Books

Books
Arts

'The Border' Is Shakespeare For Our Times — Seriously

7:00am March 03, 2019

by Jason Sheehan

Don Winslow's sprawling, operatic epic about the War on Drugs has some flaws, but it does the same thing Shakespeare's histories did: It simplifies current events into messy, bloody, gripping theater.

Books

Albert Woodfox On Serving More Than 40 Years In Solitary Confinement

9:00am March 02, 2019

Albert Woodfox served more than 40 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana's Angola Prison for a crime he says he didn't commit. NPR's Scott Simon talks with Woodfox about his new book, Solitary.

Queue Listen Now

Cover detail of The Heavens by Sandra Newman

Books
Arts

What 'The Heavens'? This Extraordinary New Book Feels Like 5 Novels In One

9:00am March 02, 2019

by Lynn Neary

Sandra Newman tells the story of a woman whose recurring dream feels increasingly real. The Heavens is historical fiction, time traveling fantasy, political allegory, social realism and a love story.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

For Better Or Worse, New Novel Shows 'A Woman Is No Man'

9:00am March 02, 2019

by Scott Simon

Etaf Rum's new novel draws from her own experiences of arranged marriage and early motherhood in the close-knit Palestinian American community where she grew up — and which she eventually left.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

This 'Devil's Daughter' Has Charm To Spare

7:00am March 02, 2019

by Denny S. Bryce

Lisa Kleypas mashes up two of her romance sagas — the Regency-era Wallflowers and the Victorian Ravenels — in a delightful story about a sheltered widow and her roguish suitor.

Sen. Doug Jones Discusses His Memoir 'Bending Toward Justice'

5:09pm March 01, 2019

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., about his new memoir, Bending Toward Justice, which recounts his prosecution of the Birmingham church bombing perpetrators.

Mama celebrates her 50th birthday on May 3, 2007, with fruit and vegetables at the Burgers Zoo in Arnhem, Holland.

'Mama's Last Hug' Makes Case That Humans Are Not Alone In Experiencing Emotions

10:14am March 01, 2019

by Barbara J. King

In his new book, primate behavior researcher Frans de Waal writes that "emotions are everywhere in the animal kingdom, from fish to birds to insects and even in brainy mollusks such as the octopus."

Books
Arts

'Dead Men's Trousers' Takes The Trainspotting Crew For A Last, Too-Long Ride

7:00am March 01, 2019

by Jason Sheehan

Irvine Welsh catches up with Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud — now middle aged and gone their separate ways — for what he says is the last installment in the Trainspotting saga.

Books
Arts

Women Show The Faces Of War In 'The Huntress'

10:00am February 28, 2019

by Bethanne Patrick

Kate Quinn's new thriller puts women's experiences front and center in the story of a former Soviet "Night Witch" pilot chasing down an escaped Nazi known as The Huntress in the years after the war.

We Set the Dark on Fire, by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Books
Arts

'We Set The Dark On Fire' Burns Bright

7:00am February 28, 2019

by Caitlyn Paxson

Tehlor Kay Mejia's debut novel We Set the Dark on Fire is set at a posh girls' school in a dystopian world where the students are being trained for lives as political consorts to powerful men.