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Physicist Michio Kaku studies what were once only philosophical questions about the human mind. He delves into the brain and our understanding of its functions in his new book, The Future of the Mind.

There are different kinds of fat people in literature — funny or comforting, sometimes despicable. But Sarai Walker's Dietland gives us a new fat protagonist — complex, compelling and dangerous.

Miranda July's new novel The First Bad Man defies neat summaries; reviewer Annalisa Quinn calls July "a master of the intimate weirdnesses of human thought," who treats dusty mental corners with care.

Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales steps down after months of controversy surrounding the firing of federal prosecutors.

When people ask me, "What was it like to grow up on Long Island?" I give them a copy of Alice McDermott's novel That Night. "Read this," I say.

The author of the beloved children's book reunited with its illustrator for the more recent The Odious Ogre. Juster was also an architect and he died due to complications from a recent stroke.

In James' Portrait of a Lady, Isabel Archer is wise enough to understand that if you're not happy without a man, you certainly won't be happy with one. Writer Rhoda Janzen loves the book because it shows what a woman does once she acknowledges her own complicity in the life she has chosen.

Amy Dickinson, author of the syndicated advice column "Ask Amy," writes about the strong women in her life in her new memoir, The Mighty Queens of Freeville. The youngest in her family, Dickinson says she's "the plankton at the end of the food chain and the advice flows down."

In the early 1960s, writer Norton Juster and illustrator Jules Feiffer created The Phantom Tollbooth, which quickly became a kid-lit classic. Now, 50 years later, the two have finally collaborated once more — this time, on a picture book called The Odious Ogre. They speak to NPR's Liane Hansen about their partnership and their new project.

In this week's Wisdom Watch, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discusses foreign relations, sexism and the dynamics of presidential politics, as chronicled in her new book Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership.