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Novelist Richard Russo's new memoir, Elsewhere, is the uncompromisingly tragic — yet beautifully told — story of his relationship with his mentally ill mother. Reviewer Michael Schaub calls it "one of the most honest, moving American memoirs in years."

This Veterans Day, NPR Books went into the archives to find stories of combat and coping. A mother describes the emotional minefield of having a child at war, a Marine writes a memoir of a mortuary, and a photojournalist pays tribute to two centuries of Native-Americans in the military.

Next week, Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol finally arrives in paperback, along with Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton's memoir, journalist Fareed Zakaria's update on the post-American world, journalist Annie Jacobsen's look inside a top secret U.S. military base, and journalist Mitchell Zuckoff's true tale of the survivors in a WWII plane crash.

As Thanksgiving draws near, many of us are thinking about what we're thankful for. Novelist and memoirist Anne Lamott says she is filled with "wonder at the just sheer beauty of creation." She discusses her new book, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers.

The traditional mother-daughter dynamic turned on its head for New York Times columnist Alex Witchel in the wake of her mother's struggle with dementia. But Witchel's memoir, despite its raw honesty, fails to provide the depth needed to make it a standout in a trendy genre.

Jeffrey Eugenides traces a love triangle, while Sebastian Barry examines a woman's well-lived life. In nonfiction, Jodi Kantor explores the Obamas' marriage, David Margolick revisits Arkansas school integration, and Simon Garfield romps through the history of type.

T.C. Boyle's past work is largely satirical and tough on his characters. In San Miguel, readers will find the same biting tone, but none of the irony. Loosely based on ranchers' memoirs of a grim California island, this chillingly written novel exposes a bleak and savage reality.

Novelist Don DeLillo collects his short stories, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens reflects on his career, Lawrence Lessig looks at money and power in politics, and comedians Ellen DeGeneres and John Hodgman poke fun at life's sunny and gloomy sides.

Reviewer Heller McAlpin says Rachel Cusk, known for her lacerating memoirs, begins to bring her fiction and nonfiction closer together in Outline, an "impressive deepening" of her work.

Critic Heller McAlpin calls Valeria Luiselli's novel a "philosophical funhouse" that melds the story of a charming auctioneer with meditations on the value of objects and the power of story.