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November 26, 2012 Hilary Mantel is the first woman to win the Man Booker Prize twice, first for her 2009 novel, Wolf Hall, and now for that book's 2012 sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. The novels are part of a historical fiction trilogy about Tudor England and the events surrounding the reign of King Henry VIII.

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On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

November 26, 2012 The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You may be more than 15,000 lines of almost entirely unpunctuated poetry, but author Steve Stern says this Southern gothic fun house is so bewitching you'll have to finish it. Do you have a favorite impossible book? Tell us in the comments.

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November 26, 2012 Just before her 30th birthday, Ellen Forney received a diagnosis that finally explained her super-charged highs and debilitating lows: bipolar disorder. In Marbles, a new graphic memoir, Forney recalls both the pain and the humor of her path to stability.

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November 25, 2012 The momentous life of Pulitzer Prize winner William Styron is now chronicled in more than 1,000 of his letters compiled by his widow, Rose Styron. The collection is called, Selected Letters of William Styron.

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November 25, 2012 For his new book, archivist Todd Andrlik tracked down 18th century newspapers to provide a sense of the Revolution as it actually unfolded. Andrlik says the newspapers preserve things that didn't make it into history textbooks — like the fact that the Boston Tea Party was not universally popular.

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On Weekend Edition SundayPlaylist

November 24, 2012 Growing up blond-haired and blue-eyed in Southern California, Joe Mozingo always thought his family name was Italian. In his book Fiddler on Pantico Run, he tells the family's secret, buried in 300 years of American history.

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November 24, 2012 The author of the widely acclaimed Same Difference returns with a new graphic novel. An engaging tale of disaffected 20-somethings, Tune will feel familiar to fans of Kim's earlier work. Maybe a little too familiar — until the aliens arrive.

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November 24, 2012 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.

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On Weekend Edition SaturdayPlaylist

November 23, 2012 Talking about Jews in sports touches a "very central place in the Jewish psyche," says Franklin Foer. He and co-editor Marc Tracy have compiled an "unorthodox hall of fame" celebrating Jewish contributions to American athletics.

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November 22, 2012 In A History of the World in Twelve Maps, Jerry Brotton examines the construction of a dozen world maps throughout history, and argues that world maps are no more objective today than they were thousands of years ago.

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On Talk of the NationPlaylist

November 22, 2012 Musician Michael Feinstein chronicles his experience working as an archivist and cataloger for legendary songwriter Ira Gershwin. The book is presented through the stories of 12 of the Gershwin brothers' songs, including "Fascinating Rhythm," "The Man I Love" and "I Got Rhythm."

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On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

November 22, 2012 According to poet Kevin Young, the best poems are like the best meals — they're made from scratch. Young has edited a new collection of poems that celebrate the pleasures of food, from "butter disappearing into whipped sweet potatoes" to oysters that taste like "starlight."

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