Busting a 'grotesque stereotype'

When she was 10, Joan Waugh did what millions of eager readers have done over the decades since its 1936 publication: She read Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" again and again, admiring Scarlett O'Hara's resourcefulness and pluck, swooning over a handsome scalawag named Rhett Butler and savoring the novel's descriptions of the South's valiant, doomed struggle against the hated Yankees.

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Ulysses S. Grant book seeks to restore his legacy

Author tries to separate facts from falsehoods in studying life, times of once-revered president

When it was finally over, when the vote totals had made it official, he strolled home from a friend's house through the streets of the little Illinois town. His first words to his wife weren't "Woo-hoo!" or the 19th century equivalent, but something a bit more somber: "I am afraid I am elected."

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Family novels: What's your favorite?

Some might vote for Christmas, but for me, the holiday most closely associated with the idea of family is Thanksgiving. It has a distinctly ecumenical flavor -- or maybe that's just the odd tang I always detect in my mother's cranberry relish -- and there's no pesky gift-giving imperative to detract from the feasting. Plus, there's always televised football, and nothing gets my family revved like an impassioned cry of, "Turn that down !" from the many non-fans among my kinfolk.

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Philip Graham's dispatches from Lisbon

University of Illinois professor travels to Portugal, writes of the journey in "The Moon, Come to Earth"

Ask me to peruse your vacation snapshots and I'll probably do so, but reluctantly, and not without an inward wince.

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And the winner of the Great Chicago Ghost Story is...

I have one thing to say to the citizens of Chicagoland: You people are sick, sick, sick .

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'The Second Plane' by Martin Amis

September 11: Terror and Boredom

IT would be too easy to read Martin Amis' slim book on Sept. 11 in a day and to dismiss it with a politically correct glare. The dozen essays, columns and reviews and two short stories in "The Second Plane: September 11, Terror and Boredom" are more illuminating than that, though deeply, sometimes self-indulgently flawed.

'The House of Widows' by Askold Melnyczuk

Family secrets lie at the end of a dark and twisted path

FROM its puzzling opening line ("The most common grammatical error is the lie"), there's an ominous vibe to Askold Melnyczuk's third novel, "The House of Widows," and the sense of unease lingers until the final sentence. It's a mysterious, masterfully taut story in which dread plays a prominent role.

'Marco Polo' by Laurence Bergreen

An account of the adventures of the celebrated 13th century world traveler.

MARCO POLO was only 17 when he departed for China in 1271 with his father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo. Those two merchants of Venice were known to the boy primarily as storytellers of their fabulous exploits, writes award-winning biographer and historian Laurence Bergreen, for they had been absent more than 16 years, Marco's entire childhood. The pair had followed trade routes east, encountered exotic countries and customs and survived many perils; they had even lived for a time at the court of Kublai Khan, the leader of the Mongol Empire. Eventually they agreed to accompany his emissary west to the pope, vowing to return to Cambulac (Beijing) with several items the Great Khan had requested.