Books

Edna O'Brien's first novel, The Country Girls, was published in 1961.

Books
Arts

A Clash Of Manners And Monsters In Edna O'Brien's 'Little Red Chairs'

2:25pm April 12, 2016

by Maureen Corrigan

A charismatic stranger in a remote Irish village turns out to be a war criminal in O'Brien's new novel. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls the book "one of [O'Brien's] best and most ambitious novels yet."

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Arts

The 'Regional Office' Doesn't Quite Deliver

1:26pm April 12, 2016

by Jason Heller

Manuel Gonzales' ambitious debut novel has a great hook — a top secret organization battling aliens, zombies and evil masterminds — but dry humor and spirited dialogue get lost in a convoluted plot.

'The Envoy': Zalmay Khalilzad's Journey From Afghanistan To The White House

7:06am April 12, 2016

As U.S. ambassador in Iraq and Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad was unique — "a son of the soil" — as he puts it in his new memoir. He talks to Renee Montagne about his book, The Envoy.

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Beverly Cleary, shown during a story hour in the park, was a children's librarian before she became an author. "Boys particularly asked: Where were the books about kids like us? And there weren't any at that time," she recalls.

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Beverly Cleary Is Turning 100, But She Has Always Thought Like A Kid

6:36pm April 11, 2016

by Melissa Jaeger-Miller

Before she became an author, Beverly Cleary was a children's librarian. She says young readers often asked for books "about kids like us." There weren't any, so she decided to write them herself.

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Block associations on the South Side have long pushed to make their neighborhoods cleaner and safer, but investment from developers and retailers has been slow to follow.

Talking Housing Segregation And Chicago With WBEZ's Natalie Y. Moore

4:45pm April 11, 2016

by Gene Demby

A longtime Chicago reporter, a native of the black South Side, digs into the ways segregation continues to shape the politics of her hometown, as well as her own life.

Many books are challenged because of "sexually explicit" content or content "unsuited for age group."

'The Holy Bible' Makes Library Association's List Of Most 'Challenged' Books

4:30pm April 11, 2016

by Laura Wagner

The challenges show religion is "on the minds of many people," says Deborah Caldwell Stone of the American Library Association. Another reason people objected to books was explicit sexual content.

Many of Franz Kafka's darkest comedies appear rooted in the cowering relationship he had with his father. Their only true bonding was over beer.

Books
Arts

For Kafka, Even Beer Came With Baggage

4:19pm April 11, 2016

by Nina Martyris

Many of Kafka's darkest comedies appear rooted in the cowering relationship he had with his father. Their only true bonding was over beer.

'Alice & Oliver' Novelist On Marriage, Cancer And The Pain Of Uncertainty

1:20pm April 11, 2016

Charles Bock's wife died from leukemia just before their daughter's 3rd birthday. Bock relived the final years of her life while writing his new novel. "I was just shattered," he says of the loss.

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Want To Teach In Urban Schools? Get To Know The Neighborhood

5:30pm April 10, 2016

by NPR Staff

Many teachers in urban schools don't understand their students or the places they live, says author and educator Christopher Emdin.

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Books
Arts

Frodo, Bilbo, Kullervo: Tolkien's Finnish Adventure

7:00am April 10, 2016

by Elizabeth Graham

While still at university, J.R.R. Tolkein became fascinated by Finnish mythology, abandoning his Classics degree to adapt the epic Story of Kullervo — work that led to the creation of Middle Earth.