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In his new book, the guitarist, singer and songwriter shares stories from life growing up in a musical household and talks about collaborating and sharing the stage with the likes of Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra and Paul McCartney.

From post-apocalyptic character studies to speculative paleontology, reviewer Annalee Newitz says this year's best science fiction stretches boundaries and crosses genres. She also sees a strong resurgence in political themes, with a focus on civilizations on the brink of transformation or collapse.

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.

Author Sebastian Faulks says all of the characters in his new novel, A Possible Life, "struggle with the idea of selfhood, and who they are and identity." The novel weaves together five separate stories, jumping centuries and locations, and Faulks compares them to movements in a symphony.

After the United Nations voted overwhelmingly to recognize the Palestinians as a non-member state, Israel announced it would expand settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. If completed, the project would effectively divide the West Bank in two, according to the Palestinians.

Writer Tamim Ansary was born in Afghanistan, and his new book, Games Without Rules, traces the country's turbulent history over the past two centuries. The title refers both to the game played for control of Afghanistan and the popular sport of buzkashi, a sort of chaotic polo played with a goat carcass.

Gary Ross has penned and directed big Hollywood hits like Big, Pleasantville and The Hunger Games. For years, though, his obsession has been the story of one little boy.

There are songs, and then there are anthems. Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is a popular power anthem now, but almost never saw light of day. In his new book, music journalist Alan Light charts the unlikely rise of the song through countless weddings, funerals and in film and television.

Paul Young wrote his first book, The Shack, as a story to share with family and friends about faith and redemption. He printed 15 copies at an Office Depot but has gone on to sell 18 million copies. Now he's written a new book, this time for the world, about faith and transformation.

"Ours is not a bloodline, but a text line," say father-daughter author team Amos Oz and Fania Oz-Salzberger. Their new book, Jews And Words, explores the significance of text in the Jewish tradition. "For thousands of years, we Jews had nothing but books," Oz says. "They became part of the family life."