Michael Caine on his decades on screen

Plus: Peter Sagal's marathons, new poetry from Natasha Trethewey, critics' picks and more [Michael Caine]( Image via Clemens Bilan/AFP/Getty Images Michael Caine, 85, has been filling our movie screens for a half-century. But, [he tells NPR's Ari Shapiro]( he nearly ended up working in a factory. Caine's new memoir is Blowing the Bloody Doors Off, and it's a chronicle of his decades in show business -- from crippling stage fright to Z-grade horror movies to his current success and security. [The Incomplete Book of Running, by Peter Sagal]( You may know Peter Sagal as the host of the NPR news quiz, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! which just celebrated its 20th anniversary. But he has another pursuit -- one that pays even less than public radio: Marathon running. Sagal has run 14 marathons, and now he's written a book about it, called The Incomplete Book of Running. "Running long distances is not an opportunity to see how much you can suffer," [he tells Ari Shapiro]( "but see how much you can prepare, to see how much you can apply discipline and practice and mindset." [Monument, by Natasha Trethewey]( Natasha Trethewey — former Poet Laureate of the United States — has a new collection of poems out about American history, personal history, and the lives of people who are often overlooked by history and unsung in poetry. It's called Monument, and Trethewey says her own tragic personal history — her mother was murdered by her second husband — is part of what made her a poet. "It feels very much to me that out of the ruin of her life, I was able to fashion a life for myself," [she tells NPR's Scott Simon]( "in which I not only survived but also thrived." [In Extremis, by Lindsey Hilsum]( Many journalists are given the title of war correspondent. Few have really deserved it as much as Marie Colvin. She was unmistakable in war zones — she sported an eye patch to cover up an eye injured in a grenade attack while she was reporting during the Sri Lankan civil war. And she was killed in Syria in 2012 when the Syrian government shelled a media center. Now, her story's being told in a new movie, and in a biography by her friend Lindsey Hilsum, [who talked to NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro about remembering Colvin.]( Finally this week -- critic Ilana Masad says An Unexplained Death is about [much more than just one death](. Our religion correspondent Tom Gjelten [takes a look]( at Elaine Pagels' new Why Religion? And critic Jason Sheehan says Lavie Tidhar's Unholy Land [gets weirder the deeper you read](. [An Unexplained Death, by Mikita Brottman]( [Unholy Land, by Lavie Tidhar]( [Why Religion? by Elaine Pagels]( -- Happy reading! [Facebook]( [Twitter]( You received this message because you're subscribed to our Books emails. | [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002 [NPR]