Books

'Blockbusters': Go Big Or Go Home, Says Harvard Professor

11:54am October 24, 2013

by NPR Staff

Anita Elberse's new book, Blockbusters, examines the strategy behind making and marketing megahits. She tells NPR's Renee Montagne that content companies — publishers, movie studios and the like — can create blockbusters by dedicating most of their budgets to a select few likely winners.

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Bridget In Middle Age: We're Not So 'Mad About' This Girl

6:43pm October 23, 2013

by Meg Wolitzer

Bridget Jones, as you may have heard, is back: 51, widowed and juggling two small children and a much younger boy toy. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer says that while she doesn't mind the subtraction of hunky Mark Darcy, she misses the messy but honest charm of the younger Bridget.

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Luster checks out books for frequent library visitor Phyllis Smith. Luster says she thinks of herself as a book curator.

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Arts

Turning A Page Inside A Rural One-Room Library

3:37pm October 22, 2013

by Jennifer Davidson

In a sleepy town in the Ozarks, population 300, one woman is trying to turn the local public library into a hub for learning. She's one of thousands of librarians around the country working to bring a sense of community to isolated areas.

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How to Fail at Almost Everything, by Scott Adams

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Scott Adams Explains 'How To Fail At Almost Everything' (Except Dilbert)

3:37pm October 22, 2013

by NPR Staff

Adams managed to turn his failure at office work into a gigantic success — a syndicated comic strip about a hapless, cubicle-bound engineer. In his new book, How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big, Adams offers some sage advice such as: "Goals are for losers."

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If You're Looking To Read 'Lady Things,' Choose Jezebel Over Jones

5:19pm October 21, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

Bridget Jones hasn't aged well. At 51, she's the "geriatric mum" of two small children, and finds herself yearning to plunge back into dating. Critic Maureen Corrigan says if you're looking for jolly feminist cultural commentary, you'd be better off reading a witty "encyclopedia of lady things" from the creators of the website Jezebel.

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Arts

'The Book of Jezebel': An Honest Look At 'Lady Things'

4:02pm October 21, 2013

by NPR Staff

Anna Holmes didn't see much reality in beauty magazines, so she started the website Jezebel — a women's mag "without the airbrushing." Now, she's the editor of an illustrated encyclopedia that takes a look at the world according to women.

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Most people associate the Nile with Egypt, but the river also flows through South Sudan, where much of it is bordered by jungle. That makes it a excellent destination for rafting and wildlife enthusiasts, says travel guide author Max Lovell-Hoare.

For The Ultimate Getaway, Why Not South Sudan?

8:02pm October 20, 2013

by NPR Staff

You may not find South Sudan at the top of most dream destination lists, but the authors of a new travel guide say the young country, long isolated by a violent civil war, has much to offer tourists in search of wildlife, culture and natural beauty.

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Jack London Believed 'Function Of Man Is To Live, Not To Exist'

5:35pm October 18, 2013

by Tom Vitale

A new biography of the writer behind Call of the Wild and White Fang explores the life experiences that informed those works. London grew up in poverty, says biographer Earle Labor. "He was a dreamer, and a visionary. And his dreams and visions almost always outran his finances."

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Books

Anne Rice's New Werewolf Novel Paws Familiar Territory

5:35pm October 18, 2013

Alan Chese reviews The Wolves of Midwinter, the latest in Anne Rice's The Wolf Gift Chronicles.

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Stephen Kinzer has served has The New York Times bureau chief in Turkey, Germany and Nicaragua. He teaches journalism and foreign policy at Boston University.

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Meet 'The Brothers' Who Shaped U.S. Policy, Inside And Out

2:18pm October 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed John Foster Dulles as secretary of state, and Allen Dulles as director of the CIA. In his new book, The Brothers, journalist Stephen Kinzer says the Dulles' actions "helped set off some of the world's most profound long-term crises."

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