Search results for

Reviewer Alan Cheuse offers his annual recommendations for holiday gift-giving. This year's list includes novels of travel on Earth and in space, new versions of tales from the Bible, Africa and Mesopotamia, and collections of poetry and song.

Author Robert Sullivan retraces the steps of George Washington and his troops in his new book, My American Revolution: Crossing the Delaware and I-78. It recounts the 30-mile trek north from the Delaware River.

In his new book, The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, Bob Shacochis returns to Haiti, but also takes the reader across continents and generations. The 700-page book has been compared to the work of Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene and Norman Mailer.

When people ask me, "What was it like to grow up on Long Island?" I give them a copy of Alice McDermott's novel That Night. "Read this," I say.

Garden writer Bonnie Blodgett didn't know what her sense of smell meant to her — until she lost it. Her new book, Remembering Smell, describes what it's like to live in the world without being able to smell it — from the sweet aromas of springtime to the stench of sour milk.

Most people think of the Cold War as a long, glacial period, but in the beginning it was dangerously unstable. Neil Sheehan, author of A Bright Shining Lie, says there might well have been nuclear war — had it not been for one man: the subject of his latest book, A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon.

Alan Greenspan was often celebrated during his long chairmanship of the Federal Reserve. But Greenspan's policies have been blamed by some for the Great Recession. In an interview with NPR about his new book, The Map and the Territory: Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of Forecasting, Greenspan discusses difficulties in predicting economic calamity.

Psychologist Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin designed his best-selling (and self-published) story The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep to help kids doze off. We visited a local naptime to see if it works.

In Thomas Caplan's latest novel, The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen, Ty Hunter, a spy-turned-movie star, is called back to service at the U.S. president's behest. The book is Caplan's third work of fiction, and an early draft got a little editing help from the real-life ex-president.

Explosive Eighteen is the 18th in the best-selling series of crime novels featuring Jersey girl Stephanie Plum. Author Janet Evanovich discusses the inspiration for her heroine and how she eavesdrops for ideas.

1970 was a bummer of a year: violence, political unrest and the end of The Beatles. Fire and Rain, a new book by David Browne, chronicles that turbulent year in politics and music.

It's been more than four decades since Burton Malkiel published A Random Walk Down Wall Street. Eleven editions later, Malkiel hasn't wavered in his mantra of patience and broad investing.

Actress and comedian Aparna Nancherla picks her five favorite performances.

A new crop of memoirs from soldiers in Iraq highlights stories from the front lines, the complications of leadership, and the terrible choices that war presents.

John Williams' Stoner sold just 2,000 copies when it was originally published in 1965. It's now acknowledged as a classic work, is a best-seller across Europe and the No. 1 novel in the Netherlands.

Gourmet magazine's editor in chief and food critic Ruth Reichl grew up in a house where mold-covered pudding was considered an adequate dessert. But Reichl doesn't begrudge her mother. In a new book, she thanks her.

Fold, founder, flop: That's what the protagonists of these three books do well. Author Lysley Tenorio recommends stories about men whose good intentions are undeniable, if not always admirable. Have a favorite story about failure? Tell us what it is in the comments below.

Crime might not pay, but it does deliver in the world of fiction. Author Tony D'Souza recommends three of his favorite books about illicit activities. They'll have you contemplating a life of misdeeds and malfeasance.

Emily Dickinson is all over Tucson, Ariz. Reading, lectures, classroom lessons — it's all part of the Big Read Project, which is devoted to "inspiring people across the country to pick up a good book."

Books about quantum mechanics can be pretty dry stuff. But when a novelist conjures up multiple worlds, the results can be spellbinding, even when it's no easy read. Such is the case with Duplex, the latest book from Kathryn Davis. Reviewer Rosecrans Baldwin, says this one's worth the effort.

Best-selling mystery novelist James Patterson may be known for his thrillers, but the little book that profoundly influenced his writing was far less conspicuous. Mrs. Bridge, the tale of a Kansas City husband and wife, would stay with him forever.

English rose from humble beginnings to become a language that's spoken by people from every corner of the Earth. In Globish, Robert McCrum tells the story of how a mongrel language slowly took the world by storm.

In James' Portrait of a Lady, Isabel Archer is wise enough to understand that if you're not happy without a man, you certainly won't be happy with one. Writer Rhoda Janzen loves the book because it shows what a woman does once she acknowledges her own complicity in the life she has chosen.

Author Monica Ali spent an entire year poking around "below stairs" in five London Hotel restaurants before she started writing latest novel.

In Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami spins whimsical and daring short stories about a talking monkey, man-eating cats on a Greek island and the girl from Ipanema. The writer himself appears in a few of them.