Author Ta-Nehisi Coates headlines a sold-out public discussion Friday that explores the idea of a post-racial America. The discussion kicks off the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival, which runs Saturday and Sunday in Edgartown and Chilmark.

Benito Mussolini is long gone, but the institution that helped bring him and keep him in power may not be, according to a new Pulitzer Prize winning book by historian and Brown University professor David Kertzer.

What’s for dinner? That’s the question the four Pollan family women kept finding themselves asking one another. The Pollan Family Table, written by Corky Pollan and her daughters Lori, Tracy and Dana, was the answer.

Erik Larson’s advice to those who want to write? “Work as a cop on the side,” he told the Gazette in a recent interview. “Immersing yourself in life is the best thing for writing.” The author did not take his own advice, though.

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, released last year to wide acclaim, is Mr. Hobbs’s memorial to his Yale roommate Robert Peace's life, telling the story from birth to death in obsessive detail and a clear, heartfelt narrative.

When Rick Mast decided to start a chocolate company with his brother Michael, the two set a date to show up at work two months later, promptly at 8 a.m. The idea was to first take the summer off to do whatever they wanted.