Arts & Life

Books
Arts

10 Years Later, Mystery Heroine 'Maisie Dobbs' Gains New Life

5:02pm July 10, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

Jacqueline Winspear's debut mystery, Maisie Dobbs, set in England around World War I, came out in paperback a decade ago. A new edition testifies to the enduring allure of the traditional mystery.

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The threat is both viral and vampire in The Strain, a show about the sudden outbreak of a disease that kills most of its victims — then begins to mutate them into another species entirely.

Arts

'The Strain' And 'Extant' Play On Fears Of Forces Out Of Our Control

4:02pm July 09, 2014

by David Bianculli

This week, two new TV series begin in the threats-from-nowhere genre: Extant on CBS and The Strain on FX. The better of the two, The Strain, about a disease outbreak, is effectively creepy.

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Was "I think I can" the great-grandmother of "lean in?" Some readers see the plucky locomotive as a parable about working women, but some versions of the story feature a male protagonist instead.

Books
Arts

In 'Little Engine That Could,' Some See An Early Feminist Hero

8:23pm July 08, 2014

by Elizabeth Blair

Was "I think I can" the grandmother of "lean in?" Some readers see the plucky locomotive as a parable about working women, but in some versions of the story the protagonist was male.

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In the new French film Violette, Emmanuelle Devos plays a fictionalized character based on Violette Leduc, the trailblazing French novelist.

Arts

'Violette' Evokes Exasperating Self-Pity, A Trait The French Like

7:03pm July 08, 2014

by John Powers

The film Violette is a fictionalized portrait of Violette Leduc, the trailblazing French novelist who was considered difficult. The strangely gripping movie captures a key moment in feminist history.

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Robert Shaw (from left), Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss play a shark hunter, a police chief and a marine biologist in 1975's Jaws.

Arts

Richard Dreyfuss' Kids Revisit 'Jaws,' Conclude It Makes No Sense

3:59pm July 08, 2014

by NPR Staff

Emily and Ben Dreyfuss recently reviewed the film in which their dad plays a biologist hunting a shark. In addition to finding it totally ridiculous, they realized there's a lot they misremembered.

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Books
Arts

Post-Apocalyptic World Falls Flat In 'California'

11:49am July 08, 2014

by Ellah Allfrey

California tells the story of a couple who, when they learn they are having a baby, leave their solitary refuge in a forest for a Utopian community in post-apocalyptic America.

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Bottles of mahia in the Nahmias et Fils distillery.

Couple Revives Lost Moroccan Fig Liquor, One Bottle At A Time

7:56pm July 07, 2014

by Alex Schmidt

Jews have made mahia, a spirit made with fermented figs, in Morocco for centuries, but the tradition has all but died out. A New York couple aims to reintroduce the drink that once connected a nation.

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Arts

'Fresh Air' Remembers Screenwriter Paul Mazursky

1:20pm July 07, 2014

Mazursky wrote such films as Next Stop, Greenwich Village; An Unmarried Woman; and Down and Out in Beverly Hills. He died last week at the age of 84. He talked with Terry Gross in 1991 and 1999.

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Arts

'Fresh Air' Remembers Actor Meshach Taylor

1:20pm July 07, 2014

Taylor was best known for his role as Anthony Bouvier on the TV sitcom Designing Women. Taylor's other TV series included Buffalo Bill and Dave's World. He chatted with Terry Gross in 1990.

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Arts

On The Hunt For The Nation's Best Burrito

9:23am July 07, 2014

Anna Maria Barry-Jester has been traveling the USA, eating, photographing, blogging and ranking the nation's burritos for the site FiveThirtyEight. She tells NPR's Tamara Keith about the epic journey.

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