Books

Richard Ford won the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for his novel Independence Day. His latest book takes his beloved hero, Frank Bascombe, into his sunset years.

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Arts

Superstorm Sandy Inspires Bleak, Poetic Landscapes In 'Let Me Be Frank'

2:57pm November 10, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

In Richard Ford's brilliant collection of four short stories, protagonist Frank Bascombe returns to be "frank" about touchy topics. His awareness, particularly of mortality, is profound and hilarious.

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Festivalgoers browse for books during the Miami Book Fair International. PBS will provide live coverage of the fair's events over the course of three days this year.

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Arts

Book News: PBS Promises 'Olympic-Style' Coverage Of Miami Book Fair

10:08am November 10, 2014

by Colin Dwyer

The network will feature the massive festival, which boasts hundreds of authors and countless more attendees, in a live webcast. Across the Atlantic, The Hunger Games is getting a theater adaptation.

Robert Lee Watt was a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for more than three decades.

'The Black Horn': Blowing Past Classical Music's Color Barriers

9:44am November 10, 2014

by NPR Staff

Robert Lee Watt, the first black French horn player to join a major U.S. symphony, spent 37 years with the LA Philharmonic. He faced a lot of resistance along the way, as his new memoir recounts.

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Richard III: Not Such A Bad Guy After All?

11:20pm November 09, 2014

by NPR Staff

Archaeologist Mike Pitts' new book, Digging for Richard III, recounts the search for the king's skeleton — and sheds new light on a ruler who's often seen as one of history's great villains.

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Imagining Lives That Might Have Happened In 'End Of Days'

12:13pm November 09, 2014

by NPR Staff

German author Jenny Erpenbeck's new novel grapples with the classic question: What if? What if one choice, one event goes differently, and the whole course of your life changes?

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Will Self's 'Shark' Swims In A Chaotic Sea

5:41am November 09, 2014

by J.P. O'Malley

Featuring the same time frame and some of the same characters as his last novel, Umbrella, Shark continues Self's modernist exploration of the human psyche and the violence done by modern society.

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Arts

McCain's 'Soldiers:' 13 Ordinary People Transformed By Battle

12:33pm November 08, 2014

In his new book, Sen. John McCain tells the stories of 13 U.S. soldiers in wars from the Revolution to Iraq. NPR's Linda Wertheimer speaks with the senator about his book, Thirteen Soldiers.

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London's Mayor On Winston Churchill: He Saved Civilization

12:33pm November 08, 2014

Winston Churchill was a writer, an orator and a Tory. So is London Mayor Boris Johnson, and he has a new book about the late prime minister. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Johnson about his new book.

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Eavan Boland has authored numerous volumes of poetry, including In a Time of Violence, which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.

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Walking Through Light-Filled Rooms In 'Woman Without A Country'

7:03am November 08, 2014

by Amal El-Mohtar

Irish poet Eavan Boland's latest volume meditates on the gulf between ideas of nation and individual lives of women; reviewer Amal El-Mohtar calls it a "beautiful kind of conversation."

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Arts

Answering The Old Question: Who Lost China?

6:04am November 08, 2014

by Nishant Dahiya

Richard Bernstein's new China 1945 looks at the momentous events of that year in Asia, and argues that the U.S. focus on fighting Japanese forces in China weakened Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists.