The strange history of failed attempts to resist Islam's spread.
![[ROVE2]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AO103_ROVE2_A_20100312181140.jpg)
The future presidential adviser's school days improved with a debating team, a campaign and a first election win.
![[BK_Cover3]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AO095_BK_Cov_A_20100312210441.jpg)
Aram Bakshian Jr. reviews "The Gastronomica Reader," a collection of essays from "the journal of food and culture," edited by Darra Goldstein.
![[BOOKS2]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-AT223_BOOKS2_A_20100311203801.jpg)
"The Addams Family: An Evilution" offers a selection of Charles Addams's cartoons and a chance to contemplate the peculiar character of his loving, twisted Addams Family.
![[batuman]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-HU343_batuma_A_20100309143151.jpg)
Elif Batuman's debut book, "The Possessed," is a sometimes-tongue-in-cheek account of her study of Russian literature.
The Morgan Library opens its new exhibition, "Letters by J.D. Salinger," on March 16. Less than two months after his death, the dam of silence Salinger spent half a century building has finally sprung its first leak.
![[book031110_1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL126_book03_A_20100310181357.jpg)
Two books describe the long, arduous attempts to find the Northwest Passage and join oceans by going over the top of the world: Anthony Brandt's "The Man Who Ate His Boots" and Glyn Williams's "Arctic Labyrinth."
![[BK_Cover1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AO030_BK_Cov_A_20100305170604.jpg)
Laura Vanderkam reviews three books about "working" on marriage: a social history of marriage counseling, a year in the lives of couples-therapy clients and a memoir of a partnership that didn't work out.
![[book0309]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-HU168_book03_A_20100308194359.jpg)
In "No One Would Listen," Harry Markopolos describes his efforts to expose Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Richard J. Tofel reviews.
![[OXFORDBOOK5]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-AT172_OXFORD_A_20100304164208.jpg)
Norman Lebrecht reviews "The Oxford Companion to the Book," a million-word, two-volume work on anything and everything about books, from ancient times to the Wiki age.
![[BK_Cover3]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AO032_BK_Cov_A_20100305220249.jpg)
Meghan Cox Gurdon reviews a children's book about a little girl in the Himalayas who faces an uncertain future—until a crew of helpful monkeys comes to the rescue. .
![[genes2]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-HT424_genes2_A_20100305114741.jpg)
Author David Shenk on why it pays to put mind over genetic matter. Even Ted Williams had to work to become Ted Williams.
![[lewis carroll]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/EG-AB709_Alice_A_20100304203821.jpg)
A new book by English author Jenny Woolf claims that the unearthing of never-before-published bank statements absolves Lewis Carroll of many of the wild allegations made against him over the years.
![[SHRIVER]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-AT160_SHRIVE_A_20100304223929.jpg)
Lionel Shriver's new novel mixes health insurance and humor.
![[book030510]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL084_book03_A_20100304185317.jpg)
In "Whirlwind," Barrett Tillman describes the ferocious air war over Japan in World War II, led by the American B-29 bomber. Daniel Ford reviews.
![[book030410]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL083_book03_A_20100303170126.jpg)
It was small and cheap and badly made. In "The Yugo," Jason Vuic tells the story of Yugoslavia's ludicrous attempt to build and export to the U.S. a fantastically inexpensive car. Dick Teresi reviews.
![[Voices2]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/SF-AA180_Voices_A_20100303171135.jpg)
The author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" talks about which writers he admires and how San Francisco's literary culture compares with other big cities.
![[BK_Cover1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AN961_BK_Cov_A_20100226172057.jpg)
In "Blood, Iron and Gold," Christian Wolmar traces the history of railroads and how they "transformed the world." Mark Lewis reviews.
![[book030310]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL074_book03_A_20100302181202.jpg)
In "Not Exactly," Kees van Deemter argues that vagueness and ambiguity have hidden virtues, especially in the realm of politics. Andrew Stark reviews.
![[book030210]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL059_book03_A_20100301180836.jpg)
The slash-and-burn tactics of lawyer Bill Lerach are recounted in "Circle of Greed," Patrick Dillon and Carl M. Cannon's account of the lucrative business of bringing class-action lawsuits against corporations. Kimberley A. Strassel reviews.
![[book030110]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL058_book03_A_20100228174905.jpg)
In "Spark," Frank Koller describes Lincoln Electric's long experience with a no-layoffs policy. Bob Tita reviews.
![[BK_Cover4]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AN964_BK_Cov_A_20100226195614.jpg)
A trip to Rome and a glance in a restaurant window inspired cookbook author Michele Scicolone's "The Italian Slow Cooker." Aram Bakshian Jr. reviews.
Billionaire investor sent a new letter to Barnes & Noble directors, challenging the board's position on top executives' holdings in the bookseller.
![[book0226]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL054_book02_A_20100225190237.jpg)
Biological urges—and goads to action—that made sense in the Stone Age wreak havoc on modern life, argues Deirdre Barrett in "Supernormal Stimuli." Daniel Akst reviews.
