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Jon Meacham, the editor of Newsweek, discerns a democratic dignity in the seventh president's populism.

A usage book from Roy Blount Jr. delights in language, "sonicky" and otherwise.

In this sequel to The Mummy Returns, Rick O'Connell and his family awaken an Emperor of ancient China and his terracotta army.

When a first-time novelist hears his work compared to Saul Bellow, Virginia Wolfe, William Faulkner, even James Joyce, it must be both gratifying, and daunting. Such is the case with Salvatore Scibona, whose novel The End is a finalist for the National Book Award.

Growing up during the Reagan era, Jason Eskenazi heard so much about "The Evil Empire" that when the Berlin Wall came down, he had to go visit it. He ended up spending more than a decade photographing life in the former Soviet Union.

I just finished a fascinating and important book: First Person America, edited by Ann Bank. This is a collection of interviews done in the late 1930s by the WPA Writers Project. The words and ideas of the men and women in that moment are relevant, as well as the implementation ...

Jane K. Cleland, who writes murder mysteries at home, and her husband, a bass trombone player, share a one-bedroom apartment.

Stephenie Meyer had never visited Forks, Wash., when she decided to set her teenage vampire novels there. But their huge success has brought thousands of tourists -- and the town is drinking it up. When the timber economy that had sustained this wet and distant place for its first hundred years came crashing to earth like an old-growth Douglas fir, people exhausted themselves trying to figure out what the future would hold. What would happen to the little town clinging to the western slope of the rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula with its single grocery store, one traffic light and 3,100 residents?

Sparking young adult literature through a female confessional voice. Francesca Lia Block is a Los Angeles writer with a unique voice that blends lush imagery, hip fairy tales and punk poetic lyricism. She is best known for her "Weetzie Bat" books, which premiered in 1989 and drew critical acclaim and a rapturous fan base while helping to revolutionize young adult literature.