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President-elect Barack Obama has named Arne Duncan of Chicago as his secretary of Education, drafting a fellow Chicagoan who has been associated with innovations in that city's troubled schools. Obama said Duncan was a "hands-on" practitioner of school reform.

In her hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking semi-autobiographical novel, Toronto author Sheila Heti chronicles her struggle to interact with people.

Elissa Schappell was 13 and in search of a delicious romance novel when she stumbled on Erica Jong's feminist call to arms, Fear of Flying. It didn't resonate with her at the time, but later she appreciated its message. Is there a book you've changed your mind about? Tell us in the comments.

Elissa Schappell was 13 and in search of a delicious romance novel when she stumbled on Erica Jong's feminist call to arms, Fear of Flying. It didn't resonate with her at the time, but later she appreciated its message. Is there a book you've changed your mind about? Tell us in the comments.

Sometimes our eyes are bigger than our baking skills. Reviewer T. Susan Chang recommends three cookbooks with pictures that indulge our senses while sparing our waistlines. Do you have a favorite cookbook? Let us know in the comments.

The Fourth annual Makers Faire Detroit takes place this weekend at The Henry Ford. Over 400 exhibitors will be on hand sharing their ideas and inventions.…

With your help, Mo Willems turns his hand at radio cartooning. This time, he looks at a very symmetrical pirate.

A man walked into a bank in Antioch, Calif., and handed the teller a note but she couldn't read it. She called over her manager for help. Deciphering this communication took so long that the man who'd written the note finally walked out the door in frustration.

Jane Austen received just one bid for her hand. Two hundred years later, there were NO bids for her portrait. The painting of a young girl with a parasol was expected to fetch up to $800,000 at auction. It was billed as the only known portrait of the English author. But some scholars had insisted it wasn't Austen at all: her outfit was all wrong and she was too pretty for a writer who celebrated character over beauty.

Theater star Alfred Lunt enjoyed taking center stage in his kitchen from time to time. One of his specialities was cardamom bread. Dean Schmitz, head chef at Andrew's Restaurant in Delafield, Wisc., tries his hand at the egg-glazed treat.