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When a psychic tells her that her biological father is still alive, Portland, Ore., comic-book artist Nicole Georges begins a quest of self discovery. Critic Carmen Gimenez Smith calls Georges' graphic memoir "a beautiful and innovative portrait" of an artist's journey.

Fourteen-year-old Doug Swieteck has the weight of the world upon him — no friends, an alcoholic father and a brother who has just been injured in Vietnam. But the protagonist of this NPR Backseat Book Club book finds solace in an unlikely place — the pages of Audubon's Birds of America.

An impoverished servant girl escapes the fledgling Jamestown colony during the winter of 1609–1610 in a historical saga that takes its inspiration from Robinson Crusoe.

The author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight follows up with a second memoir — a loving portrait of her eccentric mother. Alexandra Fuller tells the story of a young British woman raised in Kenya — a madcap adventuress with a predilection for drama.

Justin Torres' debut novel is a welterweight champ of a book. It tells the story of three brothers growing up in a family that is both fiercely loyal and violently chaotic. Together, they endure their parents, their poverty and, of course, each other.

Forget the picturesque tree and perfectly arranged presents. Christmas means blending old customs with new traditions, even if the result is messier than a bag full of carrot jam.

Once a social-media skeptic, the legendary funnyman, screenwriter and banjo player now says Twitter is "sort of like heaven." His new book collects his best tweets — and some of the hilarious responses he has received from followers.

In a new book, historian Harold Holzer explores the carefully calibrated timing and delivery of Lincoln's ultimatum to the rebellious states. Though the proclamation has been criticized as weak, Holzer says that Lincoln did what he had to do to make the order palatable in a perilous time.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was subject to the kind of vitriol we often see directed at Barack Obama today. But some of FDR's opponents didn't stop at talk: a new book details a starting plot to overthrow FDR and replace him with a fascist military government.

Alison McGhee's Someday is a new children's book that mothers will relish, too. In a few hundred words, McGhee simply and elegantly charts the arc of motherhood — from birth and childhood through adulthood and the next generation.