Books

Books
Arts

Elmore Leonard, The 'Dickens Of Detroit,' Dies At 87

5:22pm August 20, 2013

by Noah Adams

Legendary crime writer Elmore Leonard published 46 novels, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. His works were adapted countless times for film and TV. Noah Adams remembers the man whose advice to other writers was "try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip."

Queue Listen Now

Nate Anderson is a senior editor at Ars Technica. His work has also been published in The Economist and Foreign Policy.

Books
Arts

Wild, Wild Web: Policing An Early, Lawless Internet

2:36pm August 20, 2013

There was a time when many thought the Internet was beyond government regulation, its very chaos a source of creativity and strength. Nate Anderson's The Internet Police looks at how law enforcement went about changing that.

Queue Listen Now

Books

'Southern League': Birmingham Barons Break Racial Divide

7:09am August 20, 2013

By 1964, Birmingham, Ala., gained infamy as the center of the civil rights struggle. In the midst of that tension, one of the city's major institutions broke through the racial divide. The Birmingham Barons minor league baseball club became the first integrated professional sports team in the state. David Greene talks to author Larry Colton, whose book, Southern League, traces how this milestone affected the city.

Queue Listen Now

Scott Anderson is a novelist and veteran war correspondent. His previous novels include Moonlight Hotel and The Man Who Tried to Save the World.

Books
Arts

'Lawrence' Of Arabia: From Archaeologist To War Hero

5:52pm August 19, 2013

by NPR Staff

T.E. Lawrence, the British officer who played a key role in the Middle East during World War I, served as one of that war's few romantic champions. Scott Anderson's Lawrence in Arabia explains how Lawrence used his knowledge of Arab culture and medieval history to advance British causes.

Queue Listen Now

The Tyson Library in Ludlow, Vt., is required to support itself independently; public libraries in Vermont receive no state funding.

Books
Arts

For You To Borrow, Some Libraries Have To Go Begging

4:14pm August 19, 2013

by Neda Ulaby

Most Americans say public libraries are important to the community — but eight states don't actually support them. Texas has cut budgets drastically; in Vermont, local librarians must go hand in hand to town meetings every year. Neda Ulaby reports on the landscape of library funding across the U.S.

Queue Listen Now

Debbie Macomber's latest book is Rose Harbor in Bloom.

Books
Arts

Fans Are Like Friends To 'Reigning Queen' Of Women's Fiction

6:12pm August 18, 2013

by Petra Mayer

Debbie Macomber's books don't get a lot of critical attention, but they've sold in the hundreds of millions. Her fans feel like they know and love the woman behind the words, so her publisher threw a party for them.

Queue Listen Now

A luxury home in an unfinished subdivision

Books
Arts

A Dystopian View Of America's 'Fallen' Suburbs

6:03pm August 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

Patrick Flanery's taut new novel, Fallen Land, delves into the housing crisis, creeping corporate surveillance and a "crisis of neighborliness" in American life. The backdrop: a half-built and crumbling subdivision outside of an unnamed American city.

Queue Listen Now

Mark Lee Gardner's has appeared on the History Channel, PBS' American Experience and BBC Radio.

Books
Arts

What Drove Wild West's Jesse James To Become An Outlaw?

5:57pm August 17, 2013

by NPR Staff

In Shot All To Hell, author Mark Lee Gardner explores the roots of James' life of crime following the Civil War.

Queue Listen Now

Taylor Schilling plays Piper in Netflix's Orange Is the New Black, which is based on Piper Kerman's memoir of her year in prison.

Books
Arts

Behind 'The New Black': The Real Piper's Prison Story

11:18am August 16, 2013

When she was 24, Piper Kerman dated a woman who was part of a drug smuggling ring. Years later, after being named as part of that ring, Kerman served time in a federal prison and at one point shared a cell with her former girlfriend. Her memoir of that experience inspired the Netflix series.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

A Gossipy, Nostalgic History Of A Publishing 'Hothouse'

3:28pm August 15, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

The prestigious publishing company Farrar, Straus and Giroux helped define the intellectual life of post-World War II America. Boris Kachka's book explores the company's history, from its founding in 1946 to its sale to a German conglomerate in 1994 and beyond.

Queue Listen Now