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Biographer Jane Leavy strips baseball hero Mickey Mantle of his glamour, while basketball coach Roy Williams looks back on his career, and filmmaker Sam Irvin celebrates the resilient gleam of performer and writer Kay Thompson. Also, C.J. Chivers explores the AK-47 and its impact on warfare.

Also: A Jane Austen Festival sets a new record; Terrance Hayes on winning a MacArthur.

Chrysta Bilton's Normal Family includes a sperm donor dad and 35 siblings. Ken Tucker reviews Bartees Strange's Farm to Table. Jane the Virgin writer Rafael Agustin's memoir is Illegally Yours.

Make-up and Visual Effects Artist STAN WINSTON. He created the live-action dinosaurs in this summer's hit movie, "Jurassic Park." In the film, "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," he aged actress Cicely Tyson from age 19 to 110. In "The Terminator," WINSTON made-up Arnold Schwarzenegger, and created the robotic puppetry in the film. WINSTON won an Academy Award for his work on "Aliens." And he developed and created the character of Edward Scissorhands for the movie of the same name.

Anthropologist BIRUTE GALDIKAS. "The New York Times Magazine" called her the "third angel" of Louis Leakey, who also taught Jane Goodall and DIan Fossey. GALDIKAS has been studying orangutans in Indonesia since 1971, when virtually nothing was known about the animal in the wild. Since then, there have been articles about her and her research in "National Geographic" and other magazines, and she has just written a new book about her work, "Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo" (Little, Brown and Co

Record producer, musician, and composer BEN VAUGHN. The New. Jersey-based musician, and a favorite with Fresh Air, has relocated to L.A. to work in film and television. He composed the theme music for the new sitcom, "Third Rock from the Sun," starring John Lithgow, and Jane Curtin, which premieres tonight (TUES, JAN 9, at 8:30 PM ET/PT on NBC). VAUGHN most recent release is "Instrumental Stylings" (Bar/None).

British detective author, LYNDA LA PLANTE, who created the TV detective series, "Prime Suspect" which stars Helen Mirren as Superintendent Jane Tenneson. LA PLANTE has also published a new crime novel, "Cold Shoulder" about a woman cop on the skids. (Random House

British actor Colin Firth is probably best known for his role as Mr. Darcy in the BBC/A&E production of Pride & Prejudice. It's being rebroadcast Sunday Night on PBS as part of a Jane Austen series.

A critic on Twitter said Jane Rosenberg created "the worst sketch of Tom Brady ever." Rosenberg told Boston.com she thinks the outrage over the sketch of the Patriot's quarterback is pretty funny.

The Backseat Book Club returns from summer vacation with Anna Sewell's classic novel, Black Beauty. NPR's Michele Norris will talk with writer Jane Smiley who, in addition to winning a Pulitzer prize for adult literature, has written kids books starring horses.