Arts & Life

Books
Arts

A Boy And A Pup Come To One Another's Rescue In 'The Dog Who Lost His Bark'

8:31am September 22, 2019

by Samantha Balaban

The Dog Who Lost His Bark is a story in two halves, says author Eoin Colfer: "In the first half the boy heals the dog, and in the second half the dog heals the boy." It's illustrated by P.J. Lynch.

Brad Pitt stars in Ad Astra as an astronaut in search of his father, who disappeared on a mission many years prior.

Arts

Brad Pitt On Making 'Ad Astra,' Processing Trauma And Channeling David Bowie

8:31am September 22, 2019

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

The actor stars in a new science-fiction blockbuster about more than just an astronaut on a space mission: "We wanted to do something very sincere and raw and painfully honest," he says.

Arts

'Downton Abbey' Actresses On Recapturing Their TV Roles In New Film

8:31am September 22, 2019

NPR's Melissa Block speaks with Michelle Dockery and Elizabeth McGovern from the movie "Downton Abbey," based on the award-winning series about the owners and workers at a great English estate.

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Books
Arts

Kick Off Fall With This Trio Of Innovative YA Graphic Novels

7:00am September 22, 2019

by Etelka Lehoczky

This month sees the arrival of a handful of bold new graphic novels aimed at young adult readers, with unexpected topics and settings from a contemporary Chinese American community to the Old West.

Books
Arts

Navigating Culture And Crushes In 'Frankly In Love'

7:46pm September 21, 2019

by Scott Simon

David Yoon's young adult debut follows Frank Li, a Korean American kid who concocts a plan to keep his strict parents from finding out that he's dating a non-Korean girl — what could go wrong?

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Zach Galifianakis in Between Two Ferns: The Movie.

Arts

Not My Job: Zach Galifianakis Plays A Game Called 'Between Two Derns'

12:52pm September 21, 2019

The comedian is best known for his Internet series Between Two Ferns, so we've invited him to answer three questions about actors Bruce and Laura Dern.

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Books
Arts

A Stitch In Time Saves A Life In 'A Single Thread'

10:00am September 21, 2019

by Denny S. Bryce

Tracy Chevalier's new novel follows a woman left alone after her fiance and brother died in World War I. She decides to make her mark on the world by joining a guild of embroiderers at a cathedral.

A Cosmology of Monsters, by Shaun Hamill

Books
Arts

'A Cosmology Of Monsters' Blends Freaky Frights And Family Feels

7:00am September 21, 2019

by Jason Heller

Shaun Hamill's new novel uses the lens of horror to examine the ways we interact and fail to interact with each other, and the way a family can be held together by the very things that tear it apart.

They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate, by James Verini

'They Will Have To Die Now' Is A Bare-Knuckles Account Of The Fight Against ISIS

6:07pm September 20, 2019

by Tom Bowman

James Verini's book will stand up with some of the best war reporting, as he takes an unblinking look at the dirtiest kind of battle — urban combat — and the human wreckage it leaves in its wake.

The playwright Jeremy O. Harris, 30, began writing Slave Play at Yale School of Drama. It is set to open in October on Broadway.

Arts

With 'Slave Play,' A Young Playwright Provokes His Way To Broadway

4:44pm September 20, 2019

Jeremy O. Harris, 30, started writing a sexually explicit, transgressive and comic work as a graduate student at Yale. It proved a surprising smash hit, and will soon open on a much bigger stage.