“In those days all stories ended with the wedding” is the quote from writer Rose Wilder Lane that serves as an epigraph for Jane Smiley’s latest novel, “Private Life” (Knopf, 318 pp., $26.95). “Those ...

While many stories about husbands driving off and leaving their spouses at service stations are “urban legends,” there are some true stories about these incidents. For instance, this one from Kathleen ...

For the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, here’s a column item about its aftermath, written on Oct. 26, 2005, titled “Vieux Carré without noise an eerie place:” “‘It’s the quiet that bothers me,’ ...