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'Two Across' Spells Out A Charming Love Story In Crosswords

8:37pm August 05, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

Jeff Bartsch's new novel is about a brainy couple who, after meeting at a 1960s spelling bee, conduct their troubled love affair through secret clues in the crosswords they compose for newspapers.

Cover art from Friday Night Lights, 25th Anniversary Edition.

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Reflecting On Football And Addiction As 'Friday Night Lights' Turns 25

10:22am August 05, 2015

A quarter-century ago, Buzz Bissinger wrote about the big-time stakes of small-town high school football in Friday Night Lights. Now he talks about the impact the book had on the players and himself.

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The Bonds Of Friendship Stay Strong In 'Stranger'

8:02pm August 04, 2015

by NPR Staff

Newbery Medal-winning author Rebecca Stead says her latest, Goodbye Stranger, is about love and how it helps a trio of seventh-grade girls stay friends through the challenges of middle school.

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At Some Stores, Readers Can Go Get A Refund For 'Watchman'

8:02pm August 04, 2015

Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman has sold millions of copies, but some feel it has not lived up to the hype. A bookstore owner in Traverse City, Mich., is giving readers a refund — and an apology.

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"Anytime you're in the wild with a beautiful animal you're going to feel good," says Susan Casey, author of Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins.

Exploring The 'Wild And Haunting World Of Dolphins'

4:28pm August 04, 2015

In her new book, Voices in the Ocean, Susan Casey describes the life of dolphins and details some new threats the animals face, such as organized dolphin kills and man-made sounds in the ocean.

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Complex, Generational Music In Lyrical 'Daughters'

3:52pm August 04, 2015

by Carmen Maria Machado

Women are the blood and backbone of Adrienne Celt's debut novel, and at the heart is Lulu, who's revisiting family stories and legends as she comes to terms with her daughter's birth and an old curse.

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'Dragonfish' Offers A Noir Vision Of An 'American Dream Gone Rancid'

3:06pm August 04, 2015

by Maureen Corrigan

The debut novel by Vu Tran is a crime drama involving a white cop, his Vietnamese-born ex-wife and her new husband, a violent crime boss. Maureen Corrigan calls Dragonfish a "haunting literary novel."

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Aviator Beryl Markham Soars Again In 'Paris Wife' Author's New Book

1:31pm August 04, 2015

by NPR Staff

"It is my fate to illuminate the lives of these one-of-a-kind notable women that have been somehow forgotten by history," says Paula McLain. She shines her spotlight on Markham in Circling the Sun.

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'Fifth Season' Embraces The Scale And Complexity Of Fantasy

10:03am August 04, 2015

by Jason Heller

Yes, N.K. Jemison's newest epic is the kind of fantasy that has not one but two glossaries at the end — but reviewer Jason Heller says that just underscores her sumptuous detail and dimensionality.

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'Spies' Is A Cinematic Account Of Americans In War-Torn Paris

1:41pm August 03, 2015

by Genevieve Valentine

Historian Alex Kershaw's latest book focuses on an American doctor and his family who worked with the French Resistance from their apartment just down Avenue Foch from the Paris SS headquarters.