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Adam Begley says Updike created an everyman in his Rabbit book series, and inhabited him fully, "allowing that everyman's senses to be totally open to the American experience."

Two strangers tell their stories to a wandering narrator in Bruce Wagner's new The Empty Chair. It's a pair of novellas meditating on grief, love, spirituality and the nature of storytelling. Reviewer Colin Dwyer says Wagner manages to both tease out the threads that bind the stories, and relish the spaces between.

Roy Scranton and Jacob Siegel edited and contributed to the collection of short stories by veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They tell Fresh Air about how soldiers cope with the fear of death, and why many soldiers feel conflicted about sharing their experience with a larger audience.

Jimmy Santiago Baca began writing poetry while he was serving a five-year sentence in prison. His new anthology tells the story of his journey to becoming a celebrated Chicano poet.

The term "Rube Goldberg machine" has become shorthand for a convoluted contraption made up of a series of chain reactions. But Goldberg was also a real person, whose ideas for whimsical devices have captivated imaginations for decades.

Joe Sacco has made a career of tackling difficult subjects through imagery. He's a journalist and cartoonist who has reported on the Middle East and Bosnia — in both written and comic form. In his latest book, The Great War, Sacco turns to history, producing a 24-foot-long depiction of the horrifying first day of the Battle of the Somme.

In the 1960s, catching a flight wasn't much of a hassle. No lines, no security screenings and no need to show ID. But the ease of travel brought with it some serious consequences.

Wall Street Journal reporters Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell say that champion cyclist Lance Armstrong was at the center of "the greatest sports conspiracy ever." Their book chronicles everything from group blood transfusions on the team bus to extensive efforts to silence and intimidate those who might expose the abuse.

Alan Greenspan was often celebrated during his long chairmanship of the Federal Reserve. But Greenspan's policies have been blamed by some for the Great Recession. In an interview with NPR about his new book, The Map and the Territory: Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of Forecasting, Greenspan discusses difficulties in predicting economic calamity.

At the age of 59, the British science-fiction writer was diagnosed with a form of Alzheimer's. Now he's publishing an edited version of a book he first wrote when he was 17. He can't read because of his disease, but Pratchett continues writing — with the help of dictation software.