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Not much happens in An Unnecessary Woman, Lebanese-American author Rabih Alameddine's novel about an elderly recluse who spends her time reading and translating. But what does happen shows a life in all its mundane, unconventional brilliance.

Kids can be magical and maddening. The title of Jennifer Senior's book — All Joy and No Fun — contrasts the strains of day-to-day parenting with the transcendent experience of raising a child.

The federal budget deficit is falling sharply, but you wouldn't know it from some of the rhetoric in Washington. But Republicans caution that the downward trend line will reverse itself soon enough.

In his new novel, Rabih Alameddine questions what the value is of an inwardly focused life.

American Muslim author Haroon Moghul was bound and determined to go to his high school prom — and he wrote about it for the new essay collection, Salaam, Love: American Muslim Men on Love, Sex and Intimacy. Moghul tells NPR's Rachel Martin that he thought the experience might help him understand himself better.

Wiley Cash's new novel follows two sisters whose errant father kidnaps them out of foster care after their mother dies. Cash tells NPR's Rachel Martin about his decision to set the story during Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa's 1998 home run battle.

Still Life with Bread Crumbs follows a photographer who is no longer married, no longer needed as much by her grown son and no longer as successful as she used to be. When her funds start to dry up, she heads to a small, rural town for a fresh start.

Cooke recorded "A Change is Gonna Come" 50 years ago this week. The story of the song is as amazing, and unsettling, as the song itself.

Nicole Helget's new novel, Stillwater, follows the lives of twins separated at birth — and raised on opposite sides of the tracks. Helget, who is proud to be called a "Minnesota novelist," tells NPR's Scott Simon about the photograph that inspired one of the book's central characters.

The oil rush in and around North Dakota has brought an influx of mostly male workers flush with cash. Law enforcement agencies and activists say that's creating ample opportunity for organized crime — and that more must be done to prevent women from being forced into prostitution.