Book News & Features

Amy Tan (pictured with her family in 1959) found startling information about her parents while sifting through a treasure trove of family papers.

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Arts

Amy Tan Revisits The Roots Of Her Writing Career In 'Where The Past Begins'

4:44pm October 16, 2017

by Lynn Neary

In a new memoir, the Joy Luck Club author searches her past for the sources of her creativity. She says, "I certainly think that the bad experiences ... shaped me as a writer."

Mortician Caitlin Doughty has traveled around the world exploring the ways other cultures approach death.

Books
Arts

Mortician Explores Cultures' Many Paths For 'Sacred Transition' Of Death

2:31pm October 15, 2017

Caitlin Doughty, whose Los Angeles funeral home specializes in alternative ceremonies, traveled the world to collect stories about how different peoples send loved ones off to the great beyond.

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Arts

Exclusive First Read: Philip Pullman's 'The Book Of Dust'

6:00am October 13, 2017

by Petra Mayer

Philip Pullman returns to the world of his beloved Dark Materials trilogy in The Book of Dust. We have an exclusive first peek at young protagonist Malcolm, his canoe, and the day his life changes.

Here Are The 2017 MacArthur 'Genius' Grant Winners

5:10pm October 11, 2017

by Colin Dwyer

Jason De León, Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Derek Peterson are among the 24 winners of this year's MacArthur Fellowship, which honors "extraordinarily talented and creative individuals."

USPS Honors Beloved Children's Book With New 'Snowy Day' Stamps

6:14pm October 08, 2017

The U.S. Postal Service has unveiled a "forever" stamp collection featuring illustrations from the 1962 children's book The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

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Kazuo Ishiguro, seen here in 2010, has won the 2017 Nobel Prize for literature.

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Arts

Kazuo Ishiguro Wins Nobel Prize In Literature

11:11am October 05, 2017

by Bill Chappell

Kazuo Ishiguro was 5 when his family moved from Japan to Britain; he has said that as a kid, he used TV Westerns — like Bonanza and Wagon Train -- to help him learn English.

Books

British Writer Kazuo Ishiguro Wins Nobel Prize In Literature

9:48am October 05, 2017

by Lynn Neary

The Swedish Academy has chosen Kazuo Ishiguro as the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature Thursday morning. Ishiguro's most well-known work is likely The Remains of the Day, a 1989 novel.

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Books
Arts

Here Are The Finalists For The 2017 National Book Awards

8:57am October 04, 2017

by Colin Dwyer

The National Book Foundation winnowed the list of contenders for its literary prize to just 20 — or five finalists each in four categories. Among them are Jesmyn Ward, Min Jin Lee and Frank Bidart.

Maureen Scalia holds one of her favorite photos of her and her husband, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in their home in Virginia.

Antonin Scalia's Less Well-Known Legacy: His Speeches

10:08am October 02, 2017

by Nina Totenberg

Scalia Speaks is an anthology of the late justice's speeches on everything from the arts, turkey hunting, games and sports, faith and judging — and even the "Italian view of the Irish."

Distillery Cat Wanted: Must Be Affable, Brand-Boosting, Cold-Blooded Killer

7:00am October 01, 2017

by Tove Danovich

A new book profiles some of the world's most fascinating felines, while telling how their job descriptions have evolved from rodent catchers to today's ambassadors for distilleries and breweries.