Arts & Life

A view of a McDonald's fast-food restaurant in Des Plaines, Ill., circa 1955. A new book explores the complicated bond between Americans and fast food.

Books
Arts

'Drive-Thru Dreams' Explores America's Love-Hate Relationship With Fast Food

5:22pm August 07, 2019

by Luisa Torres

Americans have a torturous relationship with fast food. We vilify it but also view it through a nostalgic lens. A new book explores this complicated yet seemingly unshakable bond.

'Soul. R&B. Funk.' Features A Decade Of Photos From 'The Best Seat In The House'

1:20pm August 07, 2019

by Sonari Glinton

Bruce Talamon has photographed Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Barry White, Bob Marley, Patti LaBelle ... the list goes on. A new book shows his work from 1972-1982.

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Arts

'This Changes Everything': Geena Davis On Empowering Women In Hollywood

1:20pm August 07, 2019

by Terry Gross

A new documentary explores how women in Hollywood are pushing for more representation in front of and behind the camera. Davis and director Maria Giese discuss the dramatic disparities on screen.

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White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American Imagination, by Jess Row

Books
Arts

'White Flights' Examines The Legacy Of Whiteness On Fiction And Culture

9:21am August 07, 2019

by Annalisa Quinn

Jess Row's collection is an ambitious attempt to investigate what is latent in the silences of 20th century white writers on race. It is both astute and painfully self-regarding.

In the Country of Women: A Memoir, by Susan Straight

Books
Arts

'In The Country Of Women' Honors The Strength And Resilience Of Six Generations

8:42am August 07, 2019

by Ericka Taylor

While Susan Straight reflects on far more than her own upbringing in her memoir, she brings her trademark lyricism and a significant dose of humility to these pieces of the book.

Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling play themselves in BH90210, which both is and isn't a Beverly Hills, 90210 reboot. It's complicated.

Arts

The Old Gang Is Back Together In 'BH90210,' Sort Of

5:00am August 07, 2019

by Linda Holmes

There's certainly no need to revisit the characters from Beverly Hills, 90210. So to fill what they hope is an appetite for nostalgia, the stars are playing themselves in a showbiz story.

When she was growing up, New Yorker culture writer Jia Tolentino attended a Houston megachurch with her family. "The population was extremely white and wealthy, which my family was not," Tolentino says. "It was the kind of place where you had a daily Bibl

Books
Arts

'New Yorker' Writer Fears We're Fooling Ourselves In The Internet's 'Trick Mirror'

4:11pm August 06, 2019

by Terry Gross

In her new book of essays, culture writer Jia Tolentino explores how social media shapes identity, public discourse and political engagement — particularly for millennials such as herself.

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On The Bachelorette, Hannah Brown — a Miss Alabama USA winner from Tuscaloosa — recently sparked a conversation about sex and morality. "I can't decide if I'm glad it was me or not that started the conversation — but I'm in it now," she says.

Arts

'I Have Had Sex ... And Jesus Still Loves Me': 'Bachelorette' Stands Firm In Her Faith

3:44pm August 06, 2019

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

Hannah Brown, the lead on this season of The Bachelorette, recently sparked a conversation about sex and morality. "I have an audience of one, and that's the Lord," she says.

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Jia Tolentino's essay collection Trick Mirror looks for meaning in the many absurdities all around us.

Books
Arts

'Trick Mirror' Finds Hope That Little Truths Will Emerge Amid Absurdities

2:23pm August 06, 2019

by Vincent Acovino

There's an undeniable catharsis in seeing such a great writer, The New Yorker's Jia Tolentino, lucidly communicate the conditions of our most ludicrous forms of misery in her essay collection.

Toni Morrison was the author of Beloved, Song of Solomon and The Bluest Eye. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Books
Arts

Toni Morrison, Whose Soaring Novels Were Rooted In Black Lives, Dies At 88

12:42pm August 06, 2019

by Karen Grigsby Bates

Morrison was the author of Beloved, Song of Solomon and The Bluest Eye. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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