Books & Reading

Author Nicholson Baker's new book, "Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act" details the difficulties that come with trying to access government documents.

Host Ben Kieffer speaks with legal scholars about the lack of diversity within the Iowa Court system.

If you’re lucky, the opening text of Aminatou So and Ann Friedman’s new book might sound familiar to you.“BIG FRIENDSHIP is a bond of great strength, force and significance that transcends life phases, geography and emotional shifts. It is large in dimension, affecting most aspects of each person’s life. It is full of meaning and resonance.”

Rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever. And yet, belief in the irrational is on the rise.

Maggie O'Farrell's new novel confronts a parent's worst nightmare: The loss of a child. In this case, it's Hamnet, the real-life son of William Shakespeare, whose death may have inspired Hamlet.

The Jeopardy! host didn't plan to write an autobiography. "I'm just a quiz show host who's been doing the same job for 36 years," he says. But writing the book gave him "a great deal of satisfaction."

Stephen Graham Jones's new novel follows the aftermath of an elk hunt gone wrong and one man who's haunted by it — literally. It's a story of revenge and sorrow, but also identity and tradition.

Pretty in Pink meets Sliding Doors in this what-if story. High-schooler Emelia gets the chance to go back and change one decision in her past — but then she has to learn to live with the changes.

In an interview with NPR, the president's niece says the cruelty of the president's upbringing was eventually mirrored in his own actions, making him unfit for office in her view.

In the world of Blue Ticket, girls are issued either blue tickets or white ones on the day of their first periods. Blue tickets grant a career but no children; white tickets mean home and family.