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Author Jasper Fforde is well known for his Thursday Next series of literary fantasies. Reviewer Petra Mayer says his first book for young adults may feel familiar to Thursday fans, but it's still an enjoyable mixture of magic, emotion, everyday absurdity, and the occasional illusory moose.

Author Dennis Lehane says he has always loved the clothes, cars and movies of the Prohibition era — which might be why he has set his new novel there. Live By Night doesn't tell the usual Prohibition story about whiskey smugglers — instead it heads south to Florida for a gritty tale of rumrunning.

Charles Rowan Beye has been married three times — to two women and a man. Now, over age 80, he looks back on his life and asks, "What was that all about?" Critic Maureen Corrigan says Beye's memoir, subtitled "A Gay Man's Odyssey," is a complex, poignant addition to the sexual canon.

Boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini won the championship his fighter father never could — but his life was marred by tragedy when he defended his title against a South Korean boxer who died after the match. A new biography of Mancini describes how his life changed after that fateful fight.

Tom Reiss places Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a general in Revolutionary France and the father of the Count of Monte Cristo author, atop a high pedestal. With clear admiration, Reiss explains that the triumphs and travails of the elder Dumas inspired his son's adventure novels.

Dennis Lehane's latest novel moves from the modern Boston of books like Mystic River to Prohibition-era Florida. Reviewer Jennifer Reese says the story is weighed down by too much lovingly researched period detail, and not enough attention to character development.

Dennis Lehane's latest novel moves from the modern Boston of books like Mystic River to Prohibition-era Florida. Reviewer Jennifer Reese says the story is weighed down by too much lovingly researched period detail, and not enough attention to character development.

Paul Young wrote his first book, The Shack, as a story to share with family and friends about faith and redemption. He printed 15 copies at an Office Depot but has gone on to sell 18 million copies. Now he's written a new book, this time for the world, about faith and transformation.

The latest book by former New Yorker editor Robert Gottlieb, Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens, reads more like scintillating gossip about the famous writer and his family than literary scholarship. NPR's Heller McAlpin is fine with that.

The momentous life of Pulitzer Prize winner William Styron is now chronicled in more than 1,000 of his letters compiled by his widow, Rose Styron. The collection is called, Selected Letters of William Styron.