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Many of us see weeds as a pest, but nature writer Richard Mabey prefers to think of them as "vegetable guerrillas" and "forest outlaws." Mabey stands up for the incredibly adaptable and disreputable plants in his new book, Weeds.

Karel Capek's The Absolute at Large demonstrates how weighty social satire can be slipped into genre fiction. Writer Cara Hoffman says the surrealist speculation in this 1920s sci-fi novel is so prescient, it feels like it could have been written today.

Jon Sarkin was working as a chiropractor when he suffered a massive stroke. Afterwards, he became an obsessive visual artist whose work was as fragmented and cluttered as his mind had become. Sarkin is the subject of a new book, Shadows Bright as Glass, by science writer Amy Nutt.

Illustrator Christoph Niemann's work ranges from whimsical children's books to poignant cover art for The New Yorker, but he's not interested in ending up in a museum. "I get a much bigger kick out of having my image seen like a million times for like 20 seconds," he says.

In her first book, author Mara Hvistendahl explores why parents in several Asian countries are choosing to have boys rather than girls as birth rates are dropping. The trend of sex-selective abortion is yielding broad impacts on the economy, culture and stability of those nations.

Philip Connors worked in Manhattan for years before he got the itch to get out. So he went way out — to a lookout tower in the Gila National Desert in New Mexico. He talks to Scott Simon about the gorgeous, jewel-toned views and why the solitary lifestyle speaks to him.

In 1914, thousands of soldiers eagerly boarded trains across Europe to fight in World War I; they thought it would be a quick and easy battle. Five years later, more than 8 million troops were dead and countless families were split apart. Author Adam Hochschild explores those divisions in his book To End All Wars.

Dame Margaret Drabble is more well known for her novels of contemporary English life, but a new collection of her short stories charts the evolving emotional life of women in England over the past half-century.

Frank Calabrese Jr. has written a memoir about bringing down his father's murderous Chicago crime family. In Operation Family Secrets, Frank details how he helped the FBI convict his father of several murders by wearing a hidden wire and taping his father's conversations.

When writer Jonathan Evison reads a book, he wants full immersion — emotionally, intellectually and sensually. He suggests three wild, Western adventure tales that will pick you up, knock you down and leave you breathless.