Arts & Life

Books
Arts

'We Walk In Circles,' Pursuing Dreams And Finding Creativity

5:59pm October 27, 2013

by NPR Staff

Daniel Alarcon's new novel is set in an unnamed, war-scarred Latin American country. The protagonist, Nelson, is an aspiring playwright — though he doesn't pursue his dreams with much diligence. Alarcon discusses his own views on working as an artist and his creative process.

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Books
Arts

Drawing Rock 'N' Roll And Sympathy Into Frankenstein's World

8:01pm October 26, 2013

by NPR Staff

In his graphic novel adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, illustrator Gris Grimly says he wants to make the story more accessible. "The first time I tried to read Frankenstein, I didn't get through it," he says.

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The protein, unsaturated fat composition and fiber in almonds all very likely play a role in helping to curb appetites.

Almonds For Skinny Snackers? Yes, They Help Curb Your Appetite

2:54pm October 26, 2013

by Allison Aubrey

The nuts are calorie dense and rich in fat, but munching on them seems to help curb appetites, fresh research shows. Why? The protein, unsaturated fat composition and fiber in almonds all very likely play a role.

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Ava Gene's, a Roman-inspired restaurant in Portland, Ore., incorporates colatura, a modern descendant of ancient Roman fish sauce, into several of its dishes.

Fish Sauce: An Ancient Roman Condiment Rises Again

11:19am October 26, 2013

by Deena Prichep

We usually associate fish sauce with Southeast Asian cooking. But it turns out the briny condiment also has deep roots in Europe, dating back to the Roman Empire. What caused its decline? Historians say it boils down to taxes, and pirates.

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Pablo Picasso drew L'Homme au Gibus, or Man With Opera Hat, in 1914.

Arts

Forget The Lottery; You Have Better Odds Of Winning This Picasso

7:55pm October 25, 2013

by Margot Adler

Man With Opera Hat is being raffled off to raise money for Tyre, an ancient Phoenician city in Lebanon. At $135, tickets don't come cheap, but your chances of winning are much better than the megalotteries a lot of people enter, and it's still the closest many will come to owning one of Pablo Picasso's works.

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Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire cover

Books
Arts

Lush, Urgent Poems On Protest And Pumpkins Set Language 'On Fire'

7:55pm October 25, 2013

by Tess Taylor

At first glance, poet Tess Taylor was skeptical of Brenda Hillman's 17-year, four-book series of poems on the elements. But Taylor fell for the strange and spiraling verses in Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire, which was longlisted for the National Book Award. "I commend you to this lively, defiant, blazing book," she says.

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Blue Is the Warmest Color chronicles the love affair between high school student Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos, left) and Emma (Léa Seydoux), who is older and more experienced.

Arts

In Emotionally Charged 'Blue,' Sex Is Graphic, But Not Gratuitous

2:30pm October 25, 2013

by David Edelstein

Blue Is the Warmest Color, a coming-of-age movie about the love affair between two young women, has been criticized as pornographic and exploitive. But critic David Edelstein says the film artfully captures the intensity of sexual discovery — and dependency. (Recommended)

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J.D. Salinger wrote nine letters and postcards to aspiring Canadian writer Marjorie Sheard.

Books
Arts

Pen Pal Of Young 'Jerry' Salinger May Have Been First To Meet Holden

9:47am October 25, 2013

by Susan Stamberg

From 1941 to 1943, J.D. Salinger exchanged letters with a young, aspiring writer in Toronto named Marjorie Sheard. The letters predate Catcher in the Rye, but Sheard may have been one of the first people to learn about its eventual protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Sheard's letters from Salinger are on display at the Morgan Library in New York.

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'Wheelmen' Exposes Doping Culture And The Armstrong 'Conspiracy'

5:33pm October 24, 2013

Wall Street Journal reporters Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell say that champion cyclist Lance Armstrong was at the center of "the greatest sports conspiracy ever." Their book chronicles everything from group blood transfusions on the team bus to extensive efforts to silence and intimidate those who might expose the abuse.

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12 Years a Slave, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, is based on an 1853 memoir by Solomon Northup, a free black man in upstate New York who was kidnapped into slavery in 1841.

Arts

'12 Years A Slave' Was A Film That 'No One Was Making'

3:59pm October 24, 2013

Director Steve McQueen tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that he wanted to help fill a "huge hole in the canon of cinema." And actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, whose parents are from Nigeria, says he grew up feeling "a sense of unity amongst African people and people of African heritage."

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