Books

Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall won both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, won this year's Man Booker Prize.

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Mantel Takes Up Betrayal, Beheadings In 'Bodies'

1:26pm June 14, 2013

Hilary Mantel is the first woman to win the Man Booker Prize twice, first for her 2009 novel, Wolf Hall, and then for that book's 2012 sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. The novels are part of a historical fiction trilogy about Tudor England and the events surrounding the reign of King Henry VIII.

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Meet 'Ivan': The Gorilla Who Lived In A Shopping Mall

7:00pm June 13, 2013

by NPR Staff

Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan was inspired by a real-life gorilla who lived in a mall in Tacoma, Wash. The author says humans have "a real obligation" to care responsibly for animals in captivity.

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As with many of his novels, Hiaasen sets his latest — Bad Monkey — in his home state of Florida.

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Florida-Grown Fiction: Hiaasen Satirizes The Sunshine State

4:45pm June 13, 2013

Novelist and Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen writes with passion and purpose about the state he loves. His latest book, Bad Monkey, is an offbeat murder mystery set in Key West.

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Yoram Kaniuk speaks in 2008 at the AFI Fest premiere of Adam Resurrected, based on a novel he wrote.

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Israeli Writer Yoram Kaniuk, 83, On Pain And Peace

3:34pm June 13, 2013

Author and journalist Yoram Kaniuk died June 8 at age 83. He joined Fresh Air's Terry Gross in August 1988 to talk about fighting in the Israeli underground and his belief that, for Israelis and Palestinians, "the only way is to live somehow together."

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In One and Only, Lauren Sandler debunks popular myths about only children.

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'One And Only': The Joys And Myths Of Raising Just One

1:54pm June 13, 2013

by NPR Staff

In 1907, the first president of the American Psychological Association called only children "sickly, selfish, strange, and stupid." In her book One and Only, journalist Lauren Sandler, an only child and mother of one, takes on these stereotypes and explains the joys of raising just one.

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Colum McCann won the National Book Award in 2009 for Let the Great World Spin.

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McCann's 'TransAtlantic' Crosses Fiction And Fact, Ireland And U.S.

11:25am June 12, 2013

by Lynn Neary

Novelist Colum McCann decided to write about the ties that bind his homeland, Ireland, with the United States, where he now lives. But he wanted to stay far away from cliches about being Irish-American. The result? His new novel, featuring historical figures searching for freedom, adventure and peace.

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What Kids Are Reading, In School And Out

7:11pm June 11, 2013

by Lynn Neary

Some experts are concerned that both in-school assignments and the books kids read for pleasure may not be challenging them enough.

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The Courage To Cross An Ocean, Explored In 'TransAtlantic'

6:36pm June 09, 2013

by Rosecrans Baldwin

Colum McCann's novel TransAtlantic weaves together disparate historical figures and times. Reviewer Rosecrans Baldwin says that while some sections are uneven, the book rolls over you like a wave, crashing and building upon itself.

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Three-Minute Fiction: The Round 11 Winner Is ...

6:36pm June 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

After sifting through thousands of submissions for our short-story contest, we have found a winner. This round, guest judge Karen Russell asked you to write a story in which a character finds something he or she has no intention of returning.

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Time-Traveling Serial Killer Hunts For 'The Shining Girls'

6:03pm June 08, 2013

by NPR Staff

Over the last 15 years, the South African writer Lauren Beukes has been a journalist, a screenwriter, a documentarian — and most recently, a novelist. Her new book is called The Shining Girls, a summer thriller about a time-traveling serial killer and the victim who escapes to hunt him down.

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