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Books
Arts

Author Of 'Bridge To Terabithia': Messages Are Poison To Fiction

10:07am December 08, 2014

by NPR Staff

Katherine Paterson describes the inspiration behind her best-known children's book, as well as tales from her childhood in China and missionary work in Japan, in her new memoir, Stories of My Life.

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The four undergrads of the Diaspora team were given "a global commission to rebottle the genie of personal privacy" after scoring $200,000 in a Kickstarter campaign and support and mentorship from Silicon Valley's brightest.

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Arts

Is Privacy Protection 'More Awesome Than Money'?

4:58pm December 07, 2014

by Nathan Siegel

Jim Dwyer's new book chronicles the life of Diaspora, a feisty, nonprofit social network dedicated to safeguarding personal privacy.

Donald Hall is a former U.S. poet laureate and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2010.

Books
Arts

At 86, Poet Donald Hall Writes On, But Leaves Verse Behind

5:36pm December 06, 2014

by NPR Staff

The former U.S. poet laureate says he can't write poetry any more, but still has some prose in him. In a new book, Essays After Eighty, he considers his art, his beard and his experience growing old.

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Journalist Documents The Many 'Trials Of Oscar Pistorius'

11:51am December 06, 2014

Oscar Pistorius stunned the world when he ran on prosthetic legs in the 2012 Olympics, then shot his girlfriend dead months later. NPR's Scott Simon asks John Carlin about his new book on the athlete.

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Arts

First-Generation 'Boston Girl' Becomes Career Woman In Diamant's Latest

11:51am December 06, 2014

by NPR Staff

Anita Diamant — who also authored The Red Tent — tells the story of Addie Baum in her latest novel. Baum is a Jewish girl, born in 1900 to immigrant parents in Boston's North End.

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Books
Arts

Playful And Serious? 'How To Be' Is Both

6:45am December 06, 2014

by Heller McAlpin

Ali Smith's new How To Be Both combines inventive structural trickery and warm, sardonic writing in in parallel tales of a bereaved modern teenager and an Italian renaissance fresco painter.

After The California Downpour, 'The Drought' Offers Some Dry Reading

6:03pm December 05, 2014

by Jason Heller

It rained in California this week. That might not sound like news, but the state is experiencing a record-setting drought. Jason Heller turns to science fiction to reflect on the strange weather.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Week Of December 4, 2014

10:10am December 05, 2014

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

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Nonfiction, Week Of December 4, 2014

10:08am December 05, 2014

Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recounts his life as both a civilian and a distinguished marksman in American Sniper. It appears at No. 12.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Fiction, Week Of December 4, 2014

10:07am December 05, 2014

A mysterious package compels a reclusive bookstore owner to reconsider his approach to life in Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. It appears at No. 13.