Jonathan Safran Foer's new book "Eating Animals" makes the case against American animal farming.
![[Jaipur photo]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/AP-AB750_JAIPUR_A_20100224124724.jpg)
The Jaipur Literary Festival stands as the symbol of the growing awareness by bibliophiles and big-time editors alike that India has the potential to keep expanding its base of exceptional wordsmiths and energized readers.
![[book022410]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL030_book02_A_20100223172041.jpg)
In "Conspirator," Helen Rappaport describes Vladimir Lenin's peripatetic years of exile in Europe before his fateful return to Russia in 1917. Bertrand M. Patenaude reviews.
![[book022510]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL047_book02_A_20100224174341.jpg)
U.S. intelligence agencies misjudged the stability of Iran's regime in 1979 and the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2003. What happened? Robert Jervis looks for answers in "Why Intelligence Fails." Gabriel Schoenfeld reviews.
![[book022310]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL029_book02_A_20100222181625.jpg)
Edward Jay Epstein argues in "The Hollywood Economist" that the movie industry's most imaginative creations appear on its balance sheets. Sonny Bunch reviews.
![[PT-AN423B_BRAIN_A_20091231175028.jpg]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AN423B_BRAIN_A_20091231175028.jpg)
Almost every function once thought to be the province of one or other hemisphere—language, imagery, reason, emotion—is served by both hemispheres, not one. And the mind's great conflict spills over onto the world stage.
![[0303lipsyte]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-HS962_0303li_D_20100303193241.jpg)
After having troubles with the publication of his first two books, "The Subject Steve" and "Homeland," Sam Lipsyte's new novel, "The Ask," is off to a refreshingly rosy start.
![[book021910]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL013_book02_D_20100218172331.jpg)
But bad habits can be changed to good ones, say brothers Chip and Dan Heath in "Switch." The authors mine research in academic psychology to show the best ways of altering behavior. Christopher F. Chabris reviews.
![[adams]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-FK920_adams_D_20100203153128.jpg)
Lorraine Adams spent years consulting a U.S. military intelligence specialist for her new novel, "The Room and the Chair."
![[BK_Cover1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AN739_BK_Cov_D_20100205164624.jpg)
In "Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend," James S. Hirsch gives us the first authorized biography of one of baseball's greatest players.
![[BK_lede]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AN611_BK_led_D_20100122210802.jpg)
In "Eternity Soup," Greg Critser goes "inside the quest to end aging" and finds everything from modern snake-oil salesmen to serious science. Shifting the sands of time, though, will not be easy. Matt Ridley reviews.
![[BK_Cover3]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AN530_BK_Cov_D_20100115193231.jpg)
Best-selling historical novelist Bernard Cornwell's "Saxon Tales" series continues with "The Burning Land," about a Viking invasion met by Anglo-Saxon resistance led by Alfred the Great.
![[BOOKS1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-AT024A_BOOKS_A_20100225171758.jpg)
In "Days of Fear," journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo describes his captivity in Afghanistan, including the decapitation of his driver. Francis X. Rocca reviews.
![[Paulson3]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AN787_Paulso_A_20100205172309.jpg)
An excerpt from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's memoir goes inside the White House meeting where Obama called McCain's bluff: "I could see Obama chuckling."
![[BK_Cover1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AN819_BK_Cov_A_20100212171025.jpg)
In "Chasing the White Dog," journalist Max Watman goes in search of modern moonshiners and tries his hand at distilling a bit of white lightning himself. Eddie Dean reviews.
![[BARNES]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-BB211_BARNES_A_20100217180116.jpg)
Barnes & Noble's board unanimously rejected activist investor Ronald Burkle's bid to raise his stake in the bookseller to 37%
![[book021710]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL001_book02_A_20100216184054.jpg)
In "Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals," Peter Pronovost, with co-author Eric Vohr, argues that medicine needs a collaborative model of care. At the moment, nurses are afraid to challenge doctors even when doctors are ordering the wrong drug or operating on the wrong limb. Laura Landro reviews.
![[book021610]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AK982_book02_A_20100215185122.jpg)
In "The Death of American Virtue," Ken Gormley gives an exhaustive account of Ken Starr's independent-counsel investigations and Bill Clinton's response to them. Jonathan Karl reviews.
![[book021810]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AL007_book02_A_20100217182501.jpg)
Thomas Hobbes saw the strife and murderous contention of 17-century Europe and developed a set of ideas for securing safety and order in modern societies. Perez Zagorin describes his outlook and philosophy in "Hobbes and the Law of Nature." Jeffrey Collins reviews.
![[BOOKS1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-AS920A_BOOKS_A_20100218150453.jpg)
A climbing trip in Patagonia in 1968 inspired two of its members to become world-class conservationists—but first they had to become millionaires. Michael J. Ybarra reviews "180° South."
