Author Interviews

Gen. David Petraeus is the subject of The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, a new book by Fred Kaplan.

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'The Insurgents': Petraeus And A New Kind Of War

3:05pm January 29, 2013

In a new book about Gen. David Petraeus, author and journalist Fred Kaplan looks at how theories of counterinsurgency have shaped U.S. military policy in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Visitors take in a re-created scene at the massacre museum at Vietnam's My Lai village. Researcher Nick Turse says atrocities of all kinds were more common in the Vietnam War than most Americans believe.

'Anything That Moves': Civilians And The Vietnam War

4:06pm January 28, 2013

In a new book, Nick Turse says the pressure on U.S. forces to produce a body count during the Vietnam War led to mass civilian deaths. "The idea," he says, "was that the Vietnamese, they weren't really people."

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An illustration shows heretics being tortured and nailed to wooden posts during the first Inquisition.

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The Inquisition: A Model For Modern Interrogators

1:41pm January 28, 2013

The Inquisition revolutionized record-keeping and surveillance techniques that are still used today, says Cullen Murphy. His book God's Jury draws parallels between some of the interrogation techniques used in previous centuries with the ones used today.

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'Manifest Injustice': A 40-Year Fight For Freedom

6:34pm January 27, 2013

by NPR Staff

Bill Macumber, a respected member of his Arizona community, was convicted of a grisly 1962 double murder. Late last year, however, he was released from prison. A new book tells the story of a flawed investigation and legal process that cost Macumber 38 years of freedom.

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The Church of Scientology building in Los Angeles on Sunset Boulevard on Aug. 28, 2011.

'Going Clear': A New Book Delves Into Scientology

6:50am January 27, 2013

Lawrence Wright's Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief looks at the world of the controversial church and the life of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, who died in 1986.

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Ship It Holla Ballas by Jonathan Grotenstein and Storms Reback.

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Ship Those (Virtual) Chips: The Rise And Fall Of Online Poker's Youngest Crew

6:59pm January 26, 2013

by NPR Staff

In the early 2000s, the get-rich-quick scheme of choice for young college dropouts was online poker. In his new book Ship It Holla Ballas, Jonathan Grotenstein follows two young players as they rake in the dough.

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Dave Barry's 'Insane' Miami Mixes Refugees, Gangsters, Escorts And A Burmese Python

5:36pm January 26, 2013

by NPR Staff

In Dave Barry's latest novel, a bachelor dinner goes off the rails, entangling the groom to be with a colorful cast of characters — everyone from Russian mobsters to Haitian refugees to the fourth-place finisher in the Miss Hot Amateur Bod contest. Oh, and an albino Burmese python.

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The fight to integrate the U.S. military began with the Revolutionary War, says author Rawn James, Jr.

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'Double V': The Fight For Civil Rights In The U.S. Military

1:19pm January 21, 2013

In his new book, The Double V, Rawn James Jr. argues that to understand race in America one must understand the history of African-Americans in the military. While the turning point came between the world wars, the struggle began with the American Revolution.

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Connecting With Nature To Reclaim Our Natural 'Birthright'

5:29pm January 20, 2013

by NPR Staff

Modern society has become adversarial in its relationship to nature, Yale scholar Stephen Kellert argues, having greatly undervalued the natural world beyond its narrow utilty. In his new book Birthright: People and Nature in the Modern World, he tells stories of the environment's effect on us, and ours on it.

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George Saunders On Absurdism And Ventriloquism In 'Tenth Of December'

5:29pm January 20, 2013

by NPR Staff

George Saunders has long been praised in literary circles for his short stories that deftly combine the absurd with the mundane. But now the author has caught mainstream attention with his newest collection, Tenth of December.

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