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Novelist Jonathan Franzen's acclaimed novel The Corrections is now out in paperback. It's a saga about two generations of an American family, the parents and their children, and the family's response to the illness of the father. Fellow novelist Don DeLillo says, "Franzen has built a powerful novel out of the swarming consciousness of a marriage, a family, a whole culture. And he has done it with a sympathy and expansiveness..." This interview first aired October 15, 2001.

Time spent behind bars in Mexico can be hard time indeed. Massive overcrowding, corruption and unbearably hot conditions are common. But during a visit to interview American inmates at a prison in Nuevo Laredo, three miles from the U.S. border, NPR's John Burnett discovered visiting families, snack stands -- even pets behind the walls.

Graham Nash releases a new solo album, Songs for Survivors. For Weekend Edition Sunday, he performs two songs from the album, and talks about his relationship with David Crosby, his photography, and the art of writing "simple songs." NPR Online has the interview in its entirety and a video of his performance in Studio 4A.

Mary Gordon's book Pearl is about a mother struggling to understand her daughter's public act of martyrdom. It's now out in paperback. Gordon is the author of seven novels, including Final Payments and The Company of Women and four nonfiction works (including The Shadow Man. (This interview was originally broadcast Jan. 31, 2005.)

NPR's Liane Hansen interviews author and journalist Jay Rayner about his new book Eating Crow, a political satire about a restaurant critic whose review results in the suicide of a prominent British chef. When the critic is made to apologize to the chef's family, the world takes notice.

Author Tara McKelvey interviewed former prisoners from Abu Ghraib for her book Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War McKelvey is senior editor at The American Prospect and a research fellow at the NYU School of Law's Center on Law and Security.

Ken Foster's memoir The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets Who Were Left Behind is about to come out in paperback. He also contributed to and edited the collection Dog Culture: Writers on the Character of Canines. (This interview was first broadcast April 6, 2006.)

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times correspondent Tim Weiner discusses his book Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. Weiner did extensive archival research and conducted interviews with CIA insiders, including former chiefs Richard Helms and Stansfield Turner.

Ellie Greenwich, who co-wrote some of the most popular songs of the early 1960s for the girl groups produced by Phil Spector, died Aug. 26 from a heart attack. In this interview, rebroadcast from 1986, Greenwich discusses the highlights of her career.

Cultural historian Christopher Frayling is the author of Once Upon A Time in Italy: The Westerns of Sergio Leone. The book chronicles the history of the spaghetti western. Ennio Morricone, who composed music for the Sergio Leone films, will be awarded an honorary Oscar at this year's Academy Awards. This interview originally aired on Aug. 1, 2005.