Jim Clyburn's new book, The First Eight, restores the lives of South Carolina's early Black congressmen and shows how their battles during Reconstruction offer lessons, and warnings, for politics today.

Big Ma dashes off commands, pots clang, aunts and uncles shoot the breeze, little ones beg to lick the bowl, ham and candied yam. Family Feast! is about food, family and love.

Raja has been exhausted by his loving mother for six decades. NPR's Scott Simon talks with Lebanese writer Rabih Alameddine about his book, "The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)."

Four men in a boat and a grisly choice: NPR's Scott Simon talks with Adam Cohen about his book, "Captain's Dinner: A Shipwreck, an Act of Cannibalism, and a Murder Trial that Changed Legal History."

Sleep scientist Michelle Carr has spent years researching dreaming. She explains dream engineering, including how sensory inputs like light, sound and vibration can influence the subconscious.

"Where are the Black photographers?" Deborah Willis on how she turned that question into an artistic mission.

Erivo says she found parallels between her life and the experience of her Wicked character, Elphaba. Her new memoir is called Simply More: A Book for Anyone who Has Been Told They're Too Much.

NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Nick Clegg, Meta's former president of global affairs, about his new book, "How to Save the Internet."

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks author and illustrator Patrick Horvath about "Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees," his graphic novel about an ursine serial killer.

For a quarter of a century, Amitav Ghosh has explored the profound questions about humanity. NPR's Scott Simon talks with him about "Wild Fictions: Essays on Literature, Empire, and the Environment."