"The Man Who Invented Christmas," by Les Standiford (Crown, $19.95) ...more

December 21, 2008

"Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln," by John Stauffer (Twelve, $30) ...more

November 2, 2008

They have called him things like country bumpkin and Charlie Mayberry. They have made fun of his weight. They have criticized him for being too easy on his players. ...more

October 22, 2008

Maudie White Hopkins, who grew up during the Depression in the hardscrabble Ozarks and married a Confederate army veteran 67 years her senior, has died. She was 93. ...more

August 20, 2008

So far this year, I've flown to Greenville, S.C., three times to visit my mother, who lives with my brother, Pete, and his wife, Sherri. They take stellar care of her, and I pitch in when I'm there. She gets around by walker and wheelchair. ...more

May 4, 2008

Ken Kneisel looked out at the endless sea of white crosses. There were hundreds of them, each casting a long shadow across the freshly cut grass. ...more

January 24, 2008

In a murderous quest aimed at "cleansing" their turf of snitches and rival gangs, members of one of Los Angeles County's most vicious Latino gangs sometimes killed people just because of their race, an investigation found. ...more

December 31, 2007

Border Patrol agents are firing tear gas and powerful pepper-spray weapons across the border into Mexico to repel what the agency says are an increasing number of attacks by assailants hurling rocks, bottles and bricks. ...more

December 18, 2007

To a certain sort of woman who is somewhere between late youth and an unacknowledged middle age, the name Jordan Catalano isn't a television reference - it is a sense memory. You don't recall Jordan Catalano - you feel him, as you do the erotic miscalculations of your own adolescence. ...more

October 28, 2007