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Maggie Shipstead mocks the pretensions of New England WASPs, while Jessica Lott executes unexpected riffs on the student-professor relationship plot. Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews two stellar fiction newcomers.

Millions of people worldwide are leaving rural areas for urban ones. NPR Cities Project editor Franklyn Cater highlights five books that examine and celebrate 21st century life in the metropolis.

Journalist Alison Stewart chronicles the history of Dunbar High School in her new book, First Class. She says the Washington, D.C., school — which has graduated Army generals, Cabinet members and musicians — can serve as a model for urban schools today.

Colonel Mustard, in the ballroom, with the ... Gouda? You may not expect a wheel of cheese to be at the center of a devious plot, but Michael Paterniti's The Telling Room manages to do just that.

The drug war was in full swing in the '80s, and cocaine was practically everywhere. But use of the drug has fallen by almost half since 2006, and production is also down significantly. How did the U.S. kick the habit? Experts say cocaine has lost its luster — oh and policy may have made a difference, too.

Jenni Fagan's debut novel, The Panopticon, is a creepy and troubled portrait of a girl lost in the system. The plot is loosely based on Fagan's experience growing up in foster care.

Why are these antiquated diseases on the rise again, and how strong is the threat of drug-resistant bacteria? Host Jacki Lyden talks to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga., about this trend in infectious diseases.

The archbishop of Canterbury says he is embarrassed by revelations that the Church of England indirectly invested in a payday loan firm that he had pledged to put out of business.

Attorney General Eric Holder has asked a court to order federal oversight of Texas' voting practices because he says the state discriminated against minority voters during the redistricting process. It's the first in a wave of federal actions to protect voters after a recent Supreme Court ruling threw out part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Just before opening a new front in the debate over the Voting Rights Act, Attorney General Eric Holder attended a Washington event about a topic that hit close to home.