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Tom Perrotta has been called "the Steinbeck of suburbia" for his depictions of self-sabotaging adolescents and foolish middle-class adults. His new book — his first short-story collection in 19 years — is full of strong but repetitive stories, sad tales of failures earnestly yearning to do better.

Martin Limon's hard-boiled tales of military police in Korea in the early 1970s are collected in the new Nightmare Range. Reviewer Nick Mancusi says Limon is " a sensitive observer of the darker angels of human nature" who only occasionally veers into cliche.

In Ebony & Ivy, an MIT historian details how the nation's colleges helped justify and benefited from the slave trade.

Was King's 1977 The Shining your first fictional scare? Now, after nearly 40 years, King has followed up his horror tale of a little boy and a haunted hotel with a sequel called Doctor Sleep. "I wanted to revisit Danny and see what he was like as a grown-up," King says.

Shirley Hazzard's 1980 novel Transit of Venus tells a sweeping, decades-long tale of two Australian sisters and three men, with a dash of astronomy thrown in. Author Roxana Robinson says the novel entranced her with tragedy, complexity and elegant, arresting prose.

Nicholson Baker's latest novel, Traveling Sprinkler, revolves around Paul Chowder, a lonely poet who's fascinated by drone warfare and Debussy. Chowder was the star of Baker's 2009 novel The Anthologist, and reviewer Heller McAlpin welcomes his reappearance — though not his political rants.

Samantha Geimer was victimized twice: once by an infamous Hollywood director who fled prosecution after raping her when she was 13, and again by a relentless media, which has hounded her for the past three decades.

Pink isn't just for girls — it's also for battleships. In a new book, design writer and synesthete Jude Stewart looks at color from linguistic, scientific and historical perspectives.

It's a flavor combination that blends the familiar with the caveman and is a favorite of the patrons at Sunny Anderson's local bar in Brooklyn.

In her debut novel, Iranian-American Sara Farizan tells the story of two teenage girls, secretly in love. Sahar faces a crisis when she discovers Nasrin is engaged, and considers gender-reassignment surgery as a way for them to stay together. Farizan speaks with NPR's Jacki Lyden about the book and her own struggle with her sexual orientation.