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The comic book mutants known as the X-Men are back on the big screen. X2: X-Men United, packs in more characters -- good and evil -- than the first X-Men film. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan offers a review.

Songwriter Felice Bryant dies at age 77 at home in Gatlinburg, Tenn. She collaborated with her husband to pen some of the best-known tunes in country music and early rock 'n' roll. Her songs Bye Bye Love and Wake Up Little Susie were Everly Brothers standards, just as Rocky Top became a country standard. NPR's Melissa Block offers a remembrance.

Mexican tenor Ramon Vargas releases In My Heart, a CD of 17th and 18th century Italian love songs sung in the Bel Canto or "beautiful song" style. It's a type of operatic singing characterized by rich tonal lyricism and brilliant display of technique. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Vargas.

Fifty-five years ago, John Steinbeck's best friend died after being struck by a train near Monterey's Cannery Row. Ricketts, a marine biologist, was cast as the fictional "Doc" in Steinbeck's best-selling novel. In a two-part Morning Edition report, NPR's Renee Montagne looks back at one of American fiction's most famous locales and at Ricketts and his lasting legacy.

Twenty years ago, the British literary magazine Granta published a list of what it considered the best young novelists of Britain. Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, and many more went on to find fame and sometimes fortune. And Granta had found itself a tradition. The March edition features a new group of young authors. NPR's Lynn Neary speaks with Granta editor Ian Jack and two of the writers on the list: Alan Warner and Andrew O'Hagan.

Henry Ford's affordable, mass-produced Model T changed the face of America. But the innovative automaker's failure to look beyond the Model T was nearly disastrous for his company, author Douglas Brinkley tells NPR's John Ydstie. At npr.org, Hear Brinkley describe how Ford Motor Co. avoided that fate by adapting.

The Handmaid's Tale, an opera based on Margaret Atwood's novel of the same name, makes its North American debut at the Minnesota Opera in St. Paul. The opera tells of a world where religion is used to justify political agendas and women are stripped of their rights. Minnesota Public Radio's Marianne Combs reports.

Like an actor who refuses to watch his own movies, author Michael Chabon says he can't stand to read his books. On Morning Edition, Chabon and fellow writers Jane Smiley and John Edgar Wideman share their thoughts about the nature of writing in a virtual "salon" styled after the Algonquin Round Table. Hear a longer version of their discussion online.

A new book on President Kennedy has attracted attention because of the disclosure that he had sex with a White House intern. But some historians dispute author Robert Dallek's assertion that Kennedy's presidency was not damaged by his risky sexual behavior and bad health. In an extended interview with NPR's Juan Williams, Dallek discusses Kennedy's medical history and his assassination.

Journalist David Brinkley, whose career paralleled much of the evolution of American television news coverage, dies of complications from a fall at age 82. Brinkley first gained fame in the 1960s co-anchoring NBC's evening news program with Chet Huntley; he later hosted ABC's This Week with David Brinkley. Brinkley won 10 Emmys and three Peabodys during his career. Hear NPR's Cokie Roberts.