What does it mean to be Asian in a country where everything is Black and white? Author and associate professor Julia Lee explores the state of being caught in a racially stratified America in her new memoir, "Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America."

It’s the month of all things spooky and scary, from horror movies to haunted mansions. But what about gardens? Turns out there's an unexpected sinister side to gardening, and writer and gardener Marta McDowell traces the connection between gardening and crime fiction in her book, "Gardening Can Be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers."

Romance books featuring spooky characters are on the rise and filling the shelves of bookstores year round, not just during Halloween season.

Rick Riordan, famous for writing the "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series, spoke with GBH News ahead of his keynote address at the Boston Book Festival.

Hear from the author of a revelatory memoir about a 330-mile walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City—an unforgettable pilgrimage to the heart of America across some of our oldest common ground.

Neil King Jr.’s desire to walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City began as a whim and soon became an obsession. By the spring of 2021, events had intervened that gave his desire greater urgency. His neighborhood still reeled from the January 6th insurrection. Covid lockdowns and a rancorous election had deepened America’s divides. Neil himself bore the imprints of a long battle with cancer.

Determined to rediscover what matters in life and to see our national story with new eyes, Neil turned north with a small satchel on his back and one mission in mind: To pay close attention to the land he crossed and the people he met.

What followed is an extraordinary 26-day journey through historic battlefields and cemeteries, over the Mason-Dixon line, past Quaker and Amish farms, along Valley Forge stream beds, atop a New Jersey trash mound, across New York Harbor, and finally, to his ultimate destination: the Ramble, where a tangle of pathways converges in Central Park. The journey travels deep into America’s past and present, uncovering forgotten pockets and overlooked people. At a time of mounting disunity, the trip reveals the profound power of our shared ground.

This program is part of the American Inspiration Series from American Ancestors/NEHGS and presented in partnership with with the Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library and the GBH Forum Network.

For 20 years Neil King Jr. traveled to more than 50 countries in all continents to write and report and poke around as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. During his years in Washington, DC, he served as chief diplomatic correspondent, national political reporter and, at the end, the Journal’s global economics editor. He now travels and writes on his own. He is the founder and editor of Gotham Canoe, an online journal dedicated to life out of doors. American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal is his first book. He lives with his wife in Washington DC.

James B. Conroy is an award-winning author and an honorary fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He worked on Capitol Hill as a Senate press secretary and a congressman’s chief of staff, and served for six years in the Naval Air Reserve. A graduate Georgetown University Law Center, he practiced law in Boston. His book Our One Common Country was a finalist for the prestigious Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. Lincoln’s White House shared the Lincoln Prize and won the Abraham Lincoln Institute’s annual book award.

Charlotte Gray is the author of eleven acclaimed books of literary nonfiction including her recent bestseller The Promise of Canada. The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master, and the Trial That Shocked a Country won numerous prizes including the Toronto Book Award and the Heritage Toronto Book Award and was shortlisted for several others. An adaptation of her bestseller Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike was broadcast as a television miniseries. An adjunct research professor in the department of history at Carleton University, she is the recipient of the Pierre Berton Award for distinguished achievement in popularizing Canadian history, a Member of the Order of Canada, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Tech entrepreneur Paul English, who co-founded Kayak, and Joyce Linehan, former Chief of Policy for the City of Boston and member of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, have founded BannedBooksUSA.org, an online platform that allows Florida residents to order banned and restricted books for just the price of shipping.

If your love for Edgar Allan Poe has been gently rapping, rapping at your chamber door, just embrace it and watch Netflix's The Fall of the House of Usher because it is a hoot and a half.