A three-year-old fruitcake? A bottle of sherry from 1996?

Whatever it is, my mother has you beat. My mom is famous for keeping multiple jars of opened salad dressings and dabs of dubious leftovers in her fridge. When raiding her refrigerator, family members know they need to be careful....

May 2, 2009 marked the one-year anniversary of the eruption of Chaitén Volcano in Northern Patagonia, Chile. Like many people around the world, I first became aware of the eruption via this dramatic photo:

Recently, I spent four days in Chaitén doing research for my next novel. I...

According to a survey commissioned last spring by Random House Inc., 28 percent of Americans purchase between 11 and 20 books every year. The figure is slightly higher for Canadians: roughly one-third (34%) report buying themselves at least one book per month. 36% of non-reading Canadians said they...

I didn't know Michael Crichton. There's nothing I can add to Charles McGrath's comments in The New York Times summing up Crichton's body of work, or to those from The Washington Post's Short Stack about why his readers loved him. I only knew Crichton by his stories.

I don't mean DaVinci Code or Harry Potter change, though there's no denying those novels' influence. They've redefined the term "blockbuster," spawned countless knock-offs, created a new sub-genre, even added words to the popular lexicon.

I'm also not referring to Booker or Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction destined to be discussed and...

Recently, governors and legislatures in eight Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces approved the Great Lakes Compact, a landmark agreement that bans the sale and diversion of water outside the region. The people living along the shores have reason to be concerned. For 15 years, I lived in St....