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Weapons expert Joseph Cirincione's new book is Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons. He talks about how nuclear threats will evolve in coming years.

Blackwater USA is a secretive private army based in North Carolina with a sole owner: Erik Prince, a right-wing Christian multimillionaire. Jeremy Scahill talks about his book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren is an expert on bankruptcy and is an outspoken critic of consumer lenders. Warren is also the author of The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke.

Danielle Trussoni's just-published memoir is Falling Through the Earth. In the book, Trussoni explores the damaging legacy of her father's military service in Vietnam. Book critic Maureen Corrigan says the memoir is also an unusual testament to the father-daughter bond.

The political left needs a hero, and Upton Sinclair just keeps getting resurrected for the job in Chris Bachelder's bizarre and hilarious novel U.S.!. Bachelder talks about his second novel with Susan Stamberg.

Robert Siegel talks with Tom Reiss, author of The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life. Reiss' book details the life of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew from Baku, Azerbaijan, who passed himself off as a Muslim prince in Nazi Germany.

The new novel Thirty-Three Swoons by Martha Cooley is a detailed intrigue set in Manhattan, interweaving the worlds of theatre and the perfume industry. Cooley's previous work includes The Archivist. Book critic Maureen Corrigan has a review.

Darrell Mease, a convicted murderer, was scheduled to die in Missouri when his prayers were answered. Pope John Paul II won Mease, a Christian convert, a commutation of his death sentence during a 1999 Missouri visit.

Comic Rita Rudner sets a humorous mystery novel, Turning the Tables, in Las Vegas, where she is a regular performer. The book is set in a spectacular casino called Heaven, guarded by St. Peters with Glocks beneath their wings.

Author and journalist Vijay Vaitheeswaran discusses the relative merits of alternative energy sources. He says spending on hybrid cars is an investment in the future, more than a way to save money now. Vaitheeswaran also says there are parts of the country where solar is price competitive with fossil fuels.