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Los Angeles Times food columnist Lucas Kwan Peterson breaks down his "official" — and very biased — rating system that led him to rate 12 kinds of Girl Scout Cookies.

The Biden administration agreed to a second cost-sharing partnership with an Asian ally. It's now negotiated with Japan and Korea to share the costs of housing U.S. forces in their countries.

Ben Fountain's newest book, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, takes place over the course of a single day in the life of Spc. William Lynn. Author Jonathan Evison writes that this is a book so vivid he felt like he lived it. Have you ever read a book that felt real? Tell us in the comments.

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.

It's hip to be square this weekend at the annual National School Scrabble Competition in Providence, R.I., where middle schoolers are facing off. The team that makes the highest play using the letter Q wins a signed Shaquille O'Neal basketball jersey.

It's amazing to complete a Ph.D., but can you dance to it? Some scientists are getting their groove on to explain their research. An online contest offers them cash prizes.

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.

Over the past few weeks, Talk of the Nation has been asking for the books you think should be required reading for all college freshmen. Here are 10 of your suggestions.

Twelve Breaths a Minute: End-of-Life Essays captures the experiences of family members, doctors, caregivers and others who have learned valuable lessons from witnessing life's final moments.

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."

Maxine Hong Kingston's free-verse memoir contemplates her 70 years of "always writing, writing" and the conflicting impulses to catalog each instance or to "[take] my sweet time to love the moment-/to-moment beauty of everything."

Crosley says the novel by Irvine Welsh — also the author of Trainspotting — aces every category of "dirty" we have. Reading it, she explains, is like watching "a rusty car careen into a garbage dump of filthy phonetics and explode into a strangely beautiful ball of flames."

An enormous cargo ship is stuck in the Suez Canal in Egypt, blocking one of the world's key shipping routes.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is making the global rounds virtually, with Canada and Mexico as his first stops.

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.

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.

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

In Ron Currie Jr.'s Everything Matters! a comet is pointed toward Earth, and it's coming soon. This humorous and poignant novel attempts to find meaning in the end of the world.

In Homer & Langley, the masterful E.L. Doctorow uses the real-life Collyers — hermit brothers with a social pedigree and a Fifth Avenue address who died in squalor — as a jumping-off point for a kaleidoscopic trip through 20th century America.