Wallace Public Library

It took over five years for Nathaniel Rich to finish his first novel — maybe because he was writing The Mayor's Tongue secretly, first as a college student, and then while writing film criticism during the day.

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The clock on our Three-Minute Fiction contest is ticking. Stay tuned, and we'll reveal our latest winner on Sunday.

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Then suppose that, in 19th-century America, the forces of good and evil battled for the soul of the new republic — what we now know as the Civil War. Author Seth Grahame-Smith explores that premise in a new book you can really sink your teeth into.

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David Kirby's book Animal Factory tells the story of three people whose lives have been adversely affected by the growth of factory farms. Part investigative report, part thriller, this book explores the environmental and health impact of raising animals in confinement.

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Ad man Tom Burrell calls out negative images of African Americans in the media for perpetuating the myth of black inferiority. In Brainwashed, he examines the history of the myth and how contemporary culture reinforces it.

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The long-time bestselling paperback, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, by Swedish author Stieg Larsson, has been adapted into a movie, which opens in theaters on Friday.

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American readers can’t get enough of Chelsea Handler. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang is the comedian's third book to make the bestseller lists in recent weeks.

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In Angelology, Danielle Trussoni uses Biblical inspiration to create a species of nefarious creatures that are the product of angel-human unions.

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Until his arrest in 2004, nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan — the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb — ran a vast smuggling network that sent nuclear materiel to Iran and Libya. In his book Peddling Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America's Enemies, weapons expert David Albright explains how Khan's network continues to threaten global security.

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Excerpt: 'Jesus Wars'

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Lionel Shriver's novel So Much for That tells the story of Shep Knacker, who is about to retire to a tropical island when his wife gets diagnosed with cancer. To keep his insurance, Shep has to keep his hated job, but he soon discovers that even the full coverage of the fully employed may not be enough to keep him afloat.

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Sebastian Faulks' satirical novel is a weeklong tour of modern London, woven together in Dickensian style. Dickens' 19th century characters dealt with class conflict, wealth, poverty and true love. Faulks' contemporary characters deal with terrorism, greed, the Internet and — because some things never change — true love.

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Turkish novelist Elif Shafak's new novel, The Forty Rules of Love, takes us into the life of a middle-aged Jewish woman from central Massachusetts, who as a reader for a literary agent, has just picked up a copy of a novel by a modern Sufi mystic.

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The book by the conservative strategist is called Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. Rove tells Fresh Air the decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003 was not based on wrong information from the Bush administration, but was based on wrong information from the intelligence community.

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U.S. military officials are preparing to attempt to take control of Kandahar away from the Taliban later this year. Two young Western residents of the city, Felix Kuehn and Alex Strick van Linschoten, describe what it's like to live and work under Taliban rule.

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Ada Calhoun, author of Instinctive Parenting, makes the case that children will turn out fine if parents simply trust their gut. But Po Bronson, co-author of NurtureShock, begs to differ — he says instincts may tell parents when something needs to be done, but not how to do it. He maintains experts are still relevant for that.

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The crime writer has more than 40 books to his name and dozens of films made from that source material. Leonard gives NPR's Noah Adams a tour of his hometown, with stops at some of the places that taught the writer about the language of crime, and at his writing desk at home.

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Diane Ravitch's Death and Life of the Great American School System is a scathing report card of U.S. education. The former assistant secretary of education hands down a withering critique of the nation's schooling efforts — from charter schools, to No Child Left Behind, to Teach for America.

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Michael Lewis' new book The Big Short chronicles the 2008 financial collapse through the investors who realized what was happening to the U.S. economy while it was happening — and then made a fortune by betting against the markets.

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