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Paule Constant's novel, first published in France in 1981, has finally been translated into English. Nine-year-old Tiffany is alone in the world; her parents, French colonialists living in Africa, have sent her back to France alone to live and be schooled at the aptly named Convent for Slaughterhouse Ladies.

Russell Banks' latest is an uneven effort to excavate and redeem the dregs of modern society. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the novel — about porn addiction and sexual predators — is compelling in a low-grade, nightmarish sort of way.

Can the mishaps of three seriously misguided Victorian gentlemen still provoke laughter? More than 120 years after its first edition, author Julia Stuart says Jerome K. Jerome's classic caper, Three Men in a Boat, is still a delightful read.

Who was Pat Nixon? Aside from being the wife of President Richard Nixon — and a very private person — she remains mostly a mystery. Now, a new novel by Ann Beattie blends fact and fiction in an effort to sketch the life of the former first lady.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind talks about his unflattering picture of rivalries and dysfunction within President Obama's first economic team in his book Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President. Some of officials quoted in the book say they were misquoted or that their comments were taken out of context.

Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion is a mythic figure. In Ben-Gurion: A Political Life, Israeli President Shimon Peres talks about his mentor.

Criminologist David M. Kennedy's strategy for reducing gang violence has dramatically reduced youth homicide rates nationwide. In his new memoir, Don't Shoot, Kennedy outlines how community meetings and interventions have worked to curb youth violence in more than 70 cities.

John Paul Stevens' new memoir is framed as a discussion about the office of the chief justice; it includes a brief history of the nation's first 12 chief justices, followed by thorough descriptions of the five he knew well. Stevens, now 91, retired in 2010 after nearly 35 years on the Supreme Court.

Many colleges assign books that all incoming freshmen must read over the summer. A popular 2011 assignment is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, about a cell line taken without consent from a black woman with cervical cancer.

In a new book, neuroscientists Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt detail how parents can help their children learn the ABCs and self-control. The book, Welcome to Your Child's Brain, explores how the human brain develops from infancy to adolescence.