While nearly everyone hopes to die peacefully at home, 30 percent of Americans die in nursing homes and more than half in hospitals. In his book The Best Care Possible, Dr. Ira Byock argues that the way most Americans die is a national disgrace that will get much worse as baby boomers age.

The novel Half-Blood Blues explores the plight of black musicians living in Germany on the cusp of World War II. Guest host Jacki Lyden takes listeners on a musical journey through some of the sounds that might have been heard in the fictional clubs of Esi Edugyen's award-winning novel.

The novel Half Blood Blues explores an often overlooked slice of history: black jazz musicians in Germany on the eve of World War II. The book moves from 1992 to 1939, from Baltimore to Berlin to Paris. It's told by an elderly black jazz musician and his friend who survived the war. Guest host Jacki Lyden speaks with author Esi Edugyan.

When Teddy Roosevelt became a New York police commissioner in 1895, he vowed to clean up the city's endemic vice and corruption. It didn't exactly work out. New Yorkers liked the idea of standing up to corrupt cops, but they rebelled when Roosevelt tried to enforce a ban on Sunday drinking.

Lionel Shriver's The New Republic is an earlier novel that was rejected by publishers. It's getting a warmer reception after a much-buzzed-about movie was made of her book, We Need To Talk About Kevin. Guest host Susan Stamberg speaks with the author.

Exorcism -- an early Eugene O'Neill play about suicide, divorce and alcoholism — was thought to be lost for good. But a manuscript recently turned up in an estate sale, and a revival has been staged. But is it ethical to stage a play O'Neill himself wanted to be forgotten?

Author Chris Pavone's new thriller follows a former CIA assassin who tries to put her past behind her and make a new life with her husband in Luxembourg. Needless to say, things don't go as planned.

In Round 8 of our Three-Minute Fiction contest, listeners were given this challenge: Begin a story with this sentence: "She closed the book, placed it on the table, and finally decided to walk through the door." And, as always, the story must be 600 words or less. The deadline is 11:59 p.m. ET Sunday.

With this weekend's release of The Hunger Games, so begins another blockbuster movie based on a series of young-adult literature. Critc Bob Mondello considers the relatively short history of Hollywood's new popular habit of targeting pre-teens at the box office.