Justine Kenin

The Smithsonian's first brewing historian explores everything from immigration to urbanization through the lens of beer. And with the boom in microbrewing, she says beer's story has come full circle.

We asked booksellers across the country to share recommendations for books that you can take with you on vacation — or just to the nearest shade tree.

Writer Katherine Heiny has published her first collection of short stories, Single, Carefree, Mellow.

When Madeleine L'Engle won the Newbery Prize for A Wrinkle in Time, she ended her speech with the thought that a book "can be a star, 'explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly,' a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe."

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Just in time for summer, NPR's Backseat Book Club will introduce us to an amazing gorilla. He's the title character in The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.

Ivan is a silverback who's the only gorilla living in a shopping mall. Luckily he has friends — an elephant, ...

She yanks on her elbow-length rubber gloves and snaps the string of her apron into a knot — but this is no ordinary lunch lady. Not only does she serve food, she also serves justice.

The Lunch Lady in question is the star of NPR's Backseat Book Club's ...