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Timothy Egan is the author of the book The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. Now out in paperback, the book was awarded the National Book Award for nonfiction. Egan is a national enterprise reporter for the New York Times, and was part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for a series on race in America.

TV and film director John Rich has directed some of the most well-known shows in TV history, including The Dick Van Dyke Show, Gunsmoke, All In the Family, Barney Miller Good Times and Newhart. His film credits include Wives and Lovers and Roustabout starring Elvis Presley. Rich's new memoir is Warm Up the Snake: A Hollywood Memoir.

Many young people in Japan have become hermits — retreating into worlds that consist of little more than their rooms. And that's difficult for families. Michele Norris talks with Michael Zielenziger, author of Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation.

President Thomas Jefferson once said, "If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?" — a line that British comedy writers John Lloyd and John Mitchinson co-opted for the title of their new anthology of quotations.

Forty years ago, Joel Rosenman and John Roberts were in their 20s when they came into a large inheritance. They decided to take the money and promote a rock concert in upstate New York — an event that later became known as Woodstock.

When the stock market crashed, writer Lizzie Skurnick turned to her childhood bookcase, where she found a bunch of girls who learned to survive life's downsizing. Here are three heroines whose belt-tightening serves as great advice.

Best-selling writer Jon Krakauer turns from mountains to Mormons in his latest book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, which attempts to link violence among non-Mormon polygamists to Mormon beliefs and history. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints rejects Krakauer's premise. NPR's Howard Berkes reports.

NPR's Liane Hansen talks with historian Karen Liebreich about her new book Fallen Order. Lieberich's unprecedented access to the Vatican's Secret Archives brings to life a sexual abuse scandal that surrounded the Catholic Church's Patron Saint of Education over 400 years ago.

Republican pollster Frank Luntz advises politicians on the language they should use to win elections and promote their policies. Although he works on one side of the aisle, he says that what he does is essentially nonpartisan, seeking clarity and simplicity in language. His critics disagree, and have accused him of using language that misrepresents policies to "sell" them to the public. Frank Luntz is the author of Words That Work.

Famous writers and their drinks are inseparable, despite the price some paid for the vice. Hemingway & Bailey's Bartending Guide delves into the drinking habits of America's top writers to reveal their favorite cocktails. Steve Inskeep talks with author Mark Bailey and illustrator Edward Hemingway, the great writer's grandson.