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Here's the latest regional news from the Associated Press, compiled by KPR staff.

Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man invented a new kind of crime fiction. It was hard-boiled, but also light-hearted; funny, with a hint of homicide. Now, for the first time, the stories of After the Thin Man and Another Thin Man have been published as novellas.

How do creative geniuses do what they do? Daily Rituals, which assembles the working regimens of 161 artists and thinkers into a lean, engaging volume, makes one thing clear: There's no such thing as the way to create good work, but all the greats have their way — and some are spectacularly weird.

True Grit author Charles Portis is the cult writer for people who hate cult writers. He hasn't published a book since 1991, and reviewer John Powers says the short pieces collected in Escape Velocity have been treasured for decades, passed around like samizdat by Portis fans.

Author Rosie Schaap's new memoir, Drinking With Men, chronicles her life in bars. Schaap writes the 'Drink' column for The New York Times Magazine, and she says goes to bars not for the alcohol but for the sense of community she finds there.

The two economies, on either side of the Atlantic, are closely linked. Widening European debt troubles are undermining U.S. stock prices and increasing the odds of a global recession. But the problems won't be easy to fix because they're tied to the way the European Union is structured.

If the town of Tombstone, Ariz., sounds familiar, it probably has to do with what happened there in 1881 — the year of the infamous gunfight between lawman Wyatt Earp and a rival gang. A new memoir by Justin St. Germain weaves the story of the O.K. Corral into another, more personal tale.

New York Times Magazine reporter Mark Leibovich's new book This Town is a lively look at media, politics and money in Washington. Leibovich tells NPR that most people outside don't understand what a carnival of money and celebrity the city has become.

Cartoonist Guy Delisle turns his attention from places like Myanmar and North Korea to the more domestic struggle of child rearing in his wry new book, A User's Guide to Neglectful Parenting. Reviewer Glen Weldon says it's slighter than Delisle's travel books, but "brighter and funnier as well."

February is Black History Month — but it's also a month to celebrate the lost art of letter writing. K. Tempest Bradford examines the overlap, and recommends some good historical letter collections.