In this day and age, it seems as though cheating is more commonplace than successful monogamy. Maybe you’ve cheated, or been cheated on, or simply known someone who’s been involved with it. Whatever the relation, it’s touched millions of people’s lives, but never before has it been taken head on like this: The Other Woman: Twenty-one Wives and Lovers Talk Openly About Sex, Deception, Love, and Betrayal.

Edited by Victoria Zackheim, the book contains memoirs and essays from women on both sides of the coin. The Today Show has both posted the first chapter on its Website, and caught up with a number of these women, assembling their stories in a clip viewable here.

Acclaimed thriller writer Jeffery Deaver cut his teeth writing novels staring quadriplegic forensics expert Lincoln Rhyme. Rhyme is perhaps Deaver’s most popular character, which explains why the writer’s newest book, The Sleeping Doll, has absolutely nothing to do with him. Instead, we have Kathryn Dance, a body language and interrogation expert charged with tracking down the brilliant Daniel “Son of Manson” Pell, who escapes after murdering the whole of a wealthy family save for one young girl, who lay asleep, hidden by her toys — the sleeping doll.

Deaver appeared on the Early Show and discussed the research process, his reasons for creating a new series and what he anticipates fans will think of his newest character. Watch the interview here.

There is also an excerpt of the book on Deaver’s Website, which you may read here.

Legendary New York novelist, essayist and journalist Pete Hamill discusses the story behind his latest novel North River and writing New York in general. The book is set in the “Depression-era New York immigrant community, and about who is telling the stories of today’s immigrants.”

The two also discuss the origins of the book’s title: The North River is the old name for the southern end of the Hudson River where the Hudson River turns from south-southwest to south between the bottom of Manhattan and New Jersey.

You can hear the whole interview here.

In Brazilian-author Paulo Coelho’s newest novel, The Witch of Portobello, a Romanian orphan (none-to-subtly) named Athena is adopted by wealthy Lebanese Christians. Throughout her upbringing, her various visions and prophesies are discounted as childish and baseless, but when the situation in Beirut becomes inhospitable and she moves to London as a young adult, things start to change. She acquires a spiritual teacher, begins endorsing a sort of modern Paganism and finds herself both disciples and detractors, both fervent in their respective beliefs.

In the Weekend Edition Saturday interview, Coelho, a Catholic, discusses his motivations for bringing to light an archaic tradition of matriarchal worship. “I’m a Catholic, but not a Catholic writer.” To him, “God is love…and love is traditionally associated with the more feminine face of the Lord.”

From there, Coehlo discussed the subtle evolution of religion and suggests that the Virgin Mary is likely a vestigial figure from the Roman Pagan tradition, pointing to the comparisons drawn between Christianity and Athena’s brand of religion that run throughout the novel. Coehlo continued, saying he hopes that this evolution will continue and that in another 2,000 years, the traditionally feminine aspects of religion will reemerge.

Listen to the NPR interview with Paulo Coehlo here.

In other Oprah news, Cormac McCarthy’s recent foray into apocalyptic literature, The Road, is also one of the more unlikely additions to Oprah’s Book Club. The book follows a father and son as they attempt to survive in an ashy, gray and ruined world of the not-to-distant future, staving off in equal parts roving bands of cannibals and their own maddening hunger. (Nothing says “summer read” more than cannibalism.)

McCarthy sits down with the Oprah and, for the first time on television, discusses his novel.

It’s June Book Club selection time for Oprah and her staff she’s going with Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Middlesex by Jefferey Eugenides. The book follows the progress of a rare gene mutation through three generations of the Stephanides family, culminating, finally, in Cal, a hermaphrodite who for 14 years is raised as a girl until her friends and family start to notice something is amiss. The novel spans continents and decades, tackles science and superstition, and navigates the ever-twist annals of teenage sexuality in a brilliant, effortless way.

It deserved the Pulitzer, lets just say that. Don’t believe Oprah? Blasphemy! Learn the truth here.