Books

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg speaks at the American Enterprise Institute in 2016.

Books
Arts

'Just Show Up': Sheryl Sandberg On How To Help Someone Who's Grieving

5:10pm April 25, 2017

by Ari Shapiro

The Facebook executive lost her husband in 2015. She says, "Rather than offer to do something, it's often better to do anything. Just do something specific." Her new book is called Option B.

The haunting opening page of Guy Delisle's Hostage.

Books
Arts

Gripping Comics Memoir 'Hostage' Puts You In The Room Where Nothing Happens

2:12pm April 25, 2017

by Glen Weldon

Cartoonist Guy Delisle departs from the first-person travelogue format which has won him acclaim to chronicle the true story of a man kidnapped and detained for months in the Caucasus region in 1997.

The inmates in Bellevue are awaiting trial for a variety of offenses, ranging from sleeping on the subway to murder.

Psychiatrist Recalls 'Heartbreak And Hope' On Bellevue's Prison Ward

1:46pm April 25, 2017

by Terry Gross

Dr. Elizabeth Ford treated mentally ill inmates in New York City for more than a decade. It was almost universal, she says, that they had suffered abuse or significant neglect as children.

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Books

'Anything Is Possible' Is Unafraid To Be Gentle

7:00am April 25, 2017

by Heller McAlpin

Elizabeth Strout's new novel-in-stories is a welcome salve for troubled times. A companion volume to last year's My Name is Lucy Barton, Anything is Possible looks at the people Lucy grew up with.

Author Robert Pirsig and his son Chris in 1968. Pirsig, who wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, died Monday at age 88.

'Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' Author Robert M. Pirsig Dies At 88

5:59pm April 24, 2017

by Laurel Wamsley

Zen was published by William Morrow in 1974, after being rejected by 121 publishing houses. The book has endured as a work of popular philosophy, and inspired many a road trip across the West.

Jeremiah Tower is the subject of The Last Magnificent, a new documentary on his crash-and-burn career. It was produced by Anthony Bourdain, who feels that Tower has been denied his due in the American culinary pantheon.

A Watergate Villain Walks Into A Berkeley Restaurant. What Could Go Wrong?

3:30pm April 24, 2017

by Nina Martyris

A new film profiles influential chef Jeremiah Tower. When one of the most hated men in U.S. politics walked in for dinner at Berkeley's famed Chez Panisse, where Tower worked, a colorful scene ensued.

Books
Arts

'Hourglass' Exposes The Fissures That Develop In A Long-Term Marriage

2:21pm April 24, 2017

by Maureen Corrigan

Dani Shapiro's new memoir dramatizes the dizzying ways a lifetime passes, loops around, speeds up and sometimes seems to stand still. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls it an incisive and charged work.

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Books

For Baseball's Rick Ankiel, Losing His Pitching Ability Led To An Unusual Comeback

1:52pm April 24, 2017

Ankiel entered the major leagues in 1999 as a gifted pitcher, but one day suddenly lost that gift. He talks about his pitching demons, his troubled childhood and his way back to baseball.

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Books
Arts

'Thunder In The Mountains' Tells Tragedy Of Two Strong, Opposing Leaders

7:00pm April 23, 2017

Daniel Sharfstein's new book Thunder In the Mountains sheds new light on the Nez Perce Indian wars, and the two historical figures on each side of the conflict: Chief Joseph and Oliver Otis Howard.

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Books
Arts

'Janesville' Looks At A Factory Town After The Factory Shuts Down

5:53pm April 23, 2017

Washington Post reporter Amy Goldstein talks about her book Janesville: An American Story, that's about a factory town in Wisconsin that lost its lifeblood when its factory shut down.