In his latest work of nonfiction, Ron Powers returns to his hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, to investigate two senseless killings committed in the span of six weeks by two pairs of disaffected teenagers. Could the violence have been prompted by the social changes taking place in this most American of cities? Hannibal is, after all, the idyllic birthplace of Mark Twain’s mischievous-but-moral duo, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. How could the savagery manifested in the killings, Powers wonders, be nourished and countenanced here? The co-author of Flags of Our Fathers inspects the fabled town on several levels (and with a news photographer’s eye for detail) in Tom and Huck Don’t Live Here Anymore. First, Hannibal is a crime scene with victims and perpetrators to be interviewed and trials to be attended and reported on. Then, there are the town’s historical stages to consider: Hannibal as it is today, as it was in the 1950s when Powers was growing up, and its history as a frontier settlement in Twain’s youth and as a bustling trade center when he returned many years later an established literary lion.

But Powers is more than a visiting sociologist. He brings with him his own variously shaded memories. While he recalls many sunny moments, he dwells on his emotionally distant father and returns time and again to his ill-fated younger brother, with whom he was never able to form a warm bond. The persisting dark spot in the book is the alteration of the American family as is clearly evident in Hannibal with children being raised in dawn-to-dark daycare centers and parents divorcing and pursuing their own frantic personal agendas.

It should surprise no one that Powers fails to come up with any satisfying answers to his queries about cause and effect. They are simply too cosmic for neat resolution. The value of his book lies in the fact that, by posing these questions, he nudges us toward assessing our own Hannibals and the latter-day Toms and Hucks playing videogames or assembling arsenals in the next room.

Edward Morris writes from Nashville.

“I can not live without books,” Thomas Jefferson once wrote. Avid readers Sara Nelson, Nancy Pearl and Michael Dirda happily share the celebrated statesman’s sentiment. From tales of childhood to thoughts on Tolstoy and Twain, a trio of new books by these literature lovers reflects the perks and quirks of their page-turning obsession. Recreation for some, therapy for others, books can enrapture, enrage, envelop and amaze as these talented authors demonstrate.

“Books get to me personally,” says New York Observer publishing columnist and self-proclaimed readaholic Sara Nelson. “When things go right, I read. When things go wrong, I read more.” In her new book, So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading, Nelson takes the reader along for a year’s worth of literature and life, offering funny, wise commentary on the ways in which the two intersect. Nelson, who had originally intended to select 52 books for 52 weeks of reading, says her plan fell apart almost immediately. “In reading, as in life, even if you know what you’re doing, you really kind of don’t,” she says. In week one, she set out to read Ted Heller’s Funnymen, a book about stand-up comics, while staying in a Vermont home once owned by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. But Heller’s gags didn’t play well in the snowy, somber setting, says Nelson. From that point forward, she says, books seemed to choose her as much as she chose them. So Many Books, So Little Time is jam-packed with memorable moments, including the unlikely writing lessons gleaned from culinary bad boy and Kitchen Confidential author Anthony Bourdain. Perhaps most memorable of all are Nelson’s musings on a reader’s right to stop reading a book he or she doesn’t like: “It’s the literary equivalent of a bar mitzvah or a communion,” says the author. “The moment at which you look at yourself and announce: Today I am an adult. I can make my own decisions.'” For the record: Nelson now allows herself to toss disappointing tomes at page 20 or 200.

For many, reading is escapism. For writer and Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl, books were nothing short of salvation. Raised in a lower-middle class neighborhood in Detroit, Pearl says her family defined dysfunction long before the label came to be. “All I knew then was that I was deeply and fatally unhappy,” says Pearl, author of Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason (Sasquatch, $16.95, 304 pages, ISBN 1570613818). During childhood and early adolescence, Pearl sought refuge at the Parkman Branch Library, where friendly librarians introduced her to books resonating with realities far brighter than her own. “It is not too much an exaggeration if it’s one at all to say that reading saved my life,” she says. Providing recommendations and revelations for more than 100 categories of books, from “Road Novels” and “Russian Heavies” to “Fabulous First Lines” and “Food for Thought,” Pearl’s approach is direct. The author of several professional books for librarians, including Now Read This, she highlights some of her favorite scribes in the category “Too Good to Miss,” offering an eclectic assortment of authors, including Robert Heinlein and Jonathan Lethem. With its short, snappy chapters, Book Lust is a must for any serious reader’s bedside table, a literary nightcap sure to prompt sweet dreams. “All that kid wants to do is stick his nose in a book,” lamented steelworker Eugene Dirda about his son Michael, a shy, bespectacled boy who preferred the pages of Thoreau to dating or sports. From humble beginnings in the Ohio rust belt town of Lorain to a top post at one of the nation’s most prestigious newspapers, Dirda’s world has always percolated with words. Both witty and wistful, An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland (Norton, $24.95, 320 pages, ISBN 0393057569) pays homage to a bookish youth spent in small-town America. Woven throughout the text are references to books and authors who inspired, intrigued and rankled Dirda, who is now Senior Editor for The Washington Post Book World.

