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As summer vacations draw to a close and school-age children begin the mad scramble to fulfill their summer reading obligations, author Lesley M. M. Blume recommends a few timeless books that may not be on the required book lists.

In search of a new edge to their health care efforts, President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have turned their guns on the insurance industry. They're counting on Americans' distrust of insurance companies to shore up wavering support for the President's health care agenda. The insurance industry says its impressive profits do not mean it is adding substantially to the cost of health care.

When it comes to writing comedy, every syllable counts. Host Scott Simon talks to Mike Sacks, author of And Here's the Kicker: Conversations With 21 Top Humor Writers On Their Craft, and writer and director Harold Ramis about the art of being funny.

Author Jon Loomis says Provincetown, Mass., is the perfect setting for his series of crime novels; the funky beach town is so crazy in the summer that it's impossible to create a character who is over the top.

Writer Gabriel Cohen bases his Detective Jack Leightner series in Brooklyn, where he says the neighborhoods "are not static at all. The lines where things are changing create conflict and sometimes create violence," which is reflected in his books.

A country home on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., provided a respite and a summer getaway for a president mired in the Civil War.

Legendary television news anchor Walter Cronkite died Friday night at the age of 92. Cronkite was the face of CBS from 1962 to 1981. He's being remembered as the "father of television news," as well as the "most trusted man in America."

Republicans promise that the full Senate will vote on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court by early August. Jeff Sessions, the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Republican, has abandoned calls for a delay in the vote until September.

Work continues on Capitol Hill to overhaul the nation's health care system. A Senate committee on Wednesday became the first panel to complete work on a health bill. Meanwhile, three House committees launch their formal drafting sessions Thursday.

President Obama has tapped a rural family physician to be the nation's top doctor. At a Rose Garden ceremony Monday, Obama nominated Alabama doctor Regina Benjamin to be the U.S. surgeon general. Benjamin runs a nonprofit health clinic on the Gulf Coast.