Books

Books

A Uyghur woman releases her memoir, detailing 3 years in a Chinese reeducation camp

8:53am February 19, 2022

by Scott Simon

Scott Simon speaks to Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a Uyghur woman who survived three years in a Chinese detention camp. Her memoir is titled "How I Survived a Chinese Reeducation Camp."

Books

'Black Cloud Rising' is the story of an all-Black brigade in the U.S. Civil War

8:01am February 19, 2022

by Scott Simon

Scott Simon talks to novelist David Wright Falade about his new book, "Black Cloud Rising," about the leader of an all-Black brigade in the Civil War.

Books
Arts

What's making us happy: A guide for your weekend reading and viewing

5:01pm February 18, 2022

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: The Secret History, a Futurama reboot and more.

David Harris became the first Black man to fly a commercial airliner when he was hired by American Airlines.

Books
Arts

'Segregated Skies' tells the story of the first Black pilot for a commercial airline

4:44pm February 18, 2022

by Elizabeth Blair

When American Airlines hired David Harris in 1964, he became the first African American pilot to fly for a commercial airline. Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cottman's Segregated Skies tells his story.

Poets Hanif Abdurraqib, Franny Choi, Dan "Sully" Sullivan, and the spoken word club's founder Peter Kahn curated the poems in the anthology.

Books
Arts

A high school spoken-word club changed students' lives. Now, you can read their poems

5:11am February 18, 2022

by Jeevika Verma

Poets Hanif Abdurraqib, Franny Choi, Dan "Sully" Sullivan, and club founder Peter Kahn have curated a new anthology celebrating the legacy of a Chicago-area high school's spoken word club.

Books
Arts

A creation myth in Sheila Heti's 'Pure Colour' has art critics as evolutionary stars

6:00am February 17, 2022

by Lily Meyer

The novel is simultaneously wise and silly, moving and inscrutable. It is also indisputably working hard to be new.

Yes, the second half of adult life can be happier than the first.

Books
Arts

How to crack the code to happiness in the second half of life

6:35pm February 16, 2022

Aging can be hardest for strivers, says social scientist Arthur Brooks, because they sometimes mourn that their biggest successes are in their rearview mirror.

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Books

Tessa Hadley on new novel 'Free Love' and making life changes mid-40s

4:17pm February 16, 2022

NPR's Elissa Nadworny talks with Tessa Hadley about her new novel, Free Love and pivoting to writing novels in her 40s.

Often overlooked, civil rights advocate Constance Baker Motley gets her due

1:30pm February 16, 2022

by Tonya Mosley

In Civil Rights Queen, author Tomiko Brown-Nagin profiles Motley, a Black woman who wrote the original complaint in Brown v. The Board of Education and was on Martin Luther King's legal team.

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P.J. O'Rourke in 2007 in Los Angeles, California.

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Arts

Satirist P.J. O'Rourke, panelist on NPR's 'Wait...Wait Don't Tell Me,' dies at 74

5:25pm February 15, 2022

by Elizabeth Blair

O'Rourke authored more than 20 books, including Parliament of Whores and Give War a Chance, both of which reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.