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John M. Coski is author of The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem. The book looks at the flag's history and the various meanings attached to it. Some people view it as a symbol of white supremacy and racial injustice; others think it represents a rich Southern heritage. Coski is historian and library director at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va.

USA Today sports columnist Ian O'Connor followed high school hoops prodigy Sebastian Telfair to write a book called The Jump. The title is a nod to a trend that has seen many high school stars bypass college for a pro career. O'Connor tells Steve Inskeep how the NBA's new minimum age requirement — 19 — could affect players like Telfair.

In 2002, a federal judge ruled that the "under God" portion of the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional because it violated the separation of church and state. An uproar ensued. But as Richard J. Ellis, author of To the Flag: The Unlikely History of the Pledge of Allegiance, points out in his book, those words were not included in the pledge when it was written in 1892 — they were added in 1950. Ellis is the Mark O. Hatfield Professor of Politics at Willamette University in Salem, Ore.

Wesley Brown graduated from the Naval Academy in 1949 — the first African American to do so. Others had tried, but were forced out by racism and even violence. Brown and author Robert J. Schneller, Jr., tell John Ydstie about efforts to integrate the Academy.

Author Kip Stratton's new book, Chasing the Rodeo begins with his memory of the 1967 National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City. He was 12. Stratton reads from the book and shares memories of the sport with John Ydstie.

Nursing homes are often thought of as grim places. But a new approach is being tested. Instead of an institutional setting, the goal now is to provide a homelike — but safe — atmosphere for residents.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews two new novels set in Cuba: Dirty Blonde and Half-Cuban, the debut novel by Lisa Wixon, and Adios Hemingway by Cuban writer Leonardo Padura Fuentes. Translated by John King, Adios Hemingway is the latest in Fuentes' award-winning Inspector Mario Conde mysteries.

Religion professor Timothy Beal piles his family into a motor home and hits the highway on a tour of religious attractions in the American South. Beal documents his journey in the book, Roadside Religion.

Variety, the show business trade paper known for its punchy and playful language, celebrates its 100th birthday this year. Terms such as "striptease," "payola" and "soap opera" were coined in its pages, along with some boffo adjectives.

Journalist Steven V. Roberts was writing about his family when his mother produced letters she had exchanged with his father years ago. Roberts talks about his parents and his new book, My Fathers' Houses: Memoir of a Family.