Books

Books
Arts

How A Cotton Sack, Passed Down Over Generations, Tells A Larger Story About Slavery

1:42pm September 07, 2021

by Arun Venugopal

In her new book, All That She Carried, historian Tiya Miles tells the story of an enslaved woman who, upon hearing her child was to be sold off, hastily packed her a bag with a few personal items.

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Joy Harjo's memoir is Poet Warrior. She plays saxophone and recites poetry on her new album, I Pray for My Enemies.

'Poet Warrior' Joy Harjo Wants Native Peoples To Be Seen As Human

12:46pm September 07, 2021

by Terry Gross

The nation's first Native American poet laureate has a new memoir in which she tells her own story — as well as the story of her sixth-generation grandfather, who was forced from his ancestral land.

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Into the Forest: A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love, by Rebecca Frankel

'Into The Forest' Tells Story Of One Family's Escape From Nazi-Created Zhetel Ghetto

7:46am September 07, 2021

by J.P. O'Malley

While the story of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising is well-documented, pockets of Jewish resistance surfaced in smaller ghettos across Nazi-occupied central-eastern Europe too. Zhetel is one such place.

Books
Arts

Nothing Is Going To Be OK In This Wrenching, Beautiful Story Collection

7:00am September 07, 2021

by Michael Schaub

Ye Chun's new story collection Hao takes its name from a Chinese word meaning "good," or "everything's OK" — but the characters in these stories are sick, afraid, out of time, and anything but OK.

Books

As The TV Industry Praised Michaela Coel, She Says She Felt Like A Misfit

6:14am September 07, 2021

by Sam Sanders

Michaela Coel has earned acclaim for her show: I May Destroy You, which explored sexual assault and consent. Her book, Misfits: A Personal Manifesto, details her experiences in TV.

Books

Italian Man Doesn't Just Want To Read Fantasy Books, He Wants To Live Them

5:45am September 07, 2021

Nicolas Gentile bought land in the Italian countryside and started building. His goal is to create a hobbit village, modeled after J.R.R. Tolkien's Shire. He an his family dress in hobbit clothes.

Books
Arts

A Poet-Nun Inspired This Tale Of Medieval Ambition, Pleasure And Aspiration

11:00am September 06, 2021

by Keishel Williams

Lauren Groff digs deep into the past with Matrix, based on the real-life writer Marie de France. Little is known about the real Marie, but Groff gives us an ambitious, complex, striving woman.

Books

'Red Roulette' Reveals The Inside Of China's Wealth-Making Machine

5:46am September 06, 2021

In his new book Red Roulette: An Insider's Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption, and Vengeance in Today's China, Desmond Shum writes about the disappearance of his ex-wife in China.

Books

In 'Loteria,' Life And Death Battle For A Girl's Fate

9:11am September 05, 2021

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with Karla Valenti about her middle-grade novel, Loteria. Life and Death meet to play a game, choosing a girl who'll either live or die depending on who wins.

No Gods, No Monsters, by Cadwell Turnbull

Books
Arts

If Monsters Were Real, This Book Knows What You'd Really Do — Nothing

7:00am September 05, 2021

by Jason Sheehan

What appears to be a simple, awful police killing turns out to be much worse in Cadwell Turnbull's new No Gods, No Monsters, set in a world where monsters and magic are real, and none of it is pretty.