Books

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Pulitzer Prize Honors 100 Years Of Public Service Journalism

8:07am April 16, 2016

Monday, the Pulitzer Prize winners will be announced, and this year will mark the Pultizers' centennial. Scott Simon talks with Roy Harris, who's written a book about the awards, "Pulitzer's Gold."

A Talk With Pulitzer Prize Winners Past

8:07am April 16, 2016

To mark the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prizes, Scott Simon will speak with past Pulitzer winners over the next few months. Simon previews this week's conversation with Annette Gordon-Reed.

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God And Sex Workers — Plus Cartoons — In 'Mary Wept'

7:00am April 16, 2016

by Etelka Lehoczky

Chester Brown's new graphic novel is hard to categorize — a work of lay scholarship about prostitution in the Bible that's simultaneously ideosyncratic, meticulous, imaginative and heretical.

Why Teens Are Impulsive, Addiction-Prone And Should Protect Their Brains

1:41pm April 15, 2016

Research shows that teenagers' brains are not fully insulated, which means that signals move slowly. Frances Jensen, who wrote The Teenage Brain, explains. Originally broadcast Jan. 28, 2015.

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Gothic Family Drama At 'The Border Of Paradise'

7:23pm April 14, 2016

by Carmen Maria Machado

Esme Weijun Wang's novel — packed with family secrets, betrayals, a decaying house and a dramatic fire — could have seemed pulpy in lesser hands. But her restrained, beautiful prose makes it work.

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Seamus Heaney's Translation Of 'The Aeneid' Gets Posthumous Publication

6:33pm April 14, 2016

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with poetry critic Tess Taylor about the publication of the sixth book of The Aeneid translated by Seamus Heaney and published posthumously.

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Following in the footsteps of authors like Charles Dickens, Julian Fellowes will release Belgravia as a serial.

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'Downton' Creator Brings Drama On The Installment Plan In 'Belgravia'

12:23pm April 14, 2016

by NPR Staff

Julian Fellowes' new novel is a twist on the form Charles Dickens made famous: the serial. Belgravia, the story of an ambitious family in 19th century England, will be released in chapters via an app.

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WATCH: Marbles Fight To The Bitter End For Victory

2:28pm April 13, 2016

by Camila Domonoske

Take a break from the news for a totally compelling, entirely gravity-driven race that captured hearts and minds on the Internet this week. Plus: literary parodies, because this is NPR.

'Door To Door' Reveals The Magnificent — And Maddening — Story of Traffic

2:25pm April 13, 2016

Edward Humes describes his new book as a "transportation detective story" that chronicles the hidden characters, locations and machinery driving our same-day-delivery, traffic-packed world.

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'A Fierce And Subtle Poison' Ventures Into A Strange And Troubled Garden

1:37pm April 13, 2016

by Caitlyn Paxson

Samantha Mabry's novel riffs on authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Isabel Allende to create a story that's both an atmospheric glimpse at a Caribbean island and a self-aware critique of colonialism.