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Slaughter is a master of the thriller genre; her latest book, Broken, is full of twists and turns and technical details. In the latest installment of our "Thrilled to Death" series, Slaughter talks with NPR's Michele Norris about the stories that keep her in suspense.

What actually happened on Independence Day? Did the rebels really wait until they saw the whites of British eyes at Bunker Hill? Historian Ray Raphael helps us debunk some of America's most popular — and believed — national creation myths.

On Thursday, W.S. Merwin was named the 17th poet laureate of the United States. The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, known for his anti-war poetry and environmental activism, joined Fresh Air's Terry Gross in 2008 for a discussion about memory, mortality and his writing process.

While writer Stephen King was recovering from a near-fatal car accident, he finished a nonfiction book about the craft of writing. In a 2000 interview with Terry Gross, King talked about the demons that haunted him after the accident — and how writing helped his recovery process.

A new biography tells the story of Buck's Chinese childhood, as the daughter of zealous missionaries. In Pearl Buck in China, Hilary Spurling makes a compelling case for a reappraisal of Buck's fiction — transforming her from dreary "lady author" into woman warrior.

Journalist Michael Klare says we've used up what he calls the "easy oil" on Earth. What's left is "tough oil" — deep underground, far offshore or in complex geological formations. Klare details the hazards of drilling in these environmentally hazardous areas in his book, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet.

Page after page of terrible handwriting is reproduced in faithful facsimile — covering forthcoming gigs, favorite songs, prophecies of fame, janitorial wages and the firing of drummers.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Linda Greenhouse examines the public discourse that led to the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. She details the various legal briefs presented by both sides of the abortion debate to the court — and explains the newest challenges facing the legislation today.

By the time Bill Clegg reached his mid-30s, he had checked all the boxes that would allow him to be defined as a success. But there was something else: Bill Clegg was a crack addict. His new book, Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man, tells the story of an addiction that almost cost him everything.

More than 20 years after a car accident left Dr. Dan Gottlieb paralyzed, his young grandson Sam was diagnosed with autism. Gottlieb, a psychologist, started writing his thoughts to his grandson about what it's like to be different — and what they can both teach the world.