What moved a novelist of the stature of Mario Vargas Llosa — in a work of nonfiction — to unburden himself of a long list of complaints?...

Margaret Lazarus Dean's "Leaving Orbit" is a deft and lyrical meditation on the last days of the NASA space shuttle program....

How catastrophe, medical errors, natural disasters, and unchecked exuberance push people to the solitary edges of social life....