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The new trove of recordings covers everything from the Cold War to civil rights to Vietnam to the U.S. ice hockey team. Listening In, a new book and CD set, includes more than 260 hours of transcribed conversations and 2.5 hours of audio from inside the Kennedy White House.

Steve Martin went from performing in an empty San Francisco coffee house to hosting the Oscars. In between, he spent 18 years as a stand-up comic — four of them, by his account, successful years. His early standup routines, TV specials and other TV appearances have been released in a new DVD box set.

It's the era of the e-reader, and book lovers are trying to get used to reading on the screen. But every now and then, a book comes along that just seems to insist on being physical. The publishers of a richly illustrated retelling of Homer's Odyssey say not all books are meant to be e-books

At the helm of an underdog team that won one of the most dramatic World Series ever, Tony La Russa "retired" in just about the best way possible. Robert Siegel talks with La Russa about his new baseball memoir One Last Strike and his remarkable 33 year career as one of the best managers in Major League Baseball history.

Frances Ashcroft's new book details how electricity in the body fuels everything we think, feel or do. She tells Fresh Air about discovering a new protein, how scientists are like novelists and how she wanted to be a farmer's wife.

When aspiring Broadway actress Catherine and World War II vet Harry first lock eyes on the Staten Island Ferry, everything changes — but their lives together won't be easy. Mark Helprin delivers an old-fashioned love story, and an ode to 1940s New York, in his novel In Sunlight and in Shadow.

The Casual Vacancy is worlds away from Hogwarts and Harry Potter. It's a dark comedy of manners, set in a small town in the aftermath of a local politician's death. Rowling says her experiences with poverty informed her gritty portrayal of English life.

In his first novel, J.R. Moehringer writes from the point of view of Willie Sutton, whom he calls the "greatest American robber." Moehringer says writing historical fiction helped him deal with the anger he felt toward banks after the global financial crisis in 2008.

Colombia's government has announced peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a Marxist insurgency that has been fighting a brutal conflict for nearly five decades. But memories of previous, unsuccessful attempts at peace are still fresh for civilians in the rebels' mountainous heartland.

Charles Rowan Beye has been married three times — to two women and a man. Now, over age 80, he looks back on his life and asks, "What was that all about?" Critic Maureen Corrigan says Beye's memoir, subtitled "A Gay Man's Odyssey," is a complex, poignant addition to the sexual canon.