Books

A part of the Isaiah Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, is seen inside the vault of the Shrine of the Book building at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

'Dead Sea Scrolls' Live On In Debate And Discovery

4:42pm February 14, 2013

In a new book, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography, religious scholar and author John J. Collins tells the history of the scrolls and the controversies they have prompted, and explores the questions they ask and answer about Judeo-Christian history.

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A businesswoman and businessman shake hands.

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Arts

A Soured Student-Teacher Friendship Threatens 'Everything'

2:55pm February 12, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

In a new memoir, James Lasdun describes how a former-student-turned-friend stalked and slandered him online. Give Me Everything You Have is a meditation on what it means to control your reputation on the Internet — and the book is Lasdun's attempt to fight back.

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Netflix Moves Back Into Content Production With 'Cards'

11:26am February 12, 2013

by NPR Staff

House of Cards is a $100 million adaptation of a British television show. Starring Kevin Spacey, the first two episodes are directed by The Social Network's David Fincher — and all 13 episodes will be available at once.

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An 'Autopsy' Of Detroit Finds Resilience In A Struggling City

10:36am February 12, 2013

To some, Detroit may be a symbol of urban decay; but to journalist Charlie LeDuff, it's home. In Detroit: An American Autopsy, he says the city's heart beats on. "We're still here trying to reconstruct the great thing we once had," he tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies.

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Manufactured On YouTube, Teen Pop Star Searches For His True Voice

6:51pm February 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

The road tour is a well-known backdrop in American novels and one Teddy Wayne explores in his new novel, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine. Along the way, Jonny, a teen heartthrob, explores the pressures of celebrity at a young age.

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A Mystery That Explores 'The Rage' Of New Ireland

2:40pm February 06, 2013

by John Powers

Reporter-turned-novelist Gene Kerrigan sets his story in Ireland after the 2008 financial crisis. The Rage is a boundlessly readable portrait of a country in which ordinary citizens have been hit the hardest and all the old certainties have vanished.

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A shop in Tahrir Square is spray-painted with the word "twitter" after the government shut off Internet access in February 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.

'Distant Witness': Social Media's 'Journalism Revolution'

2:22pm February 04, 2013

by NPR Staff

When protests broke out across North Africa and the Middle East, NPR senior strategist Andy Carvin followed the events in real time online. In his book Distant Witness, Carvin explains how he cultivated social media sources into a new form of journalism where people on the ground controlled the news.

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A Barbados Family Tree With 'Sugar In The Blood'

1:44pm February 04, 2013

In her new book, Andrea Stuart explores the intersection of sugar, slavery, settlement, migration and survival in the Americas. Stuart's personal history was shaped by these forces — she is descended from a slave owner who had relations with an unknown slave.

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'Disaster Diaries' Will Help You Survive The End Of The World

6:16pm February 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

Sam Sheridan was a mixed martial arts fighter, wilderness firefighter, construction worker in the South Pole, and now, author. His new book, Disaster Diaries, will help you survive the apocalypse, no matter the catastrophe.

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'Schroder' Chronicles A Father's Desperate Mistakes

3:43pm February 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

In Amity Gaige's new novel, Eric Kennedy, aka East German immigrant Erik Schroder, reveals his true identity to his ex-wife and explains why he kidnapped his own 6-year-old daughter.

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