Serena Frome is more bookworm than spy, but her bosses at MI5 have the perfect mission for her: to cultivate and fund British writers whose politics align with those of the government.

Sometimes a son isn't a chip off the old block, and a mother isn't anything like her daughter. Straight parents have gay kids; hearing parents have deaf kids; and autistic kids are born to parents who don't have autism. In a new book, Andrew Solomon looks at how families cope with their differences.

Blogger and now cookbook author Deb Perelman insists you don't need a big or gourmet kitchen to make good food. Since 2006, she's been tracking down, testing and blogging about recipes she thinks pretty much anyone can make 鈥� all from her tiny New York kitchen.

The Old Farmer's Almanac, like many other forecasters, was way off the mark when it came to this year's winter weather. Meteorologists say it has a dubious overall track record.