Search results for

Japan is now the fifth country to pull off a soft landing on the moon. A Japanese space agency manager earlier called the landing "a breathless, numbing 20 minutes of terror!"

Society has a fascination with crime — we can't seem to look away from the yellow police tape. Author Duane Swierczynski recommends three thrilling crime stories told in graphic-novel form.

Science fiction and fantasy books aren't just getting more popular, they're interbreeding with other genres to produce wild new hybrid forms — swapping DNA with literary novels, commenting on current events, morphing into historical science fiction romances, and evolving into hard-boiled detective fantasy.

Critic David Orr surveys the "jumbled landscape" of American poetry to select his favorite collections of the year: five books that will alternately comfort and challenge you.

In fiction, Adam Johnson offers a view of life in North Korea under Kim Jong Il. In nonfiction, Ronald Kessler looks into the FBI's tactical operations teams, and Peter D. Ward explores the likely impact of our rapidly melting ice caps.

NPR commentators favor Jennifer Close's look at women facing marriage and Amanda Hodgkinson's post-World War II family drama. There are also memoirs by actor Christopher Plummer and nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei, plus Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams re-evaluate universities for the digital age.

Amor Towles debuts with a crisp, 1930s Manhattan love story, while George Pelecanos and Sapphire return with novels that probe the dark sides of urban life. In nonfiction, Penn Jillette argues for atheism, and journalist Jane Gross reflects on caring for an aging parent.

Lynn Neary talks to three critics about books you shouldn't miss. One critic says it's a particularly rich literary summer because in election years, publishers release the juiciest books before fall.

In fiction, Robert Harris explores a financial crash and Jennifer DuBois recounts a fateful meeting. In nonfiction, Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum analyze how the U.S. lags, Tony Horwitz looks at abolitionist John Brown and Adam Gopnik considers the meaning of food.

Novelists Daniel Woodrell, Christopher Moore and Chuck Palahniuk confront the darker sides of life with varying degrees of humor, while writer Susan Orlean looks at the life of dog star Rin Tin Tin, and Wade Davis reassesses George Mallory's historic climbs on Mount Everest.