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'Where The Wild Ladies Are' Is Perfect Halloween Reading

7:00am October 20, 2020

by Michael Schaub

Aoko Matsuda's gently supernatural story collection — all about women who are something more than they seem — gets its unearthly feel not from jump scares, but from the quality of the writing.

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John Brown And Abraham Lincoln: Divergent Paths In The Fight To End Slavery

1:43pm October 19, 2020

by Dave Davies

In The Zealot and the Emancipator, historian H.W. Brands reflects on two 19th century leaders who fought the institution of slavery in different ways: one radical and the other reformist.

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The Voice of Sheila Chandra, by Kazim Ali

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'The Voice Of Sheila Chandra' Echoes Through Time And Space

10:00am October 18, 2020

by Jeevika Verma

Kazim Ali's new poetry collection was inspired by the story of Sheila Chandra, a well-known singer rendered voiceless by an incurable neurological condition.

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Author Sarah Smarsh Discusses Her New Book On 'The Great Unifier:' Dolly Parton

7:54am October 18, 2020

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with Sarah Smarsh about her new book on an enduring country star, Dolly Parton, titled She Come By it Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs.

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I Survived the California Wildfires, by Lauren Tarshis

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The 'I Survived' Books Are Perfect Reads For An Anxious Age

7:54am October 18, 2020

by Barrie Hardymon

Lauren Tarshis's I Survived series takes kids through famous historical disasters — and more recent ones like the California wildfires. So they're perfect pandemic books for anxious little readers.

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'I Longed To See Something Different, So I Wrote It': Questions For Rebecca Roanhorse

1:22pm October 17, 2020

by Petra Mayer

Roanhorse's new novel Black Sun is set in a world influenced by the Pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica — plus, there's crow magic, jewel-eyed sea women, and an epic road trip.

Books

Ann Patchet, Robin Preiss Glasser Collaborate In Children's Book About A Wiley Goat

7:48am October 17, 2020

NPR's Scott Simon talks with novelist Ann Patchett and illustrator Robin Preiss > Glasser about their new children's book, Escape Goat

The Once and Future Witches, by Alix E. Harrow

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'The Once And Future Witches' Will Have You Spellbound

7:00am October 17, 2020

by Jessica P. Wick

Alix Harrow's new book is set in an alternate 19th-century America where the suffragette movement exists alongside a quest to restore magic and end the banishment of witches and witchcraft.

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'Black Sun' Offers A Fantasy Set In Ancient Pre-Columbian Americas

4:59pm October 16, 2020

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with writer Rebecca Roanhorse about her new book, Black Sun, which takes inspiration from ancient pre-Columbian Indigenous civilizations.

the cover of James Forman Jr.'s "Locking Up Our Own"

Books

The Complicated Role Of Black Leaders In Shaping The Criminal Justice System

3:00pm October 16, 2020

by Gene Demby

In Locking Up Our Own, James Forman Jr. explains the role that Black leaders, from prosecutors to legislators, have played in mass incarceration—and why it's more complicated than meets the eye.