Search results for

In 1914, thousands of soldiers eagerly boarded trains across Europe to fight in World War I; they thought it would be a quick and easy battle. Five years later, more than 8 million troops were dead and countless families were split apart. Author Adam Hochschild explores those divisions in his book To End All Wars.

After ten years, author Francine Pascal has written an update to her classic Sweet Valley High series — and Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody is writing a movie about the original Sweet Valley books. Rachel Syme reports on the continuing phenomenon that is the Wakefield sisters.

In Wesley Stace's Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer, a World War I-era composer is accused of murder/suicide — and two biographies within the novel attempt to get to the heart of the story. The novel raises questions of truth, blame and how to prove a dead man's innocence.

In 1989, a white female jogger was brutally raped in New York City's Central Park. Author Sarah Burns revisits the crime — and the wrongful conviction that put five African-American teens in prison.

Gary Vaynerchuk used social media and offbeat video commentary to turn his family's New Jersey wine shop into a major Web retailer — and turn himself into a cult figure for wine enthusiasts. His new book, The Thank You Economy, is part memoir and part handbook for success.

Some of the biggest insights about the brain come from accidents — aberrations that tell us what makes the norm function. Journalist Amy Nutt profiles a man who suffered slight nerve damage that radically changed his personality and led to profound insights into the right brain/left brain balance.

A retelling of the famous Johnny Appleseed myth; a devastating memoir about the birth of the organic farming movement and its effect on a homesteading family; an attempt to discover the secrets of Little House on the Prarie; and an NPR contributor's struggle with the recession and its aftermath.

The Tragedy of Arthur, the new novel by Arthur Phillips, tells the story of a con man, his son and an undiscovered work by William Shakespeare. Phillips speaks to Scott Simon about fraud and family drama.

Oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee chronicles how our understanding of cancer has evolved in his new book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.

As Father's Day approaches, writer Jim Axelrod turns to literature to probe the relationship between fathers and sons — and make sense of his own. His three selections portray fathers and sons at their best, and at their heartbreaking worst.