Webster County Library

T. D. Allman traces five centuries of Florida history, from discovery to settlement to tourist destination.    

For 43 years “Li’l Abner” entertained millions, but the comic strip’s creator was a complicated, often unpleasant man.    

Mary Roach on what happens after you eat.    

Gish Jen discusses the differences between Asian and Western approaches to identity.    

Michael Pollan on how to prepare your own food.    

Marci Shore examines the psyche of Eastern Europe in the wake of the revolutions of 1989.    

Kate Atkinson’s novel follows the many alternate courses her protagonist’s destiny might have taken.    

In Rachel Kushner’s second novel, an impressionable artist navigates the volatile worlds of New York and Rome in the 1970s.    

Tanis Rideout’s novel relates the story of George Mallory’s third Mount Everest expedition.    

A fractious family comes together to defend a troubled relative in Elizabeth Strout’s novel.    

James Salter’s first novel in more than 30 years follows the loves and losses of a World War II veteran.    

The novelist Tom Perrotta considers Willa Cather “one of the truly underrated” American writers.    

How it feels to be the victim of a serial plagiarist.    

Recently reviewed books of particular interest.    

Paperback books of particular interest.    

Iris Johansen, whose new novel, “Taking Eve,” is at No. 5 on the hardcover fiction list, cites Ayn Rand as one of her favorite authors, but says, “I’m not aware of a Randian influence in my work.”    

In her letters, the novelist Willa Cather emerges as a strong and vivid presence, a woman at once surprisingly modern and touchingly — if not always sweetly — old-fashioned.    

A reader responds to a recent review of “The Highway Rat.”    

A reader responds to a recent review of Jeanne Theoharis’s “Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks.”    

Readers respond to a recent review of Jeff Chu’s new book.