Dirda gives a grateful nod to the educators and friends who influenced him in his early adult years. The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist also makes peace with the man he considered impossible to please: “I forgave my father everything: He could be overbearing and worse, but his soul-deadening labor gave me the time to read and to know that my life would be privileged compared to his.” Books, it seems, can also offer redemption. Allison Block writes from La Jolla, California.

His pupils at the London school adored him and said he “knows everything.” Adolescent hyperbole notwithstanding, Dr. James Murray was indeed the master of many subjects. Knowledgeable in more than 20 languages, he was said in his earlier days to have taught cows to respond to the Latin names he had given them. So, when he was named editor of what was to become the Oxford English Dictionary, he sensed that his appointment was “what God has fitted me for.” And in that job he showed his erudition by writing or editing almost half of the first edition’s 15,490 pages.

In his new book, The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, author Simon Winchester says Murray and his sponsors committed one major miscalculation: They figured the dictionary from the letter A to the word zyxt would require a decade to complete, but after the fifth year Murray and his assistants had only reached the word ant. Thus, the enterprise had to continue for another 44 years until 1928, when the last of the 10 original volumes came off the press.

One of humanity’s monumental intellectual accomplishments, the dictionary was worth the wait, and wordsmiths will appreciate Winchester’s skillful narration of why it took so long. Certainly, limited funds and the incompetence of some assistants delayed progress to a degree, but the main factor appeared to be the nature of the work itself. Murray himself explains the tedium and frustration in the pursuit of perfection: “Ten, twenty or thirty letters have sometimes been written to persons who, it was thought, might possibly know, or succeed in finding out, something definite on the subject . . . It is incredible what labour has had to be expended, sometimes, to find out facts for an article which occupies not five or six lines.” The dictionary’s lofty purpose was to list, define and give the pronunciation and history of every word in the English language, as well as to provide quotations from printed matter to show the evolution of each word’s changes in meaning throughout the centuries. To accomplish this gargantuan task, Murray depended on thousands of volunteer readers; among them was Dr. C.E. Minor, the insane American whose story Winchester told in his magnificent bestseller, The Professor and the Madman. Murray built an ugly, corrugated iron hut and, in a reverential salute to the workplace of medieval scribes in earlier centuries, named it the Scriptorium. There, he paid his children a penny an hour (as each of the tots celebrated a birthday, the wage scale rose a penny to a maximum of six cents) to help sort the millions of quotations submitted by the volunteers. With no more than pen and paper, Murray painstakingly wrote and edited entries for 36 years, in addition to carrying on his voluminous correspondence. He died in 1915 while working on the Ts. Among those who helped to complete the work was J.R.R. Tolkien, who said he “learned more in those two years than in any other equal period of my life.” At a celebratory dinner marking the dictionary’s completion, Stanley Baldwin, England’s prime minister, declared, “Our histories, our novels, our poems, our plays they are all in this one book.” As he did in The Map That Changed the World and Krakatoa, Winchester blankets his subject with rich details in anticipation of readers’ questions. Thus, we learn that zyxt is an obsolete form of the verb see as in “thou seest.” And that’s the last word on the last word. Alan Prince lectures at the University of Miami School of Communication.

Are you struggling to summon gift ideas for the intellectual in your life? If so, you can un-furrow your brow starting now. This holiday season, let BookPage help you shop for the studious and the scholarly those lovers of learning who emerge from their erudite pursuits hunch-backed and bleary-eyed but triumphant.

In anticipation of your Christmas quandary, our industrious editors closeted themselves with publishers’ catalogues and unearthed the following quartet of titles, each of which should be pleasing to the academician on your list.

