Books

Books
Arts

'The Tree Doctor' chronicles one woman's response to a series of life-changing crises

2:44pm March 19, 2024

by Michael Schaub

Marie Mutsuki Mockett's latest novel about a wife and mother is wise and sensitive, and a stunning reflection on how we reinvent ourselves when we're left with no other choice.

Books
Arts

'James' reimagines Twain's 'Huckleberry Finn' with mordant humor, and horror

1:51pm March 19, 2024

by Maureen Corrigan

Percival Everett's retelling of Mark Twain's 1885 classic focuses on Huck's enslaved companion. James is a tale so inspired, you won't be able to imagine reading the original without it.

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For Christine Blasey Ford, the fallout of the Kavanaugh hearing is ongoing

1:51pm March 19, 2024

by Terry Gross

In 2018, Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were in high school. Her new memoir is One Way Back.

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Books
Arts

'James' revisits Huck Finn's traveling companion, giving rise to a new classic

2:33pm March 18, 2024

by Carole V. Bell

In a fever dream of a retelling, America's new reigning king of satire has turned a loved classic, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, upside down, placing Huck's enslaved companion Jim at the center.

Christine Blasey Ford aims to own her story with 'One Way Back'

5:07am March 18, 2024

by Reena Advani

In an interview with NPR, Ford says it was only a couple of years ago that she felt ready to revisit how her life was upended by Brett Kavanaugh's rise to a position on the U.S. Supreme Court.

A store in Monrovia, Liberia, advertises Coca-Cola. The photo is from circa 1947.

Q&A: Author of 'Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became African' on Coke's surprising history

5:11pm March 17, 2024

by Diane Cole

How did the soda giant from America come to be seen as "local" in Africa? And what has the impact been on the continent for worse and for better?

Books

'The Exvangelicals' follows the lives of people who loved, then left the Church

8:19am March 17, 2024

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with Sarah McCammon, NPR National Political Correspondent, about her religious upbringing and new book, "The Exvangelicals."

Books

Authors push back on the growing number of AI 'scam' books on Amazon

11:26am March 16, 2024

by Andrew Limbong

Amazon is crowded with copycat books that appear to have been written by AI — and they're attached to real authors who didn't write them. (Story first aired on Morning Edition on March 13, 2023.)

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Books

Historian Charles Spencer on his memoir 'A Very Private School'

8:03am March 16, 2024

by Scott Simon

NPR's Scott Simon talks with Charles Spencer, historian and Princess Diana's brother, about his memoir, "A Very Private School." It relates disturbing stories about his time in boarding school.

Nobel Prize-winning author Mo Yan is being sued in China for 'distorting history'

8:03am March 16, 2024

by Scott Simon

The Chinese Nobel Prize-winning author Mo Yan is being sued for allegedly insulting national heroes. NPR's Scott Simon speaks to Cornell Professor Jessica Chen Weiss about the case.