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Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan was inspired by a real-life gorilla who lived in a mall in Tacoma, Wash. The author says humans have "a real obligation" to care responsibly for animals in captivity.

Susan Choi's new novel, My Education, is a study of relationships and how they end. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer says the book is a triumph for academic novels, portraying youth, love and naivete with exceptional style.

Graphic novelist Chris Ware's latest, Building Stories, is a collection in many formats, following the (mostly) sad and lonely lives of the inhabitants of a Chicago brownstone. But reviewer Glen Weldon says the work is colorful, intricate and ultimately beautiful.

When 18th century Jewish peddler Jacob Cerf reappears in the 21st century, he finds he can read minds and will people to do his bidding — but he's also a common housefly. Rebecca Miller's Jacob's Folly traces Jacob's mission to get back at God.

One of the biggest actresses of MGM's Golden Age, also lived a quiet life as an inventor. During World War II, Hedy Lamarr invented a form of wireless communication that led to Bluetooth, GPS and more.

Cartoonist Art Spiegelman's epic Holocaust graphic novel, Maus, was published 25 years ago. Spiegelman's new book, MetaMaus, explores that signature work through interviews, answers to persistent questions and examples of his early drawings.

Molly Antopol's short stories are set in many different times and places. But reviewer Meg Wolitzer says each one will make you nostalgic for another era in short fiction, a time when writer like Bernard Malamud, and Issac Bashevis Singer and Grace Paley roamed the earth.

After a decade of witnessing death and bloodshed in five different wars, Ron Capps developed post-traumatic stress disorder. His memoir, Seriously Not All Right, chronicles his battles.

The term "Rube Goldberg machine" has become shorthand for a convoluted contraption made up of a series of chain reactions. But Goldberg was also a real person, whose ideas for whimsical devices have captivated imaginations for decades.

Some young people in India's heartland are aggressively pursuing new opportunities; others are mired in poverty. They work and hope and pray for a better life along the Grand Trunk Road that crosses South Asia, the focus of a new NPR series.