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The Book Concierge: Find your next read with NPR's 2014 book guide >>

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NPR's Book Concierge: Our Guide To 2014's Great Reads

8:11am December 03, 2014

by Nicole Cohen

NPR staff and critics selected some 250 standout titles. Now it's up to you: Choose your own adventure! Use our tags to filter books and find the perfect read for yourself or someone else.

Books

Kent Haruf, Author Of Moving, Colorado-Set Novels, Dies At 71

6:51pm December 02, 2014

by David Greene

Novelist Kent Haruf chased writing in his youth, but it wasn't until he was 40 that he'd developed his skills enough to be published. He's best known for National Book Award finalist Plainsong.

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Book Review: 'A Map Of Betrayal'

6:24pm December 02, 2014

by Alan Cheuse

Alan Cheuse reviews "A Map of Betrayal" by Ha Jin.

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P.D. James Believed Mysteries Were Made Of Clues, Not Coincidences

1:32pm December 02, 2014

The best-selling author died Thursday. She was 94. In 1987, James told Terry Gross that while the "shock of finding the bodies is important" in her novels, she personally doesn't like "messy lives."

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Watch Your Head When Checking Out Murakami's Strange 'Library'

10:41am December 02, 2014

by Alan Cheuse

Haruki Murakami's 2008 novella about a young student trapped in an eerie library has just been translated into English. Critic Alan Cheuse calls it awfully weird and utterly down to earth.

Backstage With Janis Joplin: Doubts, Drugs And Compassion

1:08pm December 01, 2014

by NPR Staff

John Byrne Cooke was Janis Joplin's road manager from 1967 until her untimely death in 1970. So he saw a lot of rock history up close — and describes some of the details in a new memoir.

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Pope Francis As Reformer, Evangelizer — And Doctrinal Conservative

11:32am December 01, 2014

by NPR Staff

Austen Ivereigh, author of a new biography of Pope Francis, says the media have misjudged the pope's comments on abortion and homosexuality — but that Francis is a radical in other respects.

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Purple Spirit Ninjas And Mohawked Foxes: 'Shutter' Is A New Adventure

10:41am December 01, 2014

by Etelka Lehoczky

The first six issues of Shutter have been released as a trade paperback, and critic Etelka Lehoczky praises the comic's decidedly pointed take on classic exploration and adventure narratives.

In Mallory Ortberg's modern retelling of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, Miss Havisham texts wedding dress photos from a blocked number.

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If Literature's Great Characters Could Text, They'd Charm Your Pantalets Off

5:40pm November 30, 2014

by Neda Ulaby

Texts from Jane Eyre imagines a Mr. Rochester who worries over his "attic wife" and a super flirty Scarlett O'Hara: "did you know that pantalets are out this year[?] that's why I'm not wearing any :)"

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Mark Strand's Poetry Moved Easily From Common To Sublime

12:44pm November 30, 2014

Poet laureate Mark Strand has died at age 80. He spurned conventional form and wrote spare and haunting prose, which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1999.

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