Kindle is no comfort, and Barnes & Noble-type bookstores are more barn than noble. There's a lot to be said for 20th century ways.

It traces the anatomy of a doomed romance, its highs and lows reflected in the shared possessions of a couple who have since parted and whose valuables are now up for sale in an auction catalogue.

Our frequent urban companion, cooing in the eaves of train stations or scavenging underfoot for breadcrumbs and discarded French fries, the pigeon has many detractors—and even some fans. Written out of love for and fascination with this humble yet important bird, Barbara Allen’s Pigeon explores its cultural significance, as well as its similarities to and differences from its close counterpart, the dove. While the dove is seen as a symbol of love, peace, and goodwill, the pigeon is commonly perceived as a filthy, ill-mannered flying rodent, a “rat with wings.”

The literary star discusses the future of journalism, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and his new book.

like spy novels. The funny thing about these type of books is that they are often predictable. I thought The Matarese Countdown was good, but certainly not great. Ludlum is a classic writer in his field and it is likely that many attempt to emulate his brilliant style.

A 9-year-old Colorado boy has somehow gotten his book of dating tips published. "How to Talk to Girls," by Alec Greven contains all the insight this kid has gleaned in his life.

Soviet Union, 1956. Stalin is dead, and a violent regime is beginning to fracture - leaving behind a society where the police are the criminals, and the criminals are innocent. A secret speech composed by Stalin's successor Khrushchev is distributed to the entire nation. Its message: Stalin was a tyrant. Its promise: The Soviet Union will change.

A FEW weeks ago, the British government’s chief scientific adviser, John Beddington, made a bloodcurdling speech about the horrors lying in wait for us. By 2030, he said, the world will be facing a perfect storm of food, energy and water shortages caused by population growth and exacerbated by climate change. James Lovelock, the creator of the Gaia theory, receives extensive, largely uncritical, coverage when he predicts that global warming will have wiped out 80% of humankind by the end of the century. In the meantime, we are living through what many people believe (and some hope) to be the final collapse of capitalism, while attempting with only limited success to fight a “global war on terror” against an enemy that threatens to destroy “our way of life”.

Writing last year in The Nation, Natasha Wimmer, the gifted young translator of Roberto Bolaño's major novels into English, described the rivalry between the Portuguese novelists José Saramago and António Lobo Antunes. When Saramago won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998, Wimmer wrote, "there were those who believed that the wrong writer had been chosen."

One of those people may have been Antunes. In 1998, when a reporter for The New York Times called him for a comment about Saramago's Nobel, Antunes said, "This phone doesn't work!" and cut the connection.

Adriani Trigiani, loved for her lively personal style and her novels featuring feisty women, will be the luncheon speaker at the Fifteenth Annual Virginia Festival of the Book.