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Book critic Maureen Corrigan gives us her picks for the best holiday books of 2004. Her choices range from literary thrillers to a new biography of Ben Franklin.

Lemony Snicket, a.k.a. Daniel Handler, gained a dedicated following of young readers with his darkly funny A Series of Unfortunate Events books. Now the Baudelaire orphans have made the big screen. Handler tells NPR's Michele Norris about his own childhood fears and adult apprehensions.

Richard Viguerie is considered the "funding father" of the conservative movement. In the 1970s and 80s he pioneered direct mail political fundraising. He is a co-author of America's Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media to Take Power. He now heads the organization American Target Advertising Inc.

Director John Waters, known for making art from sleaze, has a new CD for the season, A John Waters Christmas. It includes such songs as "Here Comes Fatty Claus" and "Little Mary Christmas" — all from the man once crowned the "Pope of Trash" by William Burroughs.

Reviewer Alan Cheuse offers his annual recommendations for holiday gift-giving. This year's list includes novels of travel on Earth and in space, new versions of tales from the Bible, Africa and Mesopotamia, and collections of poetry and song.

Creative cooking is not only for the restaurant chef, but for those cooking at home as well. NPR's Michele Norris speaks with Michael Lomonaco, author of Nightly Specials, a book that aims to inspire spontaneity in the kitchen.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe.

Historian and theologian Arthur Green has long studied Jewish religion and culture. Author of many books, his latest is A Guide to the Zohar, an overview of modern studies of kabbalah's origins.

Librarian Nancy Pearl gets a jump on the winter solstice and Seasonal Affective Disorder (or SAD), that period of the year when many readers fall into a rut of ill humor. She shares her picks for books that beat the winter-weather blues with NPR's Steve Inskeep.

Sixty years ago, Adolf Hitler launched one last attempt to maintain Germany's hold on Europe. During the ensuing Battle of the Bulge, one small American platoon was captured and held in POW camps until the end of WWII. They all survived. Alex Kershaw tells their story in The Longest Winter.