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Both major party presidential campaigns are focusing on family this election season. Some parents relate to the personal stories, but others say the candidates are just pandering. Host Michel Martin takes a look at how family is playing out in this campaign. She checks in with moms Leslie Morgan Steiner, Jolene Ivey, Dani Tucker and Gayle Trotter.

Just what is a summer book, anyway? Does it have to be a big, fat, juicy page turner to earn the right to be packed away in the luggage (or downloaded on the e-reader)? We put that question to several book reviewers to find out what they like to take along on summer getaways.

Producer Jack Perry and White worked together until the singer's death in 2003. Perry recently compiled and produced a four-disc retrospective box set spanning White's career, titled Unlimited. NPR's Steve Inskeep recently spoke with Perry about the late soul singer.

Jay-Z is one of the most successful hip-hop artists of all time. On Fresh Air, he discusses growing up in Brooklyn surrounded by drugs and violence, and the stories behind many of his famous songs.

The New York Times calls Stephen Sondheim the "greatest and perhaps best-known artist in American musical theater." Sondheim composed the music and lyrics for, among others, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods andCompany. He joins Fresh Air to discuss his career in musical theater.

Rapper Percy Carey, a.k.a. MF Grimm, has survived several murder attempts, including one that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He's got a new album, The Hunt for the Gingerbread Man, and he's just published an autobiographical graphic novel.

At 92, film legend Kirk Douglas has returned to live theater for a one-man show that's a biography of his life and career. The last performance is Sunday at, fittingly enough, the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, Calif.

A decision to let her son enjoy a few moments of independence and beauty ended in tragedy. But out of Rich Stark's death in a car accident, Myra Dean managed to extract small comforts.

Hillary Clinton has taken charge at the U.S. State Department. The secretary of State named George Mitchell to be a special envoy to the Middle East and Richard Holbrooke to be a representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In his book, This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible, former activist Charles Cobb Jr. says weapons kept people and communities safe during that era.

President Obama is starting a European trip in Poland, where he will meet allied leaders from central and eastern Europe. They are worried about Russia's intentions after the recent events in Ukraine.

Author Mark Helprin's latest novel is a sprawling tale of love, honor and danger in the years just after World War II. Returned soldier Harry Copeland spots a mysterious woman in white on the Staten Island Ferry. She turns out to be an heiress with Broadway dreams and a complicated past that threatens their growing love.