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November 19, 2012 Novelist Richard Mason explores belle epoque pleasures, biographer Jean Baker champions sex educator Margaret Sanger, journalist A.J. Jacobs gets healthy, comedian Bill Cosby outsmarts his grandkids, and writer Geoff Dyer takes on filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.

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November 19, 2012 What did Jesus look like? In their new book, The Color of Christ, Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey explore how different groups have claimed Jesus as their own — and how depictions of Jesus have both inspired civil rights crusades, and been used to justify the violence of white supremacists.

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On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

November 19, 2012 As Thanksgiving draws near, many of us are thinking about what we're thankful for. Novelist and memoirist Anne Lamott says she is filled with "wonder at the just sheer beauty of creation." She discusses her new book, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

November 18, 2012 Athanasius Kircher, a 17th-century Jesuit priest, was a renaissance man in name and deed. He strove to learn about almost everything. Unfortunately, many of his inventions and theories were pure nonsense. John Glassie writes about Kircher in his new book, A Man of Misconceptions.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

November 18, 2012 Insert $2 into the Biblio-Mat, and customers get a mystery, a biography, historical fiction — or a dud. The owner of a bookstore in Toronto came up with the machine as a way to clear his shelves of more ill-favored reads.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

November 18, 2012 Americans own an estimated 300 million guns, and the debate surrounding that ownership has long been a charged one. In Living With Guns, Craig Whitney explores areas where opposing sides might find common ground, and even compromise.

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On Weekend Edition SundayPlaylist

November 18, 2012 The 79-year-old country singer has done a lot of living, and he's written about it more than once. His latest memoir takes a different tack, collecting his thoughts from long stretches on his tour bus.

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On Weekend Edition SundayPlaylist

November 18, 2012 As diagnoses of autism have risen, so too have autistic characters in literature. Tasha Robinson explains how an "intelligent outsider's view of humanity" has led to a growing number of autistic characters in young adult fiction.

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November 17, 2012 City planner Jeff Speck says walking will remain a choice in most American cities for years to come, but that it's important to incentivize pedestrians. In his book, Walkable City, Speck says urban walks have to be useful, safe, comfortable and interesting.

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On Weekend Edition SaturdayPlaylist

November 16, 2012 Novelist Richard Russo's new memoir, Elsewhere, is the uncompromisingly tragic — yet beautifully told — story of his relationship with his mentally ill mother. Reviewer Michael Schaub calls it "one of the most honest, moving American memoirs in years."

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

November 16, 2012 Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior takes a stand on climate change. It debuts at No. 1.

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