Books

Novelist John Grisham has churned out a novel a year since 1988. But believe it or not, he still has his moments of doubt.

Children's books seem simple, but good ones are deceptively complicated to write and illustrate.

"Traditionally illustrated books are books where the text makes sense on its own. It doesn't necessarily need words," writer Martin Salisbury tells NPR's Renee Montagne, whereas with picture books, neither the text nor the images stand separately — they need each other.

Meg Wolitzer is the author of a book for young readers, The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman.

In reality, I may be a middle-aged woman with two nearly grown sons, but in my heart I am a teenage girl who has found herself pregnant and doesn't know what to do. For if you came of age, as I did, reading Paul Zindel's My Darling, My Hamburger, then you probably still feel that you know what it's like to be a high school student whose life almost derails.

Murder mystery fans: a new series of police crime novels launches next week, starring the tough but sensitive Skeet Bannion. 

When shots rang out in Dallas, Secret Service agent Clint Hill jumped in the back of President John F. Kennedy’s car.

The host of "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC has written a new book called Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power. It's about how we've been living in a state of perpetual war, and how war has become more secretive and the public more disconnected from it.