V. S. Naipaul

Leaf-cutter ants working cooperatively on a live twig.

Members of a British army polo team in Hyderabad, India.

Carolyn Chute and her husband, Michael, at home in Parsonsfield, Me.

The author’s mother, left, and aunt at a Soviet orphanage, 1938.

A young Florenz Ziegfeld.

The aftermath of the explosion at the Los Angeles Times building, Oct. 1, 1910.

In Deb Olin Unferth’s first novel, characters pursue other characters in a world beyond plausibility.

Woody Hayes

Ivan Doig

Mr. Finkel was a noted American poet whose work teemed with curious juxtapositions, which in their unorthodoxy helped illuminate the function of poetry itself.

From left, Summit Entertainment executives Robert G. Friedman and Erik Feig; “Twilight” director Catherine Hardwicke; and Patrick Wachsberger, also an executive with Summit.

So just which book “about F.D.R.’s first 100 days” was President-elect Barack Obama talking about when he appeared on “60 Minutes” on Sunday?

Robert Pattinson in his movie “Twilight,” with Kristen Stewart.

James M. McPherson giving a tour of Shiloh National Military Park. His most recent book is “Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief.”

Annette Gordon-Reed won the National Book Award for nonfiction for “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,” while Peter Matthiessen won the fiction award for “Shadow Country.”

New books by Wally Lamb, Kate Jacobs, Dean Koontz, Mark Barrowcliffe and Julia Leigh.