It looks like this year I'm going to have to start reading more nonfiction. Most of the new releases attracting my attention are essays, biographies, and science books.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot recounts the life and history of a woman whose cancer cells never died. They were collected, reproduced, and shared the world over, even as the donor herself withered away. Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein and The Routes of Man, a history and meditation on six of the world's major roads, by Ted Conover, are both getting write-ups that tickle my nerd bone (you can read Matt Davis' writeup of Tokyo Vice right here, in fact). There's also a technological critique, You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier, who seems like a smart guy in spite of the fact that he has dreadlocks.

People in the NBA read! the Wall Street Journal tells us. But the Blazers won't say who on the team "cozies up with a novel...."

And thank you AV Club for providing a handy guide to the film industry on what books should never ever be adapted ever again.