Midday on WNYC

Dagmara Dominczyk talks about her new novel, The Lullaby of Polish Girls, about a girl who immigrates with her parents to the United States in the 1980s as political refugees from Poland. She is sent back to Poland to visit her grandmother on summer, and she develops intense friendships with two local girls and their bond is renewed every summer when Anna returns.

David Morse and Rich Sommer talk about their roles in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s world premiere of “The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin.” Tom Durnin (played by Morse) did the time for a white-collar crime and is now determined to win back the respect he believes he deserves, no matter the price. Can Tom find a place in a family that has worked so hard to move on without him? It's playing at the Laura Pels Theatre.

In June, the Supreme Court effectively struck down the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it legal for nine states, mostly in the South, to change their election laws without seeking federal approval. Gary May tells the history of the Voting Rights Act and the civil rights workers who fought for justice. In Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy, May describes how black voters overcame centuries of bigotry to secure and preserve their right to register and to vote. He also explains the what Supreme Court ruling means and he discusses renewed efforts to curb voting rights to minorities.

Playwright Jonathan Tolins talks about his play “Buyer & Cellar,” along with Michael Urie, who stars in it. It’s about a  struggling actor in L.A., who takes a job working in the Malibu basement of a megastar. One day, the Lady Herself comes downstairs. It feels like real bonding in the basement, but will their relationship ever make it upstairs? It’s playing at the Barrow Street Theater and has been extended through mid-October.

Last week we looked at the criticism of the New York Public Library's renovation plans for its Fifth Avenue building, and today, New York Public Library President Anthony Marx discusses the renovation project and the opposition to it.

Science writer Erik Vance discusses the dismal future of the global fishery. His article “Emptying the World’s Aquarium” is in the August issue of Harper’s magazine.

After more than 30 years as a teacher, Rafe Esquith, can offer plenty of words of wisdom and advice for other teachers coping with the overwhelming challenges of the classroom and beyond. His book Real Talk for Real Teachers mixes instructive stories with useful in-class advice for new teachers and veteran educators.

Miriam Zoll shares her experience undergoing fertility treatments, which she describes as a cold, sterile world of the laboratory, where she and her husband found themselves growing disconnected from nature, their values, and each other. In Cracked Open: Liberty, Fertility, and the Pursuit of High Tech Babies, she writes about why she postponed having a family and looks at the growing fertility industry and the promises it makes.

Ayad Akhtar’s novel American Dervish is our pick for the July Leonard Lopate Show Book Club! It’s a coming-of-age novel about Muslims in America that follows a young man named Hayat who has a romantic and spiritual awakening as he’s growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ayad Akhtar won the Pulitzer Prize this year for his play “Disgraced,” and American Dervish is his debut novel. We hope you've been reading the book along with us. Leave your comments and questions!

China specialists Orville Schell and John Delury explain how China, after a long and painful period of dynastic decline, intellectual upheaval, foreign occupation, civil war, and revolution, managed to emerge on the world stage with hyper-development and wealth creation. Their book Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-first Century examines the lives of 11 influential officials, writers, activists, and leaders whose contributions helped create modern China.

Ben Zimmer talks about the surprising linguistic science behind the revelation that J.K. Rowling wrote the crime novel The Cuckoo's Calling under a pen name. Zimmer is the Wall Street Journal language columnist and executive producer of Vocabulary.com.

Piper Kerman talks about being sentenced to 15 months at a federal correctional facility. She writes about her experience in her memoir Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, which offers a glimpse into the lives of women in prison—why so many away and what happens to them when they’re there. Her memoir is the basis for the new Netflix series “Orange is the New Black.”

If you snore loudly and you wake up feeling tired even after a full night's sleep, you may have sleep apnea, is a potentially serious disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. On this week’s Please Explain two sleep specialists talk about what sleep apnea is and what problems and complications it may cause. We’re joined by Dr. David M. Rapoport, Professor and Medical Director of NYU Sleep Disorders Center; and Dr. Susan Redline is Professor of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Senior Physician, Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Physician, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Joshua Oppenheimer discusses his documentary “The Act of Killing.” When the Indonesian government was overthrown in 1965, small-time gangster Anwar Congo and his friends went from selling movie tickets on the black market to leading anti-communist death squads in the mass murder of over a million people.  The filmmakers examine a country where death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes, challenging them to reenact their real-life mass-killings in the style of the American movies they love. “The Act of Killing” opens in New York July 19 at Landmark Sunshine Cinemas.

Summer is a big time for travel, and hosting guests and visiting others can raise some tricky questions about manners and etiquette. Philip Galanes offers advice for house guests and hosts! He's the New York Times Social Q’s columnist and author of Social Q's: How to Survive the Quirks, Quandaries and Quagmires of Today. Do you have questions about being a house guest or hosting a house guest? Or do you have a disaster story to share? Let us know—leave a comment!