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As a Marine in the Vietnam War, Karl Marlantes learned to fire an M16, to command a platoon, to fight and to kill. In What It Is Like to Go to War, he comes to terms with the experience of combat: the guilt, the thrill and the challenge of coming home.

Americans consume more bananas than apples and oranges combined. Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, gives us a primer on the expansive history — and the threatened future — of the seedless, sexless fruit.

Washington Post national security reporter Dana Priest's book Top Secret America looks at the top-secret intelligence and counterterrorism network created after Sept. 11. "No one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, [or] how many programs exist within it," she says.

Two years after opening his award-winning Chicago restaurant Alinea, chef Grant Achatz was diagnosed with tongue cancer. He describes losing and regaining his taste in Life, on the Line. "My palate developed just as a newborn," Achatz says. "I don't recommend it, but I think it made me a better chef."

The sound of the sea, the smell of rain — what makes Ireland such a magical place? Maybe its writers like Claire Keegan who tease the nuance and grace out of everyday interactions. Author Keith Donohue says each of Keegan's stories is a morsel worth savoring.

Although the economy has been growing since mid-2009, the pace has been too slow to absorb the nearly 14 million people without jobs. Today, 46 million Americans receive the federal government's help when buying food, which is roughly 15 percent of the population.

Kathy Reichs, a forensic anthropologist, is the author of the books that inspired the Fox TV series Bones. Her latest novel kicks off with a gruesome discovery: a body stashed in a drum full of asphalt and tossed in a landfill at a North Carolina speedway.

Many colleges assign books that all incoming freshmen must read over the summer. A popular 2011 assignment is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, about a cell line taken without consent from a black woman with cervical cancer.

When it comes to choosing a school for your child, the variables seem endless — from class size to teaching style and curriculum. There are bound to be questions. Education journalist Peg Tyre answers these questions in her new book, The Good School: How Smart Parents Get Their Kids the Education They Deserve.

What if the rapture actually occurred? That's the plot of Tom Perrotta's new novel The Leftovers, which examines the aftermath of an unexplained rapturelike event in which millions of people around the globe inexplicably disappear into thin air.