Show what you know A word of wisdom to the aspiring litterateur: Never enter into a conversation unarmed. Your best defense is Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Little, Brown, $50, 1,472 pages, ISBN 0316084603) a veritable arsenal of razor-sharp repartees and potent turns of phrase. Now in its 17th edition, the newly revised anthology of famous prose and verse quotes, edited by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Justin Kaplan, has become one of the world’s most treasured references.

The origins of this indispensable volume date back to 1855, when Cambridge, Massachusetts, bookseller John Bartlett released A Collection of Familiar Quotations a compilation of smart sayings and their sources. That humble compendium has since evolved into a comprehensive source of outrageous remarks, classic literary passages and unforgettable pronouncements. International in scope, the new edition includes material from more than 25,000 notables (Princess Di, Bob Dylan and MLK, to name a few) and offers quotes from contemporary cultural arenas such as music, television and movies. The volume is revised every 10 years, so now’s the time to untie your tongue. Let Bartlett’s help you show what you know.

The beloved Bloom is back With his Falstaffian girth and formidable reputation as a cultural critic, Harold Bloom is a scholar who does nothing on a small scale. His new book, Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds is a milestone of research and inquiry, a broad-minded examination of the nature of genius and how (and in whom) it has manifested itself during the centuries.

Through evaluations of classic literary works the poetry of Shelley, the drama of Ibsen, the fiction of Tolstoy Bloom examines the forces that have shaped the great writers of every era, as well as the qualities shared by each author. “The study of mediocrity, whatever its origins, breeds mediocrity,” he writes. Thus, this collection a kaleidoscopic look at a group of superior individuals that blends biography with literary criticism. Author of The Western Canon and How to Read and Why, the best-selling Bloom has assembled a fascinating exhibit of remarkable intellects. Genius is inspiring, accessible and provocative a generous survey that will enlarge the reader’s comprehension of art, as well as his understanding of the role of the creative mind throughout history.

Keillor plugs poetry One of America’s most esteemed humorists and radio personages has put together a treasury of verse that’s sure to delight any lover of words. Garrison Keillor, the man behind the popular NPR spot The Writer’s Almanac, has compiled Good Poems (Viking, $25.95, 480 pages, ISBN 0670031267), a collection that’s broad in scope and full of the unforgettable imagery and skilled craftsmanship that make a poem, as the title puts it, good.

Divided into categories like Music, Lovers, Failure, and Sons and Daughters, the volume offers a poem for every occasion. A who’s who of literary lights, the index lists works by top-notch contemporary authors like Galway Kinnell, Billy Collins and Sharon Olds, as well as venerable favorites such as Emily Dickinson, W.H. Auden and William Butler Yeats. “To be interrupted mid-stampede by a beautiful thing is a blessing indeed,” Keillor writes of the force of poetry. The genre may be overlooked and underrated, but there’s no denying its power. Poets, it can be argued, are prophets, and Keillor’s collection reflects their ability to bolster our spirits and lighten our hearts.

The best in books for little readers A terrific gift for those interested in raising little readers, The Essential Guide to Children’s Books and Their Creators (Houghton Mifflin, $28, 542 pages, ISBN 061819083X) is the literary equivalent of a Leonard Maltin movie guide comprehensive, easy to use and instructive. Compiled by Anita Silvey, former editor in chief of Horn Book Magazine, who has written and published children’s literature for three decades, this practical volume, also available in paperback, is packed with info on all the best authors, illustrators and titles.

With more than 475 listings, The Essential Guide covers the top books of the past century and includes profiles of beloved writers, from Lemony Snicket to Margaret Wise Brown. Silvey also provides a basic reading list, contributes thoughtful and perceptive essays on genres such as science fiction, young adult novels and Holocaust literature, and examines timely themes like multiculturalism. Entries titled “Voices of the Creators,” written by Lane Smith, Gary Soto, Virginia Hamilton and others, offer insights into the artistic process. An invaluable aid in selecting the best books for youngsters, The Essential Guide is a must for parents who hope to instill a love of literature in their kids.

Arthur Levitt made the individual investor his passion during his eight-year term as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Taking the post after 25 years on Wall Street, he knew that investors were almost totally in the dark about how the stock markets worked and felt compelled to educate consumers about the long-standing collusive practices that cost investors millions each year. Now the ultimate insider continues his cause in Take on the Street: What Wall Street and Corporate America Don’t Want You to Know, What You Can Do to Fight Back, a startling behind-the-scenes book for anyone who has felt intimidated or baffled by Wall Street.

