Books

Books

How Narcotics have shaped everything for the Wa, an ethnic minority in Myanmar

5:11am January 30, 2024

The U.S. has had a profound impact on Myanmar's Wa people. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Patrick Winn about his new book, Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA.

New book finds Trump's plot to overturn 2020 election 'crazier than anybody imagined'

5:44pm January 29, 2024

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with journalists Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman about their new book, Find Me The Votes.

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A close-up of a shelf of books, shown from the side of the pages.

A secret shelf of banned books thrives in a Texas school, under the nose of censors

5:44pm January 29, 2024

by Neda Ulaby

A teacher at a public school near Houston has a secret classroom bookshelf largely made up of challenged titles. Many of the books deal with race, sex and gender.

Books
Arts

In 'Martyr!,' an endless quest for purpose in a world that can be cruel and uncaring

2:01pm January 29, 2024

by Gabino Iglesias

Engaging and wildly entertaining, Kaveh Akbar's debut novel will undoubtedly be considered one of the best of the year because it focuses on very specific stories while discussing universal feelings.

Crownsville patients work in the hospital's fields in the 1910s.

What a Jim Crow-era asylum can teach us about mental health today

1:58pm January 29, 2024

by Tonya Mosley

NBC journalist Antonia Hylton spent more than a decade piecing together the history of Maryland's first segregated asylum, where Black patients were forced into manual labor. Her new book is Madness.

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Buffalo Fluffalo, written by Bess Kalb and illustrated by Erin Kraan.

Books
Arts

'Buffalo Fluffalo' has had enuffalo in this kids' bookalo

4:07pm January 28, 2024

by Samantha Balaban

'Buffalo Fluffalo' may seem big and intimidating, but it's all puffery. He really just needs some snuggalos from his friends in this rhyming book from author Bess Kalb and illustrator Erin Kraan.

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Books

Ai Weiwei's graphic memoir uses the animals of the Chinese zodiac to tell his story

7:54am January 27, 2024

by Scott Simon

In a new graphic memoir, "Zodiac," artist and activist Ai Weiwei uses the animals of the Chinese zodiac to tell his life story.

Books

'Hard by a Great Forest' traces a family's journey back to a land they fleed

7:54am January 27, 2024

by Scott Simon

NPR's Scott Simon asks Leo Vardiashvili about "Hard by a Great Forest," his novel about fleeing civil war in post-Soviet Georgia and returning to track down loved ones.

'Come and Get It': This fictional account of college has plenty of truth baked in

7:01am January 27, 2024

by Linda Holmes

Kiley Reid made a splash with her 2019 novel Such a Fun Age. Her latest book is set at the University of Arkansas, and it's a refreshing look at day-to-day college life outside the Ivy League.

Books

Award-winning poet Kwame Alexander talks about Black writers who inspired him

5:16am January 26, 2024

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Kwame Alexander about This Is The Honey — an anthology of contemporary Black poets that he curated.