Books

Urrea is celebrated for his books about the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly his nonfiction work, The Devil's Highway, which was a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Good Night, Irene is a departure: drawing on his mother's journals and scrapbooks and the spotty information that's survived about the Clubmobile corps, Urrea has written a female-centric World War II novel.

Should we continue to celebrate works of art - books, paintings, films - made by human beings who've done terrible things? If you don't have a readymade answer to that question, our book critic Maureen Corrigan has a book to recommend. It's called "Monsters."

In a new book called "There Will Be Fire," Irish journalist Rory Carroll investigates the IRA plot to assassinate Margaret Thatcher, a plot that almost succeeded and thus almost changed the course of history.

Class identity, however, much more than racial identity or adoption, is the factor that greatly determines the course of events recalled in A Living Remedy says book critic Maureen Corrigan.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan says of this new book that "just when you think you have a handle on Biography of X, it escapes the stack of assumptions where you thought you'd put it."

Nora Ephron's 1983 novel Heartburn just come out in a 40th anniversary edition. And Jenny Jackson's debut comic novel, Pineapple Street, is a smart comedy of manners.

Maureen Corrigan reviews I Have Some Questions for You which she says "is both a thickly-plotted, character-driven mystery and a stylishly self-aware novel of ideas."

"On Writing And Failure" is the title of a new pamphlet-length book by Canadian novelist and essayist Stephen Marche. Book critic Maureen Corrigan says that while failure may be no laughing matter, Marche's little book is a witty delight to read.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan says Jordan Harper's new suspense novel is L-A noir at its sleazy, suspensful best.

Allegra Goodman says that her new novel, called "Sam," was inspired by her daughter, who, when she was little, was constantly in motion. Goodman wondered what happens to that reckless energy in girls as they grow up. Our book critic, Maureen Corrigan, has a review of "Sam."