A new edition of Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" is being published in February, replacing the "n-word," which shows up 219 times in the original edition. Instead the publisher, New South Books, uses the word "slave." New South's editor-in-chief, Randall Williams, told The Takeaway that removing the racial slur isn’t censorship.

Nassim Taleb is the philosopher and former trader who correctly predicted that the mathematical models Wall Street used to measure risk would lead to a massive financial crisis. His new book, ‘The Bed of Procrustes,’ scrutinizes the economy, as well as human knowledge and values. The book features "practical and philosophical aphorisms," and includes fortune-cookie sized sentences that attempt to "expose self-delusions you have been living with but have never recognized."

As part of our week-long series, we speak with two immigrant writers whose parents were forced to flee their homelands because of political unrest, and came to rest in America. Both live outside the U.S. now, and both say their notion of "home" has become ... portable.

Ron Chernow has written about big names in American history, including Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Alexander Hamilton. His latest book examines one of the biggest names in American history: George Washington. The book is called "Washington: A Life," and in it, Chernow illustrates a man of conscience, humility and duty.

We're continuing our summer reading series with a look at modern parenthood and childcare. Mona Simpson's new book, "My Hollywood," looks at the relationship between modern parents and the nannies they hire to take care of their kids. 

What would our world look like without paperback books? One publishing company has taken one step closer to the reality of eliminating paperback books entirely. Dorchester Publishing has decided to change its printing schedule, focusing first on e-books, followed by a print-on-demand run of paperbacks. The question is: will this be the trend for paperback book publishers to follow?

We frequently aim to pull the curtain back on stories that are hidden or hard to understand…whether they’re political campaigns or scientific breakthroughs. But when it comes to the nation and story of North Korea, the curtain is more like an unscalable wall surrounded by an electric barbed wire fence; few people from the outside are truly able to access what’s so well hidden.

When you think of the biggest natural disasters in U.S. history, what are the first things that come to mind? Certainly Hurricane Katrina, maybe one of the several San Francisco earthquakes, the great Chicago fire. However, most people have never heard of one of the most lethal: the heat wave of 1896.

Yesterday, we asked listeners to tell us what movie version of a book they like better than the book itself. Many of you responded with answers ranging from the classic "Shawshank Redemption" to the movie based on the graphic novel, "Persepolis." Some of you thought movies can simplify a book's sprawling plot, and others felt movies breathed life into their favorite characters. Listen to what listeners had to say and add your own!

Jerry Craft was 20 years old when a semi-pro baseball recruiter called him up to see if he'd consider playing for the Witchita Falls Graham Stars. He had been playing college baseball at Texas Tech and had never heard of the team, but said he would talk to the team's owner.  When he arrived for his meeting in the summer of 1959, he realized the reason he didn't know about the team was because it was in the West Texas Colored League. 

This summer we’ve been making a list of great beach reads or books to crack open poolside.  We’ve talked to Justin Cronin, author of 'The Passage' and Hilary Thayer Hamman about her novel ‘Anthropology of an American Girl.’ This week, Laurence Gonzales' 'Lucy' is at the top of our list.

We continue our summer reading series with journalist S.C. Gwynne, who brings us his new book, "Empire of the Summer Moon," about the final battles between Comanche Indians and white settlers. It's the story of the last great chief of the tribe that was once the most powerful in the nation. 

Tell us: What summer reading would you recommend?

Comic book writer Harvey Pekar, best known for his series "American Splendor," died yesterday at the age of 70. According to reports, Pekar's wife, Joyce Brabner, discovered Pekar's body in their home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Pekar became an unofficial poster boy for the city of Cleveland with his "Everyman" comic tales, mostly consisting of living a mundane, unglamorous life.

From telling a joke to talking to their families to denying their crimes, the last words of death row inmates tend to center on similar themes throughout history. Why are these words so compelling? And what do they say about humanity?

No one ever expected best selling author Scott Turow to publish a sequel to his very first novel, the 1987 legal thriller “Presumed Innocent,” mostly because he said he’d never publish one.

How do you raise a child who's going to grow up to be wildly successful? (And maybe even a centibillionaire?) That's a version of the question every parent asks themselves. Every parent wants their kids to be successful, to be wise, to be decent people. Very few, when their children are born, think, “I want my kid to be the world’s first centibillionaire.”

Craig Robinson is best known as Michelle Obama's big brother and it's a role he says he's more than happy to play. After all, when they were growing up, Michelle was always known as Craig Robinson's little sister.

Author Mark Twain once wrote, “It is no use to keep private information which you can't show off.”  Twain, whose given name was Samuel Clemens, will finally show off his most private information 100 years after his death, with the publication of his autobiography.