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Many colleges have adopted a "common reads" program, where freshmen read the same book during the summer and then discuss it when they get to campus. Jared Diamond, author of the popular common read Guns, Germs, and Steel, talks about what his book can offer young readers.

In his novel Anatomy of a Disappearance, Hisham Matar tells the tale of a father kidnapped — much like his own. Matar's father, a vocal opponent of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, disappeared 20 years ago. No one knows if he is dead or alive. "Living in hope is a really terrible thing," Matar says.

As we grow older, our reading changes. The alphabet books of our toddler years just aren't going to cut it after college. But author Adam Mansbach revisits three books from his young adult years and finds that the best stories can be appreciated at any age.

Despite the bad economy, the number of Americans who struggled to get enough to eat did not grow last year, and in some cases declined, according to new government data. Still, a near-record number — almost 49 million people — were affected.

Children who are bullied often carry those memories with them for years. In the anthology Dear Bully, young adult fiction writers reflect on the experience of being bullied.

Firefighter Ken Haskell was off duty on Sept. 11, 2001, when his two brothers, also firefighters, died in the World Trade Center. Haskell's story of searching the rubble for his brothers' bodies is included in A Decade of Hope: Stories of Grief and Endurance from 9/11 Families and Friends.

In his new book, the New York Times columnist explores how the U.S. fell from industrial, political and academic glory after the Cold War. "Just when we needed to be lacing up our shoes and running faster, we put our feet up," he says.

As a child, poet Philip Schultz struggled in school, but it wasn't until his son was diagnosed with dyslexia that Schultz finally had a name for what had frustrated him all those years. In My Dyslexia, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet revisits his childhood struggles and how he coped.

Reviewer Maureen Corrigan says Amy Waldman's debut novel might be the Sept. 11 novel — the one that finally does justice, artistically and historically, to the aftershocks of that day.

Author Marc Kaufman recommends this tale of an explorer on the hunt for a rare animal — and something more. The Snow Leopard shows that while we can't always find what we're looking for, we still get what we need.