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NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates profiles novelist Susan Straight, who is putting her hometown of Riverside, Calif., on the literary map. Straight herself is white, but she weaves the black, working-class voices of Riverside into her work.

New York Times' reporter Rachel Swarns traces the first lady's family tree in her new book, American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama.

Airline veteran and writer William McGee says airlines' aggressive cost-cutting hasn't just added fees and hassles. He says they're taking steps that compromise safety — and regulators are letting it happen.

Brian Selznick's cinematic approach to storytelling is an artful experiment in narrative and illustration. Writing and drawing his books, he says, is "like going through a treasure map backwards."

Somali writer Nuruddin Farah's latest novel, Crossbones, centers on a family's return to Somalia on the eve of the Ethiopian invasion. As war breaks out, each character looks for personal peace in a society rife with violence and tension.

Ernest Hemingway famously told The Paris Review that he'd rewritten the ending to A Farewell to Arms 39 times before he was satisfied. Those endings — and more — are being published in a new addition to the classic novel. But the writer's grandson, Sean, says Hemingway always knew the book would end sadly.

Financial writer Philip Coggan traces the current global financial crisis to the 1970s, when the U.S. broke its last link to gold. In his book Paper Promises, Coggan says governments will have to choose whether to keep their promises to their creditors or to their citizens.

Long after the final bell has rung, the echoes of high school hold a fascination for us, even into adulthood. Author Meg Wolitzer recommends a guilty pleasure read that reminds her of the pain of being a teenager. Do you have a favorite book you read as a teen? Let us know in the comments.

As it turns out, Raymond Chandler isn't the only writer who can channel the dark charisma of deceptively sunny California. Author Hector Tobar recommends John Fante's Ask the Dust, a novel that captures the grit and glamor of Los Angeles' past.

Did the economic stimulus program amount to a costly failure, or save the U.S. from a depression? ProPublica investigative reporter Michael Grabell's new book explains how the 2009 stimulus package was passed and what happened to taxpayers' money.