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Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan reviews American Dreamz, directed by Paul Weitz. It stars Hugh Grant as a Simon Cowell-like host of an American Idol knockoff. It's is satire that takes on pop culture and politics.

Junot Diaz is a young writer who was born in the Dominican Republic. He was raised there, but also in New Jersey, and he has just published a collection of stories about growing up on his old home island and in the U.S. The book is called Drown.

In the Little Ethiopia section of Los Angeles, Christmas traditions remain strong. New immigrants -- and those who've been here for decades -- recreate the tastes, sounds, and smells of an Ethiopian Christmas. NPR's Renee Montagne reports.

The writer and Spanish Civil War veteran William Herrick died over the weekend. Our book commentator Alan Cheuse describes Herrick's life and work and the modern relevance of the writer's greatest subject: politics and terror.

Numbers emerging from a few cities and states suggest higher death rates for African-Americans from COVID-19. The findings also reveal deeper disparities.

Author Dinaw Mengestu is among a generation of Ethiopian Americans whose families fled the East African nation in the 1970s and '80s. Now their writing, music and art are adding a new chapter to the epic of American immigration.

Jenny Stuber rode on a plane for the first time to come visit her dad in Aspen. It wasn’t just any private plane, it was John Denver’s private plane. She…

Indian actor Roshan Seth's latest role is in the short film Cosmopolitan, broadcast this month as part of the PBS series Independent Lens. Seth plays the part of a first-generation Indian living in the New York suburbs. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel and Seth.

Brian Walker, son of Hi and Lois creator Mort Walker, has co-edited a new book that traces the history of America's funny pages in the 20th century. Walker now writes the Hi and Lois strip with his brother, editor Greg Walker, and illustrator Chance Browne.

Working for Japan's Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper, reporter Jake Adelstein uncovered a world unknown to many of the Japanese public, let alone to foreigners: the world of organized crime. He details its landscape — and the dangers of covering it — in a new memoir.