A collection of essays on a reading life from the author of A History of Reading and The Library at Night

Brooke Allen on the therapeutic joys of mystery and espionage discoveries from Felony & Mayhem Press.

This month in Reading Romance, Eloisa James celebrates less-than-perfect lovers.

A. C. Grayling on the quest to find the seat of wisdom in the brain.

Ward Sutton on Yann Martel's intriguing follow-up to Life of Pi, in which a writer wrestles with a seemingly impossible subject.

Four new literary adventures suggest that the hybrid genre of steampunk is still on the boil.

Vertigo's new line of graphic novels brings together the worlds of crime fiction and comics.

Is it any surprise that bad behavior makes for the best stories?

A debut novel follows a married woman's affair with a man she meets while traveling -- and raises questions about love, sex, and commitment in an age of missed connections.

Books that evoke the era of Victoria and Albert, in full flower – and rushing headlong to its end.

The journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson reveal the committed, passionate writer at work.

In the unusual crime novels of David Carkeet, the bad deeds are almost beside the point.

Why Lil Wayne resides in a musical universe all his own. Read more...

Robert K. Merton's classic work of comic scholarship is a uniquely witty, digressive entertainment for the mind.

The penultimate volume in a collection that traces the career of one of science fiction's most eclectic voices. Read more...