''God gave unto the Animals / A wisdom past our power to see,'' goes a hymn sung by God's Gardeners, the ecologically minded, deeply spiritual but eminently practical religious cult in Margaret Atwood's fire-breathing new novel, The Year of the Flood.
Al Gore's new work -- ``Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis'' (Rodale Books, $26.99) -- is a culmination of 30 ``solution summits'' that Gore convened around the world. Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his environmental advocacy. Beth Reinhard, political writer at The Miami Herald, spoke to him recently about this book.
Elizabeth Alexander's Praise Song for the Day, the inauguration poem that helped deliver Barack Obama into office, was in the making for almost half a century, surely for three generations: The grandmother who sang lullabies, poetry set to music. The parents who took their 1-year-old daughter to the Lincoln Memorial to hear Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech. The husband who emptied the house of the two boys, because, more than anything, Alexander needed hushed space to muster words and thoughts, then distill them into something beautiful, powerful, memorable.
Jay Weaver is The Herald's legal-affairs reporter. He asked these questions of Joan Biskupic, the author of ``American Original, The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia''. Biskupic, who obtained her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, has been USA Today's legal affairs correspondent since 2000.
Small booksellers are filling niches and emphasizing service as they fight to stay in business.
Every year, Miami Book Fair International generates high expectations among Spanish-language readers who enthusiastically greet authors from throughout the Hispanic world. But the fair also gives writers from the United States, Canada and Miami the opportunity to present their books in Spanish and to mingle with their English-language colleagues.
Wear comfortable shoes. Get a copy of the schedule beforehand. Sign up for tickets in advance. Bring a big bag for the books you'll buy, whether you plan to or not. Be sure to try some sessions utterly out of the blue.
Barbara Kingsolver jokes that whenever she publishes a novel she apparently turns into a railway station because, according to reviewers, ''I only do departures.''
Journalists are never the story. They look instead to the world at large, interviewing, researching and seeking objective truth. Jeannette Walls knows this approach well, having worked for 20 years as a journalist in New York City -- including a stint as a gossip columnist -- before her first nonfiction book, The Glass Castle, was released in 2005.
Orhan Pamuk is a man in love. So is Kemal, the narrator of Pamuk's shimmering, brimming new novel The Museum of Innocence (Knopf, $28.95).
If most biographers start out in love with their subjects and end up hating them, Brad Gooch did things backward as he researched his highly regarded biography of southern writer Flannery O'Connor.
Interviews with Bill Clinton yield historical perspective as well as glimpses of behind-the-scenes Washington.
Finally, someone takes Anne Frank seriously as an author. [R](241.5)(.0)(199.5)(71.1)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)(.0)
A believer takes a calm approach to the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Nearly three weeks after food-world royalty Ruth Reichl got the staggering news that Gourmet, the venerated culinary magazine she ushered into the 21st century, was shutting down after a 68-year run, she was still at a loss as to what she might do next.
John Radanovich is obsessive about jazz, so much so that he moved from one great jazz town to another, just to immerse himself in it. Chicago. New York. New Orleans.
Trenton Daniel is a staff writer for The Miami Herald. He asked this of Tracy Kidder, whose most recent book is ``Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness'' (Random House, $26).
Curtis Morgan, the Herald's environmental affairs writer, asked this question of Jack E. Davis, author of ``An Everglades Providence: Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the American Environmental Century'' (University of Georgia Press, $34.95).
Sue Mullin is manager-editor of the Calendar department for The Miami Herald. She asked this of Sadia Shepard, who has written ``The Girl From Foreign: A Memoir'' (Penguin Books, $25.95 hardcover and $16 paperback).
Andrea Robinson, editor of The Miami Herald's Neighbors sections that appear in North-Central Miami-Dade and Northwest Miami-Dade, asked this of Lyah Beth LeFlore, the author of ``Wildflowers'' (Broadway Books, $13.99), a gripping tale about the strong black women in the Davis family that explores natural and spiritual bonds between mothers and daughters and the lengths they go to protect their name.
Olga Connor, who writes often for El Nuevo Herald about Cuban culture, interviewed Jaime Bayly, the well-known Peruvian writer and journalist whose latest book is ``El Cojo y el Loco'' (``The Mad and the Cripple'') (Alfaguara, $16.99).
