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  • Enticing teens to read of their own free will during the one time of year they're not locked up in school is a daunting task. Here are a few books that can steal even the most reluctant readers away from Guitar Hero — if only for a few hours.
  • Diana Abu-Jaber admits that she used to think of mysteries and thrillers as "silly summertime reading, all about suspense and action." But, she says, not all thrillers are cut from the same cloth. She presents her list of smart murder mysteries.
  • Harvard Law professor returns to Fresh Air to talk about how credit-card debt is becoming more costly due to increased fees and interest rates. Warren is a bankruptcy expert and an outspoken critic of abusive lending practices.
  • Traditional baby products have skyrocketed in price, with some strollers and cribs retailing for thousands of dollars. Pamela Paul's new book, Parenting Inc, describes how companies convince parents to pay so much for baby goods that end up cluttering their homes.
  • In 1960, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy asked the nation to disregard his religion; in 2000, George W. Bush stated Jesus was his favorite philosopher. How did faith become such an important criterion for the presidency? Religion professor and evangelical newspaper columnist Randall Balmer explains.
  • What's Valentine's Day without chocolate — or better yet, rich, moist chocolate cake? Food writer Nigella Lawson and Steve Inskeep discuss the keys to the perfect chocolate cake and the secrets to chocolate's allure.
  • Former Russian master spy Sergei Tretyakov and journalist Pete Earley reveal secrets of espionage in America after the fall of the Soviet Union. Tretyakov ran Russia's post-Cold War spy program — but also worked as a double agent with the FBI before his defection in 2000.
  • Author Junot Diaz won a Pulitzer Prize this year for his first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Set in both the United States and the Dominican Republic, the novel explores the complexities of living in two cultures at once, with prose that frequently mixes Spanish and English in the same sentence.
  • Author Steve Coll details the complicated family history of Osama bin Laden, one of 54 children born to Mohamed bin Laden. The elder bin Laden transformed himself from an illiterate bricklayer into an immensely wealthy and powerful businessman.
  • In a new anthology of baseball essays, sportswriter Stefan Fatsis celebrates his beloved, 31-year-old baseball glove. He talks to Robert Siegel about how he set out to find out about his mitt's history and what he learned along the way.
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