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Novelist Peter Carey returns with a funny riff on de Tocqueville's America, while David Remnick looks at the rise of President Obama, Rhodes scholar Wes Moore considers the prison life he might have lived, and Simon Johnson and James Kwak argue that America's megabanks should be cut down to size.

In The Deptford Trilogy, the erudite Robertson Davies weaves together the lives of three adversarial men, all connected by a troubling childhood incident. Author Amy Bloom says that Davies' complicated characters electrify this winding story with wackiness, compassion and unexpected sincerity.

Good feuds can make for juicy stories, but terrible downfalls. Newfoundland author Michael Crummey suggests three books about grudge-fueled atrocities that tear towns and families apart. And even if his picks can't convince you to turn the other cheek, they're still pulse-quickening reads.

Today France celebrates Bastille Day, commemorating one of the best-known events of the 1789 Revolution. Author Penelope Rowlands gives those unfamiliar with the French Revolution a reality check with these three accounts that give new meaning to the term c'est la vie.

Journalist Mark Kurlansky is drawn to singular subjects — cod, salt and oysters, to name a few. In The Eastern Stars, he takes a look at the history of baseball and sugar in the small town of San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic.

Food writer Nigella Lawson knows that the holiday season can be overstuffed with planning and decorating. She offers Renee Montagne two recipes — chocolate chip chili and a Christmas-y rocky road — to help keep things warm and simple.

It can feel like a chore to read an overly hyped book, but Colum McCann's celebrated novel Let the Great World Spin is an engrossing exception. Playwright Wendy MacLeod says that the prismatic tale about a day in the intersecting lives of New Yorkers has earned its rave reviews — and then some.

In her new book about bad behavior, Laura Kipnis explores why we can't look away when a public drama unfolds. But critic Susan Jane Gilman says her approach is a bit too timid for such a titillating topic.

During this holiday season, debts have been on the mind of commentator Andrei Codrescu. He's been thinking about all kinds of debts, good debt, bad debt, public and private — debt is all around us.

A classical scholar with a voracious appetite for high and low culture alike, he's dauntingly smart — but far too interested in why we love what we love to be a snob. Jacki Lyden talks to Mendelsohn about his new essay collection.

Dark Horse Comics has commissioned short stories from several creators behind the current crime comic renaissance. The result, Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics, is a seamy, exploitative walking tour through man's basest desires. Which is to say, it's a lot of fun.

Tennessee songwriter Julien Baker's new album Little Oblivions reveals new folds in the musician's road to recovery from addiction.

In Saturday Night Live writer Simon Rich's latest novel, What in God's Name, God plans to do away with people so he can focus on opening a restaurant in heaven. An angel makes him a bet that if he can bring two shy, lovelorn humans together, God must spare humanity.

Czech-born artist Peter Sis makes a case for the printed page with a gorgeously illustrated retelling of a 12th century Sufi poem. In The Conference of the Birds, Sis crafts a richly inked parable of a flight of birds that speaks to the painful but beautiful human journey toward understanding.

"Publishing for me is a business, not an ideology," says the bestselling thriller writer. Eisler walked away from a half-million dollar deal offered by a traditional publisher to self-publish — and then teamed up with Amazon. His newest book, The Detachment, was e-released on Amazon in September.

Can the mishaps of three seriously misguided Victorian gentlemen still provoke laughter? More than 120 years after its first edition, author Julia Stuart says Jerome K. Jerome's classic caper, Three Men in a Boat, is still a delightful read.

When Roya Hakakian moved from Iran to the U.S., she didn't think any poet in her adopted country could top the ones whose work she grew up with. But then she discovered a piece that blew away her prejudices. It was "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke.

Howard A. Jones isn't just a geek — he's a fantasy geek, and his favorite book is packed with violence, romance and metafictional conceits. It's Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber series.

Her historic confirmation is also symbolic, as the agency was long a tool of oppression against Indigenous peoples. Haaland will be key to President Biden's ambitious efforts to combat climate change.

Reading The Sun Also Rises as a 12-year-old, author Ben Mezrich realized he wanted to be just like the main character — an alcoholic. Not that he knew what that meant. The book also helped him find his true calling. Have you wanted to be like a character in a book? Tell us about it in the comments.