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A book without suffering or struggle can only be described as one thing: boring. For Three Books, author Will Wiles writes about his favorite literary misadventures. Do you have a favorite book about everything going wrong? Tell us in the comments.

Novelist Don DeLillo collects his short stories, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens reflects on his career, Lawrence Lessig looks at money and power in politics, and comedians Ellen DeGeneres and John Hodgman poke fun at life's sunny and gloomy sides.

Michael Ondaatje returns with a seafaring coming-of-age story, while Lev Grossman delivers another literary fantasy and Ernest Cline makes his nerdy fiction debut. Journalist Ron Suskind casts Obama as a brilliant amateur and Amanda Foreman looks at Britain's role in the Civil War.

Love knows no bounds, and in these five books, passion leaps from the page. You'll be swept off your feet by three novels and two memoirs that take up the mischievous matters of the heart.

Condoleezza Rice remembers her time in the Bush administration, Michael Lewis and Thant Myint-U discuss the world's economies, Michael Moore recounts his journey toward becoming a filmmaker, and Toni Morrison collects essays about censorship and the power of literature.

NPR's Backseat Book Club polled children's booksellers and librarians to find 2012's best books for middle-graders. The winners are a heartwarming city kid's tale, a Chinese folklore-inspired adventure, and an encounter with a 10-year-old you'll never forget.

NPR's Barrie Hardymon has been scanning the catalogs all year, searching for the summer's best books. Her five favorites range from young-adult fiction to a memoir about cheese.

In softcover fiction, Barbara Kingsolver explores climate change, Jami Attenberg depicts an eating disorder, Dave Eggers sends a businessman to Saudi Arabia, and Vaddey Ratner fictionalizes life under the Khmer Rouge. In nonfiction, Jeffrey Toobin examines the Supreme Court and President Obama.

Julia Alvarez's story of a promise kept, Alice Kaplan's account of three American women in Paris, Bart D. Ehrman's inquiry into the identity of Jesus, and Andrew Nagorski's survey of Americans who witnessed Hitler's ascent arrive in paperback.

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.