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In his new book, journalist Jack Hitt says America's amateur spirit goes back to the nation's origins — and it's nothing to be ashamed of. The Europeans viewed the Americans as an "unfinished people," Hitt says. "We were amateur everything." And it's only made the nation better.

The end of the Civil War marked a pivotal moment for slaves in America, but newfound freedom arrived as a bittersweet victory. Longing to find their displaced families, freed slaves placed classified ads in newspapers. In his new novel, Leonard Pitts Jr. explores the chaos of the era through a love story.

Ecologist and "natural security expert" Rafe Sagarin thinks our systems for dealing with natural disasters and terrorist attacks need to be updated. The best place to turn for advice? Other organisms.

In his new book, Imagine, Jonah Lehrer explores the art and science of original thinking — from Shakespearean tragedies to the invention of masking tape to Nike's "Just Do It" campaign. And when you get stuck? "Take a very long, warm shower," Lehrer says.

If you want to know anything about America's greatest city, you've got to be willing to get grimy, says critic Maureen Corrigan. Two new books about New York — a novel and a narrative history — do more than put up with filth, they positively wallow in it.

Shin Dong-hyuk is the only person known to have been born in North Korea's prison camps and gotten out alive. Journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin's daring escape.

When Teddy Roosevelt became a New York police commissioner in 1895, he vowed to clean up the city's endemic vice and corruption. It didn't exactly work out. New Yorkers liked the idea of standing up to corrupt cops, but they rebelled when Roosevelt tried to enforce a ban on Sunday drinking.

Peter Cameron's new novel about a young nurse is a consummate English country home novel. Put the kettle on and settle in — but don't get too comfortable: Cameron's writing is full of sharp angles and unanticipated swerves into the droll and the downright weird.

When Lysander Rief, a young actor undergoing treatment from one of Freud's disciples, is falsely accused of rape, he is dragged into a web of World War I-era intrigue. William Boyd's Waiting for Sunrise has all the ingredients of a surefire hit; why, then, is it so tedious?

In her new book Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, Anna Quindlen says she "wouldn't be 25 again on a bet, or even 40." Her humorous memoir celebrates the confidence and contentment of women in their 50s.