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General Motors' former leadership was "appalling" and the company had no idea how much cash it had on hand, the Obama administration's former "car czar" says. In his new book, Steven Rattner offers an insider's perspective on the government's ultimately successful efforts to rescue GM and Chrysler from failure.

The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the recession, which began in December 2007, ended more than a year ago. But leading economists -- and the president -- said it doesn't mean the economy is now back on track.

The recession that started in December 2007 ended in June 2009, according to a group that dates the beginning and end of recessions. The downturn lasted 18 months, making it the longest since World War II, the National Bureau of Economic Research said.

Readers know Roald Dahl through his books, specifically his children's stories. But Donald Sturrock's Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl delves much deeper into the life of the famed author.

David Lipsky says that his favorite comic, Runaways, is both a brilliant reading experience — and an embarrassment festival. The tiny digests by Brian K. Vaughan have been a fount of guilt, awkwardness and grave personal doubts, but he still pulls them out on the subway, because they are just that good.

The Border Patrol's indicators of success for Operation Streamline don't always add up and neither do the numbers: No one knows just how much the program costs. The Border Patrol makes arrests, but the Justice Department and federal courts provide the logistics of convicting those who cross illegally.

Dr. Donald Berwick, federal chief of Medicare and Medicaid, asked insurers for their help in making health overhaul a success and to achieve common goals. Cheaper, better health care is in everyone's interest, he said.

If the tax cut for wealthiest Americans is allowed to expire, those households making over $250,000 would see their income tax rate rise from 33 percent to 36 percent and those making upwards of $375,000 would go from a 35 percent rate to 39.6 percent. But does it make sense for the tax rate for someone making six figures to be the same as for multimillionaires?

More than 6 million African-Americans moved from the South to cities in the Northeast and Midwest between 1915 and 1970. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson documents the resulting demographic and social changes in her history of the Great Migration, The Warmth of Other Suns.

Nine years in the making, the author's new book explores the story of a country through the story of a Minnesota couple and their best friend. Franzen tells NPR's Guy Raz that getting it to the page was a dark -- and at times stormy -- journey.