Books

Friends and Strangers, by J. Courtney Sullivan

Books
Arts

Privilege Takes Many Forms In 'Friends And Strangers'

4:15pm July 06, 2020

by Mary Louise Kelly

J. Courtney Sullivan's new novel examines the relationship between a mother and her child's caregiver — both women with significant degrees of privilege, despite their surface economic differences.

Queue Listen Now

Books

The Debate Over The Word Irregardless. Is It A Word?

7:40am July 06, 2020

Merriam-Webster has confirmed that "irregardless" is a word in the dictionary, despite concerns from teachers that it is not.

Queue Listen Now

Bright Precious Thing: A Memoir, Gail Caldwell

Books
Arts

'Bright Precious Thing' Encompasses Memories Unleashed By #MeToo Movement

5:00am July 06, 2020

by Heller McAlpin

Like most good memoirs, Gail Caldwell's latest is a reassessment of life choices, roads taken and others foregone. "At some point you shuffle the cards and call the deck a life," she writes.

"I dug my fingers there and here and stretched my arms like ropes. I threw my body through the air and caught myself in all the ways I'd imagined, a bright path of thinking."

This Book Teaches Kids 'How To Solve A Problem' Like A Rock Climber Would

11:16am July 05, 2020

by Samantha Balaban

Nineteen-year-old Ashima Shiraishi may be one of the most talented rock climbers in the world, but lofty titles aside, she wants kids to know that most of climbing — and life — is "just falling."

Queue Listen Now

Books

Author Lacy Crawford Looks Back At Her Sexual Assault In New Memoir

7:53am July 05, 2020

NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with author Lacy Crawford about her new memoir, Notes on a Silencing, about her sexual assault at an elite boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire.

Books

A Competition To Finish Louisa May Alcott's Story

5:12pm July 04, 2020

An unfinished story by Louisa May Alcott has recently been published, and now there's a competition to find a writer to finish the story.

Books
Arts

D. L. Hughley: 'Everybody Knows' Independence Day Didn't Free Us All

2:30pm July 04, 2020

by Scott Simon

In his new book, Surrender, White People!, Hughley suggests we consider whether our national holidays speak to the entire nation — along with other bitingly funny ideas for addressing injustice.

Queue Listen Now

Books

Dr. Michele Harper Shares More Than A Decade Of ER Experience In New Memoir

7:58am July 04, 2020

NPR's Scott Simon speaks to Dr. Michele Harper about her new memoir, The Beauty in Breaking.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

Pitch-Perfect 'Mexican Gothic' Ratchets Up The Dread

7:00am July 02, 2020

by Jessica P. Wick

Silvia Moreno-Garcia's latest is true Gothic horror; set in 1950s Mexico in a creepy, isolated house where a young bride believes her new husband is poisoning her, and that ghosts walk through walls.

President Barack Obama presents the National Humanities Medal to author Rudolfo Anaya at a ceremony in September 2016.

Books
Arts

Rudolfo Anaya, A Founding Father Of Chicano Literature, Dies At 82

8:14pm June 30, 2020

by Petra Mayer

Anaya's 1972 classic Bless Me, Ultima — about a young Mexican American boy and his curandera mentor in New Mexico in the 1940s — inspired a generation of Chicano writers.