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Author Jesmyn Ward lost her brother in a car wreck — and several friends in quick succession after that — all young black men, all dead before the age of 30. She tells their stories, and her own, in a wrenching new memoir, Men We Reaped.

Pink isn't just for girls — it's also for battleships. In a new book, design writer and synesthete Jude Stewart looks at color from linguistic, scientific and historical perspectives.

Rebecca Musser was raised in an extremist, polygamist church. She tells the harrowing story of her childhood, her first marriage, and her escape in her autobiography.

The universe is shaped like a vuvuzela. Humans and elephants are the only animals with chins. These, and a trove of other factoids have been compiled in 1,227 Quite Interesting Facts to Blow Your Socks Off — a book by the creators of the hit British television show QI.

Art Spiegelman's new book, Co-Mix: A Retrospective of Comics, Graphics, and Scraps, collects comics from a six-decade career, from his early, self-published works to his famous New Yorker covers. Spiegelman tells NPR's Scott Simon he knew in third grade that he wanted to be a cartoonist.

Terry McMillan, the best-selling author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back, tells NPR's Scott Simon that she writes because she wishes she were a magician. She shows off her tricks in Who Asked You?, a novel with many narrators — including a woman named BJ and her husband, children and grandkids.

A chance encounter with a little girl in an ice cream store inspired R.J. Palacio to write a novel about a boy born with distorted facial features. She says it got her thinking about what it's like to "have to face a world every day that doesn't know how to face you back."

Billie Jean King was a champ — she had 20 Wimbledon titles — and a leader who urged fair treatment and pay for female players. She told Fresh Air about the problems before there was a women's league.

Pope Francis has famously shunned luxury items — including the popemobile. The pope has accepted the keys to a 1984 Renault with nearly 190,000 miles on it. It was a gift from a priest. The pope plans to drive it on Vatican grounds.

Police say a driver in Waldorf, Md., lost control of her car while texting — she landed in a lake. She wasn't hurt but she does faces criminal charges