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The shift to electronic medical payments gave rise to a new kind of health care middlemen, who now charge 1-5% every time insurers pay doctors. Here's how lobbyists convinced regulators this was OK.

Hip-hop music grew from the streets of Harlem and the Bronx into a multi-billion-dollar industry. Dan Charnas chronicles how hip-hop producers and entrepreneurs changed the music industry and pop culture in The Big Payback.

One muggy Thursday, 50,000 rowdy rock fans packed Chicago's Comiskey Park to see disc jockey Steve Dahl blow up a crate of disco records. That evening's stunt helped birth a new musical movement.

Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera's new book of poems melds the political with the personal. Critic Craig Morgan Teicher says it makes for deep yet accessible reading.

Chuck Palahniuk aims for piquant social satire in his new novel, but reviewer (and longtime fan) Jason Sheehan finds his fandom severely dented by lazy characterizations and lack of actual satire.

In his new collection Etgar Keret recounts bittersweet and often humorous vignettes of life in the seven years between the birth of his son and the death of his father.

For decades, astronomers believed there was another planet in our solar system, tucked just out of sight. Then Albert Einstein figured out it wasn't there. Author Thomas Levenson explains.

Rick Moody's new novel takes the form of online travel reviews written by the lonely but oddly eloquent Reginald Morse. Critic Jason Sheehan says it's Moody at his most inventive, playful and biting.

David Mitchell's new novel about a soul-devouring house embraces all the classic horror tropes. Critic Jason Sheehan says you may think it's contrived ... until you realize that you, too, are trapped.

The ice hockey legend marks the 99th anniversary of the NHL with his new book 99: Stories of the Game. Never mind the sport's tough guy reputation; "the game of hockey is an art," Gretzky says.

Jim Harrison lived as he wrote — vividly. One year after his death, a new collection of his essays on food, wine, writing and aging brings him roaring back in all his immoderate brilliance.

Language authority and Washington Post copy editor Bill Walsh died Wednesday after a long career making other people's writing better.

Mark Z. Danielewski's proposed 27-part saga about a girl and her very strange cat rolls on in Volume 3, Honeysuckle and Pain — in which all the different voices and stories start to find a groove.

Inspired by her daughter, the Emmy, Tony and Oscar-winning actress has written a picture book. Corduroy Takes a Bow continues the adventures of a curious teddy bear and his young (black) friend Lisa.

The veteran journalist stands behind the reporting in his new book, Fear, and says that administration officials who have denied quotes attributed to them are acting out of "political necessity."

Jardine Libaire's novel — more a series of vignettes — follows two kids from very opposite sides of the tracks who fall hard in love in 1980s New York, and what happens when reality intrudes.

Jenny Allen's new essay collection is sarcastic, funny and astute, finding humor in everything from her battle with cancer to the indignities of aging to her many, many linguistic pet peeves.

There was a time when Patrice Banks avoided taking her car in for routine maintenance. Now, she's a trained mechanic, and the owner of a garage that caters to women.

Women in the Middle Ages were excluded from many realms: the law, universities, and surprisingly, from friendship. Clearly, that's changed — and Kayleen Schaefer's new book examines how and why.

Chef Hugh Acheson's new book contains more than 100 recipes for the workhorse kitchen tool of convenience. He says this old standby "really is a gateway to cooking from scratch again."

The Lone Star State is home to more than a million horses. Some Texans have begun adding to their herds in rather unusual ways: by cloning their champion horses.

President-elect Barack Obama has filled about half of the openings in his Cabinet. A new Gallup Poll shows nearly 4 out of 5 Americans approve of his transition moves so far. But, could there be a price to be paid for this early popularity?

Writers can be inspired by their surroundings — but Indonesian volcanoes? Researchers say Mary Shelley's Frankenstein may have been inspired by an icy, dark summer caused by Mount Tambora's eruption.

Caroline Kennedy has ended her bid to win appointment to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton and once held by her late uncle, Bobby Kennedy. In a statement released early Thursday, Kennedy says she told New York Gov. David Patterson she is withdrawing for personal reasons. She was considered a favorite for the New York Senate seat, though she has never held elective office.

The playful second book in the author's Harlem Trilogy shows Ray Carney scheming how to get his teenage daughter into the concert of her dreams. Alarming capers ensue.