Books

Mitz: The Marmoset of Bloomsbury, by Sigrid Nunez

Books
Arts

'Mitz' The Marmoset Was Definitely Not Afraid Of Virginia Woolf

10:00am August 11, 2019

by Heller McAlpin

The success of Sigrid Nunez' The Friend sparked the reissue of this early work, also about a beloved pet — but Mitz the marmoset was real, and she belonged to Leonard and Virginia Woolf in the 1930s.

When author Andrea Davis Pinkney decided to write a book about a sit in, her husband Brian Pinkney asked, "How am I going to illustrate this, Andrea? They're just sitting." She told him: "Well, honey ... I'm sure you'll think of something." And he did. Th

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Arts

The Pinkneys Are A Picture Book Perfect, Author-Illustrator Couple

9:19am August 11, 2019

Author Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrator Brian Pinkney have been together for 30 years and collaborated on nearly 20 books. "It's fun to work with the one you love," Andrea says.

Author Téa Obreht's new Inland was inspired by myths of the American West.

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Arts

Téa Obreht's Latest Is Steeped In The Supernatural — Also, There Are Camels

8:04am August 11, 2019

by Lynn Neary

Téa Obreht's new novel, Inland, was inspired by the myths of the American West, and by a little-known episode in U.S. history: the military's unsuccessful attempt to use camels as pack animals.

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Arts

In 'A Pure Heart,' Family And Religion Both Bond And Break

7:00am August 11, 2019

by Michael Schaub

Rajia Hassib's novel wrestles with heavy themes — survivor's guilt, religion, family and revolution — but it's never didactic. It's an honest, engrossing portrait of two very different sisters.

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We're All Haunted In 'The Turn Of The Key'

10:00am August 10, 2019

by Annalisa Quinn

Ruth Ware's new novel is a clever update on Henry James' classic of paranoia, but instead of ghosts, Ware's characters are haunted by unknowable, unpredictable smart homes and surveillance technology.

Books

Listeners Remember Toni Morrison With Her Words

9:00am August 10, 2019

Toni Morrison, a Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, meant so much to so many. Listeners honor her legacy by reading their favorite Morrison quotes.

Books

Sarah M. Broom On 'The Yellow House'

8:34am August 10, 2019

Sarah M. Broom's debut memoir The Yellow House tells the sprawling tale of a family in New Orleans East and the home that was wiped away by Hurricane Katrina. She talks with NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer.

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Arts

Humans Are Gone In 'Hollow Kingdom,' So It's Up To The Crows

7:00am August 10, 2019

by Ilana Masad

Kira Jane Buxton's novel imagines a viral apocalypse from the perspective of the animals left behind. Specifically, a crow named S.T., who sets out to save the world with his canine companion.

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Arts

'Vigilance' Imagines A Chillingly Familiar Future

3:50pm August 09, 2019

by Jason Heller

Reports of mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso have dominated the news in recent days; Robert Jackson Bennett's novella Vigilance draws a direct line from today's America to a bullet-riddled future.

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Arts

'Fresh Air' Remembers Toni Morrison With 3 Conversations Over 4 Decades

2:03pm August 09, 2019

by Terry Gross

The Nobel laureate died Monday at 88. Terry Gross talked with Morrison in 1987 after she wrote Beloved, in 1992 after she authored Jazz and in 2015 when she published God Help the Child.

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