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Whimsical and richly illustrated, Maira Kalman's graphic diary is an optimistic yearlong exploration of American history and government. And the Pursuit of Happiness is an unorthodox tribute to the United States — from musings on the Department of Homeland Security to Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Ben Franklin.

In his new memoir, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness, Only More So, pediatrician Mark Vonnegut explains how bipolar disorder has shaped but not defined his life — and he describes life with his father, novelist Kurt Vonnegut.

In fiction, Pete Dexter repays his real-life debt to his stepfather and Tracy Chevalier explores the life of an uneducated woman who became a pioneering 19th century fossil hunter. In nonfiction, there's dish on Google and the 2008 campaign, and Zadie Smith's essays show faith in inconsistency.

Emma Donoghue's captivating novel Room is narrated by a 5-year-old boy named Jack. The setting is an 11-by-11-foot room where he lives with his mother — and when the book begins, it is the only world he has ever known.

Did you know that the average American drinks 22.7 gallons of coffee a year? Or that watermelons are vegetables? Kee Malesky does. For 20 years, Malesky, NPR's longest-serving librarian, has done the research to keep us all accurate. She compiles her favorite bits of "inessential knowledge" in a new book.

Yiyun Li's lyrical and elegant short stories explore loneliness in modern China. Born in Beijing in 1972, Li focuses with great empathy on older generations who survived the chaos and personal disruptions of the Cultural Revolution.

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.

A hard-drinking actor? Hardly a novel phenomenon. But four of the 20th century's greatest actors — Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed — were also possibly its greatest drinkers. In Hellraisers, biographer Robert Sellers tells tales from the intersection of talent and wretched excess.

Librarian Nancy Pearl shares the work of a few of her best-loved poets. They include a former nun who wrote about Marilyn Monroe, a man who was left paralyzed after a bicycle accident, and writers who — despite the sometimes rigid requirements of their chosen form — find surprising, inventive ways to use words.

Former NFL quarterback Rodney Peete's biggest challenge did not come on the field: It came in dealing with his son's medical diagnosis. He writes about his struggles in a book titled Not My Boy!