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Oftentimes, foodie fiction makes you hungry. But author Jessica Soffer recommends three books that deal with food yet aren't in love with it — books to read when you're on a diet, a desert island, or for whatever reason would like a peach tart to not be compared to a summer's day.

This year's literary heroines aren't defined by their desire to love or be loved — or even to be especially lovable. Writer and critic Parul Sehgal celebrates five sublimely stubborn women, frequently at odds with themselves and always at odds with their times.

Novels dealing in privacy-free futures aren't new. But they're rapidly becoming more relevant. Author Max Barry chooses three dystopian novels that are both thought-provoking and chillingly plausible. What's your favorite futuristic novel? Tell us in the comments.

This week brings a notable story collection by Megan Mayhew Bergman and a memoir of art, alcoholism and family life by Jeanne Darst. Eric Weiner has an account of his spiritual journey, and Toby Lester explores Leonardo da Vinci's coming of age.

2012 was the year of the big collected volume when it came to poetry. It was intimidating, even for the most hardened poetry fans. But critic Craig Morgan Teicher says 2013 will be full of slim collections that are still smart, important and powerful.

Susan Stamberg presents the year's best books, picked by independent booksellers around the country. Selections range from gritty, free-verse fairy tales to ballerina photographs and a grim Southern story about a small town that would rather its ghosts remain at rest.

In softcover fiction, Maria Semple chronicles a daughter's search for her missing mother, Jess Walter imagines a glimmering but futile courtship, and Lionel Shriver delivers a tongue-in-cheek take on terrorism. In nonfiction, Victoria Sweet recounts her unusual medical training.

2012 was a very jittery year — what with the presidential election, extreme weather events and the looming "fiscal cliff." Fresh Air critic Maureen Corrigan found that her favorite fiction and nonfiction this year directly confronted the atmospheric uncertainty of the age.

For readers in search of tales that step outside familiar viewpoints, these authors unravel conflict, religion, race and love — from new and different angles. In these novels, a child from the slums, an executed zealot, a reluctant immigrant, a guilty survivor and a suffering mother take center stage.

When's the last time you read a comic book? Here are five for summer, covering everything from tiny Finnish critters to Viennese punk rockers and musings on Anna Wintour. Writer Myla Goldberg says they represent a golden age in comic art.