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Bridget Jones is 51 now, a widow, and a newly-minted Twitter addict. Creator Helen Fielding tells NPR's Rachel Martin that she brought Bridget back because she wanted to write about a situation many people find themselves in: single again, getting older and dealing with a completely different dating landscape.

Ann Dowsett Johnston is a successful journalist with five National Magazine Awards to her name; she's also struggled with an addiction to alcohol. In her new book, Drink, she combines her reporting skills and her personal experience to explore the specific dangers confronting women who drink.

Anna Holmes didn't see much reality in beauty magazines, so she started the website Jezebel — a women's mag "without the airbrushing." Now, she's the editor of an illustrated encyclopedia that takes a look at the world according to women.

Donna Tartt's new novel The Goldfinch follows a motherless boy and a priceless painting in the aftermath of a terror attack. It's only her third novel in 21 years. Tartt tells NPR's Scott Simon that she started thinking about art, money and fate after stumbling across an art exhibition in a Las Vegas casino.

The jazz legend practiced his saxophone 10 to 15 hours a day before he got his big break, and while he wasn't the most reliable husband, when it came to music, he never wavered. Scholar Stanley Crouch's Kansas City Lightning is the first of a two-volume biography of Parker.

The best-selling author and humorist has kept journals for 36 years. Those diaries have been the jumping-off point for the personal essays that appear in his collections, including Me Talk Pretty One Day and Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls. (Originally broadcast on April 24, 2013.)

Alan Greenspan was often celebrated during his long chairmanship of the Federal Reserve. But Greenspan's policies have been blamed by some for the Great Recession. In an interview with NPR about his new book, The Map and the Territory: Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of Forecasting, Greenspan discusses difficulties in predicting economic calamity.

The federal shutdown had economists worried, but consumers have had something to smile about. Gasoline prices are the lowest in three years — under $3 a gallon in some places. Analysts credit greater supplies, lower demand, the easing of Middle East tensions and even a slow hurricane season.

Grisham is returning to the world of his first novel, A Time to Kill, with a sequel called Sycamore Row. The book comes out at the same time as the stage adaptation of A Time to Kill opens on Broadway. NPR's Lynn Neary profiles Grisham, who says he loved writing the new book so much, he didn't want to hand it to the publisher.

Crystal isn't happy about turning 65, but at least he's finding a way to laugh about it. The actor and comedian's new memoir — Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys? — is on the best-seller list and he'll be back on Broadway in November.