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It's been several years since a U.S. commander has stepped foot in downtown Baghdad. But this past week, one U.S. Marine general walked the city streets with his Iraqi counterparts.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's death has been met with some joy but also some skepticism in Mosul, where he declared the start of the caliphate.

The U.S. military is clarifying its mission in Syria after President Trump's on-again, off-again vows to pull them out. For now they're guarding oil fields but there's renewed violence in the region.

The view from atop a building taken over by protesters in Baghdad shows a sea of people with aspirations for a broad change in the country's political system.

Napoleonic Wars? The Royal Navy? Yawn. Novelist Nicola Griffith had low expectations when she started reading Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander. But soon she was tearing through the 20-volume series, reveling in the deeply rendered friendship between the characters Jack and Stephen. It's a masterpiece, she says: "Jane Austen on a ship of war."

The premise of this game is quite simple: host Ophira Eisenberg names three literary characters, all creations of the same author, and you must name their creator. But things may get tricky. Who is responsible for writing Pudd'nhead Wilson? Iris Chase? Klamm?

The Iraqi government has declared the city of Mosul liberated after nine months of heavy fighting against ISIS. High casualties and destruction have overshadowed the celebration.

Little fingers get the chance to turn the pages of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. But librarian Nancy Pearl has options not-so-Harry for parents, kids, and fans of the series.

Jane Gardam has spent her long career writing dry, honest books about British life. Her new novel, The Man in the Wooden Hat, showcases the regrets of a woman never quite sure that marrying her husband was the right choice. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls Gardam the best British writer you've never heard of.

Contemporary authors have a habit of lazily shoplifting plots and characters from 19th-century fiction — especially the works of Jane Austen. But even though Allegra Goodman's latest novel, The Cookbook Collector, is a modern riff on Sense and Sensibility, her homage quickly comes to have a glorious life of its own.