Books

A young woman holding an elderly woman's hands

Books
Arts

A 'Marriage', A Divorce, A Dying Dog And Essays Done Right

2:44pm November 13, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

Essay collections are underrated and often ignored in favor of short stories or novels. But in the hands of a writer as practiced as Ann Patchett, critic Maureen Corrigan says the essay becomes an expansive storytelling vessel. Patchett's new book is This Is The Story Of A Happy Marriage.

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In 'Fire And Forget,' Vets Turned Writers Tell Their War Stories

7:43pm November 11, 2013

Roy Scranton and Jacob Siegel edited and contributed to the collection of short stories by veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They tell Fresh Air about how soldiers cope with the fear of death, and why many soldiers feel conflicted about sharing their experience with a larger audience.

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Detail from Plate 11 of Joe Sacco's The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme. On July 1st, at precisely 7:30 a.m., the attack commences.

Books
Arts

A Panorama Of Devastation: Drawing Of WWI Battle Spans 24 Feet

6:58pm November 10, 2013

by Lynn Neary

Joe Sacco has made a career of tackling difficult subjects through imagery. He's a journalist and cartoonist who has reported on the Middle East and Bosnia — in both written and comic form. In his latest book, The Great War, Sacco turns to history, producing a 24-foot-long depiction of the horrifying first day of the Battle of the Somme.

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Books
Arts

How Cynthia Rylant Discovered The Poetry Of Storytelling

6:58pm November 10, 2013

by NPR Staff

Award-winning author Cynthia Rylant's pictures books revolve around children relying on their families for love and support. To write a good children's book, she says, "you have to be a good poet." Her latest book, God Got A Dog, is a collection of poems that only took her a day to write.

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Peter Baker's other books include The Breach and Kremlin Rising.

'Days Of Fire': The Evolution Of The Bush-Cheney White House

5:00pm November 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

Peter Baker covered the George W. Bush administration for The New York Times. In his new book, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Baker takes a second look at those controversial years.

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Books
Arts

In Art Lost And Found, The Echoes Of A Century's Upheaval

8:08pm November 08, 2013

by Susan Choi

Earlier this week, German authorities announced that a trove of Nazi-looted art, once thought lost, had been discovered in a Munich apartment. That news has sparked the imagination of author Susan Choi, who recalls reading a novel with a similar theme: Jenny Erpenbeck's Visitation.

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Steve Young learned about industrial musicals when he started coming across compilations, like this one, in used record stores. (You definitely want to click to enlarge this.)

Sales Take Center Stage: To Boost Morale, Companies Burst Into Song

9:47am November 08, 2013

Industrial musicals were like Broadway shows, only written and performed for corporate sales meetings or conventions. And as ridiculous as the songs were — "My bathroom, my bathroom is a private kind of place" — they were often delivered by very talented people.

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Books
Arts

Female Friendship Puts 'New' Angle On Italian Classism And Machismo

9:46am November 08, 2013

by John Powers

Bound by the confines of gender and finances, two young women take divergent paths in Elena Ferrante's The Story of a New Name, the second book in her "Neapolitan Novels" trilogy. Critic John Powers believes the bold, expansive series to be semi-autobiographical, a revelation from a secretive author who won't reveal her true name.

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Chef Roy Choi was named Food and Wine Magazine's Best New Chef in 2010.

Books
Arts

Roy Choi's Tacos Channel LA And The Immigrant Experience

5:24pm November 07, 2013

The Los Angeles chef says the Korean taco was "like a lint roller," pulling its chefs' backgrounds into one food truck offering. Choi's new book, L.A. Son, tells his story of addiction, culinary success and growing up Korean in Orange Country, Calif.

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Books
Arts

'Self-Help Messiah' Dale Carnegie Gets A Second Life In Print

3:50pm November 07, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

In the many decades since the publication of How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie's self-help classic has been both celebrated and mocked, but it's still selling plenty of copies. Steven Watts' new biography of the man may feel overstuffed, but, as Maureen Corrigan notes, Carnegie's relentless positivity always shines through.

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