In the mountains of eastern Kentucky, a lonely, landlocked lighthouse, a great cat sanctuary, and a women's prison set the scene for Michael Koryta's latest thriller. It's spooky and supernatural, but also grapples with real world questions of love, loss and trust.

Oscar Hijuelos has written eight novels exploring the Cuban-American experience. In 1990, he became the first Hispanic writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. His latest work, a memoir called Thoughts Without Cigarettes, describes growing up Cuban in New York's Morningside Heights neighborhood.

The legendary experimental filmmaker's work is the subject of a career-spanning retrospective at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. VanDerBeek merged collage-style filmmaking with new technology throughout his career.

The late reggae artist was a founding member of the Wailers, though he never achieved the recognition his bandmate Bob Marley did. New reissues of Tosh's first two albums highlight him as more than just Marley's foil.

Samuel Morse, best known as the inventor of the telegraph, was also an accomplished painter. His masterpiece, Gallery of the Louvre, was a composite painting of Italian Renaissance works he created as a way to bring the culture of Europe home to America.

As the presiding judge in Dominique Strauss-Kahn's sexual assault case put it, "I understand that the circumstances surrounding this case, from the viewpoint of the parties, have changed substantially."

The latest surveys show both business owners and consumers have been losing confidence in the U.S. economy. That pessimism is just the latest blow to hopes for a speedy recovery.

The Cone sisters of Baltimore had a passion — and a talent — for art collection. In the early 20th century, they patronized and befriended great contemporary artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. An exhibition of their collection is now on display at the Jewish Museum of New York.

NPR's Lynn Neary taps three book critics — Laura Miller, Ron Charles and Rigoberto Gonzalez — to get their picks for the best summer reading.

When a body washed up on the shores of New York's East River in 1897, the race to solve the murder sparked one of the country's first great newspaper wars. Weekend Edition's literary detective Paul Collins tracks that war's progress in his new book, The Murder of the Century.