Books

Blues, jazz and gospel; a civil rights movement that began with the Emmett Till case; modern glass and steel buildings that dared the sky. In Third Coast, Thomas Dyja writes that "the most profound aspects of American Modernity grew up out of the flat, prairie land next to Lake Michigan."

Anthony Marra's debut novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, takes place in war-torn Chechnya — a world of perpetual violence, fear and exploding land mines. But reviewer Meg Wolitzer says the characters are so vivid and the language so brilliant you want to stay there.

Benjamin Alire Saenz won this year's PEN/Faulkner award for his latest collection of short stories, Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club. The real-life Kentucky Club is just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and Saenz joined a reporter there to talk about life in two countries.

Willa Cather's will forbade the publication of her private letters, but that will has now expired. The Selected Letters of Willa Cather contains more than 500 missives — including one that details the real-life story behind Cather's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, One of Ours.

The latest novel from three-time National Book Award finalist Gail Godwin takes inspiration from Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. Both stories take place in isolated old houses, and both revolve around mental contests between a governess character and her young charge.

Bill Cheng's debut novel, Southern Cross the Dog, is full of mythical characters who feel like they rose right out of the Mississippi Swamp, and narratives that churn and swirl like the river itself. Cheng calls the novel "a love note to those old blues players."

Illustrator Ralph Steadman had never heard of Hunter S. Thompson before he flew to Churchill Downs on assignment to cover the Kentucky Derby. But after an unforgettable, booze-ridden weekend with the writer, Steadman's life was never the same.

Novelist Clyde Edgerton has four kids; one is an adult, and the other three are all younger than 10. His new book, Papadaddy's Book for New Fathers, is a guide for dads that's written from his perspective as an older father. Pay heed, expectant fathers: Install that car seat now.

Caroline Kennedy isn't just an advocate for reading poetry. In her latest book, Poems to Learn by Heart, Kennedy stresses the importance of memorizing poetry and presents a collection of poems that she believes kids and adults alike should internalize.

Between 1941 and 1976, New York commuters were charmed by posters of regular New York women while riding the city's trains and buses. "Miss Subways" was selected each month by New Yorkers, in a pageant that reflected America's diversity long before the nation's other beauty contests.

Since a garment factory collapsed last month in Dhaka, killing more than 400 people, ethical fashion has been in the spotlight. Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Price of Cheap Fashion, explains the economy that created this tragedy and what we can do to fix it.

In a new book, The Anatomy of Violence, Adrian Raine argues that violent behavior has a biological basis just like depression or schizophrenia. This raises questions about treatment, accountability and punishment, including the death penalty.