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January 10, 2013 The celebrated Chicana author swings by to discuss life, literature and the music that moves her.

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January 10, 2013 The nature writer has an essay in January's Harper's Magazine that details the four years of his childhood during which he says he was routinely raped and molested by a family friend.

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On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

January 10, 2013 Will Self's latest book, Umbrella, is a complex and brilliant novel set in a North London psychiatric hospital. Reviewer Annalisa Quinn says it shines a light onto 20th century psychiatry with inventive and dazzling prose.

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January 9, 2013 Susanna Sonnenberg's life has been full of interesting women, and in a new memoir she tells their stories. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer says that She Matters: A Life in Friendships is a beautifully written book about the bonds, and the boundary issues, between women.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

January 9, 2013 Alan Cheuse reviews a new collection of novellas by Jim Harrison, whom he calls "the reigning master of the form." Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall, is back with his sixth book of novellas, focusing on men in different stages of life.

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January 9, 2013 Blanco, a first-generation Cuban-American, says he identifies with the theme of the inauguration: Our People, Our Future. He is the fifth poet to take part in a U.S. presidential inauguration, and also the youngest. He says being selected was a "great honor."

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

January 9, 2013 Tales of Machiavellian office politics are all the rage in China, where "bureaucracy lit" is flying off bookstore shelves. The books are read as both entertainment and as how-to guides for aspiring civil servants. Pioneers of the genre offer a path to success in China's corridors of power.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

January 8, 2013 In a new book, Civil War historian Bruce Levine says that from the destruction of the South emerged an entirely new country, making the Civil War equivalent to a second American Revolution. Integral to the Union's victory, he says, were the nearly 200,000 black soldiers who enlisted.

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On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

January 8, 2013 In his new collection, Tenth of December, short-story master George Saunders' quirky blend of dystopian fiction and dark satire is tempered by a new gravity. Critic Michael Schaub calls the book Saunders' best yet, filled with stories that are "as weird, scary and devastating as America itself."

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