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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.
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The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books

This week: Meg Wolitzer, Charles Frazier, Jo Nesbo, Nafissa Thompson-Spires and James Sexton.
Grotesque Horror Through A Kid-Sized Window

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PG-13: Risky Reads

Grotesque Horror Through A Kid-Sized Window

Stephen King's It showed Erin Morgenstern that the demons and ghouls of childhood stories don't hit the road just because you grow up. Have you read something that both scared and enticed you? Tell us about it in the comments.

Grotesque Horror Through A Kid-Sized Window

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'The Lies Are Over': A Journalist Unravels

Former New Yorker staff writer Jonah Lehrer is the author of Imagine: How Creativity Works. Nina Subin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hide caption

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Nina Subin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

'The Lies Are Over': A Journalist Unravels

Science writer Jonah Lehrer has resigned his post at The New Yorker after another reporter revealed he'd made up some of the Bob Dylan quotes in his latest book. NPR's Neda Ulaby looks at how the fake quotes were discovered and why Lehrer became a star at such a young age.

'The Lies Are Over': A Journalist Unravels

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'The Chocolate Thief': A Delectable Summer Bonbon

Laura Florand's new novel concerns a romance between a French chocolatier and an American candy-bar magnate. Nikki deGroot/iStockphoto.com hide caption

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Book Reviews

'The Chocolate Thief': A Delectable Summer Bonbon

An American candy heiress butts heads with a snooty French chocolatier in Laura Florand's romantic new novel The Chocolate Thief. They fight, he throws her out of his candy store — of course they're going to fall in love. Read on for a sweet treat to while away a summer afternoon.

Writer Has A Down-Home Feel For Atlanta's Dark Side

Writer Karin Slaughter has seen the fallout of some of Atlanta's most gruesome crimes and most dramatic transitions. David Goldman/AP hide caption

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David Goldman/AP

Crime In The City

Writer Has A Down-Home Feel For Atlanta's Dark Side

Growing up near Atlanta, Karin Slaughter learned that tragic crimes can happen to anyone — even children. She says she sets her crime fiction in Atlanta as a way to honor the city's people and turning points, from the election of its first black mayor to the 1996 Olympics.

Writer Has A Down-Home Feel For Atlanta's Dark Side

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'In The Attic': Whips, Witches And A Peculiar Princess

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Simon and Schuster

Review

PG-13: Risky Reads

'In The Attic': Whips, Witches And A Peculiar Princess

Flowers In The Attic is saucy and scandalous, but author Gillian Flynn says it was the complex, often evil women in the story that kept her turning the pages. Do you have a favorite female villain? Tell us about her in the comments.

'In The Attic': Whips, Witches And A Peculiar Princess

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A Little Advice On 'How To Be A Woman'
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Review

Book Reviews

A Little Advice On 'How To Be A Woman'

Fresh Air

In her essays, British columnist Caitlin Moran picks up funny feminism where Nora Ephron left off. She takes a fresh approach to hit topics from the past 40 or so years of feminist writing: sexuality, marriage, division of housework, female body fat, abortion and sexism in the workplace.

A Little Advice On 'How To Be A Woman'

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Laying Down New Rules For The 'Not-So-Empty Nest'

In 2001, Sally Koslow's then 25-year-old son moved back home after graduating from college. Jim Tierney hide caption

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Jim Tierney

Laying Down New Rules For The 'Not-So-Empty Nest'

Like millions of American parents, author Sally Koslow sent her children off to college, only to have them return home due to a bad economy and limited job options. In Slouching Toward Adulthood, Koslow shares her research and interviews on the phase she calls "adultescence."

Laying Down New Rules For The 'Not-So-Empty Nest'

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