Fiction

November 18, 2009 Crime writer Randy Wayne White spent 13 years as a tackle fishing guide before he began to probe the mysteries of southwest Florida. White is best known for his series of crime novels featuring Doc Ford, an NSA agent turned marine biologist living on Florida's Gulf Coast.

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On Talk of the NationPlaylist

November 17, 2009 The history of literature is filled with authors who also performed surgery or scribbled prescriptions. Lynn Neary speaks with two doctors who are also fiction writers — Abraham Verghese and Terrence Holt — about the link between medicine and writing literature.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

November 17, 2009 This week's staff picks: Biographies from bad-boy Andre Agassi and 'Rogue' politician Sarah Palin. Stephen King returns to form in a new novel, Zadie Smith fascinates in collected essays, and science writer Nicholas Wade argues that God is just an evolutionary adaptation.

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November 16, 2009 Writer Kevin Baker says he never thought he'd be "hip enough" to venture into graphic novels. But with illustrator Danijel Zezelj, he has created Luna Park — a ghostly graphic novel set in the decaying amusement parks of Coney Island. It profiles a Russian immigrant plagued by nightmares of the Chechen War.

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On Talk of the NationPlaylist

November 13, 2009 Topping the list: Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna, Kathryn Stockett's The Help and Dan Brown's Lost Symbol. And making their list debut: John Grisham's Ford County and Kurt Vonnegut's Look at the Birdie.

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November 9, 2009 Writer Barbara Kingsolver is fascinated by the tension inherent in living on the border between two cultures. Her latest novel, The Lacuna, tells the story of a young man born of a Mexican mother and an American father.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist