Books

Books
Arts

Still shopping for the little ones? Here are 10 kids' books we loved this year

2:00pm December 20, 2023

by Beth Novey

If you've found yourself reading the same picture book over and over (and over and over) to a small but determined audience we see you and salute you! Is it time to add a few new titles to the mix?

Amazon-owned Goodreads makes little effort to verify users, and critics say this enables a practice known as review-bombing, in which a book is flooded with negative reviews, often from fake accounts, in an effort to bring down a its rating, sometimes for reasons having nothing to do with the book's contents.

Books
Arts

Goodreads has a 'review bombing' problem — and wants its users to help solve it

8:00am December 17, 2023

by Jim Zarroli

Posting a torrent of fake negative book reviews — sometimes before a book is out or has even been written — is a known problem on the literary social media site.

Books

NPR staffers share their non-fiction picks from Books We Love

7:53am December 17, 2023

NPR staffers recommend non-fiction reads from our Books We Love list: "On Minimalism," "Anansi's Gold," "Asian-Americans in an Anti-Black World," and "The Wager."

Books

Paul Lynch discusses his Booker Prize-winning dystopian novel 'Prophet Song'

8:40am December 16, 2023

by Scott Simon

This year's Booker Prize winner is a dystopian novel about an Irish biologist and mother of four whose husband is taken by the government. NPR's Scott Simon talks with Paul Lynch about "Prophet Song."

Books

'The Shortest Day', a poem and children's book celebrates the winter solstice

8:40am December 16, 2023

Susan Cooper's poem "The Shortest Day," celebrating the winter solstice, is also a children's book illustrated by Carson Ellis. They collaborated by mail.

Books

Ariel Lawhon's novel 'The Frozen River' follows a 1789 midwife in pursuit of justice

8:08am December 16, 2023

by Scott Simon

The year is 1789, and a New England midwife is called to investigate a dead man pulled from the ice. NPR's Scott Simon talks with Ariel Lawhon about her novel, "The Frozen River."

Asada: The Art of Mexican-Style Grilling

Books
Arts

A buffet of 2023 cookbooks for the food lovers on your list

5:01am December 16, 2023

by Beth Novey

There are a lot of cooks at NPR. Every time we ask our staff for recommendations for our annual, year-end books guide, we get back a veritable smorgasbord of cookbook offerings.

A display of some books that have been challenged around the country is seen at the Mott Haven branch of the New York Public Library in the Bronx, New York City, Oct. 7.

To fight so-called book bans, some states are threatening to withhold funding

9:54am December 15, 2023

by Andrew Limbong

Illinois made a splashy announcement with their new law intended to protect libraries from book challenges by withholding funding. Other states are closely watching to see if they will follow along.

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Christian Wiman is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry and prose. He's been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and served as editor of POETRY magazine.

After 18 years living with cancer, a poet offers 'Fifty Entries Against Despair'

1:34pm December 13, 2023

by Terry Gross

Christian Wiman says he's no longer afraid of dying. "When death hangs over you for a while, you start to forget about it," he says. Wiman's new book is Zero at the Bone.

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Cover of the paperback edition of Erasure.

Books
Arts

Advice from a critic: Read 'Erasure' before seeing 'American Fiction'

1:43pm December 12, 2023

by Carole V. Bell

With the first Percival Everett-inspired screen adaptation American Fiction coming to theaters starting on Dec. 15, we're taking a moment to revisit his provocative and affecting satirical novel.