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Underground cartoonist Guy Colwell's dyspeptic chronicle of the 1970s captures a decade when idealism was out of style. Reviewer Etelka Lehoczky says Colwell's style is uneven but at times beautiful.

There is no reason to expect that we can get to the ultimate nature of reality, says physicist Marcelo Gleiser. We must learn to live with the mystery, with the fact that we cannot know everything.

In his first novel, J.R. Moehringer writes from the point of view of Willie Sutton, whom he calls the "greatest American robber." Moehringer says writing historical fiction helped him deal with the anger he felt toward banks after the global financial crisis in 2008.

Barbara Kingsolver's seventh novel addresses global warming and the failings of public education through the story of a Tennessee woman whose thus-far disappointing life changes when 15 million monarch butterflies alight in the woods near her home.

Philip Roth recently announced that he had written his last novel. Author Matthew Specktor explains why Sabbath's Theater, released in 1995, is not only Roth's most disgusting novel but also his best. Do you have a favorite book that breaks all the rules? Tell us in the comments.

To understand many of the triumphs, tragedies and conflicts in the world, geopolitical analyst Robert Kaplan says to look no further than a map. In his book The Revenge of Geography, Kaplan argues that geography is central to understanding the history and future of world affairs.

To understand many of the triumphs, tragedies and conflicts in the world, geopolitical analyst Robert Kaplan says to look no further than a map. In his book The Revenge of Geography, Kaplan argues that geography is central to understanding the history and future of world affairs.

Kristen Iversen spent her childhood in the 1960s in Colorado near the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons factory, playing in fields that now appear to have been contaminated with plutonium. In Full Body Burden, she investigates the environmental scandal involving nuclear contamination around her childhood home.

Self-described "fermentation revivalist" Sandor Katz says "the creative space" between fresh and rotten is the root of most of humanity's prized delicacies. His new book, The Art of Fermentation, explores the ancient culinary art form.

Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson was born in rural Ethiopia, adopted and then raised in Sweden. As a black chef, he was conscious of breaking through the racial barrier. The heat in the kitchen never let up. "Through that process of being yelled at in German, French and English and Swedish, I learned a lot," he says.

What if the rapture actually occurred? That's the plot of Tom Perrotta's novel The Leftovers, which examines the aftermath of an unexplained rapturelike event in which millions of people around the globe inexplicably disappear into thin air.

Celebrated novelist Aleksandar Hemon's first nonfiction book is a memoir of his early life in Sarajevo, his flight and acclimation to Chicago after the Bosnian War broke out, and the family tragedy that hit years after he made his new home in the U.S.

The U.S. military called its Oak Ridge, Tenn., facility "Site X." During World War II, thousands of workers there enriched uranium for the first atom bomb — even if they didn't know it at the time. Author Denise Kiernan's new book, The Girls of Atomic City, follows some of the women who worked there.

Michel Martin speaks to Mark Anthony Neal about his new book, Looking For Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities. It looks at some of the ways black men have been portrayed in pop culture throughout history.

For nearly 50 years, neuroscientist Suzanne Corkin worked with Henry Molaison, who lost most of his memory in 1953 after experimental surgery for severe seizures. Their work together taught us much of what we know today about memory, and she writes about Molaison and their work in her new book.

Grilling is a pillar of the American summer, and it's at the heart of many other cultures as well — from Latin America to Africa. This summer All Things Considered is setting out to explore some of them with the "Global Grill."

In the 1950s, 20 percent of marriages in the U.S. were interfaith unions. By the first decade of the 21st century, the rate increased to 45 percent. While the decision is common, it comes with a unique set of challenges. In Til Faith Do Us Part, Naomi Schaefer Riley explains the risks and benefits.

The Silence and the Roar doesn't explicitly take place in Syria, but the similarities between its setting and author Nihad Sirees' home country are undeniable. Sirees' work has been banned from publication in Syria, where he's considered an opponent of the government.

Set in 1930s Berlin, Paris and Los Angeles, The Teleportation Accident is a sci-fi-noir-comedy mashup overstuffed with astute social observations, high-brow literary allusions and vivid prose. Critic Jennifer Reese finds this freewheeling farce both brilliant and exasperating.

The volatile world of New York's art scene is the setting for the newest novel by Rachel Kushner. A young woman, Reno, has come to the city to turn a love of motorcycles into a career in art, but she winds up involved in a radical political movement in Italy.

Dr. Sam Parnia researches the experiences of cardiac arrest patients in the time between when their hearts stop and when they are brought back to life. Parnia thinks of these experiences as actual-death experiences as opposed to near-death experiences.

Advertisers collect information with every digital move people make. They then target ads based on that information. Communications scholar Joseph Turow worries that advertisers will use such data to discriminate against people and put them into "reputation silos."

Through his many New Yorker covers, Barry Blitt has become one of the pre-eminent satirical cartoonists of America's recent presidents. Now Blitt has trained his eye and pen upon our first president in a new children's book, George Washington's Birthday.

Two years ago, Allison Russell's breakthrough album took the roots music world by storm. Now nominated for the genre's highest honor, Russell has a new goal: to open Americana up even more.

Criminologist David M. Kennedy's strategy for reducing gang violence has dramatically reduced youth homicide rates nationwide. In his new memoir, Don't Shoot, Kennedy outlines how community meetings and interventions have worked to curb youth violence in more than 70 cities.