Gone fishin’. They might be two of the most beautiful words in the language, conjuring an image of relaxation, solitude (or companionship, if chosen),...

TODAY “The Cats of Hanover Juvenile Correctional Center” by Teresa Adele Bettino—Author event, 2 p.m. at Sundial Books, Chincoteague....

NEW YORK—The wife of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is writing a memoir. Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House Inc., says it will publish...

Fans of the British novelist E.M. Forster, who exhorted his readers to “Only connect,“ should be especially pleased with Nicholas A. Christakis...

In February 1983, alluring songstress and part-time heroin addict Zoe Kruller is found murdered in her home in the dying Rust Belt town of Sparta, N.Y....

His “The Confessions of Nat Turner” stayed on the best-seller lists for weeks in 1967 and eventually earned him a Pulitzer Prize. More than...

Any fan—or, for that matter, nonfan—of Kathy Griffin knows one thing: She never shuts up. If you fall in the nonfan category, that unfiltered...

TODAY “Haunted Richmond” and “Haunted Virginia” by Pamela K. Kinney—Book signing 3-5 p.m. at Chop Suey Books, 2913 W. Cary...

In a 2003 piece for The New York Times, Booker Prize-winning author A.S. Byatt questioned the merit of the Harry Potter series. Her basic argument: Young-adult...

BP, the international oil company, made news in early September with an announcement that it had discovered a “giant” oil field deep below...

Doreen Rappaport’s “Abe’s Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln” has been selected by the public as the winner of the third...

Judging by the unending flow of books, movies and television series, World War II is still being fought. But, as Dan Fesperman shows in his absorbing new...

A former employee of Danielle Steel who embezzled more than $400,000 from the romance novelist has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion.

NONFICTION Chicken Little kind of had it right—the sky is falling, in fireballs and chunks of rock hewn by a tumble through Earth’s atmosphere....

NONFICTION As Scott Rosenberg’s informative “Say Everything” persuasively suggests, the blogosphere now belongs with those other influential...

He was born in Wisconsin, went to college in California and practiced law and politics in Arizona, but William H. Rehnquist spent much of his life in Virginia....

MYSTERIES One finishes an outstanding trilogy with regret, but also, in the case of Rennie Airth’s three novels featuring John Madden, with abundant...

FICTION Reviewing Dan Brown’s new thriller several days after its publication is a little like standing in the middle of the Indy 500 racetrack and...

TODAY “Nonesuch Place: A History of the Richmond Landscape” by Tyler Potterfield—Book talk and signing 2-4 p.m. at Book People, 536 Granite...

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS  HARDCOVER FICTION 1.The Last Songby Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing) 2.Alex Cross’s Trialby James...

With the end of summer comes the promise of cooler, cloudy weather—the perfect kind for curling up under a throw with some good fiction. Four authors...

FICTION Sequels often seem the literary equivalent of dessert—worth the wait as well as the reward for eating your veggies first. So fans will enjoy...

NONFICTION Maurice Sendak, now 81 years old, may be the most revered living figure in children’s literature. Generations weaned on “Where the...

TUESDAY UR Writers Series: Colston Whitehead—Pulitzer Prize finalist and UR writer-in-residence, opening the series with a reading from his works,...

FICTION During a meeting in Paris between President John F. Kennedy and French President Charles de Gaulle, the imperious Frenchman rid the room of photographers...

FICTION Isabel Dalhousie has a few problems. But don’t worry. They’re small. After all, she’s a character created by that industrious...

FICTION E.L. Doctorow is undoubtedly one of our nation’s greatest writers, a skilled chronicler of the American historical canvas from the Civil...

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS  HARDCOVER FICTION 1.Alex Cross’s Trialby James Patterson, Richard DiLallo (Little, Brown) 2.Dark Slayerby Christine...

Obsessive relationships are often the meat and potatoes of autobiography. But for Frank Bruni, meat and potatoes are the obsession. Along with a never-ending...

Missile-flaunting parades orchestrated by burly, expressionless Soviet leaders in Red Square might be distant memories. But Alex Dryden, a British journalist...