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Fred Kaplan never mentions Barack Obama by name in his new book, but its focus on the role that language and writing played in one president's life promises to shed light on the role they may play in another's.

I am reading A Life with Karol: My Forty-Year Friendship with the Man Who Became Pope by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz. I've read a lot of biographical material about Pope John Paul II but this book taught me things I did not know about his life and his pontificate. A terrific ...

"You see, part of me is a monk and part of me is a performing flea," explains John in Philip Norman's splendid biography John Lennon: The Life. But the duality doesn't end with that of quiet intellect/rowdy rock' n' roller.

Mr. Leonard, an influential, visible cultural critic, was known for the breadth of his knowledge, the depth of his inquiries and the lavish passion of his prose.

This weekFICTION Bay Area Last weekWeeks on list 1A MOST WANTED MAN, John le Carré (Scribner; 336 pages; $28): A man claiming to be a Chechen Muslim seeks asylum in Hamburg.34 2THE GATE HOUSE, Nelson DeMille (Grand Central; 688 pages; $27.99): In the sequel...

Those of us who came of age in the 1970s owe a literary debt to book and culture critic John Leonard, who died in NY on Nov. 5 at the age of 69.

In this sequel to The Mummy Returns, Rick O'Connell and his family awaken an Emperor of ancient China and his terracotta army.

AP - "The B List" (Da Capo Press. $15.95. 288 pages), edited by David Sterritt and John Anderson: The literary version of having a movie-critic friend intent on convincing you that there's a movie of which you've never heard but must see, "The B List" offers up mostly irresistible essays by the National Society of Film Critics about their favorite guilty pleasures.

Legendary Chicago broadcaster Studs Terkel dedicated his life to capturing the stories of ordinary Americans. He died Oct. 31 at the age of 96; Fresh Air remembers him with a 1985 interview.

Titles recently published in paperback: Nonfiction Classics for Pleasure (Harvest Books; 352 pages; $15) by Michael Dirda: The Pulitzer Prize-winning critic recommends some of his favorite titles. The Greatest Battle (Simon & Schuster; 384 pages; $16) by...