![[BK_Cover2]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AN889_BK_Cov_A_20100219165045.jpg)
The annals of warfare are studded with questionable military decisions, but for sheer hubris it is hard to match what happened before and during the battle for Dien Bien Phu.
![[BK_Cover3]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AN890_BK_Cov_A_20100219130914.jpg)
Newbery Medal-winner Laura Amy Schlitz tells the story of a night fairy who loses her wings and decides to make the best of her predicament by learning to survive in the daytime world.
![[BOOKS3]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-AS781_BOOKS3_A_20100204173554.jpg)
In "Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy," Eamon Javers describes the world of corporate espionage, past and present.
![[DeLILLO]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AN689_DeLILL_A_20100129183549.jpg)
In a rare in-person interview, the novelist talks about his Catholic roots and the inspiration for his new book, "Point Omega."
![[book0209]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AK944_book02_A_20100208162759.jpg)
In "This Book Is Overdue!" Marilyn Johnson notes that a library is no longer a mere sanctuary for books.
![[0128salinger]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-FJ951_0128sa_A_20100128131109.jpg)
J.D. Salinger, the legendary author and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91.
![[BOOKS1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-AS652_BOOKS1_A_20100128171255.jpg)
In "Flight From Monticello," Michael Kranish focuses on a "dark period" in Thomas Jefferson's life: during the Revolutionary War when he struggled as the governor of Virginia and when he found himself more than once beating an inglorious retreat. Robert K. Landers reviews.
![[book0205]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AK938_book02_A_20100204181636.jpg)
Henry M. Paulson Jr., the former Treasury secretary, explains his role in the financial crisis in "On the Brink." James Freeman reviews.
![[book0204]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-FK964_book02_A_20100203185149.jpg)
In "Yalta: The Price of Peace," S.M. Plokhy sheds fresh light on the summit conference between Churchill, Stalin and FDR that shaped the decades that followed World War II.Matt Kaminski reviews.
![[ENTER1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-AS472_ENTER1_A_20100113183405.jpg)
After losing her husband, falling in love again and remarrying, the author tackles a memoir.
![[OB-FF031_Dee2_A_20100105140524.jpg]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-FF031_Dee2_A_20100105140524.jpg)
In his new novel, "The Privileges," Jonathan Dee delves into a Manhattan family's rise to the super rich via morally questionable means. He talks about the wealthy, timing and the financial meltdown.
![[books_illo]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AN459_books__A_20100107191822.jpg)
Why should time's arrow point forward and not backward? Alexander Waugh reviews Sean Carroll's "From Eternity to Here," the theoretical physicist's "quest for the ultimate theory of time."
—Join the Journal Community's WSJ Reading Group to discuss books and authors.“What books are you reading now?”
![[TASTINGS2]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AO092B_TASTI_A_20100311120904.jpg)
As big growers thrive with input from abroad, smaller artisanal vintners pose a challenge.
Six star athletes model spring's most elegant and breathable cotton suits. The result? Win-win. Fashion
![[0313Finicky10]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-HV278_0313Fi_A_20100312131808.jpg)
Laura Landro, the Finicky Traveler, says that as past and current owners litigate, the Gansevoort South retains hip strengths—and a few snafus.
The "little car that couldn't" is about to take on the small SUV market. Is the Mini changing us or are we changing the Mini? Behind the Brand
![[mpzeno]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AO098_mpzeno_A_20100311120811.jpg)
"Zeno's Conscience" takes a wry look at life's paradoxes.
![[SP_FEATUREMK1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-BB681_SP_FEA_A_20100314192935.jpg)
We're not gaga over the NCAA's possibly expanding the men's basketball tournament to 96 teams. But if they're going to do it, they should do it right. Why stop at 96? Let's let everyone in!
As St. Patrick's Day nears, author Frank Delaney commends a parade of books on Ireland, from Thomas Cahill's "How the Irish Saved Civilization" to James Joyce's "Ulysses."
Characters, plot and more: Rebecca Goldstein, the author of "36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction," on thought-provoking novels of ideas.
![[amis1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-HT117_amis1_A_20100304120343.jpg)
Author Martin Amis's alleged failings as a godfather—like many aspects of his life—stir up no shortage of opinions.
![[BOOKLOV_C_G]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-AQ376A_BOOKL_A_20090709214403.jpg)
Cynthia Crossen recommends historical books about the English.
These books are superb mixtures of the scholarly and the suspenseful, says David B. Rivkin Jr.
![[BOOKLOV_C_G]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-AQ376A_BOOKL_A_20090709214403.jpg)
Cynthia Crossen recommends good books with repulsive characters.
The British talent for wartime trickery and misdirection is fully revealed by these books, says Nicholas Rankin.
See a chart showing the Wall Street Journal's list of best-selling books, in fiction, nonfiction and business, week by week.
—James Freeman on Charles Gasparino's new book about the fall of Wall Street“At the heart of "The Sellout" is its own irksome inquiry: Why did so many large and prestigious institutions make disastrous bets on American mortgages?”
“What books are you reading to help you through the financial crisis?”
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