Books

Humor is both a creative and a cognitive process, says Bob Mankoff, who has contributed cartoons to The New Yorker since 1977. His memoir is called How About Never — Is Never Good For You?

It was a strange and wonderful year for young adult fiction, says critic Maggie Stiefvater. This list rounds up five magical books for young adults and grown-ups alike.

NPR's go-to librarian recommends five "under the radar" books she thinks you should read this summer. They range from a Jane Austenesque love story to a real life, intellectual detective tale.

The 19th century Connecticut school sought to convert young men from Hawaii, China, India and the Native American nations and then send them home as Christian missionaries. It did not go as planned.

The son of one of America's wealthiest families disappeared off the island of New Guinea in 1961. Writer Carl Hoffman explains how he thinks Rockefeller died and why the truth was kept hidden.

Have you ever found yourself in the library or a bookstore, about to go on vacation, with no idea what books to bring? NPR's Lynn Neary talks to three book critics about the best reads of the summer.

It's a tragedy, perhaps, but books do go out of print. Reviewer and editor Parul Sehgal recommends five that have come back to life.

In Dancing Fish And Ammonites, the British writer reflects on growing older. She tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross about adjusting to her husband's death and losing the desire for new things.

Inspired by the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, author Jonathan Evison recommends the novel Songs for the Missing, by Stewart O'Nan, as a book with something to say about mysterious disappearances.

After a week spent searching for and wondering about the missing plane, author Alan Heathcock revisits the young adult novel Hatchet, and Jonathan Evison suggests Songs for the Missing.

In their memoir Sliver of Light, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal explain how they were captured on a road that bordered Iran, accused of spying and imprisoned for two years.

Around the world, many of us start our day with a drug derived from a natural insecticide: caffeine. Murray Carpenter tells the tale in Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts and Hooks Us.