Slavery and the Civil War, which played such transformative roles in Virginia’s past, continue to reverberate in the commonwealth’s present...

FICTION Jenny Callahan thought she had the perfect solution to her husband’s infertility: They could have a baby using sperm donated by her intelligent...

FICTION You’d think that given our current state of vampire frenzy—the “Twilight” novels and HBO’s “True Blood”...

Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood is best remembered by many as a master of disaster in the waning months of the Civil War, marching from defeat to defeat...

TODAY-NEXT SUNDAY Weinstein JCC Book Fair—Jewish literature, author appearances, gifts and more, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. today, 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. tomorrow,...

NONFICTION Nicholas Fox Weber opens his fascinating new book, “The Bauhaus Group: Six Masters of Modernism,“ with a telling anecdote. It’s...

Ralph Nader, the consumer activist and corporate scourge, is saying nice things about the kind of folks you’d expect him to despise. “Never...

The whole place was like a doll’s house that had been turned upside down and stepped on.“ This is Margaret Atwood’s startling description...

Thirty-three years ago, George M. Taber set the world of wine on fire with a four-paragraph dispatch about a tasting in France that compared the work of...

Philip Roth’s novels have become downright austere in recent years, with none of the past four cracking 300 pages. They’re chamber works, small-scale...

The burning of Atlanta, with a memorable assist from Hollywood, is one of those events that resonates. Fires that destroy great cities perhaps are always...

For students of 20th-century history, the title of this book is shorthand for tragedy and disaster. It outlines the self-deceptive, smug and misguided...

It’s the long Labor Day weekend in Holton Mills, N.H., in the mid-1980s, and 13-year-old Henry and his mother, Adele, have nothing special planned....

TODAY “The Naked Portfolio Manager” by Robert Fischer—Book signing, 1 p.m. at Barnes & Noble-Short Pump, 11640 W. Broad St. 360-0103....

Sibling rivalry is usually enough to give an edge to most family get-togethers. Throw in a will that insists that the siblings spend the entire summer...

Books recounting the histories of Virginia’s counties crop up with regularity, but few achieve the beauty and breadth of Martha W. McCartney’s...

In the long history of novels, love triangles have rarely ended well. The one that drives Paul Auster’s fascinating new novel, “Invisible,“...

Novelist Elmore Leonard will receive PEN USA’s lifetime achievement award at a December ceremony. Leonard, 83, has written more than 40 westerns,...

They used to hang pirates on a small island in New York harbor, near where the Statue of Liberty now stands. Today, after years as a testing station for...

NONFICTION DES MOINES, Iowa Many people entering retirement envision a life of fun and relaxation, but the opposite can be true. Without the social contacts...

Melanie Gideon believes she’s sleepwalking through life. But it’s much worse than that: She’s paralyzed by a fear of the rogue waves—both...

FICTION David Baldacci has a knack for writing best-selling thriller series. Most recently, he has devoted attention to his Camel Club series, as well...

MYSTERIES For most of us, there’s something in our past—a person, a relationship, a place, an incident—that, forgotten for months, even...

A tale of political intrigue set during the reign of King Henry VIII has won the prestigious Man Booker prize for fiction. Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf...

NONFICTION The Sopranos” and “The Godfather” may have domesticated the Mafia’s image. They looked like people we know, and we understood...

TODAY “Terrorism In the United States” by retired Navy Capt. Edward M. Brittingham—Book signing 1-5 p.m. at Waldenbooks, Virginia Center...

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS  HARDCOVER FICTION 1.The Lost Symbolby Dan Brown (Doubleday) 2.A Touch of Deadby Charlaine Harris (Ace) 3.The Helpby...

NEW YORK—The latest e-book from Stephen King is no bargain. Scribner announced yesterday that the digital edition of King’s “Under the...

The past has a way of clinging to troubled and haunted souls, and Gil Castle, the scarred protagonist of Philip Caputo’s smart new thriller, “Crossers,“...

TUESDAY “Haunted Plantations of Virginia” by Beth Brown—Book talk and signing, 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Fountain Bookstore, 1312 E. Cary St....