Yes, yes, we know Labor Day is just a week away. But when we heard these late-August book picks on NPR from the fantastic literary blog The Millions we thought, hmm, they'll help you stretch your summer reading, at least, all the way to winter!

Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow

Pastoralia by George Saunders

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis

Heading to, say, India and want to bone up on your Hindi (or your Malayalam, Kannada or Oriya)? These books can help:

How To Learn Any Language by Barry M. Farber

Learning Foreign Languages: Everything You Need To Know by Brandon Simpson

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast by A. G. Hawke

Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One by Edward Trimnell

The Loom of Language by Frederick Bodmer

Looking to brush up on your writing? Check out these how-to guides to help you write stronger, write more descriptively, even write juicier science fiction:

Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card

Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively by Rebecca McClanahan

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by Robert Mckee

Here's a subject a bit arcane, but totally fascinating: Writing systems of the world's languages. How did they develop? What's the difference between logographic versus syllabic versus "abugidas" systems? Appetite whetted? Check out these books:

A History of Writing: From Hieroglyph to Multimedia by Ann-Marie Christin

The World's Writing Systems by Peter T. Daniels

Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction by Geoffrey Sampson

Breaking the Maya Code by Michael D. Coe

The Story of Decipherment: From Egyptian Hieroglyphs to Maya Script by Maurice Pope

Guy Kawasaki is a legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist who, as one of Apple's original employees, helped market the first McIntosh computer. So what does this computer guy have to do with language? Plenty. In his amazing blog, called How to Change the World, he talks about creativity, communication, marketing -- and yes, computers. There are lessons there for all of us communicators. And some great book recommendations. Here are a few:

The Myths of Innovation

Uncommon Genius: How Great Ideas Are Born

Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation

If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit

These books will help you understand -- and navigate -- marketing, branding and advertising in our TiVo-charged, Internet-fueled, "post-television" age:

Buzzmarketing

Life After the 30-Second Spot

Nobrow

Mediated

The Conquest of Cool

Trendspotting

Capote. Mailer. Didion. Wolfe. These literary lions burst the conventions of traditional journalism, helping invent a "new journalism" through their storytelling that forever changed the way we look at our culture. Check out these books to read more:

The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight (the story of New Journalism)

The Art of Fact (anthology)

Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers by Tom Wolfe

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion