Ron Powers "Mark Twain: A Life"

With dozens of biographies of Mark Twain in print, why one more? Journalist Ron Powers answers that question with a highly acclaimed new book about America's best-known author, through which we get a more complete picture of every side of Samuel Clemens. Powers calls his book Mark Twain: A Life.

Denise Nicholas "Freshwater Road"

It's the summer of 1964 in the debut novel by TV actress Denise Nicholas called Freshwater Road. It's hot in Mississippi, and about to get hotter when an idealistic middle class young woman from Detroit arrives on a bus, eager to take her place in Freedom Summer.

Joann Sfar "The Rabbi's Cat"

A companion to an Algerian rabbi falls in love with the rabbi's daughter, but she is in love with someone else. That's the basic storyline in the book by French cartoonist Joann Sfar, a graphic novel for adults called The Rabbi's Cat. Yes, it is a cat -- a talking cat, no less -- who falls in love with the woman he can never have.

Tracy Kidder "My Detachment"

It's not a story of combat and conflict that author Tracy Kidder tells, in his Vietnam memoir My Detachment, because Kidder didn't see that kind of action during his tour of dtuy. As an ROTC intelligence officer, Kidder commanded a small unit whose job was to interpret enemy radio signals. Now Kidder looks back on his experience to try and put it in perspective.

Rita Mae Brown "The Hunt Ball"

A murder stuns an exclusive prep school in Virginia foxhunting country, in Rita Mae Brown's mystery The Hunt Ball. The victim is a very popular faculty member, and among those looking for answers about his murder is Jane "Sister" Arnold, a foxhound master still young in her 70s. In fact there's a sizable cast -- both human and animal -- in this book.

Jennifer Miller "Inheriting the Holy Land"

It's hard to be optimistic about the Middle East, but one of those who is an optimist is Jennifer Miller, daughter of a longtime U.S. State Department negotiator and author of the book Inheriting the Holy Land. Miller's attitude reflects her experience in a group her mother was active in, called Seeds for Peace, as well as her own time spent in the region.

Rick Moody "The Diviners"

Competition for the rights to a TV mini-series fuels the plot of Rick Moody's satire The Diviners. It becomes a hot property, eagerly fought over by producers, studio executives, and actors. But what none of them know is that there is no mini-series. Its existence is an accident, the result of what amounts to a prank gone out of control.

Mick Foley "Scooter"

The Bronx was a borough in decay in the '60s and '70s, and its baseball team, the Yankees, was struggling during that time, too. It's on those tough streets that a young boy named Scooter is growing up, in Mick Foley's novel Scooter. And it's during a World Series game involving, ironically, the Miracle Mets that Scooter's life is changed forever.

Bill Press "How the Republicans Stole Christmas"

Separation of church and state has never been a hotter issue in America, even as the religious right tries to bring God back into government. Liberal commentator Bill Press charges, in fact, that the Republican party is creating a theocracy, and Democrats are standing by and watching it happen. Press calls his book How the Republicans Stole Christmas.

Chris Roberts "Heavy Words Lightly Thrown"

While researching London walking tours, guide and librarian Chris Roberts virtually stumbled onto the true stories behind some of our most cherished children's nursery rhymes. Cutting through generations of misinterpretation, mistranslation, and Victorian sanitizing, Roberts presents the true stories behind Jack and Jill and Humpty Dumpty and the like in his book Heavy Words Lightly Thrown.

Bret Easton Ellis "Lunar Park"

Bret Easton Ellis' book Lunar Park is the story of a writer named, coincidentally, Bret Easton Ellis, who's been up and who's been down, and is now trying to come up again -- until strange spirits haunt his house, and a series of child abductions terrorizes his suburban community. Suddenly, autobiography yields to the supernatural.

Michael Baden & Linda Kenney "Remains Silent"

Michael Baden is seen on TV a lot. So is his wife Linda Kenney. He's a former New York City medical examiner, she's a legal commentator for CNN and Court TV. So naturally, they've teamed up to write a mystery-thriller starring a medical examiner and a powerful lawyer, Remains Silent.

Two remarkable women in the Civil War

Most stories of the Civil War are about men, but there are two new books that focus on two very remarkable women in the Civil War: Widow of the South, a novel by Robert Hicks, and The Mysterious Private Thompson by Laura Leedy Gansler.

Julie Sussman and Stephanie Glakas-Tenet "Dare to Repair Your Car"

Soon after they wrote their home-repair manual Dare to Repair, Julie Sussman and Stephanie Glakas-Tenet began hearing from women who wanted a similar book to show them how to take care of their cars. That's how Dare to Repair Your Car was born.

