Books

Author Scott Simon remembers family animals and animals that he has encountered in his travels.

Ben Rhodes was a speechwriter and security adviser for President Obama. His book, All We Say, is a collection of 15 speeches — from Ben Franklin to Trump — about what it means to be American.

The new movie tells a story about how good meteorology can literally win wars. It also takes us back in time, to when the United States was at a disadvantage when it came to weather science.

A painting of George Washington is being used by the Trump administration to argue the founders were devout Christians, but historians have doubts about whether the moment depicted actually happened.

The End of the Sahara is a kaleidoscopic murder mystery by the Algerian writer Saïd Khatibi. An Enigma by the Sea is a witty, socially astute novel set along well-to-do Tuscan coast.

Sedaris says the best part of reading his work to an audience is earning the laughs — or the groans. "A collective groan is fine with me," he says. His new book is The Land and Its People.

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut about his new book, "Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America."

CBS and Paramount backed away from copyright challenges to limit distribution of Stephen Colbert's appearance on a Michigan cable access show. He ended his run as host of "The Late Show" on Thursday.

In the early days, months and years after author Geraldine Brooks' husband Tony Horwitz died, she took care of life's bureaucracy: taxes, medical insurance and household issues. She comforted family and helped her children.

The books had to be light and small enough to fit in servicemen's pockets. The motto of the Council on Books in Wartime was: "Books Are Weapons in the War of Ideas."