By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY

In an digital age is there still need for a dictionary made out of paper and ink? Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thinks so, though it also is releasing an electronic version next week of the fifth edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.

The 2,084-page, 7.5 pound book, lists at $60, but includes a free download (a $24.99 value) of the e-version for iPad/iPhone/iPod or Android Smartphone platforms.

Editor Steve Kleinedler says print retains its appeal: "There is nothing quite like the experience of thumbing through a dictionary, exploring its pages, jumping from one entry to the next." The new edition, 10 years in the making, includes 4,000 color images and 10,000 new words, such as "backronym." What's a bacronym? "An acronym coined from an existing word or name. For example, wiki is a backronym when used for what I know is because wiki is a word whose original meaning is 'collaborative website.'"

By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY

The benefits of locally grown food and healthy-eating habits will be highlighted in first lady Michelle Obama's upcoming book about the kitchen garden she created on the South Lawn of the White House.

The book, American Grown: How the White House Kitchen Garden Inspires Families, Schools, and Communities, was announced today by the Crown Publishing Group. The book will be an illustrated four-color hardcover and will include seasonal photographs of the White House garden as well as of other community and school gardens around the country.

It is set to be published next April. An enhanced e-book edition will also be published.

Mrs. Obama, according to Crown's announcement, accepted no advance for the book and will donate all proceeds to charity. Random House, Inc., of which Crown is a part, will also make a donation to a charity to be named later.

According to the press release issued by Crown, "Mrs. Obama will describe how her daughters Sasha and Malia were catalysts for change in her own family's eating behavior, which inspired Mrs. Obama to plant an edible garden on the South Lawn - the first since Eleanor Roosevelt's "Victory Garden" planted during World War II. "

By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY

Just in time for Halloween, Granta, the London-based quarterly, calls on the American master of horror, Stephen King, to headline a new issue devoted to horror that's more literary than gory, yet still chilling and at times, bloody.

King's new 13-page story, "The Dune," is about a 90-year-old retired judge who harbors a big secret about a tiny no-name island off the coast of Florida. It will appear in Granta's 256-page fall issue, on sale Oct. 27 ($16.99).

"The Dune" features no monsters or violence. The horror is more psychological, as the judge -- his body "nothing but a sack filled with aches and indignities" -- tells a young lawyer a story he's never told before.

It involves his ability to read obituaries in advance, which, as the judge puts it, "gives a man an extraordinary sense of power. Perhaps you will find that unlovely. The truth often is."

The story is best read for the impact of its final word in its final sentence.

The magazine's horror issue is heavy with other American writers, including Don DeLillo, Paul Auster, Joy Williams and Mark Doty.

"We didn't set out to have many Americans, it just wound up this way,'' says Granta's top editor, John Freeman, an American who splits his time between London and New York. "I do think violence -- and our response to it -- is at the heart of some of the best American writing."

In an e-mail interview from London, Freeman cites "our Puritan past, which gives American writing a peculiarly moral dimension. Combine those forces and even when not working in the genre of horror, many American writers investigate that which horrifies us."

Why?

"I think horror is more than a genre; it's a way of dealing with the world. We're horrified by violence, by death, by the things which we consider beyond the pale. And, of course, that which frightens us. When you expand the notion of horror like this it's an emotion that drives many of our best storytellers, not just those who work in the genre of horror."

And King?

"Stephen King is a not only a great short story writer, but simply an important planet in our literary cosmos. In his best work he weaves all these elements of horror -- the metaphysical fear, the moral expulsions, and the formal machinery that evokes our fears so that we can exorcise them -- into one story. There's a reason why writers like David Foster Wallace cite him: he makes it look easy."

And often scary.

By Craig Wilson, USA TODAY

Nicholas Sparks has done it again — entered USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list at No. 1, this time with The Best of Me. It's the sixth time he's managed the feat.

The others: Safe Haven, Sept. 23, 2010; The Last Song, Sept. 17, 2009; The Choice, Oct. 4, 2007; True Believer, April 21, 2005; and Nights of Rodanthe, Sept. 26, 2002. The Best of Me has been optioned by Warner Bros., with filming to begin next year. Jamie Raab, Grand Central's publisher and Sparks' editor, called the growth and loyalty of his readership "remarkable and gratifying."

