Books

Brian Castner served as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal officer in the U.S. Air Force from 1999 to 2007, deploying to Iraq to command bomb disposal units in Balad and Kirkuk in 2005 and 2006.

Books
Arts

'The Life That Follows' Disarming IEDs In Iraq

2:30pm June 07, 2013

Brian Castner commanded two Explosive Ordnance Disposal units in Iraq, where his team disabled roadside IEDs and investigated the aftermath of roadside car bombings. He returned home a completely different man, which he details in his memoir, The Long Walk.

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How To Survive A Mass Extinction

1:33pm June 07, 2013

In her new book Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction writer Annalee Newitz looks back at Earth's previous mass extinctions to see what lessons might be learned, and how earthlings might prepare themselves to survive a future planet-wide catastrophe.

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In her latest book about Henry Molaison, Corkin tells the story of the amnesic man she studied for a half-century, whose brain helped teach neuroscientists about the distinctions between memory and intellect.

The Patient Who Let Us Peek Inside A Brain In 'Present Tense'

5:03pm June 06, 2013

For nearly 50 years, neuroscientist Suzanne Corkin worked with Henry Molaison, who lost most of his memory in 1953 after experimental surgery for severe seizures. Their work together taught us much of what we know today about memory, and she writes about Molaison and their work in her new book.

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Books
Arts

'Fairyland': A Girl Grows Up In San Francisco's Gay Community

9:58am June 04, 2013

In her new memoir, Fairyland, Alysia Abbott describes her childhood as the daughter of an openly gay father in San Francisco while the gay liberation movement was gaining strength. Her book is based largely on her father's journals, which she found after his death in 1992.

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Book Explores Downfall Of An Indian-American Business Icon

8:10am June 04, 2013

by NPR Staff

Rajat Gupta was one of the wealthiest and most successful men in America. Why would he throw that away on an insider-trading scheme? A new book from financial journalist Anita Raghavan tries to uncover the motivations of a man who lost everything in the Galleon Group scandal.

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Allan Sherman released three albums between October 1962 and August 1963.

Hello Muddah, Hello Drama: The Brief Bloom Of Parodist Allan Sherman

6:53pm June 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

Sherman worked a tight niche: classic songs rewritten to tickle a Jewish audience's funny bone. A new biography, Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman, explains how the performer's 1960s crossover fell in line with a collective awakening to ethnic identity in America.

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Arthur Geisert's Thunderstorm follows a tempest in the rural Midwest.

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Arts

Arthur Geisert's 'Thunderstorm' Celebrates Life On The Prairie

11:39am June 03, 2013

by Rebecca Hersher

The award-winning children's book author has written more than two dozen books set in the American heartland. He's most famous for his intricate illustrations of the Midwest — sprawling prairie, family farms and his signature mischievous pigs.

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Books

Trial To Start In Apple Price-Fixing Dispute

10:23am June 03, 2013

by Jim Zarroli

Apple appears in court Monday to face civil accusations by the Justice Department that it illegally conspired to fix e-book prices with other publishers. The government last year accused Apple of conspiring with five major publishers to raise prices for electronic books — something the government says has cost consumers many millions of dollars.

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In Oqa, Afghanistan, Boston weaves a saddlebag for her husband's donkey. The weavers of Oqa also weave large carpets, earning less than $1 a day for their work.

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Arts

Mapping 'The World' Of A Remote Afghan Village

8:18pm June 02, 2013

by NPR Staff

Journalist Anna Badkhen chronicles life in a small Afghan village in her new book, The World Is A Carpet. A village of 240 people, Oqa survives on an old-time tradition of carpet weaving. Residents earn about 40 cents a day for carpets that eventually sell for $5,000 to $20,000 abroad.

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Books
Arts

Three-Minute Fiction Readings: 'Litter' And 'The Shirt'

8:18pm June 02, 2013

NPR's Bob Mondello and Susan Stamberg read excerpts of two of the best submissions for Round 11 of our short story contest. They read Litter by Kalad Hovatter of Orange, Calif., and The Shirt by Jennifer Anderson of Shorewood, Wis.

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