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Just a few weeks ago, warnings were flying thick and fast that the Olympic Games would reduce London to chaos, jamming the capital's roads and clogging up its aging transport system. Officials urged residents to work from home and plan their travel carefully. The public seems to have taken that advice to heart.

Some Londoners may not be much interested in sports - but one image from these Olympic Games will surely remain with them, long after the cheers and crowds have faded away. It is the spectacle of their mayor, Boris Johnson, brandishing a Union flag in either hand, and dangling helplessly from a zip wire 20 feet above the ground.

Moran believes that most women who don't want to be called feminists don't understand what feminism is. Her new book How to Be a Woman is a funny take on housework, high heels, body fat, abortion, marriage and, of course, Brazilian waxes.

Stephen King's It showed Erin Morgenstern that the demons and ghouls of childhood stories don't hit the road just because you grow up. Have you read something that both scared and enticed you? Tell us about it in the comments.

An American candy heiress butts heads with a snooty French chocolatier in Laura Florand's romantic new novel The Chocolate Thief. They fight, he throws her out of his candy store — of course they're going to fall in love. Read on for a sweet treat to while away a summer afternoon.

In December, Congress is poised for another showdown on the deficit and taxes, in what is now being called the fiscal cliff. In his new book Red Ink, David Wessel explains how the federal budget got to the point where it is today — and where to go from here.

Astrophysicist Adam Frank doesn't usually read self-help books, but something about Walker Percy's existential optimism in Lost In The Cosmos actually changed his outlook on life. Do you have a favorite self-help book? Tell us in the comments below.

Wall Street Journal economics writer David Wessel's new book, Red Ink, lays out in unsparing terms the way the U.S. government spends money, who pays what in taxes, and why politicians can't seem to agree on ways to reduce the potentially catastrophic deficit.

Poet Ouyang Yu imagines an Olympic event in which he lifts up just one extraordinary word. "The magic of the word is that, when well lifted, it has the power to transform," Yu says.

Poet Mbali Vilakazi pays tribute to South African swimmer Natalie du Toit, the first female amputee ever to qualify for the Olympic Games. For Vilakazi, du Toit's accomplishment is "everything the Olympics represent ... the triumph of the human spirit."