Cracking Open Chricton's "Sphere"

Karen Russell's new book imagines a mysterious insomnia epidemic so serious that many are dying from lack of sleep. But the cure — sleep donations from babies — is hard to swallow.

Writer Richard Preston talks with Barbara Bogaev about the emerging threat of biological weapons. In this week's The New Yorker magazine, Preston writes about the former Soviet Union's research into biological weapons. His new novel "Cobra" (Random House) explores the use of bio-weapons in a civilian setting. Preston also wrote the international bestseller "The Hot Zone." (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)

Writer John Updike. His new novel, "Toward the End of Time" (Knopf) is a chronicle of one man's life in America in the year 2020. Updike will read passages from the novel and answer questions posed by an audience in addition to the regular interview. Updike is the author of over forty volumes of work, and has received two Pulitzer prizes, the American Book Award, and two National Book Critic's Circle Awards. (Interview recorded at and for The Free Library of Philadelphia)