Books

Books
Arts

Shadows Under Water In 'Everything Is Teeth'

7:00am May 11, 2016

by Jean Zimmerman

Novelist Evie Wyld departs from straight-ahead fiction in her new graphic novel about a young girl describing childhood summers in Australia — and her dark fascination with the sharks in the water.

Cover detail of Heat & Light, by Jennifer Haigh.

Books
Arts

A Dying Coal Town Falls Into 'Fracking Frenzy' In 'Heat & Light'

6:55pm May 10, 2016

by Maureen Corrigan

Jennifer Haigh's new novel explores the fallout of the natural gas boom in a small Pennsylvania town. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls Heat & Light an "exquisitely designed, semi-satirical social novel."

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Kate Tempest has written music, plays, poetry and novels.

'There Was More I Wanted To Say': Kate Tempest Turns Hit Album Into A Novel

6:05pm May 10, 2016

by NPR Staff

The rapper's debut album, Everybody Down, followed Becky and Harry, two Londoners struggling with love, work and drugs. Now her new book, The Bricks That Built The Houses, takes a look at their pasts.

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Arts

Science, Fiction And Philosophy Collide In Astonishing 'Lightning'

5:51pm May 10, 2016

by Jason Heller

Ada Palmer's dizzying debut novel is dense and complex, packed with philosophy and visions of what life might be like in the year 2424: Radically different, yet based on Enlightenment ideals.

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Arts

Friend Or Fiend? 'Pit Bull' Explores The History Of America's Most Feared Dog

1:37pm May 10, 2016

Author Bronwen Dickey says the idea of pit bulls as predators is based on myth and misinformation. In the early Hollywood era, Dickey says, the dogs were often chosen to appear in comedies.

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Kindergarten students read before class starts at Walker-Jones Education Campus in Washington, D.C.

Through The Looking Glass: How Children's Books Have Grown Up

12:53pm May 10, 2016

by Byrd Pinkerton

Literature for kids hasn't always been focused on the magical and whimsical. We take a three-century tour through the history of children's books in the classroom.

David Prowse as Darth Vader in Star Wars. As you probably know, but many 5-year-olds don't.

Books
Arts

When Storytime Blows Kids' Minds: The Power Of The Plot Twist

11:07am May 10, 2016

by Barrie Hardymon

One of the profound pleasures of reading to children, says Barrie Hardymon, is the thrill of sharing a story's secrets for the first time.

Books
Arts

'The Noise Of Time' Can't Drown Out Shostakovich

10:00am May 10, 2016

by Heller McAlpin

Julian Barnes' slim but powerful new novel chronicles the difficulties composer Dmitri Shostakovich suffered under repressive Soviet regimes, and mourns what is lost when tyrants try to control art.

Books
Arts

Richard Russo Returns To North Bath, NY, In 'Everybody's Fool'

1:33pm May 09, 2016

The Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Empire Falls says his characters are inspired by his parents' working-class World War II generation. Russo's new novel is set in a small town in upstate New York.

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Robert Worth's 'A Rage For Order' Takes On Troubled Middle East

8:19am May 08, 2016

Robert Worth was in Cairo in February 2011 when news spread that president Hosni Mubarak had resigned. He tells Melissa Block about that moment and shares other personal stories about the Arab Spring.