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Books
Arts

'Spinster' Celebrates The Single Ladies

7:02pm April 20, 2015

by NPR Staff

Writer Kate Bolick says that, growing up, she just assumed she'd get married some day — but it hasn't happened. Her new book looks at five women who upend traditional assumptions about women's lives.

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In Debate Over Hugo Awards, Science Fiction Community Engages With Issues Of Bias

12:18am April 20, 2015

NPR's Arun Rath talks to author Monica Byrne about how controversy surrounding this year's Hugo Awards highlights a difference in how speculative and literary fiction approach diversity.

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Unsettling Tales Of Strange Suburbia Echo Through 'The Night'

8:16pm April 19, 2015

by NPR Staff

What do Rapunzel, the Buddha and small-town America have in common? Deceptively safe spaces, says Steven Millhauser. The Pulitzer Prize winner's new short story collection is Voices in the Night.

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These 'Voices In The Night' Whisper Of Wonders

6:40pm April 19, 2015

by Alan Cheuse

Small towns glow with a strange magic in Stephen Millhauser's new story collection. Reviewer Alan Cheuse praises Millhauser's imaginative talents, comparing him to Gogol and Garcia Marquez.

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Memoir Chronicles The Joy And Loss Of 'The Light Of The World'

11:00am April 19, 2015

by NPR Staff

NPR's Rachel Martin speaks to author Elizabeth Alexander about her new memoir, The Light of the World.

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A religious volume from the early 1300s includes this image of a monk who resembles the Jedi Master Yoda of the Star Wars films.

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Yoda? Is It Thou? Figure In 14th-Century Manuscript Looks Familiar

3:26pm April 18, 2015

by Bill Chappell

A long time ago, in a place far away, a manuscript was created with an enigmatic figure who looks a great deal like a certain little — and yet powerful — green guy from the Star Wars films.

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Arts

'Orhan's Inheritance' Is The Weight Of History

10:59am April 18, 2015

by Lynn Neary

Aline Ohanesian's debut novel attempts to make sense of the events of 100 years ago, when the Ottoman Empire began forcing Armenians out of their homes in Turkey, leaving more than a million dead.

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At 84, Poet Gary Snyder Lives In 'This Present Moment'

10:59am April 18, 2015

Poet Gary Snyder has hung with the Beats, studied Buddhism, worked as a logger and he's still going strong. He talks with NPR's Linda Wertheimer about his new collection, This Present Moment.

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Books

NPR Bestsellers: Week Of April 16, 2015

4:03pm April 17, 2015

The lists are compiled from from weekly surveys of close to 500 independent bookstores nationwide.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Fiction, Week Of April 16, 2015

4:03pm April 17, 2015

A Oslo contract killer's boss turns on him in Jo Nesbo's Blood on Snow. It debuts at No. 10.