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Historian Mark Perry's new book, Grant and Twain: The Story of a Friendship That Changed America, details a 15-month period in the mid-1880s when President Ulysses S. Grant and novelist Mark Twain were writing two American masterpieces. Perry believes Grant's Personal Memoirs and Twain's Huckleberry Finn reveal a fixation the two men shared: the legacy of the Civil War and slavery. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Perry.

This year has been marked by a series of confrontations around the Eucharist in Catholic churches. In January, the archbishop of St. Louis announced he would deny communion to John Kerry, because of Kerry's support of abortion rights. Earlier this month, a bishop in Colorado said that any Catholic politician who supports abortion rights, stem cell research, euthanasia or same-sex marriage is not eligible to receive communion. And in several U.S. cities this coming Sunday, a group of gay Roman Catholics are planning to stage a protest during Mass. The protesters intend to wear rainbow sashes, opening declaring their sexual orientation. In Chicago, Cardinal Francis George has told priests to deny communion to anyone wearing one of the sashes. Commentator James Martin, a Jesuit priest, says that even the threat of denying communion goes against the meaning of the ritual.

Tens of thousands of book lovers and architecture fans are expected to turn out Sunday for the grand opening of the new Seattle public library. The 10-story glass-and-steel building was designed by Pritzker prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas and his firm. The unconventional building not only pushes the defnition of what a library looks like, it also expands the way a library functions. Marcie Sillman of member station KUOW reports.

NPR's Scott Simon reflects on the decision this week of the rock group Phish to call it quits.

Scott Simon reviews the week's news with Andrew Sullivan, senior editor of The New Republic.

As we navigate the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers are starting to see an evolution of the virus, creating some similarities with the seasonal flu.

Admirers gather to remember President Ronald Reagan, who died Saturday at his Southern California home after a long struggle with Alzheimer's. Elsewhere, Republicans and former allies recalled the former president. President Reagan's body will be brought to Washington to lie in state in the Capitol. Hear NPR's Ina Jaffe, NPR's Andrea Seabrook and NPR's Liane Hansen.

NPR's Margot Adler offers an audio postcard from the waters around Manhattan. She took part in a most unusual fishing tournament, testing the waters in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.

Disagreements among Republicans in Congress over how to handle the budget and the federal deficit has pitted some political icons against each other in recent days. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.

The Biden administration is promising Ukraine more military aid and money. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to Kyiv to meet with President Zelenskyy.