books

These 2 funny books give readers a reason to smile in tough times

1:35pm April 21, 2025

Dorothy Parker's posthumously published collection is Poems; Camilla Barnes' debut novel is The Usual Desire to Kill. Both affirm: sharp humor can be grounded in pain.

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'Buffy' podcasters built a community — and they didn't let divorce break it

9:00am April 13, 2025

Buffering the Vampire Slayer podcasters Jenny Owen Youngs and Kristin Russo write about their community of fans, and how it help them keep working together after a split, in Slayers, Every One of Us.

10 emerging writers win Whiting Awards

8:11pm April 09, 2025

The awards, which come with a $50K purse, have helped launch the writing careers of many now well-known authors, including Colson Whitehead, Ocean Vuong, Alice McDermott and Jia Tolentino.

'The Great Gatsby' turns 100. What's it like teaching it today?

6:11pm April 09, 2025

by Andrew Limbong

F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel has spent years on high school reading lists. How are literature professors teaching it today? And do students still find it relevant?

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Arts

5 buzzy books out this week that look inward

7:00am April 08, 2025

A number of books out this week — a tale of tribal politics, a close-focus mystery, measured criticism and a unique relationship — are tied up in answering the question: How do we define ourselves?

Most Americans want to read more books. We just don't.

11:36am April 07, 2025

When we worry about the declining rates of literacy and a lack of reading skills, it's often about children. But how often are adults reading these days? And what are we reading? A new NPR/Ipsos poll finds out.

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'All Boys Aren't Blue' tops the ALA's list of most challenged books

11:28am April 07, 2025

Organized pressure groups, not individual parents, are leading the fight to remove books from shelves, according to a new report from the American Library Association.

10 books we're looking forward to this spring

8:01am April 02, 2025

A famed graphic novelist returns! A Southern-gothic crime-thriller inspired by The Godfather! An extremely in depth biography of Mark Twain! And more!

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6 tales of mystery and mishap to dive into this weekend

5:00am April 01, 2025

New on the shelves this week: An obit writer writes — and drunkenly publishes — his own obituary. A Hungarian teen stumbles into adulthood. And geriatric sleuth Vera Wong returns.

New books this week: 'Hunger Games' is back, and young people navigate a new Tanzania

10:13am March 18, 2025

This week brings a number of promising new reads — but none more eagerly awaited than Sunrise on the Reaping. We offer 5 books to consider picking up.