Books

Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Her new book says our views of Africa are outdated.

Counting on Grace

Excerpt from Elizabeth Winthrop's "Counting on Grace"

This novel about a 12-year-old mill worker was inspired by a Lewis Hine photograph.

Scourges of the sea: Dashing Jean Laffite (left) and his swashbuckling brother Alexandre, although a study in contrasts, were equally intrepid.

Saving New Orleans

In a new book, the author of "Forrest Gump" paints an uncommonly vivid picture of an overlooked chapter in American history and its unlikely hero

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Interview with Andrew Lawler, Author of "A Mystery Fit for a Pharaoh"

Andrew Lawler discusses imperialism and the natural romance of studying ancient cultures.

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Interview with John Seidensticker and Susan Lumpkin

The authors of "Building an Arc" talk about wildlife conservation and what drew them to work with tigers.

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Interview with Adam Goodheart, Author of "Back to the Future"

The author talks about what makes the newly renovated Patent Office Building special

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An Interview with Author David Karp, Fruit Detective

The author of "Berried Treasure" discusses fruit mysteries and pith helmet style

The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World

Every Book Its Reader

The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World, by Nicholas A. Basbanes

After the first atomic bomb explosion (seen here from 10,000 yards away, in a time series from .006 seconds to .081 seconds after detonation), Oppenheimer recalled, "a few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent."

Building the Bomb

A book about atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer charts the debate over deployment of the first A-bomb and the anxiety that suffused its first live test

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World's Unlikeliest Bestseller

Fifty years ago a brewer's bet spawned a compelling compendium of feats, stunts and trivia

Doses of oral polio vaccine are added to sugar cubes for use in a 1967 vaccination campaign

Conquering Polio

Fifty years ago, a scientific panel declared Jonas Salk's polio vaccine a smashing success. A new book takes readers behind the headlines

Lafayette, Indiana—If Americans know where they're going, some thanks are due road workers like Tony Ybarra, preparing to stencil fresh blacktop and to set some drivers straight.

American Bounty

A new book documents a week in the life of America in all its rich, colorful, contradictory, nostalgic, emotional, heartfelt and, oh yes, exuberant...glory

Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park Big Cypress Bend boardwalk

Fakahatchee Ghosts

But no exorcisms, please these rare orchids are the stars of a hit movie and a best-selling book

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YES DISASTROUS TIMES

Our unusually far-flung correspondents report

Day after day, the brothers (Wilbur, left, and Orville at the controls) put their new and improved glider through its paces. Assistant Dan Tate lent a hand.

To Fly!

A new book traces the Wright brothers' triumph 100 years ago to an innovative design and meticulous attention to detail

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Mr. Lincoln's Washington

The house where the conspirators hatched their heinous plot now serves sushi, and the yard where they were hanged is a tennis court

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Henry Kissinger on Vietnam

Henry Kissinger's new book revisits America's troubled extrication from Indochina

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Preparing for the Best

Thanks to the mega-selling Worst-Case Scenario handbooks, we now know how to cope with charging bulls, plunging elevators and runaway locomotives

A number of mechanisms used by common antibiotics to deal with bacteria and ways by which bacteria become resistant to them.

Book Excerpt: Supergerm Warfare

Dragon's drool, frog's glands and shark's stomachs have all been recruited for the fight against drug-resistant bacteria

Star formation in the constellation Orion as photographed in infrared by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

Astronomy's New Stars

Thanks to new technology, backyard stargazers have traveled light-years of late to join professionals in mapping the heavens

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