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There was a time when adults found this music exasperating and outright dangerous. Now it's getting the first-Thanksgiving treatment.

Robert Harris' new An Officer and a Spy is a fictionalized account of the Dreyfus Affair — which, as critic Alan Cheuse notes, is tailor made for Harris' talents: there's an innocent victim at the center, a melodramatic villain, buffoonish military brass, crusading newspaper editors and a star turn from the novelist Emile Zola.

The Poetry Of Derek Walcott: 1948 - 2013 pulls from the Nobel laureate's large body of work. Fans might remember that the St. Lucian poet — who just turned 84 — published a Selected Works a few years ago. But the new book is more expansive and more enlightening, showing how Walcott's work has no parallel.

Music critic Greg Kot's new I'll Take You There chronicles the life and times of gospel star Mavis Staples and her family — from their hardscrabble beginnings in postwar Chicago to the civil rights movement and stardom. Reviewer Richard Torres praises the book's emotional honesty — but says it really needs a companion album.

Interpreter "Johnny Walker" accompanied the U.S. military on countless missions in his war-torn home country of Iraq. His memoir, Code Name: Johnny Walker, details his experiences with the SEALs and his family's long path to U.S. citizenship.

Scandinavian crime novels have become so popular that some publishers even have a name for the genre — "Scandi-crime." Many of these books keep readers right on the edge of their seats. But reviewer Rosecrans Baldwin says Before I Burn by Gaute Heivoll takes a more subtle approach.

"I'm not a fan of mysteries," says Isabel Allende. Strange words indeed from a woman whose mystery novel Ripper hits bookshelves this month. The renowned Chilean author talks about taking on a new genre and making it her own.

In her new book, novelist and philosopher, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, drops Plato into modern situations and imagines what he'd think of this century's existential dilemmas.

Yiyun Li's latest novel is a coming of age novel set in the Tiananmen Square era in Beijing. Li spoke with NPR's Rachel Martin about lonely youth and China's post-Tiananmen generation.

Chris Leslie-Hynan's debut novel follows a white grad student who's a chauffeur to a black basketball player. It references The Great Gatsby often with fresh takes on race, manhood and meritocracy.