The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, released last year to wide acclaim, is Mr. Hobbs’s memorial to his Yale roommate Robert Peace's life, telling the story from birth to death in obsessive detail and a clear, heartfelt narrative.

Erik Larson’s advice to those who want to write? “Work as a cop on the side,” he told the Gazette in a recent interview. “Immersing yourself in life is the best thing for writing.” The author did not take his own advice, though.

Stephen Kurkjian’s new book has the characters, intrigue and pace of a mystery novel. All it lacks is the culprit. That’s because his subject matter, the burglary at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, remains unsolved.

Without any federal or state permits, the Unicorn is likely nearing the end of her long residency in Menemsha harbor. Capt. Greg Mayhew recently sold his groundfish permit — the last on the Vineyard — to The Nature Conservancy.

When Rick Mast decided to start a chocolate company with his brother Michael, the two set a date to show up at work two months later, promptly at 8 a.m. The idea was to first take the summer off to do whatever they wanted.

With a PhD in ecology and a jaunty writing style, Carl Safina isn’t so much a science writer as he is a writer who is a scientist.

Mary Norris is concerned about the future of the apostrophe.

“The apostrophe is most vulnerable to the march of progress,” said Ms. Norris, a query proofreader for the New Yorker since 1993.

Bob Ryan calls it how he sees it. Hold the sugar. Give an audience the truth and nothing but the truth, plain and simple. At the end of the day, the voice of Boston sports wanted it no other way.

Ginny Gilder is a self-described challenge seeker. As a young woman, she set her sights on a goal that most told her was impossible — to become an Olympic medalist in rowing.

New York Times Op-Ed columnist Charles Blow was a 20-year-old college student when he had an epiphany that freed him to let go of his past and fully accept himself.