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A few years ago, you might not have thought that something as basic as the food we eat would become trendy. But that's what's happened. Now a new novel takes on the subject of appetite and excess. Author Meg Wolitzer says The Middlesteins, by Jami Attenberg, is worth picking up.

Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man invented a new kind of crime fiction. It was hard-boiled, but also light-hearted; funny, with a hint of homicide. Now, for the first time, the stories of After the Thin Man and Another Thin Man have been published as novellas.

Thomas Ricks' new book, The Generals, is about what he sees as a decline of American military leadership and accountability. He says that in World War II, generals were held accountable for their lack of success — but that started to change with the Korean War.

Emma Donoghue's new book voyages from Ireland to Canada, then into the Yukon and away from a plantation. The best-selling author says Astray may just be 14 stories, but they were informed by about 40 real-life historical events.

Author Caleb Daniloff spent 15 years struggling with alcoholism. His new memoir, Running Ransom Road, describes the way an addiction to running began to replace his addiction to alcohol. Running, Daniloff says, gave him a sense of clarity and transformation that aided his recovery.

Fans of Middle Earth tend to fall in love with The Hobbit as children, says self-described "Tolkien professor" Corey Olsen. But once they move on to The Lord of the Rings, they never come back. That's a great shame, he says, so he's written his own book to honor the classic fantasy novel.

In 1880, years before creating Sherlock Holmes, a young Arthur Conan Doyle went to the Arctic as the surgeon aboard a whaling ship. He recorded his adventures in journals full of notes and drawings, which have been published for the first time in a book called Dangerous Work.

In the course of his career, Thornton Wilder wrote plays, novels and essays — but none as enduring as Our Town. Wilder biographer Penelope Niven attributes the play's success to its universal setting: a "mythical village" that "incorporates characteristics from every mythical village."

True Grit author Charles Portis is the cult writer for people who hate cult writers. He hasn't published a book since 1991, and reviewer John Powers says the short pieces collected in Escape Velocity have been treasured for decades, passed around like samizdat by Portis fans.

From the comedian and digital director of The Onion, a satirical self-help book for anyone who has a black friend, wants to be the next black president or speak for the black community.