Slate BooksA roundup of recent books by Slate staff and contributors.

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Slate's The Explainer is Slate's latest collection of "Explainer" columns. Click here to read an excerpt.

Ann Hulbert, a Slate contributing editor who writes the "Sandbox" column, is the author of Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice About Children. Click here to read her columns and here to read an excerpt of her book.

Dahlia Lithwick, a Slate senior editor who writes "Jurisprudence" and "Supreme Court Dispatches," is the co-author with Brandt Goldstein of Me v. Everybody: Absurd Contracts for an Absurd World.

Jordan Ellenberg, Slate's "Do the Math" contributor, is the author of The Grasshopper King, a satirical novel about a prominent scholar who stops speaking. Click here to read an excerpt of his book.

Witold Rybczynski, Slate's architecture critic, is the author of several books, including The Look of Architecture, a survey of architectural style, and The Perfect House: A Journey With the Renaissance Master Andrea Palladio. Click here to read an excerpt of The Look of Architecture.

Robert Wright, who writes Slate's "The Earthling" column, is the author of Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, a book that questions the purpose of evolution. Click here to read an excerpt.