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The Taliban in Pakistan appear to be on the defensive. The challenge for Pakistan's government and military is how to consolidate some recent gains. The U.S. is urging Pakistan to press ahead, but the Pakistanis say that's not as easy as it sounds.

President Obama and the first family will travel to Martha's Vineyard for a weeklong vacation. With "Barack-o-Tacos," "Ale to the Chief" brew and Obama-themed resort wear, business owners on the island are primed and ready — and hoping for a boost in sales.

Some 600 prisoners are held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. They are mostly Afghans suspected of taking part in the insurgency. An American Marine general now says most of those being held pose no threat to U.S. or Afghan forces, and they can be released.

A native of Beijing, author Diane Liang sometimes simplifies some of the Chinese names and details in her books for the benefit of her foreign audience. Nevertheless, her fiction is still steeped in the sights and sounds of her homeland.

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.