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Before there was online dating, there was the personal ad. Author David Rose compiles clever, charming — and sometimes creepy — personals in Sexually, I'm More of a Switzerland. Rose's favorite ads tend to include the phrase, "You know who you are."

Novelist and playwright Dan Fante writes about alcoholism, drug addiction and failed attempts at literary success — all of which he has experienced himself. He discusses his novel, 86'd, battling his own emotional demons, and the process of reliving his past on paper.

Once upon a time, tomatoes were considered poisonous, even dangerous. But gradually, the plump produce made its way into our homes and onto our plates. Arthur Allen tells the story of the tomato's redemption, popularization and eventual modification in his book, Ripe: The Search For The Perfect Tomato.

City kids learn a lot of valuable tools for survival, like how to ride subways and push the buttons on elevators. But a lot of city kids think that green is just the color of a streetlight. Not Annie and Veda, two 5-year-old girls living in Washington, D.C., who now know that fresh vegetables don't just come from the market.

In A Mosque in Munich, Pulitzer Prize winner Ian Johnson explains how Western spy-masters recruited ex-Soviet Muslims to be operatives in the propaganda war against the Soviet Union. These Muslims, in turn, created a community where radical Islam could gain a foothold in the heart of Europe.

In 2007, journalist and former soldier Kelly Kennedy embedded with the U.S. Army's Charlie Company in Iraq. In 15 months, the 26th Infantry Regiment had the most casualties of any U.S. battalion since Vietnam. Kennedy details her year with the troops in her book They Fought for Each Other.

No, Olivia Newton-John doesn't work out to her own anthem about exercise. That would be weird.

Chanel No. 5 has been a best-seller for 90 years. But this famous luxury perfume had its roots in an odd place: Creator Coco Chanel spent her childhood in an austere medieval convent in southwestern France.

Many books have been written about the 40th president of the United States, but very few have come from those who knew Ronald Wilson Reagan best. Ron Reagan, the former president's son, searches for the keys to his father's character in his book, My Father At 100.

Oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee chronicles how our understanding of cancer has evolved in his new book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.