Books

In his haunting new graphic novel, cartoonist Xie Peng, 36, captures a psychological journey into the world of young Chinese. He worked for six years on the book, which renders a landscape of competition, anxiety and stress, and where everything, including dignity, is a commodity.

Around the world, cities like Rio de Janeiro are using new technologies to solve their problems. And while there's great promise in many of these "smart" city programs, urban planner Anthony Townsend is wary of putting so much power in the hands of tech companies.

After "Robert Galbraith" was revealed to be the pen name for J.K. Rowling, many readers have been circling back to a "debut" novel they'd initially overlooked. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the mystery is respectable, but she will shelve it in the "I've read worse, but I've read better" category.

When the Pilgrim family first arrived in Alaska, they looked to be from another century. They didn't use calendar months, they called their father "Lord," and they knew how to live in the wild. But, as Tom Kizzia writes in Pilgrim's Wilderness, that rugged facade helped conceal a history of abuse.

Alan Cheuse reviews the last book written by David Rakoff, who died last year. The novel Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish is written in verse.

More than 200 novels, the Star Wars' book series spans 25,000 years, from the beginning of the Jedi Order to 40 years beyond where the original trilogy left off. According to The Wall Street Journal's Alexandra Alter, the books help keep fans interested between movies.

The Cuckoo's Calling, a debut mystery supposedly by a former British military man, was in fact written by Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling, working under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The novel received positive reviews when it came out earlier this year.

Scholastic began as a four-page magazine for high schoolers in 1920. Today, the publisher of Clifford the Big Red Dog, The Magic School Bus, Harry Potter and The Hunger Game, has grown into a $2 billion business, and one of the biggest children's book publishers in the world.

After the Civil War, pursuing butterflies was more than a pastime for many Americans — it was a passion. In his book, Butterfly People, William Leach chronicles the infatuation, from its European roots and natural-history tradition to its eventual fall.

A dead body and a hotel bombing trigger the plot of Black Star Nairobi, the latest crime novel from Kenyan-American author Mukoma Wa Ngugi. Detectives Ishmael Fofona and David Odhiambo search for the perps during the upheaval around the Kenyan elections in December 2007.

In her new book, Self-Inflicted Wounds, Tyler writes about her dalliances with failure and humiliation on the long road to success. She says it wasn't easy being the geeky, tall, black girl who loves science fiction and video games. But it was worth it.

Pop-culture writer Nathan Rabin introduces us to some obsessive fans in his new book, You Don't Know Me But You Don't Like Me, which chronicles his experience following the followers of the bands Phish and Insane Clown Posse.