Books

Books

This Is The 92nd Year For The Scripps National Spelling Bee

7:29am May 29, 2019

NPR's Noel King talks to Shalini Shankar, author of Beeline: What Spelling Bees Reveal About Generation Z's New Path to Success, about the competitors at this year's spelling bee.

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The Fizz Has Flattened Some In 'The Rosie Result'

7:00am May 29, 2019

by Heller McAlpin

The final volume in Graeme Simsion's Rosie trilogy — about an adorably dorky, autistic scientist and his wife and family — will enlighten readers about life on the spectrum, but may not charm them.

A file photo shows the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Dr. Anthony Rostain, co-author of The Stressed Years of Their Lives, says today's college students are experiencing an "inordinate amount of anxiety."

College Students (And Their Parents) Face A Campus Mental Health 'Epidemic'

8:25pm May 28, 2019

by Terry Gross

Anthony Rostain and B. Janet Hibbs say college students today face an "inordinate amount of anxiety" — but parents can help their kids cope. Their book is The Stressed Years of Their Lives.

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Mythbusting The Welfare Queen

4:44pm May 28, 2019

Public assistance fraud was just the tip of the iceberg for Linda Taylor.

Scott Pelley author photo credit Jane Pelley REAL

CBS' Scott Pelley On 'Truth Worth Telling'

4:44pm May 28, 2019

The 60 Minutes correspondent and former CBS Evening News anchor gets real about truths worth telling.

Cover detail from No-No Boy by John Okada

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Love, Disappointment Course Through 4 Classic Asian American Novels

3:50pm May 28, 2019

by Maureen Corrigan

Penguin Classics has released paperback editions of four mid-20th century novels by Asian American authors: America Is in the Heart; The Hanging on Union Square; East Goes West and No-No Boy.

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The Confessions of Frannie Langton, by Sara Collins

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'Frannie Langton' Takes Power Over Her Own Story

2:00pm May 28, 2019

by Annalisa Quinn

In Sara Collins' new novel, a former slave accused of murder recounts her life — but, as Frannie Langton herself says, no one expects a woman like her to tell her story, or for it to include joy.

Tony Horwitz, seen hitchhiking in Australia in 1986, wrote about the experience later in his book One for the Road: Hitchhiking Through the Australian Outback. Horwitz, who would go on to win the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, died Monday at

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Tony Horwitz, Pulitzer-Winning Journalist And Historian, Dies At 60

1:50pm May 28, 2019

by Colin Dwyer

Horwitz's publisher says he died of apparent cardiac arrest. A Pulitzer Prize winner for covering the hardships of low-wage workers, the peripatetic writer sought truths obscured by history's cliches.

Quilp, the epitome of evil in Charles Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop, seen here with Little Nell, is a dwarf with the head of a giant and a "few discolored fangs" for teeth. But his most grotesque trait is his trick of drinking "boiling tea without winki

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When Tea Reaches Its Boiling Point In Fiction, So Too May The Story

10:56am May 28, 2019

by Nina Martyris

Across tea-drinking cultures, writers have milked hot tea for all its worth to add a splash of narrative panache to comic or erotic scenes or to build mood, momentum and character.

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'Range' Argues That Specialization Should Not Be The Goal For Most

8:40am May 28, 2019

by Bradley Babendir

David Epstein's book, though it doesn't rely heavily on science, is an engaging survey of research and anecdotes supporting that a thoughtful, collaborative world is a better and more innovative one.