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Willa Cather's pioneer tale is often considered a young adult novel — but don't be fooled by the deceptively simple prose. Writer Bradford Morrow says older readers who return to the subtly sophisticated narrative will find new perspectives on their own journeys.

After ten years, author Francine Pascal has written an update to her classic Sweet Valley High series — and Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody is writing a movie about the original Sweet Valley books. Rachel Syme reports on the continuing phenomenon that is the Wakefield sisters.

Attorney David Dow has spent his career representing inmates who have been sentenced to death. Despite his efforts, many of his clients have been executed — and most of them were guilty. He details what it's like to become emotionally involved with the people living on death row in a new memoir.

Atascadero State Hospital in central California was built to treat criminals who are mentally ill. But since 2006, assaults on staff have risen markedly. Employees blame the increase on a federally enforced plan that they say requires them to spend more time on paperwork than treating patients.

If you've ever been afraid to pick up a book of poetry, critic David Orr can help. His new book, Beautiful & Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry, aims to demystify this often-overlooked art.

When a psychiatric technician at Napa State Hospital was murdered last fall, allegedly by a patient, staffers began going public with their safety complaints. More than 80 percent of the patients at the hospital arrived by way of the criminal justice system — deemed either not guilty by reason of insanity or just too dangerous to be paroled.

Marable's life work, published just days after his death, casts Malcolm X's legacy in a new light. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention explores the Muslim leader's personal relationships and encourages a re-examination of his assassination.

A blockbuster Korean novel has just been translated into English, in which a mother from the country goes missing in Seoul. Fresh Air's Maureen Corrigan says the book delves deeply into traditional values, putting the mother's melancholy squarely on the shoulders of her grown (unappreciative) children.

During the 1898-1904 pox epidemic, public health officials and policemen forced thousands of Americans to be vaccinated against their will. Historian Michael Willrich examines that epidemic's far-reaching implications for individual civil liberties in Pox: An American History.

Why do the toads cross the road? To ... well ... make more toads. And for three years now, folks have been blocking traffic so that the little hoppers can make that journey.