Books

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.

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A luxury home in an unfinished subdivision

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Of Neurons And Memories: Inside The 'Secret World Of Sleep'

2:13pm August 15, 2013

Think of everything your brain processes in a single day: your breakfast, a stain on a book cover, a meeting at work. If you remembered all those things, your brain would reach capacity. Author and neuroscientist Penelope Lewis says sleep helps sort through the memories that are worth keeping.

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The Santa Barbara County Courthouse, a Spanish-Moorish landmark, was built in 1929.

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In 'Alphabet' Mysteries, 'S' Is Really For Santa Barbara

9:27am August 15, 2013

by Mandalit del Barco

Private investigator Kinsey Millhone is one of the most well-known characters in modern crime fiction, but there's another star in Sue Grafton's thrillers: the fictional city of Santa Teresa, based on Santa Barbara, Calif.

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Ninety percent of what we wear, eat and consume is carried by container ships like this one at the state-run Jaya Container Terminal of Sri Lanka's port of Colombo.

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Shipping: The 'Invisible Industry' That Clothes And Feeds You

4:38pm August 14, 2013

Rose George spent several weeks aboard a container ship to research Ninety Percent of Everything, her book about the shipping industry. She writes, "There are more than one hundred thousand ships at sea carrying all the solids, liquids and gases that we need to live."

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Books

E-Books Strain Relations Between Libraries, Publishing Houses

2:23pm August 13, 2013

by Lynn Neary

E-books have changed the world of publishing in fundamental ways. The business model that encouraged publishers to support the work of public libraries has changed to such an extent that this relationship has been stressed to the point of non cooperation.

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Justin St. Germain teaches at the University of New Mexico.

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Heading West: The Gritty, Luminous 'Son Of A Gun'

8:17pm August 12, 2013

by Julia Keller

If the town of Tombstone, Ariz., sounds familiar, it probably has to do with what happened there in 1881 — the year of the infamous gunfight between lawman Wyatt Earp and a rival gang. A new memoir by Justin St. Germain weaves the story of the O.K. Corral into another, more personal tale.

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