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Jonathan Gottschall is an English professor fed up with academia's ugly jargon. He recommends three books that help writers with their prose. Has a book ever helped you with your composition skills? Tell us about it in the comments.

How can we understand the experiences of those who have lived through war? What do they have to teach us? Author Hilary Thayer Hamann's favorite book attempts to answer these questions, and reinforces just how beautifully implausible life during conflict can be. It's The War by Marguerite Duras.

What makes a memorable character? It is the one who changes the most throughout the book? The one who makes a personal discovery? Or is it simply the most eccentric who we love? Actor Simon Pegg says that for his favorite literary protagonist, all three apply.

The wait has been long and the predictions many, but according to Christian broadcaster Harold Camping, the enlightened will finally be called home on Oct 21. Author Rhoda Janzen offers three redeeming suggestions to help you prepare for the upcoming apocalypse.

Isabel Greenberg's new Encyclopedia of Early Earth weaves a human love story into a quasi-Biblical creation tale, full of capricious gods, feckless shamans and more-or-less doomed love. Reviewer Glen Weldon says the graphic novel is full of tasty visual gags, and "lands with an emotional impact you likely won't see coming."

Polish journalist Mariusz Szczygieł's compilation of short vignettes about Czechoslovakia centers on Prague's infamous Stalin monument, a giant edifice that lingers despite its destruction in 1962.

Anjan Sundaram's new memoir Stringer chronicles his adventures as a budding journalist in one of the world's most chaotic spots: the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Reviewer and veteran journalist Ted Koppel says Stringer "is a book about a young journalist's coming of age, and a wonderful book it is, too."

NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with the irrepressible novelist about his latest book — a memoir this time, called Tibetan Peach Pie -- and why he hates being labeled as a counter-culture writer.

Deborah Harkness combines serious academic research with occult romance in her novels, the latest of which is Shadow of Night.

No, really, don't. Reviewer Michael Schaub says David Duchovny's new novel Holy Cow is a mess of corny humor and half-baked, phoned in plotting. Fans may want to believe — but they shouldn't.