Alicia Cypress

Just in time to worry about all the guests who will descend upon your house for the holidays — or perhaps all the wine you'll want to drink to avoid them — a new book aims to help you soothe your stress while still enjoying wine to the fullest.

Wine writer Jon Bonné's latest, The New Rules of Wine, navigates a complicated wine world by offering tips to ease any trepidation or confusion, and in some cases, even remind you that there are no rules.

When trying to demystify wine, one of the most misunderstood challenges for consumers can be the fizzy stuff.

There are all sorts of foreign names for what's commonly known as sparkling wine: Cava (from Spain), Prosecco (from Italy), Crémant (from many different regions in France), Sekt (from Germany). But all too often if we see tiny bubbles racing to the top of a glass, our first assumption is Champagne.

But not all sparkling wines taste alike – or are made alike.

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and in The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading, using the #NPRreads hashtag. Each weekend, we highlight some of the best stories.

From Alicia Cypress, NPR Investigations Editor:

The LA Times has written the perfect mystery to give those of us not on vacation something to look forward to all week.

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading, using the #NPRreads hashtag. On Fridays, we highlight some of the best stories.

This week, we bring you three items.