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Iconoclastic journalist Christopher Hitchens, who died from esophageal cancer in December 2011, chronicled his battle with the disease — his 18 months "of living dyingly" — in Mortality. Critic Heller McAlpin says the tragically posthumous work is full of his pugnacious, ever-bright prose.

Moths and butterflies radically change shape as they grow, from little wormy caterpillar critters to airborne beauties. Why are they born this way? Could they actually be separate organisms?

In Jeff Lemire's latest graphic novel, Jack Joseph maintains an oil rig off the same Nova Scotia coast where his father vanished decades before. The mysterious disappearance plagues Joseph, as past collides with present in this beautifully illustrated work.

Climate change is exaggerating the normal swings in weather. For the American Southwest, that means more intense waves of heat, drought and fire that could wipe out trees that have stood for centuries. It's already revamping the ecology of the landscape.

Guitar legend Buddy Guy has been called the bridge between the blues and rock 'n' roll. In his new memoir, When I Left Home, Guy describes what he calls his second birthday: the day he left his home of Louisiana for Chicago, the blues capital of the world. Originally broadcast on June 5, 2012.

Huge wildfires are burning in the West — setting new records for damage this summer. These megafires are burning bigger and hotter than ever before. Scientists say climate change and a century-long policy of fire prevention — which inadvertently turned forests into giant tinderboxes — are to blame.

As a kid, author Victor LaValle loved horror stories. But it wasn't until he read Books of Blood by Clive Barker that he found one set in his own hometown. Have you ever read a book that took place where you live? Tell us in the comments.

Since January, the chamber has seen the removal of a member from a committee, the first ouster of a speaker in history and the expulsion of a lawmaker for only the third time since the Civil War.

Comedy writer Maria Semple's latest, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, follows 15-year-old Bee as she tracks down her mother, Bernadette, who disappeared on the eve of a family trip to Antarctica. Bernadette is an epistolary novel that paints an acidly funny portrait of life in Seattle.

The government says that the poverty rate for 2011 was 15 percent, essentially unchanged from the year before. That still means that more than 46 million people lived below the poverty line last year. According to one economist, "the bad news isn't as bad as it has been."