Books

Micheal Ward and Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn are strangers who connect on the dance floor in Lovers Rock.

Books
Arts

'Fresh Air' Critic Revisits The TV, Books And Movies That Helped Ease Lockdown

1:39pm December 09, 2020

by John Powers

From Lovers Rock to The Good Lord Bird, the titles on John Powers' year-end list didn't simply distract; they also delved into enduring questions of freedom, dignity and survival.

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Books

2020 Book Concierge: Ailsa Chang Picks 'Everything Sad Is Untrue' By Daniel Nayeri

8:43pm December 08, 2020

by Ailsa Chang

To celebrate the launch of NPR's 2020 Book Concierge, each All Things Considered host will share a favorite book. Ailsa Chang's is Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri.

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Bob Gruen calls this 1970 photograph of Tina Turner "one of the best pictures I've ever taken."

Cameras, Chaos And Cognac: How Bob Gruen Photographed The Spirit Of Rock 'N' Roll

1:39pm December 08, 2020

by Dave Davies

Gruen has photographed countless rock stars, including the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Tina Turner and John Lennon. "For me, rock 'n' roll is all about freedom," he says.

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IRL: Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in Our Digital Lives by Chris Stedman

Books
Arts

'IRL' Author Says It's OK That We're Spending So Much Of Our Lives Online

1:14pm December 07, 2020

In a new book, Chris Stedman asks what it means to be real in a time when humans are interacting in digital spaces more than ever.

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British children's author Roald Dahl, as pictured in 1971. Thirty years after his death, Dahl's family has apologized for the author's anti-Semitism.

Roald Dahl Family Apologizes For Children's Author's Anti-Semitism

8:42pm December 06, 2020

by Matthew S. Schwartz

The apology, which appeared as a note on the official Roald Dahl website, comes 30 years after the author's death.

A field of pitcher plants are nestled in a bog within the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Ben Raines calls pitcher plants "carnivorous wonders" because they draw most of their nutrients from insects they kill and digest.

On A Tour Of 'America's Amazon,' Flora, Fauna And Glimpses Of Alabama's Past

8:24am December 06, 2020

by Debbie Elliott

A trip through the Mobile-Tensaw Delta offers a little bit of everything, from iris fields and gators, to Civil War history and the wreck of the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to America.

Books

2020 Book Concierge: Books For History Lovers

7:55am December 06, 2020

From NPR's 2020 Book Concierge, we offer four book recommendations for history buffs.

Books
Arts

'The Blade Between' Walks The Boundary Of Horror And Noir

7:00am December 06, 2020

by Gabino Iglesias

Sam J. Miller's latest is set in an upstate New York town built on the bones of butchered whales. It's full of broken people, violent ghosts and flying whales, but the real monster is gentrification.

Books

2020 Book Concierge: Highlights From The Arts Desk

9:25pm December 05, 2020

Four members of NPR's Arts Desk recommend books from the hundreds in NPR's 2020 Book Concierge.

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D (A Tale of Two Worlds), by Michel Faber

Books
Arts

In Michel Faber's Latest, The Disappearance (Isappearance?) Of The Letter 'D'

7:53am December 05, 2020

by Scott Simon

Faber has created a world in which the letter d is starting to fade, imperiling things like dogs, doctors, dentists — and a girl named Dhikilo, who travels to a different world to solve the mystery.

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