JOHN STEINBECK

Kristin Smart disappeared during her freshman year at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo more than 25 years ago.

Opening statements have begun in the case of Kristin Smart, who disappeared during her freshman year at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo more than 25 years ago.

Oprah Winfrey’s new book club pick is a bestseller by a Harvard-trained sociologist sometimes referred to as Winfrey’s life coach.

In 1960, John Steinbeck set out on a cross-country adventure with his standard poodle, Charley. More than half a century later, writer Kristin Wong did the same thing with her dog—and learned an unexpected lesson about the pain of uncertainty.

A Steinbeck scholar says Murder at Full Moon, a mystery about a series of brutal murders that appear to be the work of a werewolf, should be available to all. Steinbeck's estate disagrees.

The anticipated economic boom following the pandemic has been likened to the "Roaring '20s,", but an analyst stressed that not everyone will benefit.

Philip Marlowe, the most self-reliant of fictional detectives, had no boss and no one to boss around.

(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)NEW YORK – Book publishing in 2020 was a story of how much an industry can change and how much it can, or wants to, remain the same. To its benefit and to its dismay, publishing was drawn into the events of the moment. Penguin Random House, among other initiatives, asked all employees to read Ibram X. Kendi’s “How To Be an Anti-Racist.” Kendi later presided over a company town hall. Macmillan CEO Don Weisberg, who cited a wide range of diversity programs at the publishing house that began before “American Dirt,” said he “understands the skepticism." The CEO of Penguin Random House U.S., Madeline McIntosh, noted how well book publishing could meet the public's needs during the pandemic and other events of 2020.

NEW YORK – Two of crime fiction's most famous storytellers, Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie, also knew how to get a laugh. According to Tony Medawar, producer of the International Agatha Christie Festival (in Devon, England), Christie likely drew upon her own childhood in setting a playful atmosphere, with the kids showing proper irreverence for the supposedly world famous detective. “Christmas Adventure" also is appearing in the upcoming Christie collection “Midwinter Murder,” which comes out Oct. 20. "‘Christmas Adventure’ is a particularly light-hearted story," Medawar says. Chandler's employer guide, according to Chandler scholar Dr. Sarah Trott, was likely written in the early 1950s, when Chandler hired a private secretary, Juanita Messick.

FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2016 file photo, author and filmmaker Sherman Alexie appears at a celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day at Seattle's City Hall. Alexie is included in a list of authors who wrote books that were among the 100 most subjected to censorship efforts over the past decade, as compiled by the American Library Association. All wrote books that were among the 100 most subjected to censorship efforts over the past decade, as compiled by the American Library Association. The association does not formally count the number of times books are actually removed from a library shelf or from a school reading list. “There are actually two lines of objections to the Anne Frank diary,” Caldwell-Stone says.

Extra: Chris O'Dowd: "There's so much great stuff" on Broadway Actor Chris O'Dowd, who stars in the Broadway revival of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," talks with CBS News correspondent Jamie Wax about experiencing Broadway as an audience member and some of his favorite shows.