Join Laura Hillenbrand and NPR for a new book club. Washington Post/Getty Images hide caption
The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books This week: Meg Wolitzer's latest, Charles Frazier returns to the Civil War, the pressures of being the only black person in the room, a new Macbeth, and marriage-saving tips from a divorce lawyer.
Special Series
The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books
This week: Meg Wolitzer, Charles Frazier, Jo Nesbo, Nafissa Thompson-Spires and James Sexton.
Grandmaster Bobby Fischer, pictured above in 1971 at age 28, is considered to have been the world's most brilliant chess player. In his new Fischer biography, Endgame, Frank Brady writes that the chess prodigy was a man of paradox: "Bobby was secretive, yet candid; generous, yet parsimonious; naive, yet well informed; cruel, yet kind; religious, yet heretical. His games were filled with charm and beauty and significance. His outrageous pronouncements were filled with cruelty and prejudice and hate." /AP hide caption
Containerized cargo is stacked high on a China Shipping Line freighter in 2006 in Miami Beach, Florida. Despite China's growing economy, author Daniel Altman believes cultural and demographic factors will prevent it from overtaking the United States as an economic power. Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Betty Friedan, the late author of The Feminine Mystique, is shown in her New York apartment May 25, 1970. Anthony Camerano/AP hide caption
The view from the Metro North stop at 125th Street February 15, 2001 in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts' new collection of essays reminisces on her experience moving to Harlem compared with that of the literary giants like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston who came before her. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption
Author Kenneth Slawenski lives in New Jersey. He founded the website DeadCaulfields.com, and has been researching J.D. Salinger: A Life for the past eight years. hide caption
The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Smithsonian Institute/via Flickr hide caption
The Reagan family gathers at the breakfast table in 1960. Their kitchen was stocked with General Electric gadgets, thanks to Reagan's hosting gig on GE Theater. Courtesy of Ronald Reagan Family hide caption
Who says monsters have to be scary? Some can be very helpful with your math homework. The monster above is actually showing you how to find the prime factors of the number 14. Click here to see Schwartz's illustrations of the numbers 1 to 100, factored. Richard Evan Schwartz hide caption
