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Author Yoko Ogawa's Hotel Iris, published in Japanese in 1996, is the latest of her books to be translated into English. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the story, about a 17-year-old girl who begins an intense, sometimes violent affair with a tenant of her mother's rundown hotel, is decadent and profoundly sad.

The Bridge, David Remnick's new book, is the story of President Obama's journey to the Oval Office. Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, tells Morning Edition how Obama's first run for national office — which he lost — helped shape his political career.

Writer George Prochnik says there's plenty of evidence that noise can be harmful as well as annoying, with studies pointing to hearing loss — and even risks of higher blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. His new book, In Pursuit of Silence, is a study of noise in the modern world.

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.

Buck's The Good Earth depicted life in a Chinese village. Anchee Min first heard of Buck at age 14, during the Cultural Revolution, when Buck's novel was condemned by Chinese authorities. Nearly 40 years later, Min's novel Pearl of China imagines Buck's young life in China.

In middle age, most of us get forgetful and easily distracted. But new research finds that our minds improve in some ways as we age: We're better at seeing the big picture and comprehending complexity. Writer Barbara Strauch details how the middle-aged brain grows and changes in The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain.

The former poet laureate reflects on his brother's passing in the new poem "August Notebook: A Death." The elegy is included in Hass' new collection, The Apple Trees at Olema, which includes material from his first five works — as well as new poems on the art of storytelling and personal relations in a violent world.

Thomas McMahon's novel isn't long, but writer Sue Miller says it manages to accomplish frequent hilarity, tender sexiness and sheer erudition. With intelligence and humor, McKay's Bees wonders about all that is funny, sad and amazing in the world.

Travel writer Doug Lansky sees a disconnect between glossy articles about exotic destinations and the stories he and fellow writers share over beers. In The Titanic Awards, he celebrates the world's worst travel experiences by air, land and sea.

In The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the final book in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, the mysteries of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist come to a thrilling conclusion. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the book reveals the soaring architectural ambition of Larsson's unforgettable series.