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A writer's chance encounter with Vyacheslav Molotov's personal library leads to an encompassing, poetic and creative portrait of Russia's history and present.

Barry Hannah was a lit firecracker in a whiskey bottle, and no one who's ever experienced his work can forget it. Michael Schaub discusses why his retrospective story collection is a must-read.

While researching And the Pursuit of Happiness, Maira Kalman gained respect for American democracy.

Anjanette Delgado has had it with the self-assured smugness of old-school detectives. She recommends three tales celebrating amateur sleuths — a clerk, a captain and an 11-year-old girl — as they fumble through their newfound detective duties.

Who hasn't dreamed about taking off on a motorcycle, with nothing but the open road ahead? Commentator Jonathan Bastian did just that, and recommends three reads that helped him along the way.

Celebrated debut author Danielle Evans selects her favorite "outsider fiction" of 2010, choosing the best books that grappled with themes of identity, society and belonging.

Novelist Walter Mosley explains how watching his mother's experience with dementia helped him craft his latest novel, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, which asks: Would you repair your failing memory if it meant your life span would also be significantly shortened?

In The Boy: A Holocaust Story, Dan Porat tells the story behind a photo taken during the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto that shows a young boy raising his arms in surrender to an SS soldier. Porat says the image represents the traumatic experience shared by many.

J.D Salinger died a year ago this Thursday, and in time for that anniversary, there's a newly published biography called, simply, J.D. Salinger: A Life. Book critic Maureen Corrigan says readers who revere Salinger will find a lot that's surprising in his early background.

Don DeLillo and Bernhard Schlink grapple with morally compromised characters, while Malcolm Gladwell turns in a quirky yet revealing collection of essays and Scott Adams puts a fine point on the humiliations of cubicle life.