Books News

In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, there’s a small garden sheltered from the clatter of the street where young girls quietly play inside a treehouse. The purpose of this hideaway is almost unfathomable. The girls — many of whom have been sold into sexual slavery by their mothers — are brought to the garden by activists who rescue them.

By now, the story of British double-agent Harold “Kim” Philby may be the most familiar spy yarn ever, fodder for whole libraries of histories, personal memoirs and novels. But Ben Macintyre manages to retell it in a way that makes Philby’s destructive genius fresh and horridly fascinating — and, to me, at least, ultimately inexplicable.

Teen love story was No. 1on USA TODAY's list for 11 straight weeks.        

Midwestern natives among four of five Americans longlisted for literary awardLost in Wednesday's news about the first global Man Booker Prize longlist was that among the five Americans who made it on the longlist of finalists, four are Midwesterners.

Attention ‘Fifty Shades’ fans… We have some very special guests in Studio 1A pic.twitter.com/ofnW7bIGeC Fans finally got a glimpse of the movie version of EL James’s “Fifty Shades of Grey,” starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan. The trailer for the wildly anticipated film was released this morning on the” Today Show.” Read full article >>

Author Harper Lee says she did not cooperate with a book that is now on USA TODAY's list.        

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The author, most recently, of “The City” is a fan of Marilynne Robinson and Cormac McCarthy: “Both offer voluptuous yet highly controlled language and profound moral purpose.”

In the midst of so much gloom, a little happy news out of Ukraine: Yelena Akhtiorskaya can’t resolve the separatist crisis or repel Vladimir Putin, but this 28-year-old writer from Odessa subordinates the violence of nations for a moment and offers the balm of laughter. Her first novel, “Panic in a Suitcase,” is equal parts borscht stew and Borscht Belt — an immigration comedy that can’t tell whether it’s leaving or coming to America.

The stories we tell to explain autism go back centuries. The Celts believed fairies stole healthy babies and replaced them with elfin spirits. Bruno Bettelheim insisted the problem was cold, witchy mothers. Later, pediatricians and needles were to blame. Read full article >>

Francisco Goldman’s new book, “The Interior Circuit,” recounts the troubles that he and his adopted home, Mexico City, have seen, and his attempts to rebound from his.

Four Americans — Karen Joy Fowler, Joshua Ferris, Siri Hustvedt and Richard Powers — were among the writers who made the 13-strong list.

The author says her mystery series will be longer than the 'Harry Potter' series.        

The Baffler, a journal of iconoclastic wit and cultural analysis, relaunched its Web site today with full access to its archives from 1988 to the present. “That’s 25 issues of maximum alienation,” says editor in chief John Summers, “brought to you by the dubious science of outsourcing magazine digitization to certain Asian countries.” Read full article >>

A study of alcohol — its manufacture and consumption — highlights its reliance on good chemistry and the magical process of fermentation that turns sugars into intoxicating drinks.

The acerbic left-wing magazine has made all of its 25 back issues available online for the first time.