing his own introversion and a significant age gap.

Trieste Belmont says small kindnesses can be more powerful than we realize.

"Death metal really does come from the heart," says The Mountain Goats frontman and author of Wolf In White Van. In Durham, he plays "The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton."

In Taiye Selasi's debut novel, members of the Sai family have trouble assimilating both in the United States and while in Ghana for the patriarch's funeral. Host Michel Martin speaks with Selasi about her novel and the immigrant experience.

Kim Thuy based her award-winning novel Ru on her own experiences as a refugee from war-torn Vietnam. She says the word "ru" has a poetic double meaning: In archaic French, it means a rill or stream, but in Vietnamese, it means a lullaby to soothe a child.

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald wed in 1920, and the two went on to have a famously turbulent literary marriage. Would Zelda have been better off without her husband? Novelist Therese Anne Fowler says, "They were two sides of one coin."

MK Asante grew up in in north Philadelphia or as he calls it, "Killadelphia." In his new memoir, Buck, he details how he went from a drug dealing delinquent to becoming a poet and professor. Host Michel Martin talks to Asante about why he turned his life around.

Robert Gordon's new book explores the tragedy and triumphs of one of the most unlikely soul labels, an integrated business that produced hits such as Sam and Dave's "Hold On, I'm Coming" and Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness."

What should high schoolers know to be successful and debt-free?

From the Bronx, Pacheco was previously named New York City youth poet laureate and the inaugural New York state youth poet laureate.

The county's health director says the order can help lessen the stress on health care workers and assets, such as ICUs and ventilators.

Ring in the New Year with electric live performances by Hiromi, Red Baraat, Jonathan Scales Fourchestra and Lizz Wright.

The grandest expression of the world's population growth is the word "megacity." In them, people and ideas clash: The ancient collides with the modern; secular with religious; global with local. In Karachi, Pakistan, those forces can be seen in the story of a single piece of real estate.

For nearly a century, Daniel Woodrell's hometown of West Plains, Mo., has been haunted by a dance-hall explosion that killed dozens of the town's young people in 1928. Woodrell explores the disaster — and his Ozarks roots — in his new novel The Maid's Version.