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When Michael Koryta was 8 years old, his father took him to visit the ruins of an American hotel that was once referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Eighteen years later, he's written So Cold the River, a supernatural thriller about the historic hotel and the mysterious waters that run beneath it.

Even in an age of sexting and online porn, Blume's 1975 teen novel is still considered controversial. Writer J. Courtney Sullivan says she picked up Forever... for the scandal — but she stayed for the feminist lesson. At its core, the novel is about young women who make responsible choices — and have sex on their own terms.

Entomologist Mark Moffett loves ants. He's devoted his career to studying the tiny insects: how they move, what they eat, when they attack their prey. Moffett's new book, Adventures Among Ants, details his explorations around the world, tracking many a species through jungle forests and remote mountain passes.

In these stories — three novels and two works of nonfiction — a history teacher, a wry angst-filled teen, a budding celebrity chef, an intrepid spice hunter, and Ernest Hemingway himself whisk you to vacation spots around the world.

The protagonist of Naomi Hirahara's novels isn't a seasoned police detective or a private investigator — he's a gruff, 72-year-old gardener who lives in the hills above Pasadena, Calif. The Mas Arai character was inspired by Hirahara's father and guides readers into the hidden corners of L.A.'s Japanese-American communities.

In his dense, provocative and often hilarious ninth book, Rick Moody takes a sly, Swiftian approach to sci-fi, serving up a goofy B-movie-style space opera. Critic Jane Ciabattari says it's satire with a sobering aftertaste.

Daniel Pinkwater, Scott Simon, Liane Hansen and Sarah Beyer Kelly read from Pinkwater's new multilingual children's book, Beautiful Yetta. The book tells the heartwarming story of a Yiddish chicken who escapes from the butcher's shop and finds herself in Brooklyn, where she runs into unfriendly pigeons, Spanish-speaking parrots and much, much more.

Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy has taken U.S. readers by storm. Not since the arrival of Ikea on these shores has Sweden made such an inroad into the American home and imagination. But critic Maureen Corrigan says the impressive "Ice Age" of Nordic mystery writing is well under way.

Book reviews can be pretty liberal about comparing authors to Jane Austen, but here's a writer who actually lives up to that association. Allegra Goodman's The Cookbook Collector stars two sisters struggling to decide between wealth and virtue in dot-com-era California.

Temperatures in much of America this summer have been hovering between inferno and sticky mess. Food writer Nigella Lawson offers cool and refreshing dishes to please the palate and cool the body. Her latest book is Nigella Fresh.