It came to a head with The Sausage-Maker's Daughter. I mean no offense to the book or its author; it might be a perfectly wonderful piece of writing, but we'll never know from its title. But has it come to this, American publishers? Is it really preferable to go with...

Just because Game of Thrones, the HBO miniseries based on the books of George R. R. Martin, is a fantasy that doesn't mean it doesn't have important lessons that apply to your real life. Watching the season finale, I was struck by the similarities between life in the...

With the runaway publishing phenomenon Fifty Shades of Grey, arriving in stores this week, industry pundits are wondering if we'll see lines stretching out bookstores' doors (a welcome sight given the state of bookselling, no matter which book brings customers in.) What some of Fifty Shades' readers may not be...

I have not read Fifty Shades of Grey, the soft-core erotica novel that seems to be on everyone's mind right now, or at least the mind of the American media. Unlike most of them, however, I intend to read it at some point.

Why? Because I like sex. If you've...

Recently, bestselling writer and physician Abraham Verghese (Cutting for Stone) published in the Washington Post (December 9, 2011) an essay ostensibly about how he finds time to write. But the article wasn't really about that: he was really explaining to his readers why he puts most other things...

At a time when educational programs in the arts are taking heavy funding hits, it may come as a surprise to some that 826dc, the D.C. chapter of 826 National, has celebrated its one-year anniversary in the nation's capital.

Working out of its headquarters at...

Talk about coincidence: just the other day, I was thinking of Paul Pillar, currently on the faculty at Georgetown University. He was National Intelligence Officer for the Near East during the run-up to the Iraq War. I was wondering what Pillar was doing now, and lo and behold the next...

Don't get me wrong: as a writer and reader, I'm not complaining. This area is blessed with multiple book festivals in both the spring and fall. But three major book festivals in the span of one week? That's what happens this weekend in the national capital area with the

During my time with CIA, I did a short tour as a recruiter, visiting colleges and talking to interested students about careers with the Agency. It was one of my favorite jobs, mostly because it opened my eyes to what people outside the intelligence community thought of the work we...

There have been a spate of cases in the past few months where authors allege the government is trying to stifle criticism by either killing their book outright, or cutting out the offending passages. For instance, former FBI agent Ali Soufan objected to massive cuts made by...