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Book reviewer Alan Cheuse selects the highlights of this holiday season: futuristic dystopias; things that go bump in the night; portraits from Norman Rockwell's America; gay New York; a celebration of our immigrant adventures; one writer's journey to manhood; and, of course, Long John Silver.

Hal Needham worked as a Hollywood stuntman for over 40 years. He details some of his most death-defying feats (and why he can't stand modern special effects) in his new memoir, Stuntman!

Hisham Matar fled Libya in the 1970s as a 9-year-old boy. This week, he releases his debut novel, In the Country of Men, a story told through the eyes of a Libyan boy. Like Matar, the boy's father is a political dissident hunted down by the Libyan government.

This week marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Primo Levi, an Italian writer whose accounts of the death camp at Auschwitz are among the most admired examples of Holocaust literature. A new collection of his short stories — published for the first time in English translation — has just come out under the title A Tranquil Star.

Jonathan Franzen's new novel Freedom has been called "a masterpiece" by Time Magazine and has received rave reviews from critics. Franzen talks about the runaway success of his previous novel The Corrections, and the strong reaction elicited by Freedom.

All aboard, armchair travelers! In Book Lust to Go, our go-to librarian shares her favorite accounts of intrepid exploration and fiction from faraway lands.

The former boxing champ won world titles in five weight divisions and received a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics. In his new autobiography, The Big Fight, Leonard details the obstacles he battled — including sexual abuse and addictions — during his career.

William Dodd served for four years as the ambassador to Germany before resigning — after repeated clashes with both Nazi Party officials and the State Department. Erik Larson chronicles Dodd's time in Berlin in his new book, In the Garden of Beasts.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with writer and audiobook narrator Julia Whelan about what it was like bringing her own profession to the pages of her new novel Thank You For Listening.

Benjamin Franklin first called for the government to tinker with clock hours in the 1780s. But it wasn't until World War I that the U.S. adopted daylight-saving time as a way to squeeze more out of the day. David Prerau explores the curious history of DST.