Arts

Books
Arts

'Dark, Dark' Doings In A Slick Debut Thriller

11:21am August 18, 2015

by Jean Zimmerman

Ruth Ware's In A Dark, Dark Wood brings together a group of 20-something women in an isolated rural house for a bachelorette party — a perfect setting for buried secrets and terrible deeds.

Books
Arts

Social Satire, Spiked With Schadenfreude In 'Everybody Rise'

10:03am August 18, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

Stephanie Clifford's debut novel, about the desperate social strivings of a young woman in Manhattan, has its roots in the tragic, old-money fascinations of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth.

Paul Durand-Ruel, shown above in his gallery in 1910, acquired some 5,000 impressionist works — long before others were buying them.

Arts

Durand-Ruel: The Art Dealer Who Liked Impressionists Before They Were Cool

9:33am August 18, 2015

by Susan Stamberg

Parisian art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel acquired some 5,000 impressionist works long before others were buying them. Claude Monet said he and his artist friends "would have died of hunger" without him.

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Omar Sharif in one of his signature roles, the revolutionary poet Doctor Zhivago in the film of the same name.

Remembering Omar Sharif, A Star In Two Skies

9:25am August 18, 2015

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

Legendary Egyptian actor Omar Sharif has died at the age of 83. He became a global star in the 1960s with films like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago — but his career started in Cairo.

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Books
Arts

In Life After Life, 'Incarnations' Spins A Sinuous Tale Of Soul Mates

6:11pm August 17, 2015

by NPR Staff

In Susan Barker's novel, a few strange letters bloom into a saga of two souls' reincarnations. Barker says her characters' many lives gave her an instrument to explore China — both past and present.

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Alison Bechdel is the author of the long-running syndicated comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For.

Books
Arts

Lesbian Cartoonist Alison Bechdel Countered Dad's Secrecy By Being Out And Open

5:18pm August 17, 2015

The musical and graphic novel Fun Home describe Bechdel's coming out, and her dad's closeted homosexuality. She says, "In many ways ... my professional career has been a reaction to my father's life."

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Take It From David Brooks: Career Success 'Doesn't Make You Happy'

4:38pm August 17, 2015

by NPR Staff

The New York Times columnist wrote The Road to Character after seeing the gratitude for life of people who tutor immigrants. He thought, "I've achieved career success ... but I haven't achieved that."

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Since the 1980s, the image of Compton has been shaped around the world by rap groups like N.W.A and movies like Straight Outta Compton, a new film that depicts the group's rise in the chaotic 1980s and 1990s. These murals at Compton City Hall promote an i

Arts

The Compton You Haven't Seen On Screen

2:40pm August 17, 2015

by Corey Takahashi

While the new film Straight Outta Compton may be Hollywood's attempt to keep it real, Compton's reality in 2015 is quite different from the stream of images pop culture has churned out since the '80s.

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Books
Arts

Farewell To The Legendary League Of The Pink Carnation

2:27pm August 17, 2015

by Bobbi Dumas

This week, we're setting the NPR Books Time Machine for the Napoleonic Wars, and Lauren Willig's swashbuckling Pink Carnation series, about florally themed spies battling it out across Europe.

John Landgraf, CEO of FX Networks, speaks to the Television Critics Association on Aug. 7.

Arts

Television 2015: Is There Really Too Much TV?

2:18pm August 17, 2015

by Linda Holmes

The number of scripted prime-time TV series is expected to pass 400 in 2015. That's too much for at least one network executive, but the picture is more complex than that.