Arts & Life

The Summer of Beer and Whiskey by Edward Achorn.

Hard Hits, Hard Liquor In 'The Summer of Beer and Whiskey'

6:13pm April 27, 2013

by NPR Staff

In the 1880s, it took a German immigrant to change America's pastime forever. Chris Von der Ahe founded the St. Louis Browns and later helped form a new baseball league. Author Edward Achorn recalls baseball's early days in his new book.

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Arts

Poet Kazim Ali On Poetry In Everyday Life

3:57pm April 27, 2013

Poet Kazim Ali talks about poetry's importance in every day life for National Poetry Month. He is a contributing editor for AWP Writers Chronicle and founding editor of the small press, Nightboat Books.

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Visitors paid their respects at a makeshift memorial on Boylston Street on April 20, near the scene of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Arts

'Horrific' And 'Surreal': The Words We Use To Bear Witness

3:33pm April 26, 2013

by Geoff Nunberg

After more than a week of gruesome media coverage, linguist Geoff Nunberg takes a close look at the words we use to describe events that mesmerize and horrify, that sensitize and desensitize, that transfix and repel us at the same time.

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David Sedaris's new book is called Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls.

Books
Arts

'Let's Explore': David Sedaris On His Public Private Life

7:43pm April 25, 2013

The best-selling author and humorist has kept journals for 36 years. Those diaries have been the jumping-off point for the personal essays that appear in his collections, including Me Talk Pretty One Day and now Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls.

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Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner was also a writer and producer on The Sopranos for a time.

Arts

Matthew Weiner On 'Mad Men' And Meaning

1:37pm April 25, 2013

The creator of the acclaimed AMC series talks about his protagonist — Don Draper — as an aging existentialist looking for meaning in a chaotic world. He says the show's sixth season, set in 1968, is situated in that historical moment for a reason: to reflect a traumatic passage in Don's life.

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Books
Arts

'Equilaterial': Martians, Oil And A Hole In The Desert

10:08am April 25, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

Ken Kalfus' new novel about an astronomer obsessed with attracting the attention of Martians appears at first to be an homage to the scientific romances of H.G. Wells and the lost-world sagas of H. Rider Haggard. As the novel develops, however, its unique social commentaries emerge.

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Arts

Tom Cruise's Latest Headed For 'Oblivion'

11:05am April 24, 2013

by David Edelstein

Joseph Kosinski's sci-fi adventure, starring Tom Cruise, is the most incoherent piece of storytelling since John Travolta's Battlefield Earth. It had critic David Edelstein crying, "What? What?" over the din of the explosions.

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Daniel (Aden Young) finds a supporter in the devout Tawney (Adelaide Clemens) — if not among all of his other neighbors — when he's exonerated after spending more than 19 years in prison for a crime he did't commit.

Arts

'Rectify': An Ex-Con Navigates The World Outside

11:05am April 24, 2013

by David Bianculli

A new six-episode drama for the Sundance Channel follows a man who, after 19 years in prison, is exonerated by DNA evidence and returns to his family. Critic David Bianculli says it's a unique show, and a memorable one.

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'Zoobiquity': What Humans Can Learn From Animal Illness

11:05am April 24, 2013

Animals and humans have a lot in common, including some of the health problems that plague them. In her book Zoobiquity, Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz explores how studying animal illness — from cancer to sexual dysfunction — can help us better understand human health.

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Newsreader in front of television camera.

Books
Arts

For TV Networks, Stiff Competition To Be 'Top Of The Morning'

3:05pm April 23, 2013

by NPR Staff

Shows like Good Morning America and the Today show can have a big impact on a broadcast network's image and bottom line. NPR's David Greene speaks with media reporter Brian Stelter about Top of the Morning, his new book about the high-stakes world of morning TV.

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