Shelf Life

Aside from annual news specials looking back at the fury of Hurricane Katrina, you don't hear much about New Orleans these days. That might lead you to believe the city's getting back to normal. But you'd be wrong by author Billy Sothern's account. Really wrong.

If you haven't been paying attention to something called Second Life, you could be missing out. It's the virtual home to a whole new economy that can generate very real revenue. We asked Edward Castronova how companies can benefit.

Robert Mondavi gets a lot of the credit for bringing California to prominence in the global wine industry. But his business didn't always see healthy returns. Julia Flynn Siler has written a biography of Mondavi. She talks with Kai Ryssdal.

Wealthy entrepreneurs are spending millions of dollars to develop spaceships and a space hotel for what they see as the next big thing: commercial space travel. Author Michael Belfiore has a new book about it. He talks with Kai Ryssdal.

We've asked some of our commentators to send along their nominations for the best business beach books. For today's final installment writer Harriet Rubin recommends a contemporary novel about the beauty of innovation.

In our continuing series on the best business beach books, economist Marcellus Andrews picked one that really is all business: "Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism."

Commentator David Frum offers up a Dickens classic that's all about the markets.

Engineering professor Bill Hammack says Thomas Barnett's book is a perfect confection of bite-sized ideas about our global economy to nibble between dips.

We've asked some of our commentators to give us their picks for the best business beach book ever. Nell Minow kicks off our weeklong series with a classic tale about a thief. Give us your picks, too.

Who says crime fiction and the stock market don't mix? Amy Scott pours over a new collection of noir stories from Wall Street coming out this summer.