The odds of being handed a free book out of the blue were much higher Monday night than any other night of the year, thanks to the legions of volunteers and booksellers celebrating World Book Night . The event, which began last year in England and added the United States and Ireland this year, aims to spread the love of books by giving away 500,000 free paperbacks to those who might not otherwise have access or resources, or to those who just look like they could use a good read. Read full article > >

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At World Book Night, D.C. literacy advocates greeted with delight and skepticism

Click to watch video Editor's note: Part culture show, part travel show, over six weeks Fusion Journeys takes six stars of the creative world on a journey of discovery to a location of their choice. There, they will learn from a different culture and create something new inspired by their experience. Watch the show every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from April 9 to May 18, during Connect The World, from 20:00 GMT. As a multi award-winning chef, bestselling author, TV channel proprietor and hugely successful syndicated show host, Sanjeev Kapoor is arguably the world's most revered exponent of Indian cuisine. For the past 18 years he has concocted a handful of new recipes every week as the host of “Khana Khazana,” said to be India's most watched, and Asia's longest-running, cookery program. As if that weren't impressive enough, Kapoor has penned 36 cookbooks, while his website consistently attracts a hungry audience of 25 million users a month. Suffice to say, the man has a distinguished rep in the venerable tradition of Indian cuisine. Read the full story: Indian master chef gets fresh at 'world's best restaurant'

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Melding Denmark and India in one dish

It seems smart-alecky to call someone a “darling of the literati,” implying, as it does, that she’s no more than the flavor of the month, but certainly Anne Enright fits the first description. In her 40s, she’s published nine books, one of which, “ The Gathering ,” received the Man Booker Prize in 2007. Given her prominence, an American publisher has thought to bring her 2004 memoir to the United States. It’s a story based on that most traditional, tried-and-true material: having, or “making,” babies. Read full article > >

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Anne Enright’s ‘Making Babies’: At times pleasing, at times troubling

At a party Tuesday night in Washington, Darin Strauss admitted that he had killed a girl. “I thought I would never talk about it,” the Brooklyn writer told a small gathering in Northwest Washington. “But at 36, I realized I’d lived half my life with this.” Since then he’s been talking about it, quietly and humbly, everywhere he goes. Read full article > >

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Author Darin Strauss recalls a deadly tragedy

Over fabrications in “Three Cups of Tea.”

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Mortenson Faces Civil Suit

A grandson of JRR Tolkien and a descendant of Charles Dickens are to collaborate on two new fantasy books for children.

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Tolkien and Dickens join for book

Graham Swift’s previous novel, “Tomorrow” (2007), was such a fiasco that a grim kind of suspense built up around his new book. Would “ Wish You Were Here ” inspire another round of jeering on both sides of the Atlantic? Read full article > >

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Book review: Graham Swift’s “Wish You Were Here,” reviewed by Ron Charles

On the 100th anniversary of the wreck of the Titanic, our fascination with the ill-fated ship appears bottomless. Surely, that’s in part because we can’t help contemplating the queasy-making moral choices — women and children first! — that in many cases determined who sank or survived. Read full article > >

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Book World: Charlotte Rogan’s ‘The Lifeboat’ is a survivor’s tale

For consumers, the news that the Department of Justice is suing Apple and several publishers, accusing them of price-fixing, boils down to one kitchen-table question: Will this mean my e-books will get cheaper?

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Will Apple suit mean cheaper e-books?

Accuses company of e-book price collusion.

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Justice Department to Sue Apple

Washington-born writer-director Whit Stillman has gained a reputation for making cult classics that seem ripped from the pages of “The Official Preppy Handbook.” His movies have the power to make edgy indie fans marvel at debutante Manhattanites ( “Metropolitan,” 1990 ), laugh along with insecure 20-somethings living abroad ( “Barcelona,” 1994 ), even tap a foot as Ivy League grads shimmy onscreen during 1998’s “Last Days of Disco.” Read full article > >

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Whit Stillman on ‘Damsels in Distress’

Washington-born writer-director Whit Stillman has gained a reputation for making cult classics that seem ripped from the pages of “The Official Preppy Handbook.” His movies have the power to make edgy indie fans marvel at debutante Manhattanites ( “Metropolitan,” 1990 ), laugh along with insecure 20-somethings living abroad ( “Barcelona,” 1994 ), even tap a foot as Ivy League grads shimmy onscreen during 1998’s “Last Days of Disco.” Read full article > >

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Whit Stillman on ‘Damsels in Distress’

Once again, Congress is in the midst of a legislative session threatened by a problem of its own making and is uncertain about how, when or where to solve it. In nine months, a law on the books, the Budget Control Act of 2011 , will wreak havoc not only on the operations of federal government , but our entire economy, if lawmakers do not agree on an alternative approach to cutting the budget. Read full article > >

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Damage control for Budget Act

Ted Heller’s brazen, often hilarious and always disturbing new novel, “ Pocket Kings ,” is a hybrid love letter and suicide note to 21st-century publishing. Forget coffee spoons, his anti-hero Frank Dixon measures his life in Amazon rankings. And as “Pocket Kings” begins, according to the most angst-inducing algorithm in the world of letters, Dixon is America’s 711,653rd most-popular novelist — and falling. Dixon’s first two novels, neither of which he is able to think about “without being overwhelmed with pride, despair, bewilderment, and rage,” were published to modest acclaim and then promptly dispatched to the remainder warehouse. Now he can’t find a publisher for his third novel, the first pages of which early readers, including his wife and literary agent, have found so offensive that they can’t continue. Read full article > >

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Book World: In ‘Pocket Kings,’ by Ted Heller, a love-hate relationship with publishing

Appraising the career of the Southern novelist Harry Crews, who died Wednesday at 76.

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ArtsBeat: Reading Crews, a Novelist as Swaggering as His Characters