Steve Rothaus covers gay issues for The Miami Herald. He asked these questions of Stuart E. Weisberg, who has written ``Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman'' (University of Massachusetts Press, $30 hardback).
Terence Shepherd is multimedia business editor for The Miami Herald. He asked this of Joyce Purnick, who has written ``Mike Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics'' (PublicAffairs, $26.95).
Nirvi Shah is consumer affairs and personal finance reporter for The Miami Herald who previously covered education. She asked this of Roxanna Elden, who wrote See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers (2009; Kaplan, $19.95). Elden has been teaching for eight years, including the past six at Hialeah High.
Luisa Yanez is a higher-education reporter for The Miami Herald and a co-author of ``Miami's Criminal Past Uncovered'' (The History Press, 2007). She asked this of Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés, who has written ``Marielitos, Balseros and Other Exiles'' (IG Publishing, $14.95):
Sergio Bustos is The Herald's deputy city editor and a co-author of ``Miami's Criminal Past Uncovered'' (The History Press, 2007). He asked this of Ana Menendez, a former Herald columnist and the author of ``The Last War'' (Harper/HarperCollins, $24.99).
Tere Figueras Negrete is a an editor for the Miami Herald Neighbor's section. She asked this of Pulitzer Prize winner Liz Balmaseda, formerly of The Miami Herald and currently a columnist for The Palm Beach Post, whose new book is ``Sweet Mary'' (Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, $24.95).
Elinor Brecher, who writes obituaries for The Miami Herald, is the author of ``Schindler's Legacy: True Stories of the List Survivors (Penguin Group, 1994). She asked this of Francine Prose, author of ``Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife'' (Harper, $24.99).
Glenn Garvin, The Miami Herald's television critic, has also been a foreign correspondent for the paper. His books include ``Everybody Had His Own Gringo: The CIA and the Contras'' (Brassey's, 1992). He asked this of Sid Jacobson, co-author (with Ernie Colón) of the graphic novel ``Vlad The Impaler: The Man Who Was Dracula'' (Hudson Street Press, $25.95).
Sarah Moreno is a reporter for the Galería section of El Nuevo Herald. She asked this question of Andrés Neuman, the Spanish-Argentine novelist and poet whose most recent work is ``El viajero del siglo'' (Traveler of the Century) (Santillana U.S.A., $19.99), which has won the prestigious Alfaguara Award. At present he has a column in the literary supplement of the daily national newspapers ABC (Spain) and Clarín (Argentina).
Judi Smith, assistant to Dave Barry and Leonard Pitts Jr. at The Miami Herald, asked this of Meg Cabot whose books this year are ``Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Stage Fright'' ($15.99, Scholastic Press) and ``Being Nikki: An Airhead Novel'' ($16.99, Point).
Kathleen McGrory is an education reporter for The Miami Herald. She asked this of Sen. Bob Graham, who has written ``America, The Owner's Manual: Making Government Work for You'' (CQ Press, $16.95).
Augusten Burroughs doesn't hate Christmas. But he thinks he may be a magnet for holiday calamity. ''It's this odd thing,'' says the author of the bestselling memoirs Running With Scissors, Dry and A Wolf at the Table. ''I love Christmas, but each one is horrible.''
This fictional memoir pays tribute to Lily Casey, a spunky woman born in 1901.
This debut novel compares Colombian culture and lifestyles to the fantasy land of Hollywood.
The author's portrait of a confused teen is riveting.
No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process. Colin Beavan. Farrar Straus Giroux. 274 pages. $25.
``I just read The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey. She dealt with a lot of the same things that I did when I was writing The Lacuna: You don't know the whole story, even with an intimate, with your family members and best friends. I loved the way she constructed the novel. She just kept moving the floor under your feet. You'd think one thing, then you heard another version of the story, and everything shifts.''
TUESDAY Richelle Mead and ''Vampire Academy 4: Blood Promise.'' 6 p.m. Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables.
For more than four decades, Ofelia Fox and Rosa Sanchez always shared a car. They could easily have afforded two cars, but driving places separately would have robbed them of time together.
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