The cohost of NPR's All Things Considered, Noah Adams, is taking a leave of absence for a year to write a book on the aviation pioneers for editorial director Steve Ross at Crown. Ross bought world rights to The Flyers: Orville and Wilbur 1903 from agent Jonathan Lazear and plans to publish in fall of next year. Ross, unusual these days, will edit the book himself; it's a reunion with the author for him, since he edited Adams's Piano Lessons during an earlier stint at Delacorte. Incidentally, Crown is also doing a book by Adams's wife, Neenah Ellis, also an NPR stalwart, in the fall. It's If I Live to Be 100, a collection of the network's popular interviews with centenarians.