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McSweeney's contributor Dan Kennedy found what he thought was a dream job in the music industry: Director of Creative Development at Atlantic Records. Rock on: an Office Power Ballad is the tale of his time at the label — where he arrived just in time for what he describes as the collapse of the music business.

Nepal's 240-year-old Hindu monarchy will be abolished if a new assembly agrees to continue a path toward making the nation a republic. Now the king and his family face a mounting pile of personal debt.

This week, the South by Southwest music festival brings more than 1,700 bands to Austin, Texas, for a weekend that's all about volume in more ways than one. Narrowing down the seemingly limitless options isn't easy, but here are three acts likely to win some new fans in the coming days.

In this week's Wisdom Watch, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discusses foreign relations, sexism and the dynamics of presidential politics, as chronicled in her new book Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership.

Comedian Robert Schimmel has suffered tragedies, including the death of his child and his own battle with cancer. But throughout it all, Schimmel managed to find strength in humor. His recent memoir is Cancer on $5 a Day.

As a young woman living in Paris in 1968, author Mireille Guiliano found friendship — and frustration — in Lily Bart, Edith Wharton's naïve, self-interested heroine who struggles to make decisions that are in her self-interest.

Scott Simon, author of the new political novel Windy City, calls politics "a local specialty" in Chicago, in the tradition of blues and improvisational comedy. His new book chronicles the chaos that ensues after the city's mayor is poisoned while eating pizza.

Was America meant to be a Christian nation? Steven Waldman, founder of Beliefnet.com, debunks myths about religion in the lives the Founding Fathers, and in the early history of America in his new book, Founding Faith.

In her "Fancy Nancy" books, Jane O'Connor created a world she was very familiar with as a little girl. When company arrived at her home, O'Connor would throw on a tutu, a cape and her mother's high heels, looking "appropriately elegant" to greet her guests.

When Robert Leleux's father left him and his mother in 1996, she set out to remarry rich. In his funny memoir, Leleux recounts their erratic family journey, which saw Leleux's mother pursue risky cosmetic procedures to meet her goal.