Books

Bad Luck Or Bad Genes? Dealing With BRCA And 'A Cancer In The Family'

1:29pm March 14, 2016

Oncologist Theodora Ross discusses the hereditary nature of cancer and her own predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer, which led her to have a double mastectomy and to have her ovaries removed.

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Sybil Morial has written a memoir about growing up in segregated New Orleans.

'Witness To Change' Recounts Civil Rights Struggles Of New Orleans

6:00pm March 13, 2016

Sybil Morial's memoir details her formative experiences living under Jim Crow laws.

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'The Throwback Special' Tackles Middle-Age Manhood

8:01am March 13, 2016

Rachel Martin speaks with Chris Bachelder. His novel tells the story of a group of friends who gather each year to re-enact the gruesome injury sustain by quarterback Joe Theisman.

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Arts

No Paper Tiger, This 'Menagerie' Is Full Of Fierce Feeling

7:00am March 13, 2016

by Amal El-Mohtar

Ken Liu's new The Paper Menagerie, collects fifteen of his Hugo and Nebula Award-winning stories. Critic Amal El-Mohtar calls it "stupendously good work" that strikes chords profound enough to hurt.

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Author Interview: Annie Dillard, Author of 'The Abundance'

9:59am March 12, 2016

by NPR Staff

NPR's Melissa Block asks Annie Dillard about the celebrated author's "masculine mind," her decision to write less, and her baseball skills. Dillard's new collection of essays is called The Abundance.

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'I Ate A Lot Of Apples': Tracy Chevalier On Writing Her 'Orchard' Novel

9:30am March 12, 2016

by NPR Staff

The author's latest book, At the Edge of the Orchard, follows a pioneer family growing apple trees in Ohio. Chevalier says she got the idea after hearing the real story of Johnny Appleseed.

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Bravery Among The Ruins In 'Noonday'

7:00am March 12, 2016

by Jean Zimmerman

Pat Barker's latest novel completes the trilogy she began with Life Class. Her first foray into the World War II era is rich with evocative language, though it occasionally verges on soap opera.

Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Isaac Newton, Gandhi, Pythagoras, Balzac, Marie Curie — scanning history's greatest minds, we find many were inspired by certain food or drink, repulsed by others, or had some very peculiar dining habits.

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Gastronomy Of Genius: History's Great Minds And The Foods That Fueled Them

8:14pm March 11, 2016

by Eric Weiner

From Pythagoras to Balzac, Darwin to Marie Curie, many a genius was inspired by certain edibles, repulsed by others — or had some very peculiar dining habits.

Bartender Sunny Balzano (left) transformed a longshoremen's bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn into a local institution. He's pictured above with Tim Sultan, who recounts Balzano's story in Sunny's Nights.

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Longtime Brooklyn Bartender Who Inspired 'Sunny's Nights' Has Died

5:39pm March 11, 2016

by Joel Rose

Sunny Balzano was the genial and eccentric proprietor of a beloved bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn. He died Thursday at 81, just weeks after the publication of a new book about his life and times.

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Arts

Remembering 'Great Santini' Author Pat Conroy

1:28pm March 11, 2016

Conroy, who died last week, was the author of several books, two of which — The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides — were made into feature films. He spoke to Terry Gross in 1987, 1995 and 2002.

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