Children's Author Beverly Cleary, Creator Of Ramona Quimby, Dies At 104
"I think children want to read about normal, everyday kids," Cleary told NPR in 1999. "... I think children like to find themselves in books."
Books
Larry McMurtry, Novelist And Screenwriter Of The West, Has Died At Age 84
In over 30 novels and across dozens of screenplays, nonfiction works and memoirs, McMurtry became a beloved yet unsentimental chronicler of the American West.
'Invincible' Is Packed With Pulpy, Visceral Thrills — And Lots Of Pulpy Viscera
A stellar voice cast helps ground this fantastical tale of a fledgling superhero's first forays into a job where the stakes — and the violence — are all too real.
'There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job' Takes Gentle Aim At Japan's Work Culture
Kikuko Tsumura's new novel follows an unnamed protagonist who embarks on a series of odd temp jobs — and discovers that as the jobs get duller, the demands of her male supervisors get more intense.
'Perseverance' And Poetry Help A Writer Bridge Multiple Worlds
Poet Raymond Antrobus was born in East London to a Jamaican father and a British mother. He grew up deaf, turning to poetry as a way to navigate between the hearing and non-hearing world.
Out Of Prison But Still Trapped: Examining The 'Afterlife' Of Incarceration
There are 45,000 laws, policies and administrative sanctions in the U.S. that target people with criminal records. Reuben Jonathan Miller researches how they affect people's lives in Halfway Home.
'Last Soul Company' Details The Story Of Malaco Records
A new book chronicles the history of Malaco Records, one of the oldest continuously run independent record labels in America and one of the biggest gospel labels in the world.
How To Make Job Interviews Less Horrible
A new book takes on an overlooked flaw in human judgment that can affect an organization's ability to make sound decisions about hiring and more.
Farcical 'Life Of The Mind' Skewers Academic Life And Adjunct 'Hell'
A graduate student is teaching four courses while also trying to finish a dissertation. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls Christine Smallwood's new novel one of the wittiest she's read in a long time.
With 'Fierce Poise,' Helen Frankenthaler Poured Beauty Onto Canvas
Abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler poured pools of highly diluted pigments onto her raw canvases. Biographer Alexander Nemerov says her paintings are "about feeling the world."