We know we must confront a coworker, store clerk, or friend about some especially sticky situation–and we know the encounter will be uncomfortable. So we mull it over until we can no longer put it off, and then finally stumble through the confrontation. Difficult Conversations, by co-author Douglas Stone offers advice for handling these unpleasant exchanges in a manner that accomplishes their objective and diminishes the possibility that anyone will be needlessly hurt.

An art display at the National Portrait Gallery with ants crawling on a crucifix has been removed after complaints; is this censorship? William Donohue, president of the Catholic League calls it hate speech. Today is the 69th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Elaine Fischel helped the legal team from The U.S. to defend Japanese war criminals. Her book is Defending the Enemy.

J D Smith, co-director of Military Operations with Outserve, an underground network of gays actively serving in the military talks about repealing the military’s discriminatory policy of don’t ask don’t tell. Later, anti gay activities around the world particularly in Africa with Michael Petrelis, a San Francisco international gay and HIV activist.

In Gray Lady Down, William McGowan asks who is responsible for squandering the finest legacy in American journalism. Combining original reporting, critical assessment and analysis, McGowan exposes the  NYTimes’ obsessions with diversity, “soft” pop cultural news, and reveals how these trends have set America’s most important news icon at odds with its journalistic mission.

America’s Nazi Secret is a stirring account that reveals how the U.S. government permitted the illegal entry of Nazis into North America in the years following World War II. This extraordinary investigation exposed the secret section of the State Department and was uncovered by John Loftus, a former Justice Department investigator.

From the world’s #1 bestselling crime writer comes the extraordinary new Kay Scarpetta novel. Port Mortuary is Patricia Cornwell‘s 18th book and is literally a port for the dead. LAter in the hour Jon O’Brien, president of  Catholics For Choice joins us to talk about World Aids Day and an international effort to look at how public funds are used. 

Revival is Richard Wolffe’s dramatic inside story of the defining period of the Obama White House. It is an epic tale that follows the president and his inner circle from the crisis of defeat to historic success.

Darwin’s Second Revolution is the first book of a trilogy written by David Loye to provide a new grounding in historical, political, economic, moral, spiritual, and environmental reality for the theory and story of evolution for our troubled time.

Renowned photographer Melanie Dunea grew up listening to Michael Jackson and Madonna and wasn’t even a country music fan so how did she end up photographing and interviewing 50 of America’s greatest country stars and what did she learn after writing My Country? Next  the concept of gratuity is the subject of  Keep the Change, the second book from Steve Dublanica, the unmasked author of Waiter Rant and, like his first,  is informative yet entertaining.

In Politics, Taxes, and the Pulpit, Nina J. Crimm and Laurence H. Winer examine the provocative mix of religion, politics, and taxes involved in the controversy over houses of worship engaging in electoral political speech. The authors analyze the dilemmas associated with federal tax subsidies benefiting nonprofit houses of worship conditioned on their refraining from political campaign speech.