Books

Bodies Through Time: A Historian Traces Our Evolving Relationship With The Dead

12:40pm December 16, 2015

Thomas Laqueur, author of The Work of the Dead, discusses the ways people have dealt with human remains over the course of history. Modern cemeteries, he says, are byproducts of the French Revolution.

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Author Joan Morgan says Beurré Superfin is one of her favorite pears. It's "truly delicious: very buttery, juicy, cream to pale yellow flesh, intensely rich with plenty of sugar lemony acidity," she writes in The Book of Pears.

Books
Arts

'The Book Of Pears': A Love Letter To A Once Pre-Eminent Fruit

4:58pm December 15, 2015

by Eliza Barclay

A British fruit historian convincingly argues in a new book that the pear is "the most exciting of the tree fruits." And she says it's time to revive pear culture and explore the fruit's diversity.

"I decided that it would be a really interesting to create a character who was Dream," author Neil Gaiman says of his character Sandman.

Books
Arts

Neil Gaiman On Returning To 'Sandman,' Talking In His Sleep And The Power Of Comics

3:09pm December 15, 2015

Twenty-five years after he initially created Sandman, Gaiman returns to one of his most enduring characters. Gaiman says writing The Sandman: Overture was "the most intense period of my life."

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Books

Best-Selling Author James Patterson To Award $1.75 Million In Literary Grants

1:48pm December 15, 2015

by Lynn Neary

James Patterson has donated hundreds of thousands of books and millions of dollars to promote reading. In partnership with Scholastic, this year he is giving nearly $2 million to school libraries.

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Arts

Rebel Brew: What The Boston Tea Party And The Mad Hatter Had In Common

1:34pm December 15, 2015

by Nina Martyris

This week marks the 242nd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. This year is the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland. If you'll follow us down the rabbit hole, you'll find some surprising links.

This Aztec map was drawn in 1539 and shows the estate of Oztoticpac, in Texcoco.

Books
Arts

'Map' Is An Exquisite Record Of The Miles — And The Millennia

9:10pm December 14, 2015

by Ari Shapiro

Map: Exploring the World is a new collection of maps, selected by an international panel of cartographers, academics and collectors, spanning everything from the Aztecs to modern digital imaging.

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According to Aja Raden, a Hungarian countess commissioned the first wristwatch from watchmaker Patek Philippe around 1868. "[It] was a spectacularly expensive piece of jewelry," the author says.

Books
Arts

From Trading Beads To The First Wristwatch, A History Of Shiny Objects

6:46pm December 14, 2015

by NPR Staff

Author Aja Raden says jewelry is the perfect lens through which to view human history. In Stoned, she tells the story of the glass beads used to purchase Manhattan and the rise of the wristwatch.

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Tushenka, canned stewed meat, was both a portable army ration and a prized home ingredient.

From Russia, With Mayonnaise: Cookbook Revisits Soviet Classics

5:48pm December 14, 2015

by Deena Prichep

The dishes that marked the Soviet era still have a strong pull on Russian sentiment (if not stomachs). A new book revisits these recipes, born, in part, of food shortages and ingenuity.

John Powers, NPR Fresh Air's Pop Culture critic, shares his end of year list.

John Powers' List Of Books, CDs And DVDs He Wishes He Had Reviewed In 2015

2:30pm December 14, 2015

by John Powers

Every year, critic John Powers finds himself compiling a list of praiseworthy work he's read, watched or heard that he neglected to mention on the radio. This year, he's sharing his "Ghost List."

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in The Martian, Matt Damon stars as an astronaut stranded on Mars who must use real-world science to survive his science fictional dilemma.

No Warp Drives, No Transporters: Science Fiction Authors Get Real

12:02pm December 14, 2015

by Steve Paulson

Some of the biggest names in science fiction right now — like The Martian author Andy Weir — are writing what's called hard sci-fi, based on real-world science and a vision of hope for the future.

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