By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY

It's been nearly a decade since Jeffrey Eugenides' last novel, and pent-up demand by his fans, along with mostly positive reviews, add up to his highest debut on USA TODAY's list. The Marriage Plot, about a love triangle that unfolds at Brown University in the 1980s, is No. 9.

USA TODAY's four-star review called the novel "a grand romance in the Austen tradition"; The New York Times' mixed review said it is "a lot less dramatic and a lot less daring than the author's earlier novels," and Entertainment Weekly graded it a "B," saying the "story line wobbles and ultimately loses its way. Still, there are serious pleasures here for people who love to read."

Eugenides' Middlesex entered the list at No. 31 in 2003 but rose to No. 6 in 2007 when it was chosen by Oprah's Book Club. The Virgin Suicides peaked at No. 79 in 2000, after the movie release.

By Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY

Enormously popular in the UK where he is revered as a successor to P.G. Wodehouse who happens to write fantasy, British writer Terry Pratchett has his best debut as his satirical novel Snuff lands at No. 21 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list.

Snuff, which Publishers Weekly called a "lively outing, complete with sly shout-outs to Jane Austen and gritty police procedurals," is his 39th book in the Discworld series begun in 1983. In 2009, Pratchett was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for "his services to literature." In 2007, the then-59-year-old writer announced he has early-onset Alzheimer's. Pratchett continues to write and give public appearances but no longer sign books.

Oh, and the title? That's snuff as in tobacco, thank you very much.

By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY

What her publisher is calling "classic" Nora Roberts -- 11 novels published between 1988 and 2002 -- will be available as e-books for the first time in January as part of a new digital imprint, announced by Berkley Wednesday.

It's not the first time that Roberts, 61, who's written more than 200 best-selling romances, has gone digital, but it's part of a trend among both traditional and digital publishers to release more of the so-called "backlist" -- books that at least a year old -- as e-books. It's an attempt to find new readers for old books in new formats.

On Tuesday, Open Road Integrated Media, a digital publisher, released an e-book version of Erica Jong's Fear of Flying, the 1973 best-selling novel about female sexuality. It's part of Open Road's new imprint, Iconic Ebooks, which includes Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides, Alice Walker's The Color Purple and William Styron's Sophie's Choice.

Berkley's new imprint, InterMix, plans to publish original works from new authors, as well as former best sellers.

The 11 Roberts titles to be released as e-books in January and their year of publication:

Skin Deep (1988), Without a Trace (1990), Dance to the Piper (1988), Captivated (1992), Entranced (1992), Charmed (1992), Enchanted (1999), Affaire Royale (1986), Command Performance (1987), The Playboy Prince (1987), Cordina's Crown Jewel (2002.)

In 2012, InterMix plans to release more Roberts e-books, including seven of her novels about the MacGregor family.

By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY

Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending, about a man who confronts his past after he's bequeathed a legacy, has won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Barnes, 65, has been short-listed three times -- for Flaubert's Parrot, England, England and Arthur and George -- but has never won.

"It is a beautifully written book," says Dame Stella Rimington, chairwoman of the 2011 judges. "We thought it was a book that spoke to humankind in the 21st Century." Her comments were reported by the BBC.

Rest of the finalists: Carol Birch for Jamrach's Menagerie; Canadians Patrick deWitt for The Sisters Brothers and Esi Edugyan for Half Blood Blues and debut novelists Stephen Kelman for Pigeon English and AD Miller for Snowdrops.

The Sense of an Ending was published in the U.S. two weeks ago by Knopf.

The Booker Prize is awarded for the best novel written in the English language.

By Jocelyn McClurg, USA TODAY

Welcome to the new look of USA TODAY's Books. We listened to your comments and have made our books homepage easier to use, allowing us to spotlight more of our content at a glance. From our reviews, to interviews, to trend stories, to our newsy book blogs, it's all simpler to find and navigate.

We've got more good things to come, and we want to continue to hear from you. Send your feedback to bookbuzz@usatoday.com.

By Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY

Vote buying? No, book buying!

Last week, Herman Cain, who's been moving up in polls for the Republican presidential race, made an impressive debut appearance on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list at No. 36 with This Is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House. Cain, a former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza and radio talk show host, made a round of media appearances to promote his book and candidacy. But Bloomberg reports that Cain used campaign funds to buy his books.