J.R. Thornton was once a serious tennis player on the junior circuit. Then he moved to China and spent a year training with the Beijing National Team, where he discovered just how different the life of an aspiring champion could be. His novel "Beautiful Country" reveals the incredibly difficult demands on young athletes in China.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Journalist and poet Ruben Martinez tells Steve Paulson that there are powerful economic incentives for Mexicans to cross the U.S. border to find work.
Sarah Lewis talks about her book, "The Rise: Creativity, The Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery."
In Sara Gruen's new novel "Ape House," a family of bonobo apes are captured to be the main attraction in a reality TV show.
Stewart Lee Allen designs for Anne Strainchamps a menu based on the 7 deadly sins.
Louisa May Alcott was no "little woman". Biographer Harriet Reisen uncovers the fierce feminist behind "Little Women".
When she was 18, Lynne Cox swam between the islands of New Zealand. She broke the men's and women's records for the English Channel. Then she did the unthinkable - swimming to Antarctica.
Tom Bollestorff is an anthropologist at UC Irvine and author of "Coming of Age in Second Life."
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