Books

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Arts

Picture This: Frederick Douglass Was The Most Photographed Man Of His Time

5:24pm December 13, 2015

The abolitionist wanted to ensure a more accurate depiction of black Americans during the tumultuous years before the Civil War, Harvard's John Stauffer writes in Picturing Frederick Douglass.

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Why And When Men Grow Beards

7:51am December 13, 2015

NPR's Linda Wertheimer talks to author Christopher Oldstone-Moore about his history of the beard, Of Beards and Men.

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A Motley Crew On A Wild Pilgrimage In 'Sophia'

7:04am December 13, 2015

by Juan Vidal

Michael Bible's slim new novel follows a jaded, drunken priest and his chess-master sidekick on a cross country journey, along with a crowd of misfits and outliers who help give the book its charm.

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Pictures Worth 1,084,170 Words: The 'Harry Potter' Series, Illustrated

5:26pm December 12, 2015

by NPR Staff

The prospect of illustrating all seven volumes filled artist Jim Kay with "terrible panic" — but he left his comfort zone and did it anyway. Here's how he brought the boy wizard's adventures to life.

The Relic Master, by Christopher Buckley.

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Monty Python Meets Ocean's 11 In 'The Relic Master'

9:05am December 12, 2015

by NPR Staff

Christopher Buckley's new novel is the story of a 16th-century relic hunter and his buddy Albrecht Dürer, who end up in trouble after trying to forge a holy shroud to sell to an unsuspecting nobleman.

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Which Books Should You Give This Season

7:47am December 12, 2015

London taxi driver Will Grozier is an avid reader. He joins NPR's Scott Simon with a list of his holiday reading picks — some new, some old, and some taxi-themed.

Steve Carell plays Mark Baum and Ryan Gosling plays Jared Vennett in The Big Short. Director Adam McKay says, "One of my favorite moments in the movie is where you see ... Mark Baum make a large chunk of money and feel absolutely disgusted by it."

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On The Money: How 'The Big Short' And Its Jerk Heroes Explain Finance

7:21pm December 11, 2015

by NPR Staff

How do you make a subject as dense as the subprime mortgage crisis into a compelling movie? That's the challenge Adam McKay took on when he decided to turn Michael Lewis' book into a film.

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Claire Vaye Watkins' new novel is Gold Fame Citrus.

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Whom Do You Write For? 'Pandering' Essay Sparks A Conversation

5:21pm December 11, 2015

by NPR Staff

Novelist Claire Vaye Watkins recently published an essay called "On Pandering," about realizing she was writing to appeal to white men. She and author Marlon James discuss responses to the piece.

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In 'Drawing Blood,' A Life Of Art And Action

7:34pm December 09, 2015

by NPR Staff

Artist Molly Crabapple's lavishly illustrated memoir chronicles her youth in New York and her work illustrating the Occupy Wall Street movement, protests in Greece and everyday life in Syria.

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Reginald Dwayne Betts serves as a national spokesman for the Campaign for Youth Justice. He is also the author of A Question of Freedom and Shahid Reads His Own Palm.

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In 'Bastards Of The Reagan Era' A Poet Says His Generation Was 'Just Lost'

5:17pm December 08, 2015

After being convicted of carjacking as a teenager, Reginald Dwayne Betts spent eight years in an adult prison. Since his release, he has become a poet and a Yale law student.

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