Salman Rushdie "Shalimar the Clown"

A former U.S. ambassador to India is murdered on his daughter's doorstep in L.A., and then writer Salman Rushdie takes the rest of his novel Shalimar the Clown to explain why. It's a sprawling book that attempts to show how Shalimar, a proud Kashmiri man, is reduced to murder.

Adam Nicolson "Seize the Fire"

Next month Great Britain will mark an important anniversary in its history -- the 200th anniversary of the legendary Battle of Trafalgar, the naval clash with Spain and France. A new book asks how the battle turned into such an overwhelming victory for Britain. Author Adam Nicolson tries to put the battle -- and its hero, Admiral Lord Nelson -- into perspective, in his book Seize the Fire.

Two New Books Shed New Light on American Slavery

Today we meet two authors -- Mary Frances Berry and Andrew Levy -- who have reached into American history to revive the memories of two courageous individuals, each doing their part on behalf of African-American slaves. One of these figures was, herself, born into slavery -- the other was an incredibly wealthy slave owner.

Juris Jurjevics "The Trudeau Vector"

Some arctic research scientists turn up dead under very mysterious circumstances, at about the same time a Russian team arrives in the region to try and locate a sunken nuclear submarine, in the debut thriller by Juris Jurjevics called The Trudeau Vector.

Marcia Talley "This Enemy Town"

In the Stephen Sondheim musical "Sweeney Todd," lots of people meet an untimely demise. But when a mystery writer like Marcia Talley gets involved, there's one more body on stage than the script calls for. Talley's mystery This Enemy Town puts amateur sleuth Hannah Ives on the trail of a killer -- but only if she can stay out of prison herself.

Alan Sears "The ACLU vs America"

The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, calls itself "our nation's guardian of liberty." Since its founding in 1920 the ACLU has very vocally defended civil rights and liberties -- but has also, in the view of one group, become one of the greatest threats to America. The Alliance Defense Fund is headed by former federal prosecutor Alan Sears, who is author of the book The ACLU vs America.

Martha Cooley "Thirty-Three Swoons"

A middle-aged American woman finds her dreams suddenly haunted by her late father, and an obscure and long-dead Russian theater director named Meyerhold, in Martha Cooley's novel Thirty-Three Swoons. It's a multi-layered story of parents and family.

David Silberkleit "A New Adventure Every Day"

Is there enough adventure in your life? Or has timidity and routine taken over and made your life predictable and, well, no fun anymore? It's David Silberkleit to the rescue. For the last several years, he's been an in-demand life coach, a career path he chose after walking away from the family business he was in line to inherit: Archie Comics. His book, meant to inspire all of us to find adventure in our lives, is called A New Adventure Every Day.

Ann Napolitano "Within Arm's Reach"

An unplanned, out of wedlock pregnancy discombobulates an already-borderline extended family, in the debut novel by Ann Napolitano called Within Arm's Reach. Napolitano tells the story from six alternating points of view. Also in this program: THE BOOKCAST remembers the late Bob "Gilligan" Denver.

Three perspectives on the war in Iraq

Three perspectives on the war in Iraq. We'll hear one author tell us how America's Generation-Y mallrats and slackers have turned into some of America's finest heroes. You'll meet a journalist who has taken a critical look at how the Bush administration has used Iraq to redefine war. But first, the female perspective.

Clea Simon "Mew is for Murder"

Freelance journalist Theda Krakow smells a story when she hears about a suspected "cat hoarder," in author Clea Simon's debut mystery Mew is for Murder. When the old woman is found dead -- an accident? murder? -- Theda is on the case, with help from an unexpected source.

Barry Lynn "End of the Line"

Globalization may bring with it a raft of problems we haven't fully considered yet, says former "Global Business" executive editor Barry Lynn. In his book End of the Line he shows how uncontrolled hyperspecialization and just-in-time production and delivery could spell disaster. Forget a terrorist attack -- a small earthquake, flood, or just a fire in a single factory could be devastating.

Judsen Culbreth "The Boomer's Guide to Online Dating"

What do you do if you are suddenly single again, but the last time you asked somebody out on a date was during the Carter administration? They call folks like that "mature daters," and they're the focus of a book aimed at helping them get online to find a date, or a mate. Judsen Culbreth is author of The Boomer's Guide to Online Dating.

Tiffany L. Warren "What A Sista Should Do"

Pam, Yvonne and Taylor are three women united by two things: they all go to the same church, and they're all having some kind of trouble with men. And there is a secret, that once revealed will either drive them apart or bring them much closer. It's in Tiffany L. Warren's debut novel What a Sista Should Do.

Peggy Drexler "Raising Boys Without Men"

A boy raised by a single mom is automatically at a disadvantage in life, no? No, says the author of book called Raising Boys Without Men. Dr. Peggy Drexler, an assistant professor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, says she has found all kinds of mothers-only arrangements in which boys thrived.