Adventures in the AnthropoceneBy Gaia Vince (Milkweed Editions)In her new book, “Adventures in the Anthropocene,” science writer Gaia Vince lays out for inspection the damage that human beings have wrought on the Earth: polluted oceans, depleted stocks of wildlife, burned-out forests. The list goes on. And with global warming comes a host of new problems, some we’ve been reluctant to admit, even as climatologists announced last month that 2014 was the warmest year on record.It’s enough to ask: I

HauntedBy Randy Wayne White (Putnam)Randy Wayne White has built a legacy exploring Florida’s history and ecology. But an evocative look at Florida and its often ignored role in the Civil War can’t make up for a lack of action in “Haunted,” his third novel about Hannah Smith, a Gulf Coast fishing guide and private detective.“Haunted” is more like a visit with an old friend who’s having a really unusual adventure ― and working on an entry into ancestry.com ― than the action White has brought to hi

Best-selling novelist Gong Ji-young sued seven netizens for libel, claiming they circulated a false rumor about her private life and posted malicious comments online. Gong filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office against the netizens, who are accused of posting sexually insulting comments on major newspaper websites, Facebook and Twitter between December 2012 and November 2014, according to Yonhap. The nature of the rumor was not specified.“Gong is well aware that as

AUSTIN ― Not long ago, Emily St. John Mandel was known as the author of three well-regarded literary noir novels that not a lot of people read. Call them “critically acclaimed, but terrible-selling,” she says.Then came “Station Eleven.”Publishers fought over the manuscript. The book debuted in September to enthusiastic reviews and cracked The New York Times best-sellers list. It’s being translated into 13 languages. And Wednesday, it’s up for a National Book Award.Her book is set in a world turn

What was the upshot of my year in reading ― the ideas, the through lines that most stirred or provoked me in 2014? The dominant thread was what we might call that of common experience, work that finds significance in incidental things.Karl Ove Knausgaard has become the poster child for this sort of work; his six-volume autobiographical opus “My Struggle” is all about a deep dive into the mundane. “Over recent years,” he writes toward the end of the second volume, “I had increasingly lost faith i

Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet AgeBy Cory Doctorow (McSweeney’s)Cory Doctorow, who has given away his creative and intellectual work on the Internet for many years, has now published a book with his rationale for doing so.It seems like a sweet incongruity: Doctorow’s manifesto, “Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age,” comes from McSweeney’s, the throwback hipster publisher of beautiful printed books. But the hardworking Doctorow takes advantag

Night Terrors: A Daniel Rinaldi MysteryBy Dennis Palumbo (Poisoned Pen Press)It’s no surprise that Dennis Palumbo’s hero in “Night Terrors: A Daniel Rinaldi Mystery,” the third installment of his four-book mystery series, is a psychologist working in an office located among the University of Pittsburgh’s many buildings in Oakland. Though he lives in Southern California, Palumbo is a Pittsburgh native who graduated from Pitt in 1973. He gave up a career as a screenwriter to become a psychotherapi

The Roman Guide to Slave Management: A Treatise by Nobleman Marcus Sidonius FalxBy Jerry Toner (Overlook Press)Want to buy a pet boy? Go to the slave dealer and ask if they have any Egyptians in the back. Don’t want to dirty your hands punishing your slaves? Hire a contractor, who will provide floggings, hot pitch for torture sessions and a crucifixion service, even providing his own cross and nails, all for modest fees. Need to know what to feed your slaves that will cost the least and provide

The Basilica of St. Francis in AssisiBy Gianfranco Malafarina (Thames and Hudson)Assisi’s famous Basilica of St. Francis consists of two churches stacked on top of each other. Both are pilgrimage sites for followers of the saint, who died in 1226, and art enthusiasts entranced by the frescoes that tell his story. The Lower Church, a kind of Romanesque basement, was built to house Francis’ crypt. The Gothic-style Upper Church is a lighter, taller space designed as a meeting and worship hall for p

Bibliotherapists Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin share how novels can serve as health remedies

“There’s no evidence at this stage that the great books in our culture can be produced through the Internet right now,” says best-selling writer James Patterson. “If the equivalent of ‘Ulysses’ came along, out it would go on the Internet, it would get like about 12 Fs in a row ― ‘I couldn’t get through the first page,’ ‘Couldn’t get through the first chapter,’ F-F-F-F-F, and ‘Ulysses’ would disappear.”Patterson is not known for Joycean prose ― he’s known for propulsive Alex Cross thrillers ― but

Meryl Comer probably couldn’t tell you the most harrowing moment of her journey through Alzheimer’s. Maybe it happened before her husband Harvey’s diagnosis, when he brandished a carving knife at Thanksgiving.Or maybe it occurred when she watched the brilliant doctor of hematology and oncology at the National Institutes of Health, only in his late 50s, fumble his way through a lecture he once would have delivered with poise and efficiency. Or when he traveled overseas for a conference ― against

FiveBy Ursula Archer(Minotaur)Geocaching ― the contemporary treasure hunt in which a GPS is used to find hidden objects ― lends itself to an intriguing melding of a gripping police procedural and an exciting update of the puzzle mystery in Austrian children’s book author Ursula Archer’s crime fiction debut. Archer imbues “Five” with an inventive plot, tense suspense and fully realized characters that seem as if they have been around for years. Archer’s clever use of geocaching proves that the li

The Three-Body ProblemBy Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu(Tor)If you delight in science fiction that delivers the shock and thrill of something strange, Cixin Liu’s “The Three-Body Problem” is your novel this year. It combines fascinating extrapolations from astronomy and physics with a compelling first-contact story and a remarkable gaming / virtual reality tale — and sets the whole thing in contemporary China, among characters profoundly shaped by the notorious Cultural Revolution.Cixin Liu ha

Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled ShoeEdited by Lisa Small(DelMonico Books-Prestel)Shakespeare mentions high heels in “Hamlet,” former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised them and fashion designers from Dior to Manolo Blahnik have bewitched women and men with their versions. “KillerHeels” is a luxurious, fun and sexy look at the history of high heels,and it manages to be eye candy and thoughtprovoking, too. It’s onshelves for the holiday shopping season.Based on an exhibit at the Bro