Venezuelans have been suffering one calamity after the next, but in recent weeks, much of Venezuela has had to go long stretches without electricity.

New York Times journalist Nicholas Casey was in Maracaibo, Venezuela, in March when the country was hit by a six-day blackout, considered at the time the worst in Venezuela's history.

On the next Fresh Air, the unfolding crisis in Venezuela, where desperate shortages of food, electrical power, and medicine have compelled an estimated three million people to leave the country, many on foot.

CNN legal affairs correspondent Joan Biskupic discusses the roots of Roberts' conservatism and his work for the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. Her new book is The Chief.

Laila Lalami's new novel is called The Other Americans and it's likely to jump start some timely book group discussions about the American experiment; specifically, about how different types of people feel less visible in this country because of their ethnicity, class, race or citizenship status.