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Ken Kalfus' new novel about an astronomer obsessed with attracting the attention of Martians appears at first to be an homage to the scientific romances of H.G. Wells and the lost-world sagas of H. Rider Haggard. As the novel develops, however, its unique social commentaries emerge.

At 19, the heroine of Isabel Allende's florid, frenzied Maya's Notebook is in a tailspin of drugs, prostitution and crime. Sent by her grandmother to hide out with an old friend on an island off Chile, she finds love and redemption. Reviewer Mary Pols doesn't buy it.

The Americans and the Europeans have different approaches to horse racing, and one key split is over the question of doping. While many drugs are allowed in the U.S., they are banned in European racing.

Footage from privately owned surveillance cameras along the Boston Marathon route gave the FBI early clues about the bombing suspects. But the proliferation of cameras in America's big cities raises some tricky questions about the balance between security and privacy.

Apple released quarterly earnings on Tuesday that beat Wall Street's bearish expectations. Investors have done a pessimistic about-face on Apple since the company's stock price topped $700 in September. Apple's earnings were lower than a year ago for the first time in a decade. But Apple did offer investors some goodies — it increase its dividend and added $50 billion to a stock buyback program.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday as it continued discussion of the new, bipartisan immigration overhaul. She defended her department's procedures for screening immigrants in the wake of the Boston marathon bombings.

Is it naive to believe that improved Internet access can help open up truly autocratic regimes like North Korea? Google executives Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, authors of The New Digital Age, say the power of information is underrated.

Shows like Good Morning America and the Today show can have a big impact on a broadcast network's image and bottom line. NPR's David Greene speaks with media reporter Brian Stelter about Top of the Morning, his new book about the high-stakes world of morning TV.

Carrie Johnson talks to Audie Cornish about the charges against Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He was charged on Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction that killed three people and injured more than 200 at the Boston Marathon. He could be eligible for the death penalty.

D.A. Mishani is the author of one of the few detective novels written in Hebrew. He talked to intern Lidia Jean Kott about why the genre has historically been unpopular in Israel and about the dangers of reading too much crime fiction.