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Where did Lear get the confidence to spend three years fighting to get All In The Family on air? His answer: "Can you say 'beats the **** out of me' on NPR?"

Marisa Silver's new novel imagines the meeting of a Depression-era photographer and her now-iconic subject. Giving the characters different names but similar stories to their real-life counterparts, Silver tackles big questions about the morality of art.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says the United States should overhaul its laws to make immigration easier and to give illegal immigrants a way to legal residence, not citizenship. He says granting citizenship would provide an incentive for others to come to the U.S. illegally.

James Salter is a master prose stylist whose deceptively simple sentences reveal the sensations and truth of experience. In All That Is, he conjures the life and times of Philip Bowman, who, returning to New York after World War II, pursues love and a publishing career, with unequal success.

Michael Chabon's new novel, set on the border between Berkeley and Oakland, Calif., takes stylistic cues from jazz, soul and funk music. It's formally playful, and even when it misses the mark, it's still satisfying to watch Chabon work, says NPR critic Glen Weldon.

The University of Colorado's new football coach Deion Sanders is turning the program from notorious basement dweller to the hottest ticket in the NCAA. Fans are excited and UC is raking in millions.

How much do the people who've made it owe to the people who've been left behind? That question is at the heart of Zadie Smith's new novel NW, a nuanced and disturbing look at class issues in a working-class northwest London neighborhood.

In Jeff Lemire's latest graphic novel, Jack Joseph maintains an oil rig off the same Nova Scotia coast where his father vanished decades before. The mysterious disappearance plagues Joseph, as past collides with present in this beautifully illustrated work.

Iraqi authorities are investigating an apparent attempt to burn down the headquarters of the Iraqi Transitional Government, situated in the heavily guarded Green Zone. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Jaafari announced a new national security plan.

Human rights violations continue in Sri Lanka despite the end of the war: 250,000 Tamils are still incarcerated. In the last week, a journalist has been jailed for 20 years of hard labor, a U.N. official has been expelled for criticizing the government, and a dispute has broken out over TV footage broadcast on television that purports to show a Sri Lankan soldier executing Tamils.

Author Max Brooks is out now with the final entry of his Minecraft series for kids. Brooks says Minecraft is a great way to teach kids about preparedness and adaptation.

Record deals with all three unionized automakers means a historic 6-week strike is ending — for now. The deals still need to be ratified by members, who could choose to go back to the table.

Led by a celebrated Yazidi fighter, a small band of Kurdish peshmerga survived a months-long ISIS onslaught. Unlike others in Syria and Iraq, this sacred place still stands, nearly unscathed.

When writer Lynn Darling found herself at a turning point in her life, she sought solitude and enlightenment in the woods of Vermont. Her new memoir, Out of the Woods, describes that midlife experience. Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan calls it "a compelling story of internal exploration, as well as outward-bound adventure."

RASL collects all 15 issues of Jeff Smith's comic of the same name, about a time-jumping physicist-turned-art-thief who knows more than is good for him about interdimensional travel. Reviewer Etelka Lehoczky says RASL's female characters can be a little one-dimensional, but overall the book is full of surprises.

Andrew Hudgins is a prominent poet, but what he'd really rather be doing is telling jokes — the more daring, the better. His new memoir, The Joker, explores the way uncomfortable and taboo jokes create learning and communication, and the important role they've played in his life.

Who was Pat Nixon? Aside from being the wife of President Richard Nixon — and a very private person — she remains mostly a mystery. Now, a new novel by Ann Beattie blends fact and fiction in an effort to sketch the life of the former first lady.

Edward St. Aubyn is no stranger to losing out on awards. In 2006 his novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker. But in 2011 he didn't even make the longlist. Now he's getting his revenge.

Loosely structured as a stroll through New York City, Roger Rosenblatt's memoir includes playful, endearing anecdotes from his childhood in Gramercy Park. But critic Heller McAlpin notes that his rambling riffs and excruciatingly slow pace make it a difficult read.

Alena, a reworking of Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca, takes place in the contemporary art world, while The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles is a "delicious French romp." Critic Maureen Corrigan says both novels are "exquisite vehicles of escape fiction."