Books

Donald Trump and father Fred Trump attend the opening of Wollman skating rink in New York City's Central Park in 1987.

Trump's Niece Describes A Toxic Family Dynamic Where Kindness Was Weakness

1:08pm July 23, 2020

by Terry Gross

Mary Trump was devastated when her uncle was elected president. Her book, Too Much and Never Enough, describes Donald Trump as a "belligerent" youth who hasn't changed since he was a teen.

Trouble the Saints, by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Books
Arts

Think Fantasy Is Kid Stuff? Try 'Trouble The Saints'

10:00am July 23, 2020

by Danny Lore

Alaya Dawn Johnson's new novel is set in New York on the eve of World War II, in a world where a few lucky (well, not that lucky) people are gifted with "saints' hands," that give them strange skills.

Books

Eddie Glaude Jr. On His New Book And What America Can Learn From James Baldwin

5:51am July 23, 2020

NPR's Noel King speaks with Eddie Glaude Jr. about his book Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own.

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One Direction didn't win The X Factor in 2010, but filled stadiums, broke records and our hearts.

One Direction's Big Bang

5:00am July 23, 2020

by Maria Sherman

Ten years ago today, July 23, One Direction created the universe. Read an excerpt from Maria Sherman's new book on boy bands, Larger Than Life, about 1D's formation and meteoric rise.

Books
Arts

Zadie Smith Hopscotches From The Personal To The Political In 'Intimations'

2:10pm July 22, 2020

by John Powers

Smith began Intimations: Six Essays at the onset of the pandemic and finished it shortly after George Floyd's killing. Although only 100 pages, there's something worth quoting on virtually every page.

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Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act, by Nicholson Baker

Exhausting Effect Of FOIA Requests Evident In 'Baseless'

9:33am July 22, 2020

by Tim Mak

Nicholson Baker's book misses the mark in an aim to take readers on a quest to discover if the U.S. used biological weapons developed in the '50s — and to examine the failings of public records law.

Books

Anne Applebaum's Latest Book: 'Twilight Of Democracy'

7:06am July 22, 2020

Anne Applebaum considers ways the world has changed over the last 20 years. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to the author about her book: Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism.

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Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum

Combining Indictment With Insight, A Historian Offers Context For The Age Of Trump

5:00am July 22, 2020

by Ron Elving

Anne Applebaum writes in Twilight of Democracy that heir to fears and hatreds, even advanced societies are straining under repeated blows: protracted war, economic disruptions, migration, a pandemic.

Books

British Novelist Reimagines The Life And Death Of Hamnet Shakespeare

4:15pm July 21, 2020

Almost nothing is known about William Shakespeare's son, Hamnet, who died at age 11. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Maggie O'Farrell about her new novel, which imagines the boy's life and death.

Alex Trebek attends the 150th anniversary of Canada's Confederation at the Official Residence of Canada on June 30, 2017 in Los Angeles.

Books
Arts

Alex Trebek Is Here To Tell You, 'The Answer Is ...'

2:54pm July 21, 2020

by David Greene

The Jeopardy! host didn't plan to write an autobiography. "I'm just a quiz show host who's been doing the same job for 36 years," he says. But writing the book gave him "a great deal of satisfaction."

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