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Harlequin editor Patience Bloom maps romance novels onto her own loves in Romance Is My Day Job — from tragic heroes and beta males to the one true Mr. Right. Reviewer Bobbi Dumas says Bloom doesn't quite pull off the romance novel parallel — but most readers will find something to identify with in this brave and likable woman.

The New Zealand-born author Adam Christopher has a fascination for America — his latest, Hang Wire, is a decade-jumping, character-crisscrossing urban fantasy set in San Francisco. Reviewer Jason Heller says that with Hang Wire, his fourth novel, Christopher has mastered "geek-centric weirdness and galloping, whiz-bang pace."

Sandy Pollock and Crystal Cook, aka the Casserole Queens, pass along a recipe for King Ranch Casserole. Sandy grew up with the cheesy Tex-Mex dish and says the traditional quick-fix doesn't need updating. Never mind if the casserole's origins have gotten mixed up along the way: This one's a keeper.

Author Kim Fu has always loved Batman — at least, one form of him. Her Batman was moral, principled, triumphant: never cheesy or brutish. But Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns cast a guilty shadow over her love for the character, because Miller's bloodthirsty madman shares an awful lot with Fu's favorite version of her hero.

Richard Powers' new novel tells the story of an avant-garde classical composer who finds himself dabbling in DNA. He "gets obsessed with finding music inside of living things," Powers explains, and, as a fugitive, ends up leading officials on a low-speed chase.

Still Life with Bread Crumbs follows a photographer who is no longer married, no longer needed as much by her grown son and no longer as successful as she used to be. When her funds start to dry up, she heads to a small, rural town for a fresh start.

Brothers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky originally published their sci-fi classic Definitely Maybe in 1974. Now, a new translation restores cuts made by Soviet censors to this subversive tale of scientists exploring a reluctant universe. Reviewer Juan Vidal says "you'll laugh, you'll look around suspiciously, you'll throw the text across the room."

Braille Without Borders was the first school for the blind in Tibet, founded by a German woman who is blind herself, Sabriya Tenberken. On assignment profiling Tenberken, writer Rosemary Mahoney had to face her own fear of losing her sight and challenge long-standing misconceptions about blindness.

City planner Jeff Speck says walking will remain a choice in most American cities for years to come, but that it's important to incentivize pedestrians. In his book, Walkable City, Speck says urban walks have to be useful, safe, comfortable and interesting.

The Chinese town of Shijiao is known for recycling discarded Christmas tree lights for their copper and wire insulation, which are then used to support growing economies and make slipper soles, respectively. In Junkyard Planet, Adam Minter explores the business of recycling what developed nations throw away.