The A&P changed the way Americans do their grocery shopping, but it did so at a cost -- thousands of mom-and-pop corner stores closed as the chain grew. Economic historian Marc Levinson chronicles the rise and fall of the grocery giant in The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America.
The New York trio Battles and the Chicago-based experimental rock band Cheer-Accident come from very different directions. But critic Milo Miles says that both groups have recently put out their most appealing records, without losing their cerebral side.
Waters founded her Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse, long before "organic" or "locally grown" entered the vernacular. In 40 Years at Chez Panisse, Waters looks back on the sustainable for movement and the momentum it has built in recent years.
Raoul Ruiz's 4 1/2 hour Portuguese/French melodrama -- a puppet theater of the upper class -- won't be everybody's cup of tea. But critic David Edelstein says the film's haunting mix of distance and intimacy makes the hours fly by.
Brad Ausmus has been called one of the best catchers in baseball. He spent 18 seasons in the big leagues, playing for teams like the Dodgers and the Padres. He details what it's like to couch behind home plate, deal with umps and make pitching calls.
Stone is known to millions from the records he made with Sly and the Family Stone. But his early days, and the recordings he produced for his own Stone Flower label, add another dimension to the career of this enigmatic character, rock historian Ed Ward said.
Bridges won an Oscar in 2009 for his performance as a broken-down country singer in the film Crazy Heart, for which her performed his own vocals. He also sings as himself on a new self-titled album.
When Standard & Poor's recently lowered the U.S. government debt rating for the first time in history, it set off a firestorm of criticism, from the Obama administration to Wall Street. The downgrade raised questions about the influence of S&P and other agencies, which also faced blame in the financial crisis of 2007-'08.
America's anti-terrorism strategy has evolved in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks. New York Times reporters Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt explain some of the tactics used by the United States over the past decade to disrupt al-Quaida both in real life and online.
A pair of identical twins lived apart for 28 years after one off them was accidentally switched with another infant in the hospital nursery. Twin expert Nancy Segal details what happened next in Someone Else's Twin: The True Story of Babies Switched at Birth.
Phillips has been making albums since the 1980s, but her voice may be best known for her background music in the TV series Gilmore Girls. Rock critic Ken Tucker says there's a lot of terrific music on her new album, Solid State.
Historian Adam Hochschild traces the patriotic fervor that catapulted Great Britain into war during the summer of 1914 — as well as the small, but determined British pacifist movement — in his historical narrative To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918.
Emma Stone and Viola Davis star in the film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's best-selling novel about a white woman who sets out to tell the story of black domestic servants in 1960s Mississippi. Critic David Edelstein says that both Stone and Davis pull off stunning performances.
Nearly 30 years ago, Hugh Herr lost both of his legs in a climbing accident at age 17. Today, he runs the Biomechatronics group at the MIT Media Lab and designs better prosthetic limbs for other amputees.
New Yorker Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza spent four days with Michele Bachmann and her staff aboard their campaign jet in late June. His profile looks at the writers, beliefs and books that Bachmann has specifically mentioned as influences in her life.
New York Times reporter Angela Elliott profiles the Brooklyn lawyer behind the anti-Shariah movement. She says David Yerushlami "has come to exercise a striking influence over American public discourse about Shariah."
In Kevin Wilson's first novel, husband-and-wife conceptual artists stage elaborate public acts of "choreographed spontaneity" -- to the embarrassment of their children. Wilson's inventive energy makes The Family Fang a strange, wonderful and refreshing read in the summer heat.
When Columbus crossed the Atlantic in 1493, his journey prompted the exchange of not only information but also food, animals, insects, plants and disease between the continents. In a new book, Charles C. Mann describes the aftermath of Columbus' arrival in the Americas.
