Arts

Books
Arts

Mama's Still Alive Today: 'Meursault' Investigates A Literary Murder

12:25pm June 10, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

In The Stranger, Albert Camus' antihero Meursault famously killed a nameless Arab; Algerian writer Kamel Daoud's new novel reworks Camus from the point of view of the murdered man's brother.

A gourd of yerba mate. Legend has it that the moon gifted this infusion to the Guaraní people of South America.

Tea Tuesdays: Gift Of The Moon, Bane Of The Spanish — The Story Of Yerba Mate

11:06am June 10, 2015

by Jasmine Garsd

Legend has it the moon gifted this drink to the Guaraní people of South America. It was banned by the colonial government. The Jesuits made it their most profitable crop. Oh, and the pope drinks it.

Robert Fortune was a 19th-century Scottish botanist who helped the East India Trading Company swipe the secrets of tea production from China.

Tea Tuesdays: The Scottish Spy Who Stole China's Tea Empire

11:05am June 10, 2015

by NPR Staff

In the mid-1800s, Britain was a global superpower with a big weakness for tea, all of which came from China. But a botanist with a talent for espionage helped Britain swipe the secrets of tea.

Robert Siegel interviews Munro Price, author of Napoleon: End of Glory about napoleon's failed plan to relocate to America after the defeat at Waterloo.

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Arts

Napoleon In America: Not As Strange As It Sounds

10:25am June 10, 2015

by NPR Staff

Historian Munro Price's new Napoleon: End of Glory imagines what might have happened had the French emperor followed through with a planned flight to America after his final defeat at Waterloo.

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Arts

Peppercorn Theatre Begins Summer Series

9:22am June 10, 2015

by David Ford

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More than half of the top 10 box-office hits this year have centered on female characters, says NPR film critic Bob Mondello. But only a few — like Pitch Perfect 2 — were written or directed by women.

Arts

This Year, Women (And Girls) Rule The Big Screen

8:35am June 10, 2015

by Bob Mondello

NPR film critic Bob Mondello notes that this year's most popular movies are surprisingly womancentric. That's more than at any other time in at least three decades.

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Fallon's new book has a daddy bee, dog, rabbit, cat and donkey (one of his personal favorites) all trying — and failing — to get their babies to say "dada."

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Arts

If Jimmy Fallon Gets His Way, 'Your Baby's First Word Will Be Dada'

8:11am June 10, 2015

by NPR Staff

The Tonight Show host's new children's book was inspired by his daughters. He tells NPR about his efforts to trick his first daughter into saying "dada" and his family's struggle to conceive.

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Books
Arts

'Louisa Meets Bear' Is More Than The Sum Of Its Parts

6:50pm June 09, 2015

by Michael Schaub

Lisa Gornick's new novel-slash-story-collection turns around the long and stormy relationship between the title characters. Critic Michael Schaub says the book "may not be comforting, but it's true."

Nisid Hajari led international coverage at Newsweek for more than a decade as a foreign editor and managing editor and now oversees Asia coverage for Bloomberg View.

Books
Arts

India's 1947 Partition And The 'Deadly Legacy' That Persists To This Day

3:49pm June 09, 2015

In his new book, Midnight's Furies, Nisid Hajari describes the riots and massacres that ensued after Pakistan was established as a separate state, and how those tensions are still playing out.

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Winemaker Iago Bitarishvili makes wine in clay vessels called qvevri, which he buries underground and fills with white grapes. There are no barrels, vats or monitoring systems for this ancient Georgian method, which is helping drive sales. Bitarishvili pl

Georgia's Giant Clay Pots Hold An 8,000-Year-Old Secret To Great Wine

2:35pm June 09, 2015

by Daniella Cheslow

Making ancient Georgian wine is pretty uncomplicated: Toss grapes into a huge, egg-shaped pot, bury it, walk away. What comes out is an orange wine with a deep tannin flavor prized around the world.