Books

Books
Arts

Rachel Cusk's 'Second Place' Offers Sharp Perceptions About Love And Creativity

1:27pm May 19, 2021

by John Powers

A writer offers up her guest house to a famous painter in hope that something transcendent will happen. But he's selfish, amoral and flagrantly misogynistic — and monstrously at ease with all this.

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Sebastian Junger Tackles The Idea Of 'Freedom' But Arrives At No Conclusion

10:52am May 19, 2021

by Michael Schaub

Freedom, Junger's latest book, follows the author and a group of acquaintances as they embark on a long walk from Washington D.C. to Pittsburgh, tracing railroad lines.

Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice, Yusef Salaam

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Arts

One Of The Falsely Accused Central Park Five Tells His Story In 'Better, Not Bitter'

6:35pm May 18, 2021

by Ericka Taylor

In 1989, five kids were falsely accused of the brutal rape of a Central Park jogger. Yusef Salaam writes about systemic racism — and how his family and faith got him through seven years in prison.

Seth Rogen and his producing partner Evan Goldberg recently founded a company that sells marijuana.

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Seth Rogen On The Comedy Advice He Got At 12 That He Still Thinks About

4:40pm May 18, 2021

by Terry Gross

Rogen's first comedy teacher taught him to write material based on conflict, so he focused his first stand-up routine on his grandparents. His new book of personal essays is Yearbook.

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The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet, John Green

Author John Green Explores How To Live In Uncertainty In 'The Anthropocene Reviewed'

11:45am May 18, 2021

by Adam Frank

The author of best-seller The Fault In Our Stars uses humor, wisdom and a keen sense of connections to offer guidance — as he reviews how humans are reshaping Earth.

Brian Broome's debut memoir is Punch Me Up To The Gods.

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'Love Letter To Black Boys': Memoir Explores Masculinity Against Appalachian Backdrop

6:20am May 18, 2021

by Steve Inskeep

Punch Me Up To The Gods opens with Brian Broome's father beating him when he was 10. The blows by his father were meant to pound manliness into him — to be the "toughest guy in the room."

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'Dead Souls' Is A Smart Book, In Some Ways A Good One — Also, It's Unreadable

5:00am May 18, 2021

by Lily Meyer

English publisher and poet Sam Riviere's debut novel is a long monologue from a poet, disgraced for plagiarism, unburdening himself to a self-obsessed poetry magazine editor in a seedy hotel bar.

Books

New Book Expresses Still-Fresh Feelings About A Tumultuous Year

5:31pm May 17, 2021

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with poet Tracy K. Smith about a new book she co-edited, There's a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis, reflecting on 2020.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 'Notes On Grief' Is A Raw Elegy For Her Father

1:46pm May 17, 2021

by Maureen Corrigan

Adichie writes she "came undone" when she learned of her dad's death. Her new book is a charged account of his passing — and also a narrative of mourning in the time of pandemic.

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Questions For Zen Cho, Author Of 'Black Water Sister'

2:11am May 17, 2021

by Petra Mayer

In Zen Cho's new novel, a young woman begins to hear a voice in her head: It's the dead, estranged grandmother she never knew. Wronged in life, the grandmother wants revenge after death.