Books News

Are you okay with puns? You’d better be okay with puns. Also: silly names and stinky smells, vermin and venality. And jokes about the French. Welcome to Discworld, a flat disc populated by humans (and also dwarfs, goblins, vampires, nymphs and golems) that sits on the backs of four large elephants standing on the shell of an enormous turtle.

Mr. Doctorow will be honored at the Congress National Book Festival on Aug. 30.

Is a book worth killing for? In The Book Stops Here , by Kate Carlisle (Obsidian, $24.99), bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright may learn the answer. She’s scored a sweet gig as a guest appraiser on TV’s popular “This Old Attic.” In one episode, she estimates that the value of a first edition of “The Secret Garden” could “feed a family of four for at least two years.” The vintage copy was submitted by Vera, who bought it at a garage sale for $3 and giddily anticipates turning her find into fortune.

Lee Boudreaux has been name vice president and editorial director of her own imprint at Little, Brown and Company.

Mr. Coover’s new book is a sequel to “The Origin of the Brunists,” his 1966 novel about a religious cult.

When James Patterson's son, Jack, was 8 years old, he and the prolific author of more than 100 books struck a deal: Jack could forgo chores for the summer if every day he used that time — about 45 minutes — to read from a book.

The artist talks about working at a diner, writing 'The Simpsons' and more.

The Washington Post and The Guardian U. S. won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for coverage of Edward J. Snowden’s leaked documents. The Boston Globe won the breaking news prize.

“Casebook,” by Mona Simpson, sees a fracturing family through the eyes of a teenager.

The new collection, “Garlic in Fiction,” includes fiction as well as work that appeared in women’s magazines of the 1940s and ’50s.

Mr. Eggers’s latest effort involves a NASA astronaut taken to an abandoned military base.

In “Red Love,” Maxim Leo describes how East Germany first inspired his grandparents, then disillusioned his parents, then left his own generation numb with despair.

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely answers reader questions on strange beliefs, old habits and new cars.

In the world's largest democracy, local firms and election officials are finding inventive incentives to lure voters to the polls.