Books

Books
Arts

'The Jaguar's Children' Is Ripped From Heartbreaking Headlines

1:09pm January 27, 2015

by Alan Cheuse

Critic Alan Cheuse says John Vaillant's intense tale of illegal immigrants trapped in a tanker truck in the Arizona desert expands a single terrible story into a history of human suffering.

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Frank Sinatra captured by photographer William "PoPsie" Randolph during a 1943 concert. Author Ben Yagoda points to Sinatra as one of the interpreters who helped revive the Great American Songbook.

When Pop Broke Up With Jazz

9:00am January 27, 2015

by NPR Staff

For the first half of the 20th century, Tin Pan Alley songwriters like Irving Berlin and the Gershwins dominated pop music. By the the 1950s, tastes had changed, and the music changed with them.

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Arts

For A Taste Of Grimdark, Visit The 'Land Fit For Heroes'

3:01pm January 26, 2015

by Genevieve Valentine

Richard K. Morgan's epic sword-and-planet (and alien technology) Land Fit for Heroes series is a good introduction to grimdark, a subgenre that aims to show the gritty underside of fantasy fiction.

One of Megan Mayhew Bergman's short stories is based on the life of dancer and actress Butterfly McQueen.

Books
Arts

These 13 'Almost Famous Women' Stirred Up Trouble, Or Trouble Found Them

2:17pm January 26, 2015

by Maureen Corrigan

Megan Mayhew Bergman's stories about historical women are littered with bad-girl paraphernalia, like smashed-up motorcycles and morphine needles. In this collection, their lives are richly imagined.

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Arts

'Ghettoside' Explores Why Murders Are Invisible In Los Angeles

1:17pm January 26, 2015

In her new book, journalist Jill Leovy studies the epidemic of unsolved murders in African-American neighborhoods and the relationships between police and victims' relatives, witnesses and suspects.

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In 'Fatherland,' A Daughter Outlines Her Dad's Radicalization

12:12pm January 26, 2015

by NPR Staff

Falling in love with your handsome pen pal, moving overseas to marry him, then finding out he's part of a terrorist organization: That's the Bunjevac family story, told in a new graphic memoir.

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Esther Freud is the author of Hideous Kinky, The Sea House, and other novels.

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Arts

Two Outcasts Form An Artistic Bond In 'Mr. Mac And Me'

11:49am January 26, 2015

by NPR Staff

Painter's daughter Esther Freud weaves her own experiences into the story of a lonely little boy in a British seacoast town, who befriends the great Art Nouveau designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

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Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2012.

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Arts

Do You Have To Read 'Frog'? No, But You Might Want To

11:35am January 26, 2015

by Jason Sheehan

Reviewer Jason Sheehan says Mo Yan's Frog is not without issues, but still offers a thoughtful tale of a dark era in modern Chinese history, touched with humor and occasional magic.

Books
Arts

In 'Dear Father,' A Poet Disrupts The 'Cycle Of Pain'

9:56am January 26, 2015

by NPR Staff

J. Ivy says his father grew up in pain and passed that pain on to the next generation. In his new book, he says that forgiveness is an ongoing act — and you must constantly remember to forgive again.

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In Winter, Keeping Warm With Beloved Books

9:36am January 26, 2015

by Juan Vidal

Critic Juan Vidal says winter is a time for turning inward and warding off the chill with your favorite books, the ones you return to over and over again when the days get shorter and snow closes in.