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U.S. prosecutors this week are expected to ask a federal grand jury to indict former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay on fraud charges. Many of his legal troubles began when Sherron Watkins started to tell prosecutors about Enron's accounting practices. For this week's installment of our summer reading series, we spoke with the Enron whistleblower and co-author of Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron.

A road-trip movie from director Alexander Payne (Sideways) follows a man en route to collect a million-dollar prize that probably never was. NPR's Bob Mondello says the black-and-white film is just the latest achievement from a talented filmmaker. (Recommended)

The week's tech coverage was dominated by Bitcoin, the cyber-currency that was the focus of a congressional hearing, and by video games, which were the subject NPR explored in its weekly tech theme. And a few other things caught our eye.

Today, President Obama announced a massive effort with major publishers to make thousands of e-book titles free for low-income kids.

Earlier Thursday, the Financial Times itself had reported that the newspaper's publisher was on the verge of being sold to German media group Alex Springer.

Also: Quebec mulls setting the prices of books; Junot Diaz on his writing habits.

Also: Philip Roth schedules another interview; Neil Patrick Harris' autobiography.

Writer Gary Shteyngart may have no idea what Zardoz is about, but that doesn't stop him from knowing the science-fiction novel by heart. For a nerd like him, nothing compares to the post-apocalyptic world full of floating heads and immortal beings.

The Washington Post plans to cut 240 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, through voluntary buyouts. Leaders said they had been "overly optimistic" about growth.

Stores are bringing back doorbuster deals that are available in-store only — a gambit to get more people physically shopping on the Thanksgiving weekend. One of the best discounts this year is 4K televisions.