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'The Road To Little Dribbling' Is A (Mostly) Pleasant Journey

7:00am January 24, 2016

by Annalisa Quinn

Bill Bryson follows up his classic travelogue Notes From A Small Island 20 years later — older, grayer, and definitely crankier. It's a charming trip, though marred by a little too much grumpiness.

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Groucho Marx Spared No One — And His Biographer Isn't Pulling Punches, Either

7:24pm January 23, 2016

by NPR Staff

Lee Siegel, author of Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence, wanted his biography to uncover the real man behind the iconic mustache. What Siegel found, he says, was "a thoroughgoing misanthrope."

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In First Novel, Former Hostage Ingrid Betancourt Tells A Story Of Captivity

1:43pm January 23, 2016

by NPR Staff

The Blue Line follows a woman who is detained during Argentina's Dirty War. Betancourt says writing the novel helped her process the years she spent as a captive of Colombian revolutionaries.

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'Black Wings' Is A Devilish Trip Worth Taking

7:00am January 23, 2016

by Michael Schaub

Elliott Chaze's classic 1953 noir about an escaped prisoner, a secretive blonde and one last big heist has just been reissued. Critic Michael Schaub says Chaze's writing stands out from the pulp pack.

A Birthday Cake for Washington has been the subject of much criticism because it portrays slaves as being happy.

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Teaching Kids About Slavery: Picture Books Struggle With The Task

7:06pm January 22, 2016

by Eyder Peralta

Experts say picture books that whitewash the history of slavery are just a symptom of an adult society. How can we explain it to kids, they argue, if we can't talk about it ourselves?

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'I Regret Everything': Toni Morrison Looks Back On Her Personal Life

1:26pm January 22, 2016

"It's not profound regret," Morrison tells Fresh Air. "It's just a wiping up of tiny little messes that you didn't recognize as mess when they were going on." Originally broadcast April 20, 2015.

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Danny Bowien says Sichuanese cuisine is "really about balance and restraint and not having things be over-the-top spicy." Bowien's Chongqing Chicken Wings, featured in The Mission Chinese Cookbook, are pictured above.

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The Audacious Korean-American Chef Who Mastered 'Mission Chinese Food'

9:45am January 22, 2016

Born in South Korea, raised in Oklahoma, Danny Bowien was an adult when he taught himself to make Chinese food. That DIY vibe to his cooking has made him a rising star. Now he's written a cookbook.

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A Nightmare Artist Adrift In 'Deep Sea'

7:08pm January 21, 2016

by Genevieve Valentine

Serge Brussolo's hallucinatory 1992 novel The Deep Sea Diver's Syndrome follows a group of lucid dreamers whose slumbers produce a strange ectoplasm that can soothe and even heal people who see it.

Novelist Sunil Yapa has lived all around the globe, including in Chile, China, Greece, Guatemala, Argentina and India. He says his father, who was a consultant for the World Bank, instilled in him a sense of "the world being an interconnected place."

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When 'Your Heart Is A Muscle,' Empathy Is A Revolutionary Act

3:33pm January 21, 2016

by NPR Staff

Writer Sunil Yapa says his father taught him to have a global perspective from a very young age. Yapa's new novel was inspired by explosive global trade protests that took place in Seattle in 1999.

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Francisco Alarcon, Whose Poetry Explored Chicano Life In The U.S., Dies

7:25pm January 20, 2016

by Adrian Florido

Francisco Alarcon was an important Mexican-American poet who influenced generations of Chicano writers, including the current U.S. poet laureate. Alarcon died of cancer last week.

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