Books

Books

Author Morgan Jerkins Reconnects With Her Southern African-American Roots In New Book

8:00am August 01, 2020

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks to Morgan Jerkins about her new book. Wandering In Strange Lands, where she travels to the South to understand the roots of her African-American culture.

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Books

Kim Johnson Talks Racism, Mass Incarceration In Debut Novel

8:00am August 01, 2020

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Kim Johnson about her debut novel This Is My America. In it, a teenage girl works to get her father off of death row.

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Arts

For Summer, 3 Translated Novels To Transport You

7:00am August 01, 2020

by Lily Meyer

You may not really be able to leave the house right now, but of course fiction can take you all over the world. Here are three novels that will help you escape — to Japan, to Portugal and to Spain.

True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump, by Jeffrey Toobin

In 'True Crimes,' Toobin Presents A Summation For The Jury In The Case Against Trump

10:05am July 31, 2020

by Ron Elving

There is a lot of detail amassed in the CNN analyst's book that even Trump investigation junkies won't have seen, much having to do with behind-the-scenes strategizing and negotiating by lawyers.

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Yiyun Li Continues Her Conversations With The Dead In 'Must I Go'

7:00am July 31, 2020

by Thúy Đinh

Yiyun Li's new book — about a woman looking back on her life by annotating the diary of her late ex-lover — plays with both Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire and Li's own previous work.

American Christianity Must Reckon With Legacy Of White Supremacy, Author Says

1:12pm July 30, 2020

by Terry Gross

White Too Long author Robert P. Jones says churches should be more in vocal on issues of social justice: "White Christians have been largely silent ... and have hardly begun these conversations."

Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession, edited by Sarah Weinman

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True Crime Stories And The Obsession With Them Form 'Unspeakable Acts'

12:56pm July 30, 2020

by Gabino Iglesias

The search for answers in this nonfiction anthology edited by Sarah Weinman is one of many cohesive elements that make the collection land among the best true crime books of the year.

The Aunt Who Wouldn't Die, by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay

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A Mean Ghost Story And A Souped-Up Crime Novel Will Wise You Up Fast

10:39am July 30, 2020

by Maureen Corrigan

The Aunt Who Wouldn't Die, by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, centers on an Indian family haunted by a jealous ghost. And S. A. Cosby's Blacktop Wasteland is a noir thriller — with muscle cars.

Books

In His New Book, Stephen Graham Jones Explores The Idea Of 'Good Indians'

4:05pm July 29, 2020

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Stephen Graham Jones, an American author and a member of the Blackfeet tribe, about his new book, The Only Good Indians.

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In 'Intimations,' Zadie Smith Reflects Back To Us The Early Days Of Now

10:01am July 29, 2020

by Ericka Taylor

Drafted soon after "the global humbling" of COVID began and completed in the days after George Floyd's murder, these personal essays capture the author's reflections during a time outside of time.