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Andrea Giovino got some unusual advice from her mother when she was growing up: marry a mobster and your future will be secure. The Brooklyn native took her mom up on the suggestion, marrying a string of mobsters and thugs.

Fiction writer Claire Messud has twice been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award. Our book critic says Messud's just-published novel, The Emperor's Children, might just be the one to propel her out of the "finalist" category and win her the gold.

Journalist Lawrence Wright is the author of the new book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. The book is based on more than 500 interviews, some with friends and relatives of Osama bin Laden and examines the circumstances that led to the formation of his terrorist group.

Chris Balish is the author of the forthcoming book How to Live Well Without Owning a Car: Save Money, Breathe Easier, and Get More Mileage Out of Life. He talks with Renee Montagne about how to live without a car, even in Los Angeles.

Elvis Presley confidant Jerry Schilling talks about his new book, Me and a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley. When Schilling was 12 years old, he met the teenaged Elvis Presley at a north Memphis pickup football game. As Presley rose to fame, Schilling joined him on the rise, eventually becoming creative affairs director for Elvis Presley Enterprises.

Louis Eppolito was a decorated New York cop who came from a longtime mob family. Then he was convicted of working as a mob hit man. But his conviction was recently overturned on a technicality.

At 92, Nora Percival has lived a long and varied life. But she's still making her way — at 88, she turned to writing full time. She discusses her life with her granddaughter, Emily Wynns.

Heat author Bill Buford finds "his McGee" indispensable — that is, Harold McGee's essential tome On Food and Cooking. "McGee is the most important person alive writing about food," Buford says.

While diplomats continue to search for a way to end the conflict in Lebanon, Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli soldiers continue to clash heavily in the border region. Meanwhile, Israel has hit Beirut with bombs again. A wider Israeli offensive in Lebanon is said to be on hold until the weekend.

Journalist Adam Roberts of The Economist talks about his new book, The Wonga Coup: Guns, Thugs and a Ruthless Determination to Create Mayhem in an Oil-Rich Corner of Africa. Roberts tells the story of a group of mercenaries and merchants who hatched a plan to topple the dictatorship of Equatorial Guinea in order to reap the profits from the country's oil resources.