Author Interviews

'Klansville, U.S.A.' Chronicles The Rise And Fall Of The KKK

5:30pm February 14, 2013

by NPR Staff

Author and sociologist David Cunningham speaks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the origins of cross burnings and white hoods, and why North Carolina had more Klan members during the height of the civil rights movement than all other Southern states combined.

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A part of the Isaiah Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, is seen inside the vault of the Shrine of the Book building at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

'Dead Sea Scrolls' Live On In Debate And Discovery

4:42pm February 14, 2013

In a new book, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography, religious scholar and author John J. Collins tells the history of the scrolls and the controversies they have prompted, and explores the questions they ask and answer about Judeo-Christian history.

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Books
Arts

Netflix Moves Back Into Content Production With 'Cards'

11:26am February 12, 2013

by NPR Staff

House of Cards is a $100 million adaptation of a British television show. Starring Kevin Spacey, the first two episodes are directed by The Social Network's David Fincher — and all 13 episodes will be available at once.

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Books
Arts

An 'Autopsy' Of Detroit Finds Resilience In A Struggling City

10:36am February 12, 2013

To some, Detroit may be a symbol of urban decay; but to journalist Charlie LeDuff, it's home. In Detroit: An American Autopsy, he says the city's heart beats on. "We're still here trying to reconstruct the great thing we once had," he tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies.

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Books
Arts

Manufactured On YouTube, Teen Pop Star Searches For His True Voice

6:51pm February 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

The road tour is a well-known backdrop in American novels and one Teddy Wayne explores in his new novel, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine. Along the way, Jonny, a teen heartthrob, explores the pressures of celebrity at a young age.

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A shop in Tahrir Square is spray-painted with the word "twitter" after the government shut off Internet access in February 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.

'Distant Witness': Social Media's 'Journalism Revolution'

2:22pm February 04, 2013

by NPR Staff

When protests broke out across North Africa and the Middle East, NPR senior strategist Andy Carvin followed the events in real time online. In his book Distant Witness, Carvin explains how he cultivated social media sources into a new form of journalism where people on the ground controlled the news.

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Books
Arts

A Barbados Family Tree With 'Sugar In The Blood'

1:44pm February 04, 2013

In her new book, Andrea Stuart explores the intersection of sugar, slavery, settlement, migration and survival in the Americas. Stuart's personal history was shaped by these forces — she is descended from a slave owner who had relations with an unknown slave.

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Books
Arts

'Disaster Diaries' Will Help You Survive The End Of The World

6:16pm February 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

Sam Sheridan was a mixed martial arts fighter, wilderness firefighter, construction worker in the South Pole, and now, author. His new book, Disaster Diaries, will help you survive the apocalypse, no matter the catastrophe.

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Books
Arts

'Schroder' Chronicles A Father's Desperate Mistakes

3:43pm February 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

In Amity Gaige's new novel, Eric Kennedy, aka East German immigrant Erik Schroder, reveals his true identity to his ex-wife and explains why he kidnapped his own 6-year-old daughter.

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How The Glock Became America's Weapon Of Choice

10:18am February 01, 2013

In his book Glock: The Rise of America's Gun, Paul Barrett traces how the sleek, high-capacity Austrian weapon found its way into Hollywood films and rap lyrics, not to mention two-thirds of all U.S. police departments.

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