Martha Woodroof

Author Margot Livesey writes books about complicated subjects. Her latest, The House On Fortune Street, is divided into four parts, telling interlocking pieces of the same story.

Joanne Harris' new novel, The Girl with No Shadow, revisits the supernaturally sensuous world of Chocolat. But where the first book was about what makes people happy, Harris calls her latest a dark, urban fairy tale.

Book reviews appear to be an endangered species, at least for standalone sections of the newspaper. Recently the San Diego Union Tribune merged its books section with the arts pages. That is spurring debate about how readers will learn about the books.

British writer Mark Haddon's first novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, brought him critical and popular acclaim. He follows up with A Spot of Bother.

Sarah Waters' novel is told from 1947 backward, and it has much of what we expect of war-time Londoners: bravery, fear and sometimes heroism. But there's more: many of the characters are lesbians.

Novelist Louise Erdrich returns to the Ojibwe world in her latest work, but The Painted Drum also explores human relationships. The central character steals the title object in order to give it back to its rightful owners.

Daniel Alarcon was born in Peru and raised in Alabama. His fiction reflects the cross pollination of those two cultures which he says is just a small part of a larger global trend of mobility and intermixing. His first book of stories in called War by Candlelight. Martha Woodroof of NPR station WMRA reports.

The Da Vinci Code has been out for more that two years, and it still remains on bestseller lists. The popularity of Dan Brown's novel that combines science, religion, history and suspense has publishers jumping at the opportunity to spot the next literary sensation.