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'Displacement' Floats Too Close To The Surface

11:03am February 11, 2015

by Etelka Lehoczky

Lucy Knisley's new Displacement is a buoyant memoir of a cruise with her elderly grandparents. Reviewer Etelka Lehoczky says the book is engaging and lovely, but snorkels when it should dive deep.

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'Finn Fancy' Is Urban Fantasy With A Pop Culture Sweet Tooth

10:03am February 11, 2015

by Jason Heller

Randy Henderson's debut deals with sinister magic and family tragedy, but reviewer Jason Heller says it still has plenty of a rare commodity in current fantasy: laughs, laughs, and more laughs.

Kelly Link's work also includes Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, and Pretty Monsters.

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Ignoring The Rules, Kelly Link Traffics In Wonder, Irony And Teenage Longings

7:58am February 11, 2015

by Meg Wolitzer

Writer Kelly Link has a lot of magic powers, but it's her confidence and storytelling chops that reviewer Meg Wolitzer finds most enchanting.

Amanda Filipacchi is also the author of the novels Nude Men, Vapor and Love Creeps.

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Funny If It Weren't So True: A Farce About 'The Importance Of Beauty'

4:54pm February 10, 2015

by Maureen Corrigan

Amanda Filipacchi's novel is about a costume designer who wears a fat suit after a suitor commits suicide. It's structured as a mashup of an old Friends episode, a fairy tale and a murder mystery.

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President Obama talks with senior adviser David Axelrod at the airport in New Orleans following a meeting on the response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

David Axelrod Recounts His Years As Obama's Adviser And 'Believer'

2:23pm February 10, 2015

In his new book, the veteran political consultant tells stories about his years at Obama's side. After one debate, Axelrod says, Obama "made clear how he felt about me at that moment, and he bolted."

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Cozy 'Blue Thread' Is Unabashedly Domestic

9:35am February 10, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

Anne Tyler's 20th novel will feel comfortably familiar to her fans — A Spool of Blue Thread is the long-haul story of an ordinary Baltimore family thrown into disarray by illness and sudden tragedy.

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How To Revive The Worn Out Cliche

9:15pm February 09, 2015

Are cliches always tired? Not necessarily! NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with Orin Hargraves, author of It's Been Said Before: A Guide to the Use and Abuse of Cliches.

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An Expansive View Of Vietnam In 'She Weeps Each Time You're Born'

4:03pm February 09, 2015

by NPR Staff

Poet and author Quan Barry — born in Vietnam but raised in America — says she wants her new novel to help get rid of some of the preconceptions Americans have about Vietnam as a quagmire.

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An Early Peek At Pratchett In 'Dragons At Crumbling Castle'

3:08pm February 09, 2015

by Tasha Robinson

Before Terry Pratchett created the Discworld, he was a young reporter with a sideline in charming little comic stories about dragons and dust motes, now collected in Dragons at Crumbling Castle.

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Christian Grey Began His Fictional Career As A Vampire

2:53pm February 09, 2015

by Neda Ulaby

Fifty Shades of Grey started out as fan fiction for the young adult series, Twilight, and morphed into a racy tale about a kinky billionaire.

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