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Folk musician Woody Guthrie wrote thousands of songs in his lifetime — but as far as anyone knows, he only wrote one novel. Recently discovered, House of Earth is the story of struggling young sharecroppers who dream of creating a safe haven amid the dust storms and economic depression of the 1930s.

Reporters Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy, who covered Bulger for years for The Boston Globe, have a new book out about the career criminal. Bulger was wanted for 19 murders when he was captured by the FBI in 2011. He faces trial in June.

From the death of a Georgian luger at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics to the mechanics of hockey fights, the best sportswriting can inspire a range of human emotion. Jane Leavy, editor of The Best American Sports Writing 2011 anthology, joins NPR's Neal Conan to share some of her favorite sports stories.

Since 2006, 40,000 people have been murdered in Mexico as drug cartels battle each other and the Mexican military. Journalist Ioan Grillo traces how Mexico came to control drug trafficking in El Narco.

Barron Lerner, a professor of medicine and public health at Columbia University, wrote One for the Road, about the history of drunk driving in America. And what he found was that the legal limit is very lenient, especially compared with other countries. And there is little political will to change it.

In King's latest novel, a high-school teacher travels back in time to try to stop an assassination that altered the course of American history. "11/22/63 was our 9/11," says King, who first thought of the idea for the book on the anniversary of President Kennedy's death in 1971.

Chad Harbach's acclaimed debut novel, The Art Of Fielding, is full of wins and losses. But when a star player chokes, the book raises big questions about the things we chase in life — and what happens when we fall short.

You might know them best in pet form, but the tiny little seeds have moved beyond their terra cotta figurines to become an increasingly popular health food. Wayne Coates writes about the benefits of chia seed in Chia: The Complete Guide to the Ultimate Superfood.

Ballet's history is not just about choreography and technique — it's also a history of nationalization, the changing ways we view the body, shifting gender norms and class struggles. Historian Jennifer Homans chronicles the art form in a cultural history, Apollo's Angels.

If Dave Isay has learned one thing from editing his new book of StoryCorps conversations it's this: "No one should ever, ever give up hope on love," he says. "It seems like it's not in the cards for people, and then it just sneaks up behind you."