NPR Staff

In the 1940s, U.S. publishers printed paperbacks — everything from romances to Westerns — that were designed for battle. Molly Guptill Manning explores their history in When Books Went to War.

Cary Raditz, 68, gives his side of the story behind Joni Mitchell's 1972 song about him.

Strong Inside tells the story of the first black player in college basketball's Southeastern Conference. Wallace says the hard work of integration is "a gritty, dirty, ugly business."

The new book The Professor and the President looks back at how Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan pushed the Nixon White House to embrace a relatively liberal plan.

Global olive oil production is down. Italian groves have been especially hard hit by a disease that killed 1 million trees. Audie Cornish speaks with Curtis Cord, publisher of the Olive Oil Times.

NPR Music's Stephen Thompson highlights an eclectic cross-section of 2014's holiday-music offerings.

Katherine Paterson describes the inspiration behind her best-known children's book, as well as tales from her childhood in China and missionary work in Japan, in her new memoir, Stories of My Life.

In China's capital city, even the humblest apartment can cost a fortune. But more affordable housing hides below the city's bustling streets, in tiny (and illegal) basements and bomb shelters.

Take a moment to imagine platters of andouille sausage, barbecue ribs and bacon. Now think of all of those dishes without meat.

It might seem like a contradiction, but brother and sister Kale and Aubry Walch — yes, Kale — are opening the first vegan butcher shop next spring in ...

StoryCorps' OutLoud initiative records stories from the LGBTQ community.

Kiyan Williams, 23, grew up in a rough neighborhood in Newark, N.J. During childhood, Williams felt isolated and different from other kids — something Williams' family began to notice around age 4.

"Me and my mother are at a friend's house, ...

The former U.S. poet laureate says he can't write poetry any more, but still has some prose in him. In a new book, Essays After Eighty, he considers his art, his beard and his experience growing old.

Though revered now, Prince's iconic 1984 film and album succeeded against daunting odds. Music critic and journalist Alan Light provides the details in his new book, Let's Go Crazy.

Anita Diamant's new novel Boston Girl begins with a question: a granddaughter asks her grandmother, "How did you get to be the woman you are today?"

Addie Baum was "the other one"-- an afterthought — the youngest of three sisters, born in 1900 in Boston's North End to Jewish immigrant ...

When we first see Nicky Vreeland in the new film Monk with a Camera, he's a middle-aged man in a burgundy robe and with a shaved head. In other words, he's a Buddhist monk — the abbot of Rato Dratsang, one of the Dalai Lama's monasteries, and director of The ...

A scholarly literary magazine is celebrating the music of Texas — but don't let that academic approach get in the way of enjoying it.

Bob Wills, Buddy Holly, Freddy Fender, Lee Ann Womack, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Winter, Spoon ...

Rock wrote, directed and stars in Top Five, the story of a marquee comedian who abandons his standup roots for blockbuster film glory.

Over the past 20 years, the Los Angeles Police Department has been reformed to work better with minority communities. One of the main forces behind that reform has been attorney Connie Rice.

Ruth Coker Burks has no medical training but has spent decades caring for people with AIDS. "I've buried over 40 people in my family's cemetery," she says, "because their families didn't want them."

While Thursday's House vote on immigration reminds us that Congress remains divided, one bill enjoyed bipartisan support this week.