On Point: Books

Plus the best books of 2013, "The Flamethrowers," "White Girls," "The Unwinding" and a whole lot more.

How a founding father, Thomas Jefferson, came to understand Islam.

Mexican-American essayist and big thinker Richard Rodriguez joins us on identity, immigration and the human spirit.

With Hanukkah upon us, the story of a Jewish family made and broken in the 20th century in David Laskin's "The Family."

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on protest, reform, Teddy Roosevelt and America then and now.

Norman Mailer called it "a comic strip for intellectuals." Best-selling author Neil Gaiman joins us with his dark, new series on the origins of "The Sandman."

Big jazz thinker Stanley Crouch on the wild, young mind and music of early "Bird," Charlie Parker.

Steering toward Thanksgiving, the real story of those who sailed from Europe to America, and how tough the settlement was.

Author Amy Tan on her latest - family history and the courtesan life of Old Shanghai.

A big new biography of Broadway dance king Bob Fosse - of "Chicago," the film "Cabaret," "All That Jazz" - opens up a turbulent life.

The great Flannery O'Connor. A newly discovered journal of prayers gives a rare glimpse of the deeply Catholic writer and artist as a young woman.

We'll look at a novel of family ties and twin sisters with psychic powers — "Sisterland" by Curtis Sittenfeld.

We look at the creators who changed TV, the generation behind "The Sopranos," "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad" and more.

Franz Kafka. Shame, guilt and absurd injustice -and why we're still haunted by the Kafkaesque.

Desert America. It's hot, in more ways than one. Rub?n Mart?nez takes us there.