Books

Journalist Details Israel's 'Secret History' Of Targeted Assassinations

2:11pm January 31, 2018

by Dave Davies

Ronen Bergman says that while Israel's shootings, poisonings, bombings and drone strikes against its perceived enemies were "tactical successes," they were also diplomatically harmful.

Queue Listen Now

"Building the Great Society: Inside Lyndon Johnson's White House" by Joshua Zeitz

Books

LBJ Shares The Spotlight — Finally — In 'Building The Great Society'

7:00am January 31, 2018

by Michael Schaub

Lyndon Baines Johnson was an outsize character who gets a lot of credit for his adminstration's successes — but he didn't do it alone, and Joshua Zeitz' new book looks at his most influential aides.

Books

New Word In The Dictionary: 'Snowflake'

5:04am January 31, 2018

The Oxford English Dictionary has added more than 1,000 new words, including "snowflake." It's not a new word, but has a new other meaning: someone who is "overly sensitive" and "entitled."

Books
Arts

What A Classic '50s Western Can Teach Us About The Hollywood Blacklist

2:44pm January 30, 2018

Author Glenn Frankel says the 1952 film High Noon was inspired by the toxic political climate of the time. Originally broadcast Feb. 21, 2017.

Queue Listen Now

Cover detail from Black No More, by George S. Schuyler

Books
Arts

3 Harlem Renaissance Novels Deliver An Ingenious Take On Race

2:03pm January 30, 2018

by Maureen Corrigan

Novelists Nella Larsen, Wallace Thurman and George S. Schuyler forged their art in what W.E.B. Du Bois famously called the "double-consciousness" of African-Americans.

Books
Arts

'The Hazel Wood' Has Few Uses For Enchantment

7:00am January 30, 2018

by Caitlyn Paxson

In Melissa Albert's dark take on fairy tales, 17-year-old Alice has spent her entire life on the run from her family legacy: a terrifying mythical world created by her grandmother, a famous author.

Trump Jr. Hits At Hillary Clinton's 'Fire And Fury' Grammy Cameo

1:57pm January 29, 2018

by Laurel Wamsley

Clinton appeared in a faux audition to narrate the audiobook of the gossipy bestseller. Donald Trump, Jr. tweeted that her reading was "a great consolation prize for losing the presidency."

A trio of illustrations from the cocktail book Shakespeare, Not Stirred: Ophelia, King Henry VIII and King Lear.

Books
Arts

Boozing With The Bard: How The Masses Find Common Ground With Shakespeare

2:49pm January 28, 2018

by Kristen Hartke

From a theater company where audiences drink along with the actors to a book of cocktails inspired by his plays, alcohol has long been "a great provoker" in making the Bard's work more relatable.

Books
Arts

A Plucky English Heroine Amid New York's Super-Rich In 'Still Me'

7:56am January 28, 2018

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

Author Jojo Moyes has penned a third story about the idealistic young Louisa Clark, thrusting her protagonist into Manhattan's upper-upper-class while juggling romance back home (and abroad).

Books
Arts

The Personal Is Always Political: A 2018 Poetry Preview

7:00am January 28, 2018

by Craig Morgan Teicher

Many of the books of poems coming out this year are sad, but also powerful; full of poets processing their lives, looking into pains both personal and political through the cracked glass of poetry.