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Gasoline prices are rising and jobs remain scarce, but new surveys are finding that Americans are growing more optimistic about the economy. Confidence is now at the highest level in three years.

The voting in Ireland is being seen as the first election in Europe to be dominated by the international debt crisis. Voters are expected to throw out the present government — blaming it for failing to control the country's property boom, and for bailing out the banking system at a massive cost to Irish taxpayer.

Journalist Joshua Foer set out to write about mental athletes — and ended up becoming one himself. At his prime, Foer could memorize the order of a shuffled deck of playing cards in 1 minute and 40 seconds. These days, he has trouble remembering where he put his keys.

In The Quick and the Dead, Joy Williams fixes a gaze of cold but evocative detachment on the lives of an eclectic cast of characters living in the arid Southwest. Writer Sarah Braunstein says the surreal novel uses wit, candor and virtuosic prose to delve into "our subterranean selves."

After the Civil War, the United States seemed poised to grant equal rights to blacks. But the Supreme Court's rulings in the late 19th century kept blacks segregated for decades, says constitutional scholar Lawrence Goldstone.

Allison Pearson follows up her 2002 best-seller, I Don't Know How She Does It, with I Think I Love You, a novel about a teenage girl's obsession with teen star David Cassidy. The book wasn't hard for Pearson to write. When she was growing up, she was madly in love with Cassidy too.

Tom DeBaggio was 57 when he was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. Over the years, he shared his experience with NPR and wrote two books about coping with the disease. He died Monday at the age of 69.

Scandinavian lit is getting a bad reputation. The days of fairy tales are over and a new wave of crime fiction has painted a grim picture of the Nordic countries. Author Heidi Durrow offers three books to take you inside the real Nordic world, where ordinary characters live and love in extraordinary ways.

Abraham Lincoln always thought slavery was unjust — but struggled with what to do once slavery ended. Historian Eric Foner traces how Lincoln's thoughts about slavery — and freed slaves — mirrored America's own transformation in The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.

Writer Claire Dederer thought yoga would make her a better person, a better mother and maybe even all-around perfect. What she found was something deeper, messier and much more real.