Books

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Arts

'Tomboyland' Stresses The Importance Of Roots — And Knowing When To Grow Up And Away

5:00pm August 06, 2020

by Ilana Masad

Throughout her essays, Melissa Faliveno is constantly straddling blurry lines, never willing to let any of her topics lie comfortably still, always turning them over to look at another facet.

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Whatever You're Expecting, 'Harrow The Ninth' Is Not That Kind Of Book

7:00am August 06, 2020

by Jason Sheehan

Whatever you expected from Tamsyn Muir's followup to her lesbian-necromancers-in-space epic Gideon the Ninth, this is not that book — it's something wilder, darker and much, much weirder.

L to R: Ensigns Tendi (voiced by Noel Wells), Mariner (voiced by Tawny Newsome) and Boimler (voiced by Jack Quaid) do the grunt work on Star Trek: Lower Decks.

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With 'Star Trek: Lower Decks,' A Venerable Franchise Loosens Up

5:00am August 06, 2020

by Glen Weldon

The animated series spoofs Trek with in-jokes and easter eggs and even if the gags aren't yet firing on all nacelles, the premise — Starfleet's D-listers — holds promise.

Robert Mueller (left) "gave the president a free pass effectively on the fact that he repeatedly committed obstruction of justice," legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin says.

Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin Explains The 'Tragedy' Of The Mueller Investigation

2:46pm August 05, 2020

by Terry Gross

Toobin's new book, True Crimes and Misdemeanors, examines how Trump and his team outmaneuvered special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller, he says, gave Trump "a free pass" on obstruction of justice.

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Novelist Toni Morrison, seen at the unveiling ceremony of a memorial bench marking the abolition of slavery in Paris in 2010.

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A Year After Toni Morrison's Death, Her Visions Of Love Stay With Us

12:00pm August 05, 2020

by marc rivers

Love is central to the work of Toni Morrison — she brought love to her examinations of Black life, and love itself was her enduring subject. But love isn't always a good or joyous thing in her work.

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In 'Afterland,' A World (Mostly) Without Men: Questions For Lauren Beukes

7:00am August 05, 2020

by Petra Mayer

Lauren Beukes' new novel is set in a near future where a virus has killed off most of the men on Earth, and one woman is racing to free her young, immune son from the government and get him to safety.

The Book of Atlantis Black: The Search for a Sister Gone Missing, by Betsy Bonner

A Sister Explores Her Sibling's Mysterious Death In 'The Book Of Atlantis Black'

5:00am August 05, 2020

by Gabino Iglesias

Betsy Bonner presents her sister with love, but also with honesty; she is the storyteller, but Atlantis Black is the story, the mystery, the victim, sometimes the perpetrator and always the question.

Books

Reporter's Role In Exposing Hiroshima Cover-Up Explored In 'Fallout'

5:36pm August 04, 2020

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Lesley Blume about her new book, Fallout, which explores how reporter John Hersey uncovered the effects of the atomic bomb after the U.S. dropped it on Hiroshima.

In her new book, Caste, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson examines the laws and practices that created what she describes as a bipolar, Black and white caste system in the United States. Above, a sign in Jackson, Miss., in May 1961.

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It's More Than Racism: Isabel Wilkerson Explains America's 'Caste' System

4:14pm August 04, 2020

by Terry Gross

In Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines the laws and practices that created a bipolar caste system in the U.S. — and how the Nazis borrowed from it.

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'Luster' Combines Nicely Tailored Prose With A Stinging Sense Of Humor

2:28pm August 04, 2020

by John Powers

Raven Leilani's novel centers on a young woman with a free-range libido who dreams of being a painter. Luster is a crackling debut about sex, art and the inescapable workings of race.

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