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Books
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Hop in: Richard Ford and Lorrie Moore offer unforgettable summer road trips

2:24pm June 27, 2023

by Maureen Corrigan

Ford brings his Frank Bascombe saga to an end in Be Mine, while Moore weaves together a fragmentary Civil War plot with an off-kilter vision of the afterlife in I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home.

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Parini Shroff's laugh-out-loud debut novel explores caste, domestic abuse and murder

4:38pm June 26, 2023

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with author Parini Shroff about her debut novel The Bandit Queens, a story about a woman in an Indian village with a dangerous reputation.

Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd

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Thinking she had just months to live, Laura Dern's mother 'spilled the beans'

1:57pm June 26, 2023

by Terry Gross

Actor Laura Dern and her mother Diane Ladd have always shared a profession. But when Ladd was diagnosed with lung disease, the two started sharing so much more. Their new book is Honey, Baby, Mine.

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3 works in translation: History and literature intertwined

6:12am June 26, 2023

by Lily Meyer

It is easy to act as if fiction and history were separate. But they cannot be completely divided. Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos and Oksana Lutsyshyna's Ivan and Phoebe help readers connect with time past.

Books

Jennifer Vanderbes on her book 'Wonder Drug'

7:59am June 25, 2023

by Ayesha Rascoe

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe interviews author Jennifer Vanderbes on her new book, "Wonder Drug," about the sleeping pill Thalidomide, which caused birth defects when taken by pregnant women.

Books

Caroline O'Donoghue on her book 'The Rachel Incident'

8:02am June 24, 2023

by Miles Parks

In a new novel, best friends navigate adult life amid the 2008 financial crisis in Ireland. NPR's Miles Parks talks with Caroline O'Donoghue about her book, "The Rachel Incident."

Bob the Drag Queen and JujuBee in the upcoming Dungeons and Drag Queens

Books
Arts

What's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend reading, viewing and listening

5:00pm June 23, 2023

Each week, guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Beware the Woman, Dungeons and Drag Queens, and the DVD menu of The Social Network.

Ricardo Alberto Maldonado will become the Academy of American Poets' first Latino executive director and president since its founding in 1934.

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Books

The Academy of American Poets names its first Latino head

6:09pm June 21, 2023

by Elizabeth Blair

Ricardo Alberto Maldonado will become the almost-90-year-old academy's executive director and president.

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Arts

Remembering acclaimed editor Robert Gottlieb

2:17pm June 21, 2023

by Terry Gross

Gottlieb, who died June 14 at 92, edited Joseph Heller, Toni Morrison, John le Carré and, for more than 50 years, Robert Caro. We listen back to an interview with Gottlieb from just a few months ago.

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Arts

Two new novels illustrate just how hard it is to find a foothold in America

2:17pm June 21, 2023

by Maureen Corrigan

Brandon Taylor's The Late Americans is a sexually-explicit, cynical novel about young people striving. Such Kindness, by Andre Dubus III, grapples with injury, addiction, masculinity and loneliness.

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