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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.

Jack Coughlin, a gunnery sergeant in the Marines, is the author of the new book Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper. He grew up in a wealthy Boston suburb and joined the Marines at age 19, spending the next 20 years behind the scope of a long-range rifle as a sniper. He has more than 60 confirmed kills, 38 of which took place during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The latest novel from best-selling English author Nick Hornby, A Long Way Down, focuses on a group of suicidal people who accidentally meet atop a tall building — and how that meeting changes their fates. He also writes "Stuff I've Been Reading," a column for The Believer magazine. Many of Hornby's novels have been made into films, including About a Boy, High Fidelity and Fever Pitch.

Yippie Abbie Hoffman was arrested in one while protesting the Vietnam War in 1968. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wore one while joining fellow Vietnam veterans for a tribute this past Memorial Day. Their attire? Shirts that looked like flags.

As special master of the Federal Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund, Feinberg decided how much families of the terrorist attacks' victims would receive and which family members were eligible for compensation. He also was on a team that determined the fair market value of the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination. Feinberg has written a book about his work on the Sept. 11 Fund, What is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11.