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'The Candy House' is a brilliant portrait of intersecting lives

6:33am April 06, 2022

by Annalisa Quinn

In Jennifer Egan's novel, there is a persistent, lovely countermelody to the corporate project of mapping human experience; it's full of people engaged in a sweeter and more plaintive human algebra.

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Arts

Encore: NPR's 'Life Kit' shows you how to get into poetry

4:59pm April 05, 2022

It's Poetry Month! If you've ever thought about giving poetry a shot but find it dense or difficult to understand, NPR's Life Kit has got this guide for you on how to read poetry.

'Young Mungo' tells the love story of 2 boys — one Protestant, the other Catholic

4:23pm April 05, 2022

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with author Douglas Stuart about his latest book Young Mungo, centers on a romance between two teenage boys: one Protestant, one Catholic.

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Arts

Poet Ocean Vuong sifts through the aftershock of grief in 'Time Is a Mother'

1:40pm April 05, 2022

by Tonya Mosley

Vuong's new collection of poetry was inspired by his mother's death from breast cancer. His 2019 novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, followed a boy who, like Vuong, is an immigrant from Vietnam.

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In 'Time is a Mother,' poet Ocean Vuong reflects on life, and time, without his mom

7:18am April 05, 2022

by Thúy Đinh

In his new collection, poet Ocean Vuong transforms Time, normally associated with death and erasure, into a mother with endlessly regenerative power.

Some of the banned books of 2021, according to the ALA.

Efforts to ban books jumped an 'unprecedented' four-fold in 2021, ALA report says

7:29pm April 04, 2022

The American Library Association says libraries faced the highest number of book challenges since they started tracking in 2000. Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer topped their list of most challenged books.

Books
Arts

'Sea of Tranquility' reflects our pandemic woes through a time-travel lens

5:04pm April 04, 2022

by Natalie Zutter

Station Eleven author Emily St. John Mandel wrote a book during these last two years of social isolation — about big moments in our lives and small moments in time.

Poet Ocean Vuong writes about loss and grief, but also discovery.

Books

Ocean Vuong's new poems examine the 'big, big yesterday' since his mother was alive

2:33pm April 04, 2022

Ocean Vuong's second poetry collection, Time is a Mother, grapples with time and its impermanence following his mother's death in 2019.

Books

Novel 'Four Treasures of the Sky' depicts the human toll of the Chinese Exclusion Act

8:49am April 03, 2022

by Ayesha Rascoe

Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Jenny Tinghui Zhang about her new novel "Four Treasures of the Sky." Set in the late 1800s, it's about a Chinese girl who is kidnapped and brought to the U.S.

Books

In new novel, Elizabeth Zott is a chemist with a cooking show, thanks to gender roles

8:24am April 02, 2022

by Scott Simon

A no-nonsense chemist becomes a TV cooking-show sensation in the new novel "Lessons in Chemistry." Scott Simon talks with author Bonnie Garmus about her book.