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Melissa Block talks with Lolis Eric Elie, a writer and editor behind the HBO series Treme about a new cookbook written in the voices of the show's characters. Elie says it reflects both old New Orleans traditions and more recent influences.

British authorities detained the partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald's for nearly nine hours at Heathrow Airport on Monday. Greenwald, who works for The Guardian, published many of Edward Snowden's revelations about the National Security Agency's large-scale monitoring of telephone and email traffic. Key members of parliament and human rights activists are demanding to know why Greenwald's partner, David Miranda, was held.

Author Marisha Pessl turned to technology to enrich readers' experience of her new thriller, Night Film — creating found-footage YouTube films, screen shots of hidden websites, and an app that readers can use to access additional content after scanning an illustration in the book.

T.E. Lawrence, the British officer who played a key role in the Middle East during World War I, served as one of that war's few romantic champions. Scott Anderson's Lawrence in Arabia explains how Lawrence used his knowledge of Arab culture and medieval history to advance British causes.

Why did it take cells so long to link together and form tissues, organs, you, me, turtles, daisies? There was a couple of billion year pause before cells became multicellular. How come? With brilliant designer Paolo Ceric, we consider this puzzle of life.

In softcover fiction, Enid Schomer imagines Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert meeting on the Nile, and Bill Roorbach follows siblings trying to solve their parents' murder. In nonfiction, Craig Brown collects stories of encounters between famous people.

Patrick Flanery's taut new novel, Fallen Land, delves into the housing crisis, creeping corporate surveillance and a "crisis of neighborliness" in American life. The backdrop: a half-built and crumbling subdivision outside of an unnamed American city.

The Bone Season kicks off a new fantasy series about a clairvoyant girl in a future dystopia. Author Samantha Shannon was a student when she started writing — now, she's being touted as the next J. K. Rowling. And reviewer Jane Ciabattari says her work lives up to the hype.

Dylan Dethier took a year off between high school and college for an unusual quest: He wanted to play a round of golf in each of the 48 contiguous states. His new book, 18 in America, chronicles that year, and he joins NPR's Scott Simon on the putt-putt course to talk about it.

Pirates, pokers and alleged demonic origins — the history of rum is filled with raucousness and rebellion. To celebrate National Rum Day, we bring you tales from this drink's past, including its laudable origins as a food waste solution.