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In his new book, Pym, fiction writer Mat Johnson plays with the premise of Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Poe's novel was a "master text of anxious white fright," says Maureen Corrigan, and Johnson's clever book shines new light on the material.

The worldwide lion population has declined a staggering 90 percent in the past 50 years. In their documentary The Last Lions, conservationists Beverly and Dereck Joubert track the giant hunters across Bostwana and warn that without intervention, lions may soon go extinct.

Paula McLain's new novel, The Paris Wife, tells the story of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway's first wife and companion during his Paris years. Hemingway and Richardson were blissfully in love — until he left her for her best friend.

So far, there's no sign Libya's dictator Moammar Gadhafi will leave office. He says he'll stay in his country and fight to the bitter end. As both sides in the crisis dig in, how strong are the forces at his side? Will they follow the example of some in the army and abandon him? If not, why? How strong and organized are Gadhafi's opponents, who now control the east?

Suze Rotolo, who strongly influenced Bob Dylan's songwriting and walked beside him on the album cover for The Freewheeling Bob Dylan, died of lung cancer on Friday. She was 67. Fresh Air remembers Dylan's muse with excerpts from a 2008 interview.

Literary theorist Stanley Fish is obsessed with Frank Sinatra — and he's not afraid to admit it. For his Ol' Blue Eyes fix, Fish reads James Kaplan's lengthy biography Frank: The Voice. The story isn't new, but he can't resist imagining himself in the high-flying world of the legendary crooner.

The city of Odessa, on the Black Sea, has packed a lot of history into its few centuries of existence. Author Charles King traces the city's ups and downs in a new book, Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams.

Journalist Patrick Cockburn was used to tracking the Taliban in the mountains of Afghanistan. But he wasn't prepared for the battle he faced at home when his son Henry was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Now, father and son have co-written a memoir about the experience.

Lions and tigers and sharks (oh my!) have been the storied pursuits of big-game hunters throughout the ages. But what happens when the tables turn and the human becomes the hunted? Writer T.C. Boyle suggests three books that showcase the deadly predators of the animal world.

Gasoline prices are rising and jobs remain scarce, but new surveys are finding that Americans are growing more optimistic about the economy. Confidence is now at the highest level in three years.