Books

Books
Arts

Spirited 'Family Of Origin' Defends The Maligned Millennial

10:00am July 20, 2019

by Lily Meyer

CJ Hauser's new novel centers on two estranged siblings trying to unravel their late father's work with a group of fringe biologists who believe evolution is running backward, away from millenials.

An imagined future speaks in David Ewing Duncan's Talking to Robots.

An Imagined Future Speaks In 'Talking To Robots'

2:29pm July 19, 2019

by Adam Frank

If you want to see what that future might look like, David Ewing Duncan's book is a fun place to start; he envisions various bots based on interviews with scientists and engineers, among others.

Books
Arts

For The 'Nickel Boys,' Life Isn't Worth 5 Cents

10:47am July 18, 2019

by Michael Schaub

Colson Whitehead's harrowing new novel is based on a true story about a brutally abusive reform school in Florida where the grounds were pocked with the unmarked graves of the boys who died there.

Raised in Captivity, by Chuck Klosterman

Books
Arts

34 Ways To Beat The System In 'Raised In Captivity'

10:00am July 18, 2019

by Jason Sheehan

Chuck Klosterman's new collection of "fictional nonfiction" is full of people who subvert expectations and find ways around the systems that rule our lives. Also, there's a puma in an airplane toilet.

This Is How You Lose The Time War, By Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Books
Arts

Letters Serve To Bond Time-Traveling Rivals In 'This Is How You Lose The Time War'

7:01am July 18, 2019

by Jason Sheehan

Rather than the time travel or war, the thrill of Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's book becomes the connection between two lonely professional killers with the ability to inscribe letters on lava.

In the summer of 1927, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston drove together from Alabama to New York. Just outside Savannah, Ga., they gave a ride to a young person running away from a chain gang. An essay Hughes wrote about that encounter has recently r

Books
Arts

In Lost Essay, Langston Hughes Recounts Meeting A Young Chain Gang Runaway

6:02pm July 17, 2019

by Ari Shapiro

The work, previously published only in Russian, was discovered by Professor Steven Hoelscher. The encounter occurred in 1927, when Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston went on a road trip through the South.

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Leah Esguerra (right), who is credited with being the first social worker installed directly at a public library, strolls through the fifth floor of the San Francisco Public Library's main branch, joined by the library's health and safety associates (from

Books
Arts

Your Local Library May Have A New Offering In Stock: A Resident Social Worker

6:01pm July 17, 2019

by Colin Dwyer

Libraries have never been just about books; they're also crucial hubs of community support. Some are even expanding that role, and supporting their librarians, by bringing in trained social workers.

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Books
Arts

George Takei Recalls Time In An American Internment Camp In 'They Called Us Enemy'

11:13am July 17, 2019

by Etelka Lehoczky

Through his graphic memoir, the Star Trek actor-turned-author shows that while it may be too late to undo the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans, it's not too late to learn from it.

'Escalante's Dream' Retraces The Steps Of The 'Spanish Lewis And Clark'

10:45am July 17, 2019

by Carson Vaughan

After a cancer diagnosis, author and noted mountaineer David Roberts sets out on the trail of Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, remaining dutiful to the route some 240 years later.

A Look At The Vulnerabilities And Capabilities Of American Cybersecurity

5:16pm July 16, 2019

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with former U.S. counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clarke about his new book, The Fifth Domain, co-written with Robert Knake.