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Arts

Survival Is Insufficient: 'Station Eleven' Preserves Art After The Apocalypse

10:40am June 20, 2015

by NPR Staff

In Emily St. John Mandel's novel, Station Eleven, a Shakespearean troupe clings to scraps of civilization after a deadly pandemic. Mandel and NPR's Scott Simon talk about art at the end of the world.

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Simon Armitage frowns with dignity after being awarded the Commander of the British Empire medal at Buckingham Palace in 2010. Though he began the nomination process for the Oxford post as an underdog, he emerged from the ensuing drama with the professors

Books
Arts

After Verses Turn To Versus, Poet Emerges With Renowned Oxford Post

5:47pm June 19, 2015

by Colin Dwyer

If you didn't know better, you might mistake the hubbub for American politics. But amid the fickle endorsements and dust-ups, poet Simon Armitage won election as the newest Oxford professor of poetry.

Books
Arts

Tell Us About Your Favorite Romances — It's The NPR Books Summer Of Love!

5:12pm June 19, 2015

by Petra Mayer

This year our famous summer reader poll is all about romance. Whether you like contemporary, historical, suspense or inspirational, we want to hear about your favorite Happily Ever Afters!

Napoleon Bonaparte flees the field of Waterloo, June 18, 1815.

Books
Arts

Don't Know Much About History? Read A Romance

5:12pm June 19, 2015

by Bobbi Dumas

Pick up a historical romance and you'll find more than a pleasant read. Often, you'll find a new connection to people, places and history-- for example, the Battle of Waterloo, 200 years ago today.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Week Of June 18, 2015

4:03pm June 19, 2015

The lists are compiled from weekly surveys of close to 500 independent bookstores nationwide.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Fiction, Week Of June 18, 2015

4:03pm June 19, 2015

After her senator father cuts her off, Layla Beck takes a job with the New Deal's Federal Writer's Project in West Virginia. Annie Barrows' The Truth According to Us debuts at No. 12.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Nonfiction, Week Of June 18, 2015

4:03pm June 19, 2015

Neurologist Oliver Sacks recounts his life and career in On the Move, which appears at No. 11.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Fiction, Week Of June 18, 2015

4:03pm June 19, 2015

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, about a Southern lawyer who defends a black man unjustly accused of rape, appears at No. 14.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Nonfiction, Week Of June 18, 2015

4:03pm June 19, 2015

In The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert describes five devastating mass extinctions and predicts the coming of a sixth. It appears at No. 14.

Pages bookstore partner and manager Samer al-Kadri (center) talks with customers. The Syrian founded a publishing company in Damascus, but fled when the war made it impossible to run. He wound up in Istanbul, where he noticed a lack of books in Arabic, an

Istanbul Bookstore Caters To Syrian Refugees In Need Of A Good Read

2:14pm June 19, 2015

by Peter Kenyon

The mere mention of Syrian refugees can conjure up images of families living in tents in the desert. But a bookstore in Istanbul serves as a cultural oasis and informal community center for Syrians.

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