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Author Ben Fountain's debut novel, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, is the story of what happens to a 19-year-old college dropout after he joins Bravo Company in the early years of the Iraq war.

When she needs inspiration for writing about the natural world, author Lucinda Fleeson opens Henry Beston's 1929 classic: The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod.

Novelist Zoe Heller has a soft spot for selfish characters. But, the author says, just because her characters are unlikable, doesn't mean they are without virtue. Her new novel, The Believers, uncovers a tangled web of secrets inside a lefty New York family.

Chris Onstad's web-comic Achewood may be modeled on stuffed animals, but it's anything but cuddly. The new print compilation of the strip highlights The Great Outdoor Fight — featuring three days, three acres and 3,000 men.

Jonathan Raban remembers his first encounter with the aging, aimless socialites of Evelyn Waugh's Put Out More Flags, a novel of cocktails, clandestine affairs and the looming threat of World War II.

Driving his Chevrolet Nova up and down Highway 61 in Mississippi, William Ferris stopped at churches and juke joints and penitentiaries to record the music he found. In his new book, Give My Poor Heart Ease, Ferris explores the legacy of the "The Blues Highway."

Comedian Bill Maher's new book contains heartfelt essays about the condition of our country. There are also some rules — for things like typography, warning signs and lamp cords.

In Susan Barker's novel, a few strange letters bloom into a saga of two souls' reincarnations. Barker says her characters' many lives gave her an instrument to explore China — both past and present.

Whether it's a year of big losses or big profits, most companies still manage to hold a holiday party for employees. A Silicon Valley businessman offers some advice on avoiding the pitfalls of the season.

Stephenie Meyer, author of the best-selling young adult series Twilight, has written her first adult book. The Host is a science fiction romance about two woman — one an alien from outer space — who inhabit the same body and are in love with the same man.

Author Karen Russell talks to All Things Considered co-host Melissa Block about her eclectic literary tastes, life in the Everglades and other influences for her debut novel, Swamplandia! — about a gator-wrestling, theme-park-owning family

Fran Ross' Oreo is an uproarious look at American identity, through the eyes of a biracial girl. The funny, poignant novel was largely ignored when it was published in 1974 — but writer Mat Johnson says the time for the quirky novel is now.

In James' Portrait of a Lady, Isabel Archer is wise enough to understand that if you're not happy without a man, you certainly won't be happy with one. Writer Rhoda Janzen loves the book because it shows what a woman does once she acknowledges her own complicity in the life she has chosen.

If David Lipsky had to give an alien one book about American life, it would be David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster, a collection of essays that are "experiential postcards." Lipsky is the author of Absolutely American : Four Years at West Point.

Blacksmith Angelo Garro forges and forages, recreating in wrought iron and in cooking the life he left behind in Sicily. The Kitchen Sisters join Garro along the coast of Northern California as he follows the seasons, harvesting the wild for his kitchen.

There's a little thing author Jeffrey Eugenides does when he can't write. When he's feeling sleepy, when his head is in a fog, he reaches across his desk, digs under the piles of unanswered mail, and unearths his copy of Herzog by Saul Bellow.

The belle epoque was not particularly belle if you were poor and female — like the young girl who modeled for Edgar Degas' famous sculpture, The Little Dancer, Aged 14. A new novel by Cathy Marie Buchanan tells the story of that girl, ballet student Marie van Goethem.

Southwest Airlines says disruptions that led to more than 16,700 cancelled flights over the holidays will have severe financial consequences for the company.

Nearly 20 years ago, Jeff Fister was in a car accident with one of his kids. They were shaken but not injured. Fister still remembers how one woman emerged from the crowd and helped soothe the child.

Arianna Huffington says we're in the midst of a sleep deprivation crisis and that Donald Trump really shouldn't be bragging about needing only four hours of sleep a night.

For some, scars aren't just Halloween costumes. One activist asks us to think twice before using them.

On the 150th anniversary of the nation's highest military honor, two recipients share their stories. While badly wounded and under heavy fire, recalls one Vietnam War veteran, "what goes through your mind is the understanding that if you don't do something ... then everything is lost."

Lauryn Valladarez was five months pregnant and watching her fiancé start to struggle in the ocean. That's when she started to panic.

When Ben Gomes got a call saying his mother was badly injured, he feared the worst. But when he arrived at the hospital, he learned how a stranger's quick thinking had saved her.

As Teresa Hernandez was about to go into preterm labor, she had a panic attack. The nurse put her hand on Hernandez's head to comfort her. She says she felt as if her mom was there.