Opb's State Of Wonder

Maria Semple on "Today Will Be Different" - 1:23The world of Maria Semple's imagination is a glowing place. Her characters rocket off on madcap adventures; they collide at high speed; they teeter on the edge of emotional cliffhangers. Some passages crackle with the comedic snap she honed writing for TV shows like “Arrested Development” and "Mad About You," but at the center of her stories are quiet emotional truths. Semple’s last novel was the "New York Times" best-seller “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” — a merry chase on the trail of a formidable heroine that's currently being adapted into a movie starring Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig and Billy Crudup. This year she’s back with another kind of caper, "Today Will Be Different," which in turn will be made into an HBO limited series starring Julia Roberts and written by Semple.Rabih Alameddine on "The Angel of History" - 17:05Rabih Alameddine possesses the kind of multifaceted mind we all aspire to. His career has spanned engineering, painting and writing, and h