Morning Edition on KCCU-HD2

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the holiday rush — too swamped, even, to spend an afternoon reading those books you got for Christmas, we have some recommendations for you — but these are audiobooks, so you can listen while you multitask.

The tortuous negotiations involved in the "fiscal cliff" talks are like a chess game.

To shed some light on the kinds of negotiation techniques that members of Congress might be using during the talks, we asked two negotiators to walk us through their tactics with examples from their everyday lives.

A thief stole brightly wrapped presents, which a French family had left in an unlocked car. But the thief left his cell phone behind. When the family went to the police station to report the theft, the alleged thief was there too, reporting his lost phone.

Dennis Lehane, who wrote the darkly compelling novels Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone, has lost his beloved rescue dog. The novelist describes Tessa as "immeasurably sweet." To the finder, Lehane will name a character after you in his next novel.

Apple CEO Tim Cook got a relatively modest $4.2 million in salary for the latest fiscal year. That's after the company's board set him up with stock now worth $510 million for taking the reins in 2011.