Michele Norris

The Day My Mother Left tells the story of a young boy whose mother leaves him — and how that experience stokes his love of art and nature. Author and artist James Prosek discusses the work, which is fiction but largely autobiographical.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, cookbook author Dorie Greenspan offers her advice on baking with chocolate, a notoriously finicky ingredient. She explains how chocolates are like wines, and shares ideas for using all that sweet stuff.

In The Invention of Hugo Cabret, author and illustrator Brian Selznick uses a striking combination of text and drawings to tell the story of Hugo, an orphan in Paris, and a reclusive genius from the early days of silent film.

In April 1975, Bich Minh Nguyen and her family fled Saigon and settled in Grand Rapids, Mich. Her memoir, Stealing Buddha's Dinner, captures what it was like to be Vietnamese in the conservative, largely white town — and the role that food played in her assimilation.

Rafe Esquith has taught kids from some of the toughest neighborhoods in Los Angeles. His book, 'Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire,' outlines the methods he's found to be successful.

When political analysts talk about one potential presidential candidate for 2008, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, they often mention his wife — and her down-to-earth appeal. Elizabeth Edwards talks about the death of her teenage son, living a life of politics, and surviving cancer.

Dorie Greenspan calls herself the "baking evangelist." In her new cookbook, Baking: From My Home to Yours, she shares easy Thanksgiving recipes: sweet-potato biscuits, all-in-one holiday bundt cake and pumpkin marshmallows.

Erik Larson's books weave together multiple plots based on actual events. Thunderstruck is the tale of a mild-mannered doctor who murdered his wife, a trans-Atlantic chase, and the inventor who created the wireless telegraph.

In his new book, The Audacity of Hope, Sen. Barack Obama shares his thoughts on "reclaiming the American Dream." He talks about living a public life, his conflicting feelings about fundraising, and speculation over possible presidential ambitions.

Danny Meyer has built an empire of 10 restaurants in cutthroat New York City. In his new book, Setting the Table, Meyer explains that more than good service, hospitality is what sets his eateries apart from others.

John Grisham says he could never have come up with the story that's chronicled in his first work of nonfiction, The Innocent Man. It's the tragic tale of Ron Williamson, a small-town sports hero from Oklahoma wrongly convicted of murder.

Annie Leibovitz has been photographing celebrities for four decades — those long-awaited photos of Suri Cruise in Vanity Fair were hers. Leibovitz's portraits of stars have made her something of a celebrity herself, but a new book of her work reveals a more personal side to Leibovitz.