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In We Need New Names, NoViolet Bulawayo tells the story of Darling and her friends, desperate children who live in a shantytown called Paradise. Although the early chapters are told in a child's voice, there is no whimsy in this novel of a turbulent Zimbabwe.

Colum McCann's novel TransAtlantic weaves together disparate historical figures and times. Reviewer Rosecrans Baldwin says that while some sections are uneven, the book rolls over you like a wave, crashing and building upon itself.

Nadeem Aslam's The Blind Man's Garden explores the consequences of Sept. 11 through the story of two young brothers who go to Afghanistan in late 2001 to help wounded civilians. Aslam says he wrote the book over four and a half years, part of which was spent in total isolation.

The British government is setting up a new terrorism task force following last week's brutal killing of a soldier by men wielding cleavers and knives. The task force will look at whether new laws are needed to clamp down on those who promote religious extremism.

"The more carny it got, the better I liked it," King says of his new thriller, Joyland. The book, set in a North Carolina amusement park in 1973, is part horror novel and part supernatural thriller. King talks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about his career writing horror, and about what scares him now.

Soldier Brian Turner is no silent witness to war. Instead, he used verse to chronicle his time in the U.S. Army, publishing a book of collected poems titled Here, Bullet. (Originally broadcast on July 22, 2008.)

Philipp Meyer's second novel is a centuries-spanning family saga that chronicles the growth of Texas. Many hands are bloodied in the novel's conflicts: between settlers and Native Americans, between Texan ranchers and Mexicans, and finally, between ranchers and the oil men who take over the land.

Grilling is a pillar of the American summer, and it's at the heart of many other cultures as well — from Latin America to Africa. This summer All Things Considered is setting out to explore some of them with the "Global Grill."

Murder, corruption and political intrigue all feature heavily in A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel, by Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang. It chronicles an episode that's still reverberating through China's Communist Party.

In the '60s, many of the women on television were cute, a little silly and married. Mary Richards, though, was single, sassy, and filled with joy. A new book about the Mary Tyler Moore Show focuses on the women behind the scenes of the show that's still inspiring women today.