The activist and playwright takes readers on a journey to near-death and back, following her work in the Congo and her own battle with cancer in her poetic memoir In the Body of the World.

Does the Bible need a makeover? A group of 20 spiritual leaders from around the country thought so, and they convened recently to update the New Testament. The result combines traditional and newly discovered texts, including ancient Christian stories of women leading their own congregations. San Francisco-based Presbyterian minister Bruce Reyes-Chow was a part of this group, and he joins us to discuss the book, "A New New Testament."

A story of one woman's obsession with her cat's whereabouts, beautifully illustrated by real-life partner Wendy MacNaughton.

Abraham Lincoln is said to have remarked that he wasn't concerned about whether or not God was on his side. Instead, he was more concerned about being on God's side. In his new book, theologian Jim Wallis explores what it means to be aligned with the divine in an age of political dysfunction and bitter hyper-partisanship. Wallis joins us to discuss his book "On God's Side," and his call for a national conversation on the meaning of "the common good" in both our politics and our personal lives.

A new memoir by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is an urgent, moving, and insightful break-up with the city of San Francisco.

California is gradually climbing out of the recession, but the economic downturn has done some collateral damage to the American Dream. People are struggling to stay in or climb into the middle class. Writer Jim Gavin's "Middle Men" is a collection of stories about characters old and young, all of them adrift in California. Book critic Oscar Villalon says the Los Angeles author's first book makes the argument that anxiety and bewilderment might be a permanent state.