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Ben Tarnoff's Moneymakers sifts through the history of currency in America and reveals captivating tales of its biggest counterfeiters, who viewed their entrepreneurial activities as something of an art form.

In fiction, Anne Lamott faces adolescence, while in nonfiction former first lady Laura Bush tells her life story, Mary Roach explores travel to Mars, Daniel H. Pink considers what motivates us, and historian Ben Macintyre traces the fictional roots of a daring WWII operation.

Karel Capek's The Absolute at Large demonstrates how weighty social satire can be slipped into genre fiction. Writer Cara Hoffman says the surrealist speculation in this 1920s sci-fi novel is so prescient, it feels like it could have been written today.

A promising young writer from Mexico City died after a freak surfing accident. Her husband, Francisco Goldman, has written a novel-cum-memoir that pieces together his grief, his wild adoration for his wife, and the parts of a marriage that remain unknowable to anyone outside of it.

The gun-slinging glory of Louis L'Amour Westerns might be romanticized past the point of reality, but not even American history scholar Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman can resist the pull of their ruggedly glamorous adventures that sweep across the Great Plains.

Science journalist Marc Kaufman says we're closer than ever to finding out if there's life on other planets in the universe. He details the current research and challenges for scientists in First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth.

Jennifer Egan paints an inventive portrait of a record executive and his employee, while Anna Quindlen plumbs the life of a suburban mother. Mitch Albom tells the story of two clergymen, Carol Burnett remembers her TV variety show, and Marion Meade looks at the wacky life of writer Nathanael West.

Jon Sarkin was working as a chiropractor when he suffered a massive stroke. Afterwards, he became an obsessive visual artist whose work was as fragmented and cluttered as his mind had become. Sarkin is the subject of a new book, Shadows Bright as Glass, by science writer Amy Nutt.

The protests that erupted in the Middle East this past winter evolved quickly. To help you better understand the way the developments unfolded, Anne-Marie Slaughter recommends an e-book, compiled by the editors of Foreign Policy magazine, that delves deeper into the disruption than the media did.

Journalist Patrick Cockburn was used to tracking the Taliban in the mountains of Afghanistan. But he wasn't prepared for the battle he faced at home when his son Henry was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Now, father and son have co-written a memoir about the experience.