Arts & Life

Author Scott Carney's new A Death on Diamond Mountain unravels the complicated paths that led an American Buddhist seeker not to nirvana, but to his death in a cave in the Arizona desert.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Huan Hsu's great-great-grandfather buried his vast porcelain collection to protect it. Hsu went to find it 70 years later, on a trip about more than missing china.

"There are some lessons that only grief and responsibility can teach us," says Weekend Edition host Scott Simon. His new memoir, Unforgettable, is about the life and death of his mother.

Writer Nina MacLaughlin hit her low point producing a listicle of the world's 100 Unsexiest Men. Six years and a lucky Craigslist ad later, she's a carpenter and author of the new memoir Hammer Head.

When Johanna Basford first told her publisher she wanted to draw books for adults — well, she says, "You can imagine how quiet they were." Today, both of her books have become sellout successes.

T. Geronimo Johnson's new novel follows a young man from a small Georgia town who comes home from college with a multicultural crew of friends, and plans for a disruptive (if well-intentioned) prank.

D.W. Griffith's film premiered in Los Angeles a century ago Sunday. In many ways, the movie — three hours of racist propaganda — was the beginning of Hollywood.

Reviewer David Edelstein says Joss Whedon's new film plays like "a strategic set-up for a Hollywood franchise." Viewers will be blitzed by sound and fury — and a certain amount of "gobbledegook."