Atlantic County Library System

The author, most recently, of the forthcoming Dave Robicheaux murder mystery “The New Iberia Blues” loves the Beat writers: “I wish Jack Kerouac had lived to be a thousand years old.”

In Gina Apostol’s “Insurrecto,” a modern American and her Filipino guide write dueling screenplays, raising provocative questions about history and hypocrisy.

“Mortal Republic,” by Edward J. Watts, examines parallels between ancient Rome and today’s United States.

"After I set out to write a book about psychedelics, it became obvious what I would have to do,” Michael Pollan says. But how to describe the indescribable?