Author Interviews

King Charles I was sentenced to death on Jan. 27, 1649, and executed three days later.

Books
Arts

King, Tyrant, Beheaded Traitor: The Many Trials Of Charles I

10:10am February 17, 2015

by NPR Staff

The British monarch ruled at a time of civil war — and was blamed for much of the bloodshed. In Killers of the King, Charles Spencer tells the story of the men who signed the king's death warrant.

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The Politics Of Passing 1964's Civil Rights Act

3:04pm February 16, 2015

The act, which turned 50 last year, ended the era of legal segregation in public accommodations, like restaurants and hotels. Author Todd Purdum talks about the battles that surrounded it.

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President Franklin Delano Roosevelt drinks a glass of wine at a fundraising dinner in 1938. FDR fancied himself quite the skilled mixologist; many of his colleagues disagreed.

'Party Like A President' Recalls Mixology, Mischief Inside Oval Office

7:57am February 16, 2015

by Samantha Raphelson

In his new book, author Brian Abrams chronicles the drinking habits and debauchery of former presidents.

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Books
Arts

'The Room' Offers An Escape From The Office — Or Does It?

12:49pm February 15, 2015

by NPR Staff

Swedish actor and playwright Jonas Karlsson ventures into fiction with The Room, a surreal tale of a dour bureaucrat who finds a tiny secret room at his workplace, a room which may or may not be real.

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Books

'Listen, Slowly' About Connecting To A Heritage You Don't Know

6:26pm February 12, 2015

Rachel Martin talks with National Book Award-winning author Thanhha Lai about her children's book, Listen, Slowly.

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An Iraqi woman walks through a plume of smoke rising from a massive fire at a liquid gas factory as she searches for her husband in the vicinity in Basra, Iraq, May 2, 2003.

Twice Kidnapped, Photographer Returns To War Zone: 'It's What I Do'

9:07am February 12, 2015

by NPR Staff

Lynsey Addario was taken captive in 2011 while covering Libya's civil war. With a gun to her head, she says, she was thinking, "Will I ever get my cameras back?"

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Books
Arts

Tumultuous Relationships, But Not Much Gossip, In Langston Hughes' Letters

6:27pm February 11, 2015

by NPR Staff

Poet Langston Hughes was also an "inveterate letter writer," says the co-editor of a new compilation of his correspondence. But if you're hoping to find profound love letters, you'll be disappointed.

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"Flavor is the most important ingredient at the core of what we are. It created us," John McQuaid writes in his book Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat.

'Tasty': How Flavor Helped Make Us Human

2:57pm February 11, 2015

by NPR Staff

From an evolutionary standpoint, flavor has long helped define who we are as a species, journalist John McQuaid argues in his new book, an exploration of the art and science of taste.

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President Obama talks with senior adviser David Axelrod at the airport in New Orleans following a meeting on the response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

David Axelrod Recounts His Years As Obama's Adviser And 'Believer'

2:23pm February 10, 2015

In his new book, the veteran political consultant tells stories about his years at Obama's side. After one debate, Axelrod says, Obama "made clear how he felt about me at that moment, and he bolted."

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Books
Arts

How To Revive The Worn Out Cliche

9:15pm February 09, 2015

Are cliches always tired? Not necessarily! NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with Orin Hargraves, author of It's Been Said Before: A Guide to the Use and Abuse of Cliches.

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