From KCRW in Santa Monica and PRI, Public Radio International, this is To the Point.

It's Reporter's Notebook on To the Point.

Hello again, I'm Orin-Aulny, and this is a New Year's Eve edition of To The Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most. Almost every day on our program, we end with a reporter's notebook on events

or issues that aren't necessarily leading the news. Today, a collection of our favorite interviews

from this year with the authors of remarkable books. We'll hear how Barack Obama's

biographer learned more than the president knew about his own ancestry, why Exxon

Mobile's not

really an

American company,

and how women

came out of

the secretarial

pool into

senior positions

in the

news industry.

We'll get a

scathing

account of

America's

fumbling efforts

...