Levitt’s cautionary advice on mutual funds, analysts’ recommendations and financial statements boils down to a simple lesson: Ignorant investors are being bilked for every possible nickel, so the more you know, the better you’ll be armed to protect your precious savings. For example, Levitt advises you to fire your broker if you have less than $50,000 to invest, and no matter who handles your money, always ask: How are you getting paid? Much of the book details Levitt’s political and corporate battles as SEC chairman, and many of those same issues returned to the spotlight in 2002 with corporate meltdowns like Enron and WorldCom. Levitt recounts the controversial Regulation Fair Disclosure decision, which required companies to release important information to everyone at the same time, and the push for independent auditors and stock options accounting. Levitt calls his decision to back down on a 1994 proposal that would have forced companies to account for stock options on their financial statements the single biggest mistake of his career with the SEC. Hindsight may be 20/20, but for future investors, Levitt’s eye-opening revelations are sure to make navigating the minefield of hidden potholes on Wall Street a little easier.

When baseball’s All-Century Team was chosen in 1999, one of the pitchers picked was Sandy Koufax, a left-hander for the Brooklyn, and later, Los Angeles Dodgers a remarkable selection that was largely based on the strength of a five-year stretch when Koufax dominated the game like no one had before.

What is more remarkable, notes Jane Leavy, author of the new book Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, is that for a good portion of his career he pitched with an arm injury that kept him in constant pain, which he relieved with a mix of painkillers, ice baths and an analgesic balm that was so strong people cried when they were around him. As Leavy points out, Koufax had it all: movie star good looks, a nimble brain and tons of athletic ability. Like Hank Greenberg, a Jewish first baseman for the Detroit Tigers a generation before, Koufax was an icon for Jews across America. He helped belie the myth that Jews were incapable of excelling in physical endeavors.

Success never went to his head. He maintained friendships with his childhood buddies from Brooklyn, and around his teammates he was known for treating everyone the same, regardless of their color or hierarchy as an athlete. Leavy, an award-winning sportswriter and feature writer for the Washington Post, does a sensitive job in portraying him as an outstanding athlete and a thoughtful, complex man.

Baseball fan Ron Kaplan writes from Montclair, New Jersey.

Some of the most influential physicists of the 20th century were deeply involved in the creation of the atomic bomb and the much more destructive thermonuclear hydrogen bomb that followed. Patriotism led them to put their expertise at the service of their country. Now, in an authoritative new book, Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller, Gregg Herken re-creates that turbulent period, focusing on three major figures of the era. Drawing on thousands of pages of declassified government documents from the United States and the former U.S.S.R., as well as many personal interviews and private papers, the author gives us fresh portraits of his subjects. Herken is a curator and historian of science at the Smithsonian Institution. His previous books include The Winning Weapon and Counsels of War, both concerned with various aspects of subjects discussed in his new book.

Lawrence and Teller had shown little interest in politics until 1940-1941. Oppenheimer, in contrast, was involved with numerous leftist causes and groups and some suspected him of being a Communist. As Herken demonstrates, Oppenheimer was under intense scrutiny, but a careful reading of official reports shows that no proof of disloyalty was ever found. Despite continuing concern, General Leslie Groves, who headed the Manhattan Project, ordered a security clearance for Oppenheimer in 1943, noting that, He is absolutely essential to the project." Oppenheimer’s views remained controversial throughout the early postwar years when he was regarded by many as the scientist of conscience in this country. Those who disagreed with him or suspected him of disloyalty were eventually able to get his security clearance taken away in 1954, one day before it was due to expire.

Herken deftly guides us through the scientific-governmental and political-military thicket, explaining how key decisions were made. He follows his three major figures bright, innovative, even brilliant scientists as they debate and maneuver to gain acceptance for their points of view. But it is not their story alone. Along the way we are made aware of the significant contributions of many others, including Vannevar Bush, James B. Conant, Arthur Compton, Enrico Fermi and Alfred Loomis.

Herken writes that the plot" of this riveting book is taken from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: [I]t is a cautionary tale of arrogance, betrayal, and unforeseen consequences; of what comes from invoking forces both political and physical that one neither fully understands nor controls."

Nashville bookseller Roger Bishop is a longtime contributor to BookPage.