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Often referred to as Sweden's best-known author, Astrid Lindgren gained international fame for her children's books, particularly those about Pippi Longstocking. Astrid Lindgren was born on November 14, 1907. When...

In both print and her public persona, Toni Morrison is an original thinker. She once famously called Bill Clinton our first black ...

AP - "Just After Sunset" (Scribner, 367 pages, $28), by Stephen King: For a generation, we have associated Stephen King with darkness, or at least with an absence of light. He is the national summoner of darker instincts, darker thoughts, darker realities bleeding into our own.

Reuters - In "Searching for Schindler" Australian author Thomas Keneally recalls how he came to write the award-winning novel "Schindler's Ark," which reached global fame through Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning adaptation.

The new york Times has released an anthology of the front pages since its first edition in 1851. Executive Editor Bill Keller tells NPR what his favorite pages are — and why he's attached to the printed paper.

This weekFICTION Bay Area Last weekWeeks on list 1A MOST WANTED MAN, John le Carré (Scribner; 336 pages; $28): A man claiming to be a Chechen Muslim seeks asylum in Hamburg.15 2THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY, Shaffer and Barrows (The Dial...

Leslie Walker Williams demonstrates the continuing power of Southern storytelling with her award-winning debut novel, "The Prudent Mariner."

AP - Vietnam-era radical Bill Ayers said Friday that he doesn't know President-elect Barack Obama any better than "thousands of other Chicagoans" and that the two never talked about Ayers' anti-war activities. In a television interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," the college professor disputed the contention that in the new afterword of a paperback edition of his 2001 memoir "Fugitive Days" he describes himself and Obama as "family friends."

Titles recently published in paperback: FICTION: The Delivery Room (Counterpoint; 399 pages; $14.95) by Sylvia Brownrigg: The Berkeley author's novel, set in London, centers on a therapist's sessions with her patients. The World According to Bertie (Anchor...

Songs for the Missing By Stewart O'Nan Viking; 287 pages; $25.95 Psychologists argue about the existence of a happiness set point, a stable measure of our natural temperament. The theory holds that we can win the lottery, or a Super Bowl trophy or an Oscar,...