Books

The National Book Foundation released its annual book award longlists on Friday.

Books
Arts

Here Are The 50 Books Nominated for 2020 National Book Awards

6:19pm September 18, 2020

by Reese Oxner

There are writers on the longlist in five categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translation and young people's literature. Two debut novels are in the running for the fiction prize.

Books
Arts

'Here We Are' Conjures Magic From Ordinary Lives

7:00am September 17, 2020

by Heller McAlpin

Graham Smith's new novel seems at first to be a light little story about a seaside love triangle in Brighton, England in the 1950s — but it turns out to be about something far deeper.

The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War, by David Nasaw

'The Last Million' Sheds Light On Middle East History, Newer Refugee Policy Failures

8:28am September 16, 2020

by Jim Zarroli

Historian David Nasaw writes with deep, broad knowledge of the hundreds of thousands of refugees filling Europe's roads after WWII, hoping to return to homes that, in many cases, no longer existed.

Books
Arts

A Widow Discovers That Her Marriage Wasn't 'Monogamy'

4:06pm September 15, 2020

by Maureen Corrigan

As the central character struggles with grief and shock at her late husband's infidelity, author Sue Miller keeps deftly shifting what readers might anticipate to be the ending of this novel.

Queue Listen Now

No Rules Rules, the new book cowritten by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer.

Books

Netflix CEO Embraces 'No Rules,' But Work Is Anything But Chill

3:04pm September 15, 2020

by Bobby Allyn

In his new book No Rules Rules, Reed Hastings argues that in order for a creative workplace to succeed, it needs as few policies and rules as possible. Others say the culture is demoralizing.

Queue Listen Now

A collection of current and past presidential advertising materials hangs on a wall in the visitor center of the New Hampshire State House in Concord, N.H.

Collect Data, Influence Votes: 'If Then' Traces The Genesis Of Data-Driven Politics

2:36pm September 15, 2020

by Dave Davies

In If Then, historian Jill Lepore tells the story of Simulmatics. Founded in 1959, the company's "people machine" used a computer program to predict the impact of various political messages.

Queue Listen Now

Copies of The Room Where it Happened, a memoir by former national security adviser John Bolton, are seen at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Glendale, Calif., in June.

Grand Jury Issued Criminal Subpoenas In Connection With John Bolton Book

2:11pm September 15, 2020

by Carrie Johnson

The move signals the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation surrounding the publication of The Room Where It Happened after an unsuccessful effort to block it from being published.

Books

'If Then' Examines Early Fears That Computers Would Manipulate Voters

12:02pm September 15, 2020

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Jill Lepore about her latest book If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future. Her acclaimed books include These Truths, a history of the U.S.

Queue Listen Now

Books

Hastings Writes About Netflix's Cultural Reinvention In 'No Rules Rules'

7:36am September 15, 2020

by Bobby Allyn

Netflix added 26 million subscribers so far this year. Reed Hastings co-founder and CEO of the streaming service credits the company's unorthodox office culture for its meteoric rise.

Queue Listen Now

The House by the Lake: The True Story of a House, Its History, and the Four Families Who Made It Home, by Thomas Harding. Illustrated by Britta Teckentrup

'The House By The Lake' Is A Story Of Reconciliation — And The Meaning Of Home

7:31am September 15, 2020

by Esme Nicholson

A few years ago, Thomas Harding wrote a memoir centered on what became of his great-grandparents' German house. Now he's made it into a children's book about belonging, with the home his protagonist.