Books

Books
Arts

'Burgess Boys' Family Saga Explores The Authenticity Of Imperfection

1:16pm April 03, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

Elizabeth Strout is best known for her short story collection Olive Kitteridge, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2009. Her new book is a novel, and critic Maureen Corrigan says it's a different type of winner.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

A Father Tells The Story Of His Son's Struggle To Stay 'Clean'

1:09pm April 03, 2013

"The view that drug use is a moral choice is pervasive, pernicious and wrong," writes David Sheff in Clean, a critical look at the nation's approach to drug treatment. Sheff argues that we should not wait for "rock bottom" — that addiction should be treated promptly, just like any other disease.

Queue Listen Now

The rape and eventual death of a young woman in New Delhi has spurred a large protest movement calling for greater attention to violence against women. (Pictured: A protest held one month after the woman's rape.)

Books
Arts

Tina Brown's Must Reads: Women Vs. The World

9:39am April 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

The editor in chief of Newsweek and the Daily Beast joins NPR's Steve Inskeep to talk about women taking on big cultural challenges, and the stories of how they got there.

Queue Listen Now

When anthropologists tallied the use of emotional words through a century of literature, they included many books without clear emotional content — technical manuals, for example, and automotive repair guides.

Mining Books To Map Emotions Through A Century

10:18am April 02, 2013

by Alix Spiegel

Anthropologists find that the use of "emotional" words in all sorts of books has soared and dipped across the past century, roughly mirroring each era's social and economic upheavals. And psychologists say this new form of language analysis may offer a more objective view into our culture.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

In Digestion: Mary Roach Explains What Happens To The Food We Eat

1:54pm April 01, 2013

With books like Stiff and Spook, Roach has built a reputation for making unpalatable subjects entertaining. In her new book, Gulp, she tackles the human digestive system, from the mouth on down. Along the way, she gets a sedation-free colonoscopy and goes on location for a fecal transplant.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

With Humor And Sorrow, 'Life After Life' Explores The Moment Of Death

7:17pm March 28, 2013

by NPR Staff

From an old man feigning dementia to a judge's widow who keeps a scrapbook of murder, the story of Pine Haven's retired residents isn't all seriousness and tragedy. In her new novel, Jill McCorkle draws from the sometimes sad, sometimes comical experience of watching her own parents age.

Queue Listen Now

A woman uses a new iPad and iPhone 4 in the office. Nizhnevartovsk, Russia, Sept. 16, 2012.

Books
Arts

In A World That's Always On, We Are Trapped In The 'Present'

5:59pm March 27, 2013

by NPR Staff

In Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, Douglas Rushkoff cautions against living in the perennial, virtual now. "It's very hard for us to orient ourselves," he says, "to look forward to things, to join movements with goals, to invest in the future."

Queue Listen Now

A Slap in the Face: Why Insults Hurt — And Why They Shouldn't by William B. Irvine

Books
Arts

You're So Dumb, You Probably Think This Book Is About Getting Slapped

5:58pm March 27, 2013

by NPR Staff

"Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!" Philosophy professor William Irvine's new book, A Slap in the Face, is a compendium of insults — and a scholarly look at why we're constantly compelled to one-up each other.

Queue Listen Now

The only known photograph of the 1935 Bismarck town team.

Integrated Baseball, A Decade Before Jackie Robinson

5:05pm March 27, 2013

by NPR Staff

Over ten years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the major leagues, a little-known baseball team went to bat with players both black and white. Journalist Tom Dunkel writes about the team from Bismarck, N.D., in his new book Color Blind.

Queue Listen Now

In Jonathan Dee's new novel a woman finds her knack for getting powerful men to apologize.

Books
Arts

The Apathy In 'A Thousand Pardons' Is Hard To Forgive

4:32pm March 27, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

The rich and good-looking get a taste of life among the 99 percent in Jonathan Dee's novels. In A Thousand Pardons, his protagonist, Helen Armstead, finds a secret talent for getting powerful men to apologize after her marriage falls apart and she is forced to enter the working world.

Queue Listen Now