Books

How 'One Nation' Didn't Become 'Under God' Until The '50s Religious Revival

5:27pm March 30, 2015

Kevin Kruse's book looks at how industrialists in the '30s and '40s recruited clergy to preach free enterprise. And under the Eisenhower administration, Christianity and capitalism moved center stage.

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Clive James — an author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist — was diagnosed with leukemia a few years ago.

Books
Arts

Open A Critic's 'Poetry Notebook' And Find The Works That Shaped Him

3:38pm March 30, 2015

by Maureen Corrigan

Clive James was diagnosed with leukemia a few years ago. "There is a grief in all poetry," he writes in his latest book of essays. "Poetry holds itself together, and eventually we ourselves do not."

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Richard Price is also the author of, among other books, Clockers, Freedomland and The Wanderers.

Books
Arts

Not My Job: Richard Price (AKA Harry Brandt) Gets Quizzed On Pseudonyms

10:24am March 30, 2015

For his latest book, The Whites, novelist Richard Price decided to use a pen name. In retrospect, he wishes he hadn't.

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Books
Arts

'The Precious One' Has Love At Its Heart

9:47am March 30, 2015

by Bobbi Dumas

Marisa de los Santos' newest novel follows a young woman returning to her home town to confront her shattered family. Reviewer Bobbi Dumas says it'll remind you that love can change the world.

John Hargrove, a trainer who spent 14 years working with orcas, mostly at SeaWorld, eventually became disillusioned with the company's treatment of its killer whales.

Former Orca Trainer For SeaWorld Condemns Its Practices

9:12pm March 28, 2015

John Hargrove says he left SeaWorld after seeing "devastating effects of captivity" on orcas. His new book is Beneath The Surface. SeaWorld's Christopher Dold says such criticism is "unfounded."

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Books
Arts

'Night At The Fiestas' Spins Stories Of Faith And Family

5:29pm March 28, 2015

by NPR Staff

Kirstin Valdez Quade's debut book of short fiction is inspired by her family and its long history in the "romanticized" region of northern New Mexico.

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White roses adorn the statue of Richard III outside Leicester Cathedral before the reinterment ceremony of King Richard III.

Books

At Last, A Fitting Farewell For Richard III

10:56am March 28, 2015

by Scott Simon

Richard III has been buried, two years after his abandoned bones were found under an abandoned parking lot. NPR's Scott Simon reflects on the man Shakespeare turned into one of his great characters.

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In Carrie The Musical, now being revived at a California theater, Carrie gets a jarringly Disneyesque song before her fateful prom.

Books
Arts

Pour A Bucket Of Blood On These New Adaptations Of 'Carrie'

6:03am March 28, 2015

by Beth Accomando

Stephen King has said his novel Carrie is about women's power and men's fear — an idea reporter Beth Accomando says has gotten lost in newer adaptations of the horror classic for stage and screen.

Writers lowered the boom on the broom — metaphorically, of course.

Books

App That Aims To Make Books 'Squeaky Clean' Draws Ire From Edited Writers

5:45pm March 27, 2015

by Colin Dwyer

Clean Reader — an app designed to find, block and replace profanity in books — has drawn considerable criticism from authors. This week, makers of the app announced they would no longer sell e-books.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Week Of March 26, 2015

4:03pm March 27, 2015

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