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This week's Summer Reader segment calls on Carolyn Hax for her advice on what to read this summer. Hax makes a living off her advice, writing The Washington Post's nationally syndicated column "Tell Me About It."

Graphic designer Nigel Holmes creates pictorial explanations of the mundane and the offbeat: Pouring a beer, changing a tire... perhaps performing a facelift. Some of his favorites are in a book called Wordless Diagrams.

Leading Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari is named Iraq's transitional prime minister. A religious conservative, Jaafari is also known for his political pragmatism. Also, President Jalal Talabani and his two vice presidents are sworn in.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews two new novels set in Cuba: Dirty Blonde and Half-Cuban, the debut novel by Lisa Wixon, and Adios Hemingway by Cuban writer Leonardo Padura Fuentes. Translated by John King, Adios Hemingway is the latest in Fuentes' award-winning Inspector Mario Conde mysteries.

Historian and theologian Arthur Green has long studied Jewish religion and culture. Author of many books, his latest is A Guide to the Zohar, an overview of modern studies of kabbalah's origins.

World War II paratrooper Joe Beyrle died this week at the age of 81. He has the distinction of being the only soldier in that conflict to fight for both the American and Russian armies. Hear Beyrle's biographer, Thomas Taylor, and NPR's Scott Simon.

Author Barry Yourgrau offers children cruel, twisted and shockingly mischievous cautionary tales in NastyBook. The tales present an up-to-date twist on the monstrous tradition of fabulists from Aesop to Hans Christian Andersen.

British writer Mark Haddon's first novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, brought him critical and popular acclaim. He follows up with A Spot of Bother.

John Updike has made a career out of chronicling American culture. In his new novel, Terrorist, he tells the story of a young Muslim who is repelled by it.

Actress, activist and exercise guru Jane Fonda discusses the three things she's most famous for: her films, her husbands and her politics. Her new autobiography, My Life So